Now I know what the fish see!

It's been years, but given the odds, it was bound to happen.

Lessons of the day:

Why you should wear a wading belt.
How much water can YOU get in your waders?
Really - how cold is 54 degree water?
Float trip without a boat is not as much fun.
Why I carry a waterproof camera.
Taking a face-first dive from a bowling ball size rock.
Why I should fish upstream of Rick.
The view from under the water is quite different than from the shoreline.
Now I know what the fish see.
I always wondered if Rick would hear me yell. Yes. And he would have caught up to me. Eventually.
Didn't panic.
I realize I float really well.
Learned how much water a chest pack will hold.
Quite refreshing on a hot day. Glad it wasn't May.
Water rescue by Kelly, the Park City, Utah Fire Chief. Later he tells me he's never had water rescue training!
Will I get sick if I swallowed the river water?
First words I said to Kelly & Stacy as I float by, "Save my rod!" Then Stacy said "Spoken like a true fly fisher."
Need to dry out the flies or the hooks will rust.
New way to wash my shirt.

I think the river is warm enough to wet-wade, sans waders. Tomorrow freedom!
This wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't wearing rubber pants that hold water. And boots that became as heavy as cement shoes. But I do float well.

Team PaddleFish in the Texas Water Safari Race

The Fly Fish Chick, aka Christine Johnson, is participating in the 260 mile paddle race in Texas. She's not in the race for the fame and glory of finishing in first place! She is in the multi-day race to raise money and awareness for Rett Syndrome. Christine has been training for the race for more than a year, only to have the June event date delayed by heavy rains and flooding. She didn't let the postponement deter her determination even though it meant rearranging schedules and vacation trips for many people.

The race must go on and today the race has started! The Fly Fish Chick and her new race partner have cleared the first 3 portages and are well on their way to surviving this 100 hour race. Clearing the dams and rapids will be the tricky part of the race. It will finish on Wednesday I believe.

flyfishchick blog
Fly-Fish-Chick on FaceBook
Track the progress of Team PaddleFish on the map
Team PaddleFish on FaceBook
Austin TV interview with Christine
Even on Twitter http://twitter.com/TheFlyFishChick

Christine is an avid fly fisher as is her boyfriend, the Professor. More on how we met them later.
Go Team PaddleFish!

Fish Firecracker

The 4th of July night time fireworks show was spectacular, but earlier in the day we had gone fishing and I'd caught a rainbow trout that had such brilliant pink color I said to Rick, "This is my fireworks!"

A bit corny maybe, but the colors on this fish were so bright and distinct.

2 kids & 3 cameras on the 4th

While the families with the boys put on a great display of fireworks, I had 3 cameras ready to capture the nighttime festivities. I had the Droid phone with the camera, the Olympus SW1050 and the Nikon Coolpix P80. The 2 boys along with the 3 men kept the sparks flying and I had a challenge to keep up with each fountain, torch, spinner, and bottle rocket being lit. But what fun I had watching them and trying to get a few shots in focus. It's not often that I get to try out the fireworks setting of the cameras.


These 2 are from the Droid phone camera

These are from the Olympus

And these are from the Nikon

We had a yummy BBQ. Eric, the camp chef, made homemade jalapeno poppers wrapped with bacon and dinner was shish kabobs, rice, corn on the cob, fruit and all the trimmings. Good food and great friends. Even though we had to fight the ferocious mosquitoes for a while (the worst yet), it was still a fantastic 4th of July.

Small Potatoes & Dandelions

As the weather warmed up the wildflowers started to bloom. Here in the campground the dandelions looked like a pretty carpet of bright yellow flowers. And I love the large puff balls of white seeds that they become. As a kid I liked to pick them and blow the seeds into the wind. Now I like to photograph them.

But when you're an adult you see dandelions as an intrusion into your lawn. And so the owner of the campground sprays the dandelions to keep them in check. And as an offer to help the campground owners with some of their yard maintenance, Rick volunteered to spray the intrusive pretty yellow flowers that become seeds spreading in the wind if left to their natural cycle.

Visitors from Idaho brought the campground owners boxes of fresh potatoes and they shared them with everyone. I wondered if they would taste different from the store-bought potatoes and they did. They were fantastic! Not only fresher tasting, but they are huge! Which reminded me of the saying "small potatoes." I wondered where the saying came from so I had to look it up.

small, insignificant; small or insignificant in quantity comes from the Irish potato famine from 1845 - 1849, as potatoes was the main food source in Ireland. Used to describe the small surviving potatoes that were picked.

I told Rick that for spraying the weeds he wasn't working for small potatoes. He was working for big potatoes!