Yesterday Was...

Lake Jacksonville

NATIONAL AUDUBON DAY.  My husband didn't have to work yesterday, so he said "let's go fishing!" I'd just crawled out of bed and was aching all over. Such a daunting adventure sounded insane at that moment --- I barely had my eyes open!
          But since most of the work (prepping the boat, hitching it up and pulling it out the the garage, and putting it in the lake and taking out it out, then driving it back home and putting it back in the garage) was his responsibility, I grumpily threw together a light lunch, my camera, some sun screen and Buggins, and Beary's necessities (yes, the dog was going fishing too...that's why we bought this used pontoon, so there'd be room to take the dog fishing too) and we set out for The Lake.
          It was a beautiful day, although a bit too windy!  It was also my and Beary's maiden voyage on the Crappie Cruiser. All in all, the put-in-went better than expected. Beary, normally a calm and quiet dog, goes bonkers when we say "You wanna go for a ride?" He'll jump at the door and whine, practically break his neck jumping into the van, and then set up an ear-deafening yapping once we get to our destination, wanting out. I had to walk him around while my husband put the boat in the water, and then we were off!
          We were worried if he wouldn't hurl himself overboard the first time geese went flying by us, honking. But he behaved very well in the boat, and we both enjoyed the cool breeze in our faces as the boat sped to the fishing coves. Yes, we caught fish: crappies a plenty (but too small to keep), and I got a bass and my husband caught a catfish. We fished all day and we had a blast! Getting the boat out of the lake was tricky, because by then there were more seasoned fisherman waiting to put in and watching the embarrassing antics of Beary, who set up his ridiculous yapping antics to get out of the boat and then dragged me to the van.
          I was too busy fishing to remember that I'd brought my camera. We saw geese fighting over their nesting platforms, noisy cranes flying over, and countless snapping turtles sunning on logs --- but it wasn't til we were leaving that I snapped this  shot of a pair of Canada geese paddling behind our boat: My Audubon Shot-of-the-Day.

[NOTE: Because I was so exhausted when we got home at 5 p,m., and I had my first F2F Book Club meeting at 7 (that's another story, found on My Book Blog), I fell soundly asleep as 8 p.m. and missed writing my blog post yesterday.  Drats! I hate when that happens!]