Fishing trips
When I was a little kid, fishing trips were one of the highlights of the summer. We lived near a little river, and although nothing ever seen to be biting there, I was always confident that I would catch something that day. When my dad wasn't Around, I walked down to the lake with my fishing tackle and spend the whole morning and early afternoon casting my line. I never caught anything, but the whole thing was so relaxing but it didn't matter to me. It was the perfect fishing trip for a little kid.
Nonetheless, when I got a little bit older and my dad started to take me on real fishing trips, I was completely overjoyed. We didn't go on any fishing charter trips till I was much older, but we would go lake fishing on some pretty big and rough fresh water. I loved being on a boat, bounding around on the waves. When I was 13, we even took a Lake Erie fishing trip, and I can tell you that it was one of the best times of my entire life. We actually got to live off what we caught, and it was a wonderful bonding experience between my father and I.
When I came back from college my junior year, we started talking about taking fly in fishing trips. My dad had been pretty sick the last year, and his health was only just starting to get better. He wanted to celebrate by doing something remarkable, something he had never done before. He had dreamed about fishing trips in Alaska for years, but he had never gotten to go on one. He wasn't getting any younger, and he figured that it was the perfect opportunity to try now. We researched a bunch of Alaska fishing charters, and selected what looked like a great one. Unfortunately, it was a bust.
The boat was leaky and old, the captain was a raging alcoholic, and the weather was completely miserable the whole time we were there. Nonetheless, in a p
erverse sort of way we enjoyed that time together. It was as if we got through it by contemplating all the stories we would have to tell about it. Ever since then, we've tried to take fishing trips at least every other year. Although none of them have been as dramatic or adventurous as that Alaska trip, some of them have still been pretty great.