Day 12 (19th): Headline News: Nick Lillie catches his first Northern Pike!

Hello Everybody,

I woke up this morning hardly believing that it is Saturday already and our time on Gull Lake is almost at an end. It is pouring down rain outside and all of our neighbors in the surrounding cabins are already almost done packing their vehicles...and we haven't even started! When I finally did go out to the car to put the Stowaway2 back on the car, a small crisis emerged. The lock pin on the trailer hitch that holds the Stowaway2 box in place would not unlock! I could not put the box on the car without somehow unlocking this pin. Well, try as I might I could not get it to unlock and I was starting to get worried. Thankfully Kent came by and told me that Mill's Fleet Farm, a large store in Baxter ~ 8 miles away, carried these locking pins and could probably remove the one I had. As usual Kent was right -- Fleet Farm had several clocking trailer hitch pins to choose from and their automotive center used a blowtorch and removed the older one (no charge). Crisis avoided! Fleet Farm was fantastic and quite a smart operation. Two reasons why I say that: first, with my purchase in the store I received a coupon for $0.04 off per gallon of gas -- smart way to capture more wallet share from their customers. Second, they had a sign right next to an American flag that offered to trade in people's tax refund/economic stimlulus checks for a Fleet Farm gift card and add 5% to the total! (see the picture below). Great business sense.

After filling up with gas at Fleet Farm's Gasmart, I headed back to Gull Haven to continue packing in the rain...and it ended up being a really nice morning and early afternoon. I asked for late checkout which relieved some of the time pressure, and allowed Jill to cook some of the last fresh things we had out of the fridge before moving to a smaller cabin on the other side of the lake. Yes, we had one more night on the lake, just not at Gull Haven. After packing up the car and eating a delicious lunch of Jill's fresh beef tacos, we headed over to the main Grand View Lodge property. While I was checking us in, Jill and the kids signed up for water skiing and tubing at 3 pm. We dropped off our day bags in the room, got in our swim trunks and headed to the boathouse where we would catch our last ski boat of the trip. It was so much fun! Josh led the way with some awesome tubing, followed by Jake who completely owned the tubing landscape. Then it was Natalie's turn to water ski and she did GREAT!! She skied for quite awhile before willingly (i.e. she didn't crash) giving up the rope. Nick was up next and he was positively beastly on skis -- he skied in the wake and over the waves out on the side of the boat. He also gave up the rope willingly. Finally it was my turn, and while I haven't skied in 30 years, I got up and had some fun behind the boat. Fortunately, Jill the photographer was on board, and took some fabulous shots, including some of our boat driver, Adam, who was awesome to us the whole time we were at Grandview. Take a look at some of the photos below:























After our wonderful "last ride" on the speed boats of Grandview, we all went swimming in the beautiful indoor swimming pool. The water slide in there is so fun, especially when being chased by 3 children! I say 3 children as Nick was up in the workout room, running on the treadmill. This is a part of Nick's training for soccer and he has been very good about keeping a workout schedule, certainly better than all the rest of us! It was about 6:30 pm when we finished in the pool and workout room and the kids ran down to the lake shore, not quite ready to go in the room yet.

They jumped in kayaks that were at the boathouse and paddled around the swimming area -- take a look:


It was an idyllic, Minnesota night.

Fish Story, Part 2

It was close to 7 pm and Nick and I debated whether he should try and catch a Northern Pike one more time. I told him we wouldn't be able to stay out too long, probably about an hour, two hours at the most. Nick wasn't sure. He had been disappointed thus far and wasn't sure he could stand one more disappointment. I told him that it was choppy out on the lake which is good for northerns, and that I had a good feeling about it. He finally decided to go and we were off.

Well it was one of the scariest boat rides I have ever been on. The choppiness by the shore turned into whitecaps in the middle of the lake, and at one point, the boat was turned onto its side and Nick was slammed against the side of the boat. I felt we were going to capsize at that moment. I even had images of Nick as Captain Ahab and the Big Northern was his Moby Dick, ready to gobble him up when he fell in the lake. Luckily we didn't capsize, Nick quickly put on his life preserver, and we slowly but surely made it across the lake to our favorite Northern spot. The water was so rough it was all I could do to keep the boat straight while trolling parallel to shore. In fact, I had to put my rod down just to concentrate on trolling. We couldn't even troll in one of the directions because we were pushed violently toward shore when we went in that direction. Nick really wanted to catch that fish!

We weren't there but 10 minutes when Nick caught a fish, another rock bass. With a look of determination, Nick dropped his line in the water again after I had unhooked the bass. As we were bumping along Nick got a huge strike. He quickly jerked the rod upward setting the hook, and his rod bent over almost double. Nick said, "Whoa, Dad, this is a big fish." I cut the motor, hopeful we had finally hooked Nick's Moby. The fish was pulling so hard and Nick was laboring enough that I knew he had finally hooked a northern...now all we needed to do was land it in this crazily bouncing boat! The fish was running on the left side of the boat (Nick was on the left side of the boat too so all was good) when all of a sudden he reversed directions and went under the motor to the right side of the boat! I told Nick to keep his rod tip up and quickly grabbed the line and lifted it over the motor before the fish could use the propeller blades to sever the line (fastest way to lose a fish). I told Nick to switch to the right side of the boat where the fish was and it was on that side of the boat that we netted and boated the fish, a beautiful 10 lb northern! Nick was incredulous and after high fives and smiles we headed back to Grandview Lodge with his fish.











When we returned (uneventfully thankfully) to the other side of the lake, we did a little victory "flyby" past the lodge, waved to the crowd, and then docked the boat. A few people came out to the boat to see the fish, although not as many as when Jake caught his. Jill I think that is primarily because this side of the lake was little less rustic than the Gull Haven side. In fact, we soon discovered that this side of the lake didn't even have a fish cleaning shack! We didn't mind much as that gave us one last chance to go back over to Gull Haven to see the place, clean the fish, and say hit to Kent. We arrived at Gull Haven to much more fanfare as several little kids came running out to see the fish. It was awesome to watch Nick show the kids the fish and patiently answer their questions. After measuring and weighing the fish (28", just under 10 lbs), I filleted it and Jill came and picked us up as it was to dark to drive the boat back over. Once back over at our cabin, we watched a lightning storm with hot chocolate and popcorn until bedtime.

It was the perfect ending to our fantastic time at Grandview Lodge on Gull Lake. We will definitely be back!

Peace to you all,

Brian

Day 11 (18th): Morning/Early Afternoon on Gull Lake, Late Afternoon/Evening on West Fox Lake with the Riersons

Hello Everybody,

Today we decided to live a full day in half the time at Gull Lake, and then another full day in half the time at West Fox Lake. Why not? We're on vacation! ;-)

As Nick had still not caught his Northern Pike, he asked me if we could go fishing again -- of course I said yes. I truly understand the bug that bit Nick -- it was the Minnesota fishing bug, specifically the Northern Pike fishing bug! We headed out early that morning to our favorite NP spot on the other side of the lake. Unfortunately, we ended up with nothing but a few rock bass -- Nick's Minnesota version of Moby Dick would continue for another time...

Jill, Natalie, Jake and Josh had other plans. They had signed up for water skiing and tubing and were ready and raring to go. You know Jill is a *big* water fan, especially on a speed boat, with the water spraying by the side of the boat and the wind in her hair. Jill was extremely happy to be on the boat, and although she couldn't ski because of her recent jaw surgery, she has taken some *amazing* pictures of the kids while they were doing there thing on the boat. Below are some of the pictures Jill took of the kids on the boat, as well as a couple with Jill in them (finally).



































































After a very full morning and one last boat ride from 1-2 pm, we headed up to the town of Fifty Lakes where Jane and Don's cabin was located. We arrived at the cabin about 3 pm and what a wonderfully warm welcome we received from Aunt Jane and Uncle Don! The cabin was beautiful (we didn't take any pictures of it unfortunately) and West Fox Lake was everything you imagine a northwoods lake in Minnesota. After a tour of the cabin we headed down the flight of outdoor stairs to the lake for a ride on their pontoon boat. We rode around this lovely little lake, saw a bald eagle's nest and actually saw the bald eagle in a different tree opposite the nest, and then headed back to the cabin so we could go visit Lacy at the camp where she was a camp counselor. Below are some of the pictures on the pontoon boat:

We drove the 15 or so minutes to Lacy's camp and got to spend a few minutes with her. What a nice young lady!! She is a counselor at this Christian youth camp, where she is responsible for a cabin full of high school students. The activity list at the camp was amazing and although she had a lot of responsibility for these kids, she seemed to take it all in stride and was pretty comfortable with it. I am only sorry we had such a short time with her...next time perhaps we'll have more time.

After our visit we headed back to the cabin for a fish fry dinner. While Don prepared dinner, the rest of us went down to the dock to fish. All I can say about that experience is WOW! We had the *best* luck catching panfish (sunnies and crappies) off the dock. The fish were everywhere, and it was all I could do to help the kids bait their hooks and take off the fish they caught. JOSH was the big fisherman of the day, as he seemed to catch a fish on *every* cast. We were fishing with bobbers and worms...some of my favorite kind of fishing! The kids had a blast.

The something truly amazing happened. A giant snapping turtle came right up to the dock to visit us. Jane said that this turtle had never come so close to the dock before, so we were very fortunate to get such a closeup view of this prehistoric animal. The turtle was as big as Josh, and had a sharp snout and an armored tail that looked like an Anklyosauria dinosaur's tail! The turtle came up to examine the fish we had caught and put in the fish trap, and actually got his claws caught in the chain links of the trap. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it to share with you but Aunt Jane does -- I will either get them digitally from her or scan in the hard copies that she gave us so I can share them with you.

Well gotta go -- ready for bed!

Peace,

Brian

Day 10 (17th): Headline News: Jake Lillie catches his first Northern Pike!

Wow what a day we had today!

It all started with Jill and Nick gong on a 7-mile bike ride on the Paul Bunyan Trail (yes, the legend of Paul Bunyan and Babe, his pet blue ox, was born in Minnesota). Here are a few shots taken during the ride:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other little known facts about Minnesota besides the Paul Bunyan story:

• The mighty Mississippi River has its headwaters in a small Minnesota lake called Lake Itasca
• Minnesota inventions include water skis, the snowbmobile, first in-line roller skates, masking and scotch tape, Wheaties cereal, Bisquick, HMOs, the bundt pan, Aveda beauty products, Green Giant vegetables, rice cakes and the stapler
• Minnesota has more golfers per capita than any other city in the country
• Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline, more than California, Florida and Hawaii combined

Probably more information than you ever wanted to know about Minnesota, however, if you would like to know more fun facts about this great state, check out this link.

The Fish Story, Part I

While this day was like many of the others, full of fun and sun on Gull Lake, the breaking news of the day was about a fish: Jake Lillie catching his first Northern Pike! Here's how it goes (and I ain't lying):

Nick, Jake and I had decided to go after Northerns as we had already caught several walleyes, bass and panfish. What we didn't know was where to go on Gull Lake (it's pretty big) or what to use to catch them with. I did know one thing: we were going to use steel leaders this time as Nick and I had already each lost a northern a couple of days before due to nylon leaders that were easily sliced through by their sharp teeth.

Given that I had no idea where to go or what to use I did what any smart angler in Minnesota would do: I called Walleye Dan! He wasn't there but his wife answered the phone and was a delight to speak with. I told her about this blog and the fact that I had written about Walleye Dan and one of his guides, Toby, in an earlier post. She was so excited! She told me that she really wanted us to catch some Northerns and would have one of the guides, Tim Hanske, call me when he got back from his current guide trip. I was so pumped! These guys really know Gull Lake and I was confident we'd catch one if they advised us. It was 1130 am. 

When Tim called we were on the lake trying to catch some Walleyes with the last of our minnows (my iPhone worked everywhere on the lake). He told me we needed to go over to the other side of the lake, find some weeds, and either troll or cast with  spinnerbaits (ours were actually white, chartreuse and hot pink!) I thanked him for the information and the three of us jetted off. It was 1 pm.

When we arrived at the spot Tim had suggested we were full of anticipation. We decided to troll so we could cover more water in a shorter amount of time. Trolling requires one person to concentrate on keeping the boat moving at a slow and steady speed so the anglers on the boat can concentrate on fishing. This is especially the case when using a regular motor (ours was a 15 HP Mercury and not a specially designed trolling motor. Anyway, we started to troll and we weren't there very long and Nick caught a rock bass, which you can easily tell apart from other bass (smallmouth and largemouth bass) by their red eyes. Fortunately, Toby had told me not to touch them as the rock bass in Gull Lake (not sure about other lakes) have a fungus on them that can cause cellulitis in your hands if any of it gets into a cut on your hand (thanks, Toby!). I proceeded to remove it by only using my pliers (no hands). Nick proceeded to catch two more rock bass while poor Jake caught nothing. It was 3 pm.

We were just thinking about leaving and were making our last troll through the water when all of a sudden Jake says to me very calmly, "Dad, I think I have a fish." He started to reel in and all of a sudden his pole bent over and line started whizzing off of his reel! I killed the motor and told Jake to keep his rod tip up. The fish was running hard and Jake was keeping his rod up and reeling him in. Well that fish was strong but Jake was stronger, and very cool under pressure I might add. He kept reeling him in, letting the fish run when needed and pulling him closer when he could. Well, pretty soon we saw the fish by the side of the boat and I reached down and netted it for him. At this point we were all pretty excited and I proceeded to carefully knock it out using the anchor (wanted to avoid the teeth) as I had nothing else in the boat to hit it with. I also noted that I didn't have a metal stringer to put it on (need to put it on my list of "to gets") so we left it in the bottom of the boat. It was 4 pm.

Given that it was late in the day, we had been on the water a few hours already, and we had accomplished half our mission (Nick still needed to get one), we headed for our cabin at Gull Haven. It was an exciting ride home and when we got to "The Haven," Jake jumped out of the boat carrying his fish in the net, chest sticking way out, and answering all of the questions from the gathering crowd. After telling and retelling the story, we made it up to the fish shack where we could weigh and clean the fish. We measured it at 29 inches and a hair under 7 pounds. This was by far the largest fish Jake had ever caught and man was he pumped!  After weighing and measuring it, I filleted the fish and ended up with two very nice fillets. It was 6:00 pm.

We ended the day with a fish fry with the four different types of fish we had caught: walleye, smallmouth bass, sunfish and the pike. I dipped them in egg whites and rolled them in bread crumbs seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper, and cooked them in very hot canola oil. They were DELICIOUS! We invited Kent (Gull Haven Operations Manager) over for supper, and we enjoyed a very nice meal together, retelling the fish story and basking in the glow of success on Gull Lake. It was 8:00 pm.

So I advise all of you out there to try and catch a Northern Pike -- it's great fun sprinkled with a bit of drama and storytelling, and they are DELICIOUS to eat with family and friends. And man is it cool to see your 8-year old son catch a fish like that...I am so proud of Jake! 

Peace,

Brian

Day 9 (16th): Another Day in Paradise...

Are words even necessary?

 

Just another day in paradise...

Peace,

Brian

Day 8 (15th): Fishing for Walleyes

Hello all,

Tuesday the 15th was the day we decided to fish for walleyes. As I didn't know Gull Lake at all, and walleyes are not easy to catch, I decided to contact an expert fishing guide to take me and the kids fishing for them. If you want to catch walleyes, there is one name that stands above the rest up here in the Brainerd Lakes area: Walleye Dan. Dan Eigen IS Walleye Dan (Dan Eigen is his real name) and he runs a guide service for the northcentral Minnesota lakes region. Let me tell you this was the best decision I ever made. I called Dan and told him that I was on a quest for walleye as I had not caught one in over 30 years and I could still taste the last one I ate, cooked by Grandma Elaine on Lake Winnie when I was about 13 years old. I had to catch another one and share this memory with my children. It was my vision quest for walleye.

Talking with Dan was great as he outlined our options. He said we could go and fish for walleyes but as they were hard fish to catch that might mean Nick and Natalie could get no action all morning. He was great at understanding our goals and then committing to a guide and course of action to accomplish those goals. After hearing me share my thoughts about what I would like to accomplish on this fishing trip, he decided to pair us with Toby Kvalevog, a tournament walleye fishermen and one of Dan's guides. What a great decision this was! Toby is an 8th grade gym teacher and hockey coach here in the local area and many of the Grand View Lodge employees told me what a good teacher and coach he is. Well, he was that and more on the water, as he led some novice walleye fishermen on the lake and helped us catch 8 walleyes! This was OUTSTANDING as the lake had been quite stingy in giving up any of its walleyes, with some folks fishing an entire week catching none. Nick, Natalie and I all caught walleyes that morning, as well as smallmouth and rock bass. Nick and I each lost a northern pike due to a nylon leader and their razor sharp teeth, or we would have "caught the cycle". Next time we will use a steel leader and go specifically for northerns.

And just in case you don't believe me and think all of this is just a fish tale, check out the photos below! (please note that the picture of the fih on the cleaning board was *after* I had already fillet'd 2 bass and 2 walleyes -- there wasn't room on the board for all of the fish!)

Happy Fishing,

Brian

 

Days 5 (12th), 6 (13th) & 7 (14th): Minnesota!

Hello All,

I am sorry for the lack of posts over the last few days -- we have had a few technical glitches that have prevented us from posting but we're back on it now...at least with text as Blogger is having issues at the moment with image uploads. Either they fix it fast or we will be moving the Lilliepadusa blog to a .Mac site... Despite our blogging issues, we are having the time of our lives on this trip. It has gone perfectly so far, and the place in Minnesota is FANTASTIC. But let me catch you up on the last few days in order as it will help give you a sense of how we are passing the time...

Day 5 (July 12th): Driving through the Farm Belt

We left Kansas a little later than expected as the kids slept in a bit and we had one final visit with Melissa at the hotel. The kids were all sad to see Melissa go and piled into her truck trailer to say goodbye to their pal, Smoke (picture on the blog). We ended up pulling out of Paola in the pouring rain about noon and hitting the road for Minnesota (another 10+ hour drive).

Thankfully for us the rain stopped as we passed Kansas City and we had "clear sailing" as we headed out of Kansas and into Missouri. To get into Missouri we had to cross the mightyMissouri River -- and if you have never seen it, well, it is a sight to see. Missouri looked quite a bit like Kansas (rural farmland) but seemed to have a lot more trees and less silos. After a somewhat uneventful drive through "the show me state," we entered Iowa. Now Iowa had some corn! Oh my gosh, I have never seen so much corn in my life, acres and acres and acres of corn, lining both sides of the freeway (we were on I-35 the whole way), with silos and barns and tractors everywhere. I kept looking for the "Field of Dreams" (I love that movie -- "want to have a catch?") but never saw the field, as Dyersville was a bit off the beaten track (I-35) for us and we had to cover some ground. Anyway, Jill and I both thought Iowa was beautiful in its own way as the deep and different green of the corn fields, combined with the blue sky and the American flags we saw flying everywhere created a feeling in us that this was the heartland.

It was with great anticipation and excitement that we entered beautiful Minnesota. This wonderful state brings back fond memories as I often visited my mom's father, Grandpa Bob Penningroth in Wayzata, a suburb of Minneapolis. Grandpa Bob, Grandma Elaine and my four aunts and uncles -- Jane, Carol, Jimmie and Paul -- were excellent to me and my brother and sister whenever we came to visit. They took us swimming, water skiing and fishing on Lake Minnetonka and for a special treat, took us to Lake Winnibigoshish ("Winnie") to try and catch the delicious Minnesota state fish, walleye, and the larger and more ferocious muskellunge ("musky"). We stayed at McCardle's resort and basically lived a kid's dream...I guess I am hoping to create those memories for my kids now and perhaps even re-live a few of them myself.

As we were driving through Minnesota I was struck by several things: how clean everything looked (almost perfect), how much nicer the roads were than any other state we had driven in, how much water (10,000 lakes - ha!), and frankly, how many farms there were. Minnesota truly is a part of the farm belt, it's just at the northern end! I think the cleanliness comes from th

e German and Scandinavian influence, as I have driven through most of those countries when we lived in Switzerland and they were similar.

It was surreal for me as we passed by the signs for Wayzata and Lake Minnetonka, as memories came flooding back of those summers long ago at Grandpa's house. In fact I called my Aunt Jane to say hi and to tell her we were passing by her place on our way up to the Brainerd Lakes area. She laughed her darling laugh and said, "it's okay honey," and proceeded to tell me to "be careful" driving up north and to watch for the deer. I have to give a "shout out" to my Aunt Jane as she has been a Godsend for this portion trip - she has been a lifeline for us and I love her dearly for it.

We finally arrived at our destination, Grand View Lodge on Gull Lake, Nisswa, Minnesota, at 12 am -- praise the Lord! And after putting more than 2000 miles on the road in 7 days, I am happy to report that there will be no more driving for 8 days! Yahoo!!!!!!!!

Days 6 (July 13th) & 7 (July 14th): Grand View Lodge on Gull Lake
We stayed up until 2 am that night unpacking the car and putting everything away -- no small task for a car stuffed to the gills (pun intended) with our things. So the first day we slept in a little bit (10 am or so) and awoke to the most amazing sight -- our cabin faced a beautiful lake that we could clearly see through a small glade of trees. We were in Gull Haven, an off main property portion of Grand View Lodge. It was perfect! We shared this beautiful spot with a total of 8 cabins, configured in a "V" shape fanning out toward the lake so everyone had a view. The cabins are extremely nice log cabins, with multiple bedrooms (ours has 3 bedrooms and an additional game room that has log bunkbeds), and screened in porches. Ours even has a foosball table! Jill, the kids and I think we have died and gone to heaven!!

When we arrived early in the morning of the 13th (Sunday night), it was incredibly windy and we were worried the weather would be bad the rest of the time. We soon found that we had nothing to worry about as this was just the last remnant of a storm they had had the last three days. In fact, the wind died down considerably the next day, and as the kids were all pooped from the long drive the day before we spent the day lounging around the cabin and exploring the lake shore. 

In the afternoon, we all went up to the main lodge to see what was up and Nick soon discovered that the lodge offered activities for the kids free of charge and all you had to do was sign up. Water skiing and tubing, biking, pontoon fishing, all were available to those staying at the lodge. Nick signed the kids up for some activities for Monday the 14th -- they were all psyched about going water skiing/tubing for the first time. 

When we were up at the lodge we discovered the beautiful indoor pool area. It had a water slide, two basketball hoops and a volleyball net -- another kids paradise! We decided to go swimming that afternoon while we waited for our visitor...Aunt Jane! Aunt Jane has a cabin up here in the Brainerd Lakes area and came by for a visit in the afternoon. We were all soooo happy that Aunt Jane decided to come over and play with us that day! She came by around 3:30 pm and we all talked and laughed by the pool and by the lake, enjoying the lodge happy hour for snacks and all of the Lillie kids (and their kid dad) jumped off the docks into the lake for the first time. What a blast! Aunt Jane watched with Jill but I did manage to get one picture of her. Here it is:

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We eventually ate dinner together (yummy tacos) and then Jane had to go before it got dark as she had a bit of a drive to do to get back to her cabin (and her husband, Don). We tearfully waved goodbye, promised that we would see her again before we left, and then proceeded to watch our first beautiful sunset on Gull Lake. 

       

On Monday, Jill was able to go with the kids on their boating activities and took some great shots of the kids. A few are pasted in below:

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jill and I also got into the act, with Jill taking most of the photos and me trying some tubing with the kids...very fun!! Below are a few more pictures, this time of Jill and I. Nick even snapped one of us together on our lounge chairs!

     

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, our first two days in Minnesota at Gull Lake were fabulous! And the best was yet to come...