The Best Fishing Trip EVER!!

A few weeks ago we went to my husband's folks to get some farming done. Of course, being my husband, no trip is complete without loading all of his fishing equipment and several guns.

We will not discuss the fact that he hit a rock with the sweep and tore it up when he only had 30 minutes of farming left to go. That is not a fun discussion, so we will pretend it didn't happen...

Instead we will discuss my version of fishing. My version of fishing does not involve fishing at all. The pasture he took us to takes about 10 minutes to drive into just to get to the fishing hole, and there are lovely red bluff canyons all through it. Of course I went hiking upstream.

As I was wandering, the frogs were splishing and splashing as they leaped into the water in front of me. Then, as I neared the fence line and a group of trees, I heard a big splashing sound. As in, that "has to be a mammal" splashing. I ventured closer, wondering what I was going to find. I wondered about beavers. Or even *shudder* rats. I thought it might be a coyote running through the tall reeds in front of me....

Then I heard this strange squeaking/meowing/growling sound. Now I had no clue what on earth would make such a bizarre sound, so I decided to head up the bank and out of the reeds, where I could only see right in front of me...Just in case it was a chupacabra bent on eating me, or some other deadly creature....

I got to the top of the bank and took a good gander at my surroundings, and guess what I saw?

A family of young raccoons!!!

How sweet is that!?

Did you know I have a child with even more limited patience than me? Isn't that unbelievable?

She heard my exclamation of surprise, ditched her pole that she was using to try and catch the giant turtle she had spotted, and came on a tear to see what I was up to. Of course, she wanted to go back down the bank and try to find the rest, since we could still hear something in the grassy reeds below us. I advised her not to try that since I was pretty sure momma raccoon was down below keeping an eye on her youngsters.

After we admired the little guys, we continued our hike. We hiked up and down and all around...Until we realized the rest of our little family was finished fishing...Then, we loaded up and headed out.

As we left, Popcorn said, "Mom, this was the best fishing trip ever."

And, I totally had to agree.