The one(s) that got away (and other fish tales)

 So, today we did something completely different from ever before.  We went fishing. 

The resort offered it as an activity and we signed up; they hooked us up with a guide, named Evan, and we met him.  We had purchased our one-day salmon licenses ahead of time.  (No one ever came around and checked)

This was a focal activity from the opening planning stages as KG and his best buddy are into fly fishing.  But it ended up being just the two of us, thus providing comic relief. :)

I’d never been fly fishing before.  If you don’t know it or understand the distinction, with fly fishing you are always active — there’s no sitting in the boat and drinking a beer.  According to Evan, you want to recast every 20 seconds or so. And there’s, of course, a skill to learn as to how to flick the fly out there.  

KG had done this a few times before and was quite proficient.  He needed no real instruction from Evan. 

I did. 😂

It turns out it really isn’t a good time for salmon here.  In the ins and outs to sea of their lives, we were kind of in between.  And then Evan said they are “the fish of a thousand casts.”   They don’t bite easily. KG caught one baby, which Evan says isn’t technically a salmon (don’t ask, I can’t claim to have grasped the details), but that was as close to one as we got.

KG ended up catching five fish.  I only have this picture — KG never got out his phone and Evan did but he hasn’t shared his pictures.  So, here it is:

I caught one. 

It slipped out of my hand before Evan got the camera out. 😢

We actually started the day at a different spot — here’s the best shot of it:

You can see the hill, the nearness of the trees, and the current.  Compare to this:

There was a brook coming into the river, the Margaree, behind me, so we were at the junction.  We got nothing at the first place and Evan moved us after about an hour. 

We were working left to right, me following towards KG there, at about 1130 Maritime Time, and…

KG says he’ll remember this and tell this the rest of his life. 

There was a branch under the water in front of me, KG said he stumbled there earlier, and I cast and lost my balance a little forward.  And there was nothing forward.  My first step was forward to catch myself.  And stepped on the branch.

I went into the river face-first.  KG has told the fam I “was swimming.”  Funny.  Ha ha.  

My first thought was “my god that’s cold.” (I may have said “shit” as I tripped :))

I realized I wasn’t getting my feet under me and rolled over on my back and came up for air.  Evan was part of the way from KG to me.  KG has used the word “flailing” multiple times. Ha ha.  Ha. 

I went to shore and got out of my wet top — fortunately, I had taken a layer off when we got there.  It was a nice day (as pictures show), so I was fine, except for being wet from waist to toes.  As Evan pointed out, the feature of waders that doesn’t let water in, also doesn’t let water out.  It eventually warmed up, but it wasn’t comfortable. 

Evan said he’d had lots of people get wet, but it was his full go under.  Ha ha. 

If you are reveling in my pain (#$%^&*), there’s more.  Later, I’m casting (I had good moments and bad with this) and I flipped it back and hooked myself!  Yeah, through the waders and top so that there’s small “abrasion.”  A bit of an ouch.

Yeah, I had all kinds of #$%^&* fun.  :)

It actually was.  And we caught enough fish to not be satisfied, but to feel like it wasn’t fruitless.  (And everything in Nova Scotia is catch and release, so there was no literal fruit to be had).  

And that was Saturday, day.

Friday night, for food porn lovers, we went to the Panorama, which is the high end restaurant at the resort. [side story: it’s right above (on the second floor) the 18th green and if someone does something interesting, diners pound on the window, either cheering or mocking. : ) last night, a guy made like a 60 foot putt from the front of the green and there was a lot of pounding on the glass for him :). One of those distinctive features of the resort and the restaurant.] 

I thought KG would get lobster (which he loves — if you don’t know, lobster is ubiquitous on the coast in Nova Scotia) , but he got lamb chops instead. 

I had the beef tenderloin, which was to very good.  Melted in your mouth. 

And KG started with oysters from nearby.  

Tonight we are going to the lobster shack on “campus” here at the resort — they do a “boil”, if you know the concept.  I don’t know how boiling brisket comes out, but that’s what I might have (you know I don’t eat lobster 🤮) 

And up early tomorrow for golf right here in front of our room. 

WTF Canada (& Boston)

 So, I am on the road again, this time with KG to Nova Scotia (how’s your Canadian geography?) for golf and fishing…but started with a baseball game in Boston. 

I’m going to open with this picture from today’s golf course, Cabot Cliffs, which was amazing.  This is the shot from the high spot of the course, the 17th tee. 

Not to overdo golf, but it was the most visually spectacular course I think I’ve ever played.  Lots of vistas, lots of water views, lots of elevation changes.  and lots of big ass bunkers.  

I will tell one story the caddy told.  The second par 3 on the back you play over this big bunker with a rock sticking up in it (we neither one got a picture) — boulder! The architects argued over whether or not to leave it.  They got someone in who was mediator who didn’t play golf but watched on TV and he said instantly “oh, you gotta leave the rock, it makes the hole.”  And, see, yes, it makes it memorable. 

But (for blog purposes) today’s storry isn’t about golf or the course, but about our playing partners. :) Like last year’s trip to England with J, we came as a twosome.  You never know what that will mean; last year we played 4 days without getting paired up.  Not this year!

Standing on the practice putting green, waiting, I talked to this older caddy, Ted, who ended up double-bagging for the other two.  But I had no idea that the couple wondering around was who we were playing with — they were dressed like hikers, not golfers.  He was wearing a puffy vest (their was a discussion about their both wearing all black later) and black sock cap with a bill.  He wore sunglasses all day, although the sun never shone (I understand there can be reasons, but still…)  She wore joggers and a similar top.  

But nevermind what they were wearing.  He was a pretty good golfer (but wait for it) but she had only been playing a year.  And it looked at least like that.  She played all day with 2 clubs, a 7 iron and a putter.  And she dribbled the ball off the tee A LOT!!! 

We got talked to about keeping up with the group in front of us at least 3 times. 

Which brings to part two: putting.  They made each other putt EVERYTHING out! I mean, one footers, they putted out.  And she missed some.  A lot, really.  

And he…oh, my god, he did the newfangled alignment method on putts.  And paced them off.  Carefully (she did it foot-over-foot).  I will go back to — they HaD A CADDy!!! Who is paid to tell you what putts do…but, no, they slowly, methodically, did  their own thing.  And he did it even on those 2 foot putts. 

They were from Brooklyn.  The place could get a rep if people acted like this from there a lot. :)

They did not make small talk.  Every attempt ended in an awkward silence.  “You got nothing…” we both wanted to say to him.

It was so bad that KG refused to even consider having a post-round drink. :)

Stories to tell forever.  Oh, yeah, they both played dayglo colored golf balls; I told KG I would see her neon pink one rolling in my dreams tonight. 

The golf course was awesome, though. 

I met KG in Boston on Wednesday; it could not have gone better — he didn’t wait 5 minutes on the sidewalk at airport for me to arrive straight from Bloomsburg.  Then we went to downtown Boston — KG had not been there that he remembers.  We did the main old buildings and then went to hotel, cleaned up, and Ubered to Fenway. (I was sick of lobster signs early on Wednesday; today’s course’s logo was a lobster 🙄) 

It was a great game.  KG got great tickets right behind home plate.  The Red Sox hit four solo home runs; the Rays hit one homer, too.  It ended up being 4-3.  

Thursday the drive from Boston to wherever we are (my Canada geography needs work) took 13 hours.  And we lost an hour — my first time ever in the whatever time zone.  Weird that tonight’s basketball game starts at 930 😥 

The best thing about the area is it’s Scottish roots — they revel in it here.  I mean, the town we’re in is Inverness.  We passed through New Glasgow.  Our caddy today was from Dundee.  We have been told more than once that two generations ago people still spoke Gaelic here — they came from the UK to learn it since it was all but dead in Scotland.  They are big here on sheep farming.  

It’s already been fun, despite AC and DC on the course today, and there’s tonight’s dinner and fishing tomorrow (the fish tales have already begun)…wish us well.