August Update - Finally With Fishing Too!!!

I posted some of this over the weekend on Facebook. So if we're friends there, you've already seen it. I won't be offended if you leave now. That being said...

I didn't do a follow up post from our mini family getaway to north Georgia the other week. By 2020 standards, it was amazing. For the most part we just continued to social distance, simply in a new location. The biggest change, besides the potential for an evening bear visit to our trash can, was much cooler temperatures. 80s during the day, 50s at night. Glorious. As was the view off the back porch.

We weren't in a cabin, but we were definitely staying a bit off the beaten path. And by that I mean we were an hour's drive from the closest Target. (Sorry Dollar General, you're no substitution in K.C.'s eyes). I got to sneak out for two days and fly fish for rainbow trout in the mountains. Heavenly. 

While I did that, the ladies chilled at the house and avoided creepy crawlies. They were none too fond of the spiders found in the various nooks and crannies of the house. Can't say I blame them, but no spider would stop K.C. from binging Netflix: Indian Matchmaking. (BTW - is it "bingeing" or "binging," I've seen both used...)

A week or so removed from that and now safely(?) back in Florida, Lilly doesn't seem to be all that thrilled to be returning to school (albeit virtually) on Monday. It's her first week of high school as an incoming 9th grader, so she and K.C. have been spending a lot of time setting up our dining room to be her classroom/dedicated workstation. Work in progress...

We were told that my office would also be working remotely through the end of the year, so I picked up one of those headsets for conference calls. I guess so I can still be heard when I speak quietly, but really so I don't have to subject my family to constantly overhearing them anymore. And with the NFL football season here I'm going to have A LOT more of them. Can't interrupt Lilly's learning with me growling at vendors for not delivering the Patrick Mahomes jerseys on time. Priorities. 

If you didn't notice, I've also taken to wearing headbands. At first it was a joke because my friends at work were making fun of my long(er) hair, especially on the days I don't feel like combing it... which is pretty much everyday. I wore a headband on Friday to get a rise out of them on one of those aforementioned conference calls, but (like everything else in 2020) it was canceled. In addition to making my head resemble a mushroom. I think the forehead compression helps my brain retain whatever intelligence it has left after the last 8 months of the year.

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well out there, wearing masks, washing hands, and all that good stuff. If you have kids, I hope the new school year or day care situation isn't too scary for you. And if you're a teacher going into the scholastic petri dish each day - I cannot respect and thank you enough for what you're doing. I honestly can't imagine, especially (but not limited to) folks considered "high risk." ❤️

I'm confident we'll figure this thing out eventually. Positive thoughts go a long way!

Shaking off the Rust

I haven't blogged for real in a while. Not counting the Tenkara Angler infomercials posted, I think the last original entry here was in October or November or 2019. I did contribute to a crowd sourced post over at the Tenkara-Fisher blog, but that's about it. Ouch.

I've had a tough 2020 so far from a fishing front, as in the fact that I haven't done any. That's kind of strange, but it's a trend that's going (and needs) to end soon. I'll definitely get out this weekend to hit one of the retention ponds in my neighborhood... heck with the clocks "springing ahead" maybe I'll be able to do a little after work fishing soon. However, I'm really excited that I'm headed to the Philly area for a week on the 13th, where I'll have to sneak out of family obligations to visit some special regulation water and chase some trout. 

Coronavirus pandemic panic be damned, I do hope to get out and about a bit to get on some trout water this year. I even picked up a new Orvis 3-weight Superfine rod & Battenkill reel that I'm rather excited to use. No, I'm not giving up tenkara, quite the contrary, I just wanted to make my fishing a little more reel.

To date, my tentative (trout) fishing travel plans are as follows:

• March - Southeastern Pennsylvania
• April - North Georgia, may also check out the Bigfoot museum
• May - The Driftless, Wisconsin - Tenkara Campout
• July - Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
• August - Utah - Oni Tenkara School

Would love to try to squeeze in a few other trips here and there, but I just don't know where they might be. Maybe I'll dust off the saltwater rod and try flailing around in the local surf again. You've probably noticed, I never really took to the Jacksonville scene as it relates to my fly fishing. We'll see how that goes.

In any event, I'm going to try to post a little bit more on here as I start to re-focus on fishing. Maybe some of it will be irreverent or odd, just like the good old days of 2010 & 2011. Or not. We'll see. Either way, I'll definitely be consuming more fishing content, so if you write a fishing blog that I follow, look for me in your comments.

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P.S. For those of you that have been around for a while, Lilly turned 14 this past week. Fourteen! When I started this blog she was one. Crazy how time flies. High school next year. I don't write about her much to protect her privacy as she grows up, but she's become quite the interesting character. 

She is obsessive about creating art - be it digital, watercolors, paint pens, pencil, you name it. She loves Broadway musicals, (she does backstage tech for her school's productions), eating ice cream, and sadly, I couldn't get her to go fishing with me if I tried. She has a very unique style of drawing and maintains her "portfolio" on Instagram. She's also a good kid who does well academically in school and simply cares, be it for others that need help, causes, you name it. She has a huge heart. I hope she keeps that quality as she gets older, the world certainly needs more of it.

Spring Break 2019!

The blog's been a little quiet this month because the family was on Spring Break for a week, about a week or so ago. The Florida branch of the "Griswolds" family tree packed up and headed west for Wally World... almost literally... and fortunately, it wasn't closed this time.

In reality, K.C., Lilly, & I flew to Southern California for a week. We started in Los Angeles and visited the Getty Museum, braved traffic down to San Diego for a few days where we ocean kayaked and checked out sea lions in La Jolla before visiting the Zoo and getting fish tacos in the city proper. After that we hiked it back up to Anaheim for two days of Disneyland and a day of California Adventure. It was one of those trips that was highly scheduled, thus exhausting, but a crazy amount of fun.

Here's a fairly massive photo dump of some of the highlights... I won't mind if you don't get all the way through...