Story of a fish dinner

One day, two children, Abby and Augie Droegemueller, and their grandma, Jane McCartney, decided to go fishing. They were heading to a free fishing event at a stocked trout pond just outside Rexburg, Idaho. They packed their gear, got their hats and sunglasses, and set off with Grammy at 9 a.m. to get the best fishing spot.

At this event, sponsored by Lone Pine Nursery, they were entered into drawings for door prizes. Whoever caught the biggest fish would also win a bike! The kids baited their hooks with bits of cheese, got set, and when the announcer said, "Start fishing!" they cast their lines into the water.

Within 15 minutes Abby had caught two nice fish! She reeled in her rainbow trout and brought them up to be measured. One was 16 inches, the other 16.5 inches. What a catch! The limit was 2 fish, so she was done for the day. Well, not quite done... when they called the winners from the first door prize drawing, she had won a prize! A new paint-by-numbers kit.

Augie waited about an hour until he finally got his fish hooked. Those fish were biting, but not staying! Finally he hooked a biggie--a fish so heavy he could barely reel it out of the pond. Grammy took over and hauled that fish onto shore. It turned out to be a 17 inch Rainbow! However, Augie said, "I don't want to touch it!" So in his picture Grammy had to hold the fish in front of him to even get it in the shot.

Augie had a good-sized fish, but unfortunately some other kids had bigger 18 to 18.5 inch ones. Soon it was hot and the fish weren't biting anymore. They packed up their gear and called it a day.

Back at home, Grammy and the kids proudly showed off their catch to Mom. Everyone oohed and aahed over the nice fish. Then came the hard part. Someone had to clean the fish. Grammy didn't want to. Abby and Augie wouldn't dream of it. Mom had never caught a fish in her life. Dad was at work. So Mom took the fish over to our good friends' house, Dave and Sandy Heeding. Dave's a great fisherman, but he was gone. So Sandy, with help from her son Robert and texts of advice from her son Ben, guided Mom through all the steps of gutting fish. (Yes, it was an experience I didn't really enjoy, but now I can say I know how to do it.) Then the fish went in the freezer.

A few days later, Mom said we had to make these fish feel like they'd fulfilled their purpose. These fish were going to be dinner. Unfortunately, by this time no one wanted to eat the fish. But I, Mom, persevered.

I cut off the tails...

chopped off the heads (fish carnage! sorry fish!)...

and looked up recipes for how to cook fish (do you take off the scales? pull out the bones? No. Just throw them in some flour/salt/pepper mixture and fry? okaaay... where's the butter... ).

So I fried them up on one side...

Then fried them on the other. The skin was nice and crispy and was actually my favorite part. I served the fish with baked potatoes. I got mixed reactions. Augie refused to even eat a bite. I said, "You must eat at least one bite! You're the one who caught it." So he put a piece in his mouth, gagged and made faces, and ate one bite. Abby claimed that even the look would make her sick. But she ate a tiny sliver of fish. Jim and I picked at our fish, seeing as we had a whole fish each, and although they had lots of bones and it was slow-going, we ate them (mostly) up. They weren't too fishy-tasting, but rather bland and tasteless (except for the crispy, buttery skin). Sam was gone camping but when he got home he ate half a fish and loved it.

This is what was left of our fish dinner. Some skin and bones and a potato peel. Overall, I think it was an excellent experience for first-time fisher-kids and a first-time fish-cooking mom. You know the old expression? "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime." Well, that's only true if the man (or mom, in this case) knows how to cook the fish so that it will actually get eaten!

Sundance, Devil’s Tower and Mt. Rushmore

For our family vacation we set off to see the sights in Eastern Wyoming and the black hills of South Dakota. James’ father (the first Jim) lives in Sundance, Wyoming, only miles from the South Dakota border. We spent time with him and his wonderful wife, Sharon, their family, and saw the sights in Sundance. The second day we went to Devil’s Tower. Amazing!
This is the view as we approached from the highway. The tower juts about 800 feet above any other nearby land form.
The view from the Visitor’s Center parking lot. The trail leads all the way around the base of the tower, about 1 mile. It’s amazingly tall… 867 feet.
Sam showing off. This sign explained that Devil’s tower is a volcanic intrusion. Once all the surrounding land was just as high as the top of the tower, but was eroded by the Belle Fourche river. Only the hard igneous rock was left. As the magma cooled, the stress points formed into tall, hexagonal columns, and that’s why the rock has the striped look.
Can you see the rock climbers? Abby was a cheerful hiker.
The whole gang taking a rest on one of the many viewing benches…
And yes, we were only half way there!
Indian legends call the rock “bear lodge” or “bear tipi” or “grizzly bear house.” This painting depicts the legend where seven Indian girls were trapped by a giant bear on the top of the stump of a tree, and the bear scratched all the marks into the rock.
At all the national monuments they have a “Junior Ranger” program. Augie completed his booklet and got sworn in as a Jr. Ranger.

In the town of Sundance itself there is a lot of history and charm. It’s a very nice place! We enjoyed driving by the jail where the outlaw got the name “Sundance Kid” and saw the Sundance State Bank, dated 1914.

We had a fun time at Dad and Sharon’s house that evening, with a barbecue and s’mores over a backyard fire.

We had fun at our hotel pool, too. And spent lots of time in our pajamas.

After all this fun swimming, Abby was too tired to wake up!

Then we were off for another fun day in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This is a beautiful area! It’s about 2 hours from Sundance to Mt. Rushmore. We first stopped at a zoo/park called Bear Country. They have hundreds of bears! And we also saw elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, mountain lion, reindeer, badger, skunk, red fox, wolves (artic and timber), river otter, and more.

Grizzly bear

The baby bears were so cute! As playful as puppies.
And this is the world’s only pink arctic fox… actually just an arctic fox that rolled in the red dirt.
Now, on to Mt. Rushmore! It was amazing. It is so tall. It’s quite astonishing how they did such a great job carving the presidents’ likenesses into granite. The kids also got their Jr. Ranger badges at this national monument.
 
We found Idaho on the walk of flags… the 43rd state.


The view of the monument from the Grand View terrace.
Inside the visitor’s center, we learned about how it was carved and found lots of little facts to fill out their Jr. Ranger workbook.

Then the youngest 3 were sworn in as Jr. Rangers.
A final parting shot of our family on vacation. What a fantastic trip! We’d go again tomorrow if it wasn’t 12 hours away (that was one long, hot car ride). But we had a marvelous time.