To successfully attend your first Fishing Derby…

1. Dress in only 3 layers and leave your mittens at home. The weather in the north has never been know to change FAST. Never. You won’t lose feeling in your hands the first ten minutes out. Honest. 3 layers is plenty of protection.

2. Next, be sure to pack no food in your boat so that you and everyone else are miserable when DH, the Fisherman King, decides to skip coming in for lunch so that he can eke out every last moment of the derby.

3. DO nearly lose the prize winning fish as DH brings it to the boat and you scoop with the net. It makes for very terse words and strained expressions which I’m sure you’ll be able to laugh about. In a few years.

4. Be certain to not fish. Your job is to keep everyone else happy and untangle fish hooks from children’s hair and clothing and speak through clenched teeth as situations require (see 3).

5. LOL. A lot. Now.

Seriously, we had lots of fun at the fishing derby and came home with many prizes, but it was a chilly day. We’ve eaten all our fish for supper last night and they were tasty. NWT pike is a treat.

And more firsts!

We saw a mother black bear and her cubs on shore while we were fishing. They were rooting around and digging up the ground.

AND

I’ve forgotten to mention that two weeks ago I saw my first NWT aurora borealis. Can you imagine? The northern lights in August? I was amazed and captivated. So beautiful.