Ice Fishing????

We just love Minnesota, the winter, and especially the people in our area. When you live in Minnesota, cold is not an element, it’s a challenge!

What a fantastic day we had yesterday!!! We went ice fishing for the very first time in Willow River, Minnesota by the dam. About 100 or so folks were out on this 22 degree day (actually this was a warm day when compared to the previous two weeks). Imagine pre-drilled holes about one foot wide, tons of people baiting their poles to catch that big one! We sipped our coffee and looked around and saw that we apparently had it wrong; Beer, Schnapps and Jag were apparently the drink of the ice fisherperson. Glen fell twice and all I thought was “we are the only sober grownups here and he is falling?” Oh, not the only thing falling, the 2nd place fish proudly displayed had other ideas and kept jumping off the board. Guess he was trying to make a run for it. Not sure why, but to us this was hilarious!

We didn’t catch anything, but won two door prizes (there really wasn’t a door as the drawing was on the ice); one was a $25 gift certificate to O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store in Moose Lake and the other was for pizza and a pitcher of beer at the Nickerson Bar. The winner of the contest was a young boy about 12 years old that won $200. The timing on this contest was perfect as it ended just as we were starting to get cold, but the camaraderie of everyone out there, kids, teens, grownups and elderly was very heartwarming.

From there, many ice fisher people, from about age 2 to 80 went over to the Corral Bar in Willow River, right next to the mercantile store for the Meat Raffle. It was packed with people paying $1.00 to try and win beef, pork, shrimp, chicken and cheese. We enjoyed a few beverages and won two pounds of cheese and a turkey ham… what a day (LOL). We spoke briefly with the boy that won the contest and asked him what he was gonna do with all that money. He sweetly replied “meat raffle”.

It was so nice to see the mingling of children playing pool and adults talking and laughing. We struck up a conversation with a couple about our age that lives in Stacy, and have a log cabin on the Willow River. The guy was kind of tipsy (LOL), not totally drunk, and kept on asking us over and over where we lived (he just couldn’t remember). The lady was totally charming and kept him in check.

From there, we came on back home; we cooked chicken with rice, and called it a day. We are still laughing about the fish trying to make a run for it!

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