…drank coffee
I watched some soccer…
…enjoyed late breakfast/early lunch with this girl at this place. (delicious huevos!)
…made some progress cleaning up this disaster…
{I can’t believe I just shared a pic of ‘the room’…although I’m comforted by the fact that I think everyone has one of these…the room/closet/corner/garage where stuff gets stashed away…hidden…never to be spoken of again…hoping that little elves will magically appear and clean/tidy/sort/rearrange it for you!}
Moving on…
I organized my fabrics using these (having seen the idea over here and here)…
We ate pasta carbonara for dinner…
Dinner was followed by planning for Sunday and watching True Grit…which we enjoyed, but it was certainly not our favorite Cohen brothers movie…and ended a bit abruptly for my taste!
Now Sunday…Sunday – we had a real adventure.
This past Christmas, Woody and I gave each other one of these – a Watermaster Raft by Big Sky Inflatables. The idea being that we would be able to access a lot more water for fly fishing on our own without hiring a (very $$$$) guide. Woody has been dreaming of one of these for years…and they finally arrived in February and until yesterday…we hadn’t had the chance to get them out and take them for a spin.
Need I remind you that we live in LA county…and open water (not including the ocean) is a bit hard to come by. We researched and found this tiny lake just outside of Wrightwood, on the eastern side of the San Gabriel Mountains. They stock it with trout and there are no motorized vessels allowed. However…I would classify it as a large pond…lake is stretching it a bit.
This was the first time to set up the rafts….
Just as advertised, very easy…unfold, get out the foot pump, attach it and in a few minutes, half the raft is inflated.
There are two bladders, so if one fails…the whole thing won’t sink.
There is a foot strap so you can pick you feet up.
Everything is very light weight and when the whole thing is packed up, it’s fits in its own dry bag and only weighs 38 lbs.
The raft itself only weighs about 23 lbs., so once it is inflated and ready to go, it is very easy to launch.
Getting situated…the seat needed some adjustment.
It comes with flippers as well…and was very maneuverable both with the oars and the flippers.
Very easy to paddle…and on a flat pond with little wind and no current…almost a bit too maneuverable….which bodes well for moving water.
Despite what the pictures might portray, we were not the only ones at the lake…there were easily 15 people already fishing from the shore when we arrived and probably closer to 35 people by the time we left…including a lot of children and families. Also…this lake was stuffed with goldfish…big goldfish, and goldfish that hung out in the shallows only to be taunted by boys and girls under the age of 7 who tried repeatedly to catch them using anything they could other than a rod and reel.
When we were done, we just hauled the boats out onto the grass, removed the accessories and deflated the bladders and let them dry a bit before folding them up and packing it all in.
We took the long and scenic route home on the 2 or the Angeles Crest Highway. It was Woody’s first time driving through and the first time I had seen it since the Station Fire swept through the San Gabriel mountains in late August of 2009. Click here for an aerial infra-red shot. Great photos and a map can be found here
(seen from the 10 and the 110 interchange. The smoke actually created its own weather systems!)
It was amazing to be driving and looking in almost any direction and realizing that everything in view burned. All of it. And also amazing to see how it changed the landscape as well. It is a very different forest now and will be for a long time!
We stopped for some groceries and then headed for an afternoon snack and beer at this place. This is our favorite pizza…E-V-A-H!
The Avocado Festival…sounds weird…but it is scrumptious! The beer…also tasted very good!
Then we headed home and hung out with Cleo…since she felt a little ignored by not being invited on the adventure!
How was your weekend? What did you do?
Fischer Life 