A fruitful day

The sun finally broke out. It had been raining days and nights since we got back from our river getaway. As the peach season is still running, we went to the orchard to pick a few of these juicy yummilicious.
Apparantly the apple season is not far behind. Rows of apple trees are loaded with fruits already.

After picking, we had some hay fun! There were bales of hay piled up high in the orchard for the kids to climb all over.
Then, we headed fishing on the st joe river. Elle said good luck to dada with the victory sign and half an hour later Hin pulled up a King Salmon out of the water! He was thrilled.
Elle had heaps of fun splashing water to the fish, patting it, and chilling out at the shore wiggling her toes in the water and throwing rocks.What a great Surf 'n' Turf day we had!

River trip - Day 3 the finale

After a long day full of activities yesterday, surprisingly we all woke up by eight feeling remarkably recharged. It must be the fresh air on the hilltop as being located in the heart of the Manistee National Forest. The deck was wet with early morning dews as if there had been a downpour. Elle adored these little creatures on the deck since the first day she stepped onto the cottage. She'd knee down and give a pat on the puppies' heads everytime she walked passed them and give a kiss to that cute little raccoon.
We enjoyed a lazy morning chilling out and then packed up and said goodbye to this cozy cottage. The weather during our last day of trip was absolutely gorgeous! Sunshine all day long. Tippy Dam was the last destination. There's not much crowd at all due to it's a Monday. It's amazing that we had the river all by ourselves for an hour or so. I'm really curious of the scene of hundreds of anglers standing shoulder to shoulder battling for the salmon run on the labor day weekend.
The yellow solidago blossomed along the river bank in the foreground with a spectacular view of the stream winding gently through the scenic woodlands in the background.
Just as we thought the day would be ended with no catch, Hin called me excitely that he got a rainbow trout. We quickly came over and saw him holding a rainbow trout in the water. As I was about to start snapping pictures when he held the fish up, it slipped through his fingers and all we could do was watching it swam away with our jaws down to chin. Bummer! Nevertheless, the rainbow trout marked another mission accomplished in his fish-to-catch list.

River trip - Day 2

We woke up to another cloudy gloomy morning. It's only 7-ish am and everyone already woke up. We took the time making breakfast, packing light lunch for paddling trip, and simply lazing in the cottage with cups of coffee till the clock hit ten, off we ventured on to our second day river trip.

The dark clouds rolling up the sky as we're driving towards the canoe livery. By the time we're ready to get into the river, raindrops started dripping from the sky. We were worried for a second but the rain didn't stop us. Elle headed straight towards the canoe, got herself into it and settled on the yoke seat without hesitation. Once she was seated, immediately she took possession of an oar and couldn't wait to start paddling.
Seconds after we launched, we're in the midst of chaos and yelling. The canoe was shaky as Elle was making big movements inside the canoe as if she were on the land. If we tried to lay a finger on her oar, she's all throwing fist in the air, stomping her feet and crying in dismay. In mere five minutes, we crashed into the trees on the side of the river bank. We recomposed ourselve once Elle began to behave well and willing to share the oar with me without putting up a fight. From then on, it was a peaceful sail.
It's surprising to find this stretch of Manistee river we paddled was muddy like a cappuccino. Probably it's because it had been raining for the last few days. As we passed underneath the first bridge, to our surprise, Hin got a bite and pulled up a brown trout from the water. It's an exciting moment. Elle couldn't wait running towards dada to check out the fish.
It's amazing to watch her moving back and forth between the bow and stern with no fear. One moment she's the captain looking out for us at the bow screaming "Tree! Watch out!", the next moment she was moving to the back messing with dada. Being confined in the canoe didn't seem to bore her at all as she always find something fun to do. We stopped at a sandbar stretching our legs and playing in the water.

The sun peeking through the bleak, gray cloud occasionally. Some of the trees along the river bank has started to show shades of early fall colors. We pulled over at a scenic staircase that led to rows of pine trees on the top, taking our own sweet time to take in this peaceful beautiful scenery and laze the afternoon away.
As we passed underneath the third bridge and saw the "landing" sign for the take-out, our 10-miles river paddling was completed in four hours with a load of fond memories. Elle conked out the second we're on the road back to the cottage.

After a short break and a quick bite in the cottage, we headed out looking for the fishing spots along the Manistee river. We spent more than one and half hour on the road simply because the GPS was stupid enough to point us to a dead-end road cutting off by the Tippy Dam. At last, we found the access site. There was a 45 degree angle steep hike down the hill to the river, but it's all well worth for the breathtaking view greeted us. The yellow and purple wildflowers along the shore, the spectacular view of a sweeping gentle river bend, the gorgeous sunny blue sky, a perfect clear and shallow water for wading, pretty like a postcard. Even though Hin didn't get any bite here, he's all happy and content with the brown trout he caught today. Elle was such a trooper that she refused to be carried and walked up the "suicide" hill by herself as we headed back.

It's nightfall by the time we got back to our little cottage, which Elle referred it as "the house". We were hungry and dog-tired exhausted. In no time we had ourselves freshen up with a nice shower while Hin quickly whipped up a delicious dinner. After the meal, we tried to make a bonfire for s'mores. Well, the fire lasted only for five minutes and then it kept dying off. With no luck with the damped woods, we went back to the cottage and made some s'mores with the gas range instead. As everything began to wind down, it's already past 11 pm. We crashed into bed and drifted into dreamland in a snap.