Gone Fishin'

Vance has been really excited about taking Isaac out for his first ever fishing experience. Although at first he thought Isaac should wait until he was 3 for this Whitaker rite of passage, Vance changed his mind. I got Isaac a little pole at Wallyworld, and he barely let go of it for the rest of the day. I couldn't even tell him where we were going until after dinner. He was SO excited. He kept on saying, "Go fishing, just like Daddy!"

First, we had to stop at a respectable local establishment to get some big red worms. I couldn't believe the literary perfection of having a bait shop named Gimp's.

Which of these two is more excited? It's hard to tell :)

oh, the anticipation.

Claire was slightly more skeptical of this whole enterprise.

He could hardly contain himself, hopping around on the pier, talking endlessly about his fishing rod. It was very cute.

He was taking every moment in, but he was a little scared of the worms. A boy, afraid of worms? I'm a little concerned...

This is where Vance began to betray some signs of his agenda for the evening. He wanted Isaac to keep the bobber stationary for awhile. Isaac, of course, being 2.5, wanted to reel it in fast and then cast it out again. But they were making it work...

They caught---a weed.

"AAAA!" Isaac was scared of the weed, and jumped back to Mama's side.

Trying out a new spot on the dock. The sunnies were biting, but the hook was too big. No matter, Vance was very industrious and figured out how to tease a smaller hook out of one of his lures. Eureka, that would do it!

Even Claire is looking excited now.

While Vance was busy threading on a new hook, Isaac took the can of worms and....dumped them in the lake. Game over.

Poor Daddy.

Isaac kept asking, "where'd the worms go?" and saying, "I sorry, Daddy." He was still excited...he got to use his pole, "catch worms" and "catch grass". As an added plus, he ingratiated himself with the fish at Lake McCarron by offering them a free dinner. Vance was slightly less enthused, having his dream of an early success with his future fishing buddy drowned along with the worms Isaac so carelessly cast overboard.

Me? I thought it was hilarious.