Fishing Chicks Weekend

This past weekend I went on a girl's fishing weekend with my friends Chris, Stacey and Kari. The trip was organized by Marilyn's Boutique in Rogers. I don't know how she did it, for $90 we got a fishing chick t-shirt, a pre-trip cocktail, a bus ride to Mille Lacs and back (and it was a nice bus, too, with a potty and everything) a fishing excursion on the biggest boat Eddy's owns, a bratwurst lunch on the boat and a hotel room at Grand Casino, which threw in $50 in gambling credit!




Here we are before we got on the bus. There were 24 of us. We brought coolers on the bus so we wouldn't get thirsty. We played bingo to pass the time.










Here we are on the boat. That is Stacey top left, Chris in pink, and me in blue with my arm around Kari.











This is Trent, he works for Eddy's. He and Captain Brian cheerfully baited hooks (not ours, we are real fisherwomen and bait our own), changed bobber depths and removed fish from hooks (OK, I did have them do that, fish are so wiggly!). These guys didn't even complain when we made them turn up the radio so we could sing along to "Love is a Battlefield". We sang that REAL LOUD!












I caught 3 fish, ranging in size from 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches. Look at my cool bobber earrings, also part of the package from Marilyn's.











That 4 1/2 incher won me the prize for "smallest fish". Besides bragging rights, I received the bobber necklace with "smallest fish" on it and funny napkins. The napkins say, "A good friend will come and bail you out of jail. A TRUE friend will be sitting beside you saying, "Damn....that was fun!""














If I do go to jail, here's the friend who will be sitting beside me! And then she'll probably charm them into letting us go.

















Kari thought she had better cover up the "caught our" part of the sign since nobody caught any keepers.











Here is some of the fine merchandise available at Eddy's. These are can cozys to keep your beer cold. Classy.











This is Faye and Jody. They sweet-talked the crew out of the lead weights used to find depth. These looked really nice on their shirts. If strippers were tough, they'd wear these! Faye, incidentally, drinks Jagermeister and Red Bull. Together. I tried it, and I agree with Elizabeth Swan (from "Pirates") "It is a vile drink...."













We went back to the casino and had the buffet and tried to learn how to use the $50 gambling credit. It could NOT be converted into cash, sadly, because I tried. I have several vices, but gambling isn't one of them. I would much rather have money. However, I couldn't let the $50 go to waste, so I played the slots and won $70! Chris and Kari's mom Sherry met us for dinner and gave us a ride to the Blue Goose in Garrison. They had a really good band and almost all of the fishing chicks were there (in our matching t-shirts).


This is when the phenomena began. The Blue Goose was full of fellas. Young fellas, mostly, early twenties or so. They could not get enough of us! Even in high-necked t-shirts and bobber earrings every one of us was asked to dance! It was a "target rich environment"! Now, I've been clubbing with the Portner sisters (Chris and Kari) for 20 years now. They ALWAYS get hit on. I am usually totally invisible. (Actually, I am always invisible to young men. I don't care.) So this time guys actually see me and talk to me. I am a cougar! Very odd. I decided I wasn't missing much. Although nice to look at, (one of them kept showing us his tan tummy) you can't talk to these dudes. I had to explain to one of them who Van Morrison is! He asked if I'd ever heard of the band "Journey". Sigh. Not only have I heard of them, that was the first record (yeah, vinyl) I ever bought. 29 years ago. We all left the youngsters at the Goose and went to bed. We were all up past our bedtimes, so it was a quiet ride home on Sunday!

This was a very popular treat on the boat. Salt AND chocolate, yummy!

Cracker Brittle

Line a 10x15 inch jellyroll pan with foil and butter or spray it. Preheat oven to 350. Cover the foil with saltines, neatly, in rows. (You can also use club crackers or graham crackers. This is a good use for stale ones.) In a pan, melt 1 cup of butter or margarine with 1/2 cup sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, boil 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, pour evenly over crackers. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes (watch carefully, this burns in a heartbeat) until golden brown. Spread a small bag of chocolate chips over this and spread it out when it melts. Cool and break into pieces.