The months that lie ahead are probably my favorite ones of the year. As we know August can be hot and even a little stormy. Enjoy it while you can because the evenings are slowly being shortened up and the sun seems to be sleeping in a little longer each morning.

The upcoming months offer some great days to travel the area and see some of the sights that our state has to offer. You don’t have to venture far; just taking a drive in the country on a summer evening can be a great experience.

As the sun starts to set and the grasses start to get wet with dew there is a certain calm that can be felt as the cool of the evening starts taking hold.

I have always been an early morning person but there is still something about evening in the country. The frogs and crickets make themselves heard as if to be celebrating the sun’s departure.

A couple of weeks ago I took an early morning drive to St. Olaf Lake to take a few pictures and see if the lake looked like I remembered it from years past.

The lake was as clean as I remembered it and a few things like a fishing pier and hiking trail were great additions to an already nice park. The beach was still clean and although there was no activity there at this early hour I could almost hear the sound of kids laughing and playing in the clean water of the lake.

When I was a kid our family couldn’t always afford or find the time to have a real &uot;up north&uot; vacation. Anything involving leaving town on a fishing trip would usually mean going to St. Olaf Lake and renting a pontoon boat for a Sunday afternoon.

It wasn’t exactly one of the fishing adventures I would read about in Outdoor Life or Field and Stream but it reallydidn’t matter. We were going fishing and we always seemed to catch fish when we went to St. Olaf.

When things were good we went a couple of times a summer. This was great, Mom would make some of her famous potato salad and we’d have sandwiches and cold drinks, throw in the fishing and a kid never thought it could get any better.

This didn’t happen as often as I’d have liked but then good things are meant to be savored and when they don’t happen that often you tend to appreciate them even more.

Looking out over the lake I could still see the many fishing boats that would be scattered across the little lake and remember the laughs we used to have on the pontoon boat. Now my Dad never once pretended to be Popeye the Sailor but he would do the pontoon thing for us each summer.

I can still remember the excitement that would build the night before we were making the big venture north to St. Olaf. I’m sure I must have been asking a hundred questions and telling everyone about my plans for catching fish. This is a big part of any fishing trip or family outing – the planning stage.

Kids are masters at making plans, once they find out they are going to be going someplace fun.

There are the preliminary &uot;how many more days&uot; and when the day before comes and the tackle boxes and fishing pole have been checked and re-checked then it is time to ask some important questions. How long will it take to get there? How far is it? What time are we leaving?

Now only kids can make a 20-mile drive sound like a trip to the Arctic Circle. I went through the same thing with my boys when they were kids. They’d ask the questions and I’d supply most of the answers. I often wondered where they got it but looking back I really don’t think the apple fell very far from the tree.

The good thing about a kid’s curious mind is that when they find the answer they will usually retain it. I did find that they would repeat many of the same questions just to see how many times old dad would answer them. This is called pushing buttons; they had an uncanny knack of getting me to the edge without quite going over. That’s probably why they liked the big old Pontiac we used to have. I could never quite reach them from the front seat.

Being at the lake brought back a lot of memories. The old store was the place that made it all work. You could rent boats, motors and pontoons, buy minnows, bait, gas, groceries, beer, and ice cream and even get some chips and a cold bottle of Coca-Cola.

These were fun times and times that will still be there the next time I look out over the lake and remember fondly a time that doesn‘t seem that long ago.

Until next time &uot;play safe; take time to enjoy the outdoors and let’s go fishin’.&uot;

Remember to show your support for the troops that are serving our country so that we may enjoy these many freedoms that we have.

(Dick Herfindahl-Outdoors writer)