weekend ramble (fly tying edition)

It was a full one.

A Go & Do sort of weekend.

One of my favorite Go & Do’s of the entire weekend was spent with Otto.

His Christmas gift was a date to learn how to tie flies. Like – fishing flies. I don’t know if those are spelled differently than other sorts of flies.

So far I’ve been bowling with Mosely and attended a brush lettering class with London, I’ve got an ax throwing date with Bergen and learning how to make pasta with Piper still to go.

And none of those classes had the same price tag as this class with Otto.

His was FREE.

Which felt a little like cheating but A. he didn’t know and B. he wouldn’t care.

I saw the class on some advertisement for Orvis and I knew instantly it would be perfect for my nine year old fishing aficionado son.

And, truthfully, it was the one date where I thought, “Well, I just have to do this. I love this boy. It’ll be great to spend time with him. Fly tying sounds …. uh, okay and it sounds tricky.” I’m pretty bad at direction following and I just had my doubts.

We started off with finding free parking, another win, and wandered downtown for a little while before our class began.

When we got to Orvis there were five other attendees of the class, besides the pair of us. Two couples and one man. Everyone over 40 for sure. And me. And Otto.

But that kid didn’t care. The instructor talked. Otto listened. We each had a little fly tying station assembled in front of us. Otto took it seriously. He asked questions when he needed but mostly, he was a natural at it.

I was impressed.

And, turns out, I wasn’t half bad either. I mean, I don’t know. Mine might have looked a bit loose and unprofessional, but I thought they were cute and I actually had a genuinely good time. Maybe it won’t be my new hobby, but I can see why it would be Otto’s – or any other fisherman’s.

We chatted and learned. We gathered our created flies, we completed quite a few, and strolled over to a nearby restaurant for lunch – grilled cheese for the fellow. We visited a rock store and we talked about school and fishing and lures and siblings. He held my hand voluntarily practically the entire outing. Even tonight, as I tucked him into bed, he said, “I loved that class. Can we take Fly Tying 201?”

I know he’s my baby. I know he’s only nine. But I have three teenagers currently and a grown up daughter so I’m relatively well versed in the rapid passage of time.

It was all delight to walk downtown, holding this guy’s hand. It was all joy to learn a new skill by his side and to watch him excel and to see his eyes light up at his work. He slid the lures in their case right in his pocket – he did not want those to go in my bag. He was thrilled to be in charge of them.