Gar, Cottonmouth, Canoe...just another fun day at the lake

Today I spent the day at the Lake with my sister and her family. Rennata got the bright idea that it'd be fun for her and I to take her daughters (4 years old and 2 years old) on a ride in the canoe. Ren's not very good at steering and she also paddles a lot harder than me so half the time we were just going all over the place. But we were still having lots of fun...

Now, I've written about the show River Monsters before. I'm obsessed with it! (I'm actually watching it right now with a slightly horror stricken look on my face) ...I'm also terrified of fish and I swear that they chase me! They can tell that I highly dislike them...

But back to my story. Ren and I were just paddling along, enjoying the scenery, while the girls were playing with their hands in the water, when all of a sudden about 4 gar come swimming up to the boat. I immediately started screaming because my mind automatically jumps to River Monsters and the alligator gar that Jeremy Wade caught in Florida. The gar seemed to be playing or fighting or something but I swear it seemed like one of them would jump up into the boat if they could...and I believe that they were trying to. Ren on the other hand, starts laughing and yelling that the gar were following us. Given my history with fish, I believe her and start paddling harder...we made it back to the dock in about 1/2 the time it took us to get out there. Ren laughed and taunted me the entire way back and I screamed and told her that she wouldn't be laughing when one of those gar jumped in and try to bite one of her babies. Blake and Taylor thought the whole thing was hilarious and joined Ren in taunting me. But as we were stepping out of the boat those same 4 gar were right there behind us...they had followed us after all!

Standing on the dock and looking at the gar was a little bit more fun...and I am now willing to admit that they were not alligator gar, but longnose gar. Either way, they are still some pretty scary looking fish...

Not to mention that we also saw a water moccasin (aka: cottonmouth) swim up right after we'd gotten out of the boat...needless to say Jessica did not get in the water at all today...