Family vacation. There are lots and lots of choices of where to go. As long as everyone has a good time and stays in good spirits, where is just a backdrop. Amusement parks. Big cities. The ocean or the mountains.

Or, somewhere you’ve spent time fly fishing.

Even though I’ve often advocated for squeezing even just a little bit of fishing into family vacations, that is not my plan this time around. But the backdrop of previous fishing excursions in and around Manchester, Vermont, led us to spend a week in the Green Mountains. Hiking, local cuisine, and a giant fly shop featuring enormous pellet-eating rainbows all make for a fun with a school of kids in tow.

Generally speaking, the kinds of places you want to fish are the kinds of places you want to be. Seeing them without a rod in hand and through the eyes of your non-fishing family is rewarding, too.

Anyway, I’ve got to get back to coffee and planning today’s hike.

Interested in visiting Manchester, Vermont?

Here’s an article on what you can do.

And here is a podcast on the same topic.