My family and I have been going to Canada for the past few years for our vacation. We go to a fishing resort up in Seeley’s Bay, Ontario. These are one of my favorite vacations that I have gone on so far. When I think about these vacations I always connect certain smells to the memories. One of my favorite smells that I associate with my vacation is the smell of the weekly fish fries that they have each Wednesday.


It’s early August, the day of the weekly fish fry and bass tournament. I wake up early around 6:00 a.m. to the smell of bagels in the toaster and coffee brewing. I rush to get dressed, then hurry out the cabin, that we are staying in. As I walk out of the cabin the smell of the fresh dew rising off the lake and the grass. This smell stops me in my tracks every time. Only when I’m in Canada do I actually realize that the dew has a specific smell. This scent reminds me of the smell after the rain on a spring morning.
I run to the docks, excited to start fishing and hopefully win the contest, and happily jump into our boat. The stench of the rubber worms. The smell of fish. The smell of bug spray from fishing on the docks the night before. The smell of sunscreen. The smell of wet seats. The fresh scent of the lake, peace. These are all the smells that greet me when I go to step onto the boat. Some not the greatest of smells, and some are smells that could remind you of a calm spring morning.
The day progresses with lots of fish being caught, kept, and thrown back. By this time my hands stink! They stink as if I have been spending my entire day playing in a large bucket full of fish. Which is very close to what I’ve been doing today. It’s time to go back to the docks and weigh in our fish. The whole resort reeks of a stinky fish smell. Everyone is taking their fish off of their boats in to be weighed. It smells like dead fish that have been out in the sun for a while, which isn’t true since everyone either keeps them in their live wells or coolers that they have in the boats.

It’s time for us to go to the fish fry. I make my way out the front door of my cabin as does almost everyone else in the resort. I’m only at my cabin, but I can practically taste the food in my mouth from the smells that it is giving off . The smell of home made Swedish bread, corn on the cob, breaded bass, and many other things great me as I walk to the picnic table where my family and I will be sitting. I close my eyes for a moment and I can already taste the foods that I will be eating in a short amount of time. Now the entire resort is smelling like a giant kitchen. I can’t wait until the food is served and I begin to shovel the bass and other foods in to my mouth.