The cost to fill my father’s suburban with gas on Friday afternoon — $78.50.The cost to buy food and drink for three days for myself, my parents and my little brother at Super Wal-Mart in Pierre, S.D., — $88.70.The cost to enter myself and my father in a couples’ fishing tournament at my family’s bait shop — $100.The cost to fill the boat with gas — $29.80.The cost to stop for ice cream treats, hamburgers and cheese balls on the drive home — $28.20.The cost of a weekend at my parents’ trailer on Lake Oahe — priceless?Even after years of this slogan being an effective marketing tool, I am still not sure if I buy it. How do all of those bills really add up to priceless?I did not even include the cost of bait, fishing licenses, trailer rentals or the cost of my fishing outfit. but, man — it was an expensive weekend. We probably could have gone on a real family vacation for that amount of money.So how is it considered priceless?Is it because I had nearly nine hours of alone time with my father on a boat searching for giant walleye? Or because I was able to help my youngest brother write a short story? Or because I got to go kitten hunting with my mother on several occasions? Or maybe it has something to do with teaching my cousins and brother how to play black jack while my grandfather and uncle looked on?I guess these "priceless treasured moments" are supposed to make the steep price of gasoline and insane price of an out-of-state fishing license seem like nothing.Well, I am sure my father’s wallet and bank account would claim that’s not the case.I look at my weekend’s activities as old-fashioned fun, but looking at the cost, it was high dollar vacation.My team, called Team John and Lexi, did not place in high enough to get any return on our entry fee, but we were respectable.Last week when I asked my father how much money we could win, he said, "Well, we usually try not to humiliate ourselves, so we just want to be respectable."We caught the needed five walleyes to participate and brought in one drum and one small mouth bass to participate in the side contests, so that was respectable in my dad’s eyes — although our drum did end up being the biggest and netted my dad $50.This was the seventh year of the annual event, but it was my first. For all of the past years except one, my sister has taken the role as female team member.The first year my mother, who is terrified of boats and water, put her fears aside and boarded the boat in search of the winning fish. Unfortunately, that was the same day as one of the season’s worst storms. They did not win and probably with my mother’s screams, they had a hard time being respectable.This year, I was close enough to home to be asked to participate in the action. Of course, my relationship with my sister will probably suffer for a while because I was given her coveted spot on the boat.Again, are these really "priceless treasured moments" or just typical family adventures with a very high price tag?Finally, let me walk through the price of the fresh walleye fillets I brought home at the end of the weekend.We netted 14.2 pounds of walleye. After my father had "cleaned" the fish and returned with a bowl of fillets, I imagine we had less than five pounds of edible meat. I am guessing at this figure, so to make my team look better I will round it up and say we had six pounds.$108.30 gas$100.00 tournament fee$65.00 out of state license$29.00 in state license$10.00 bait+ $30.00 food, drink on boat$342.30 Total- $50.00 Biggest Drum contest$292.30 Total price of fishing.Divide this by six pounds of fillets and it equals $48.72 per pound of walleye.Even for fresh walleye that seems pretty high. Next time members of my family suggest we make a quick run to Lake Oahe, I am going to ask if they would rather go to the store, buy some walleye for $8 per pound and use the left over money to take a trip to the zoo in Omaha.Surely we could come up with just as many "priceless treasured moments," but maybe we would actually have some interesting photographs to prove it.Story ideas or comments can be emailed to Lexi Moore at lexim@star-herald.com or called in at 962-3561.