Fishing.

We had a great family vacation this past weekend. For the past 5 years we have gone fishing around this time of year in a little town called Sekiu (see-Q) It is a beautiful area. The town is 19 miles from the Makah Indian tribe - the tribe made national headlines for killing a whale this past year, illegally. I won't get into the politics of this, I will instead say, this is one of the most gorgeous areas of Washington state.

We forgot our camera, so I am waiting for this pics of the kids, and boat, etc. As soon as I get the photos I will post them.

We caught 11 salmon that we could keep. Coho and Chinook were legal, hatchery. (meaning they have to have a clipped fin) We caught many wilds, but couldn't keep them. It is fun just catching fish, so it is always exciting getting them to the boat! After two days I was in the zone, I was catching and also able to get the hooks out of the mouth and release the wild ones, no not as good as Grandpa does it, but hey I was doing it!

Fun story: Remember the hiking shoes I was so excited to get? They are red, cute and great to hike in.... not good for boating. not good for boating at all! My dad (grandpa) had a fish on, I went and got the net, we start doing the whole drill... you wave the net around, try to get the fish in the net with out losing fish, and with out throwing yourself over board. Well grandpa led the fish right to the net (he is good like that) and I lean over to net the fish..... both feet slip, darn shoes! I (for a second) thought I was going over board. I caught myself on the side of the boat. (with my elbows - ouch!) With out missing a beat, my dad turned and said the family line, "what the hell are you doing?" Yes dad I wanted to throw myself over the boat, with the net, it is easier to net them if we are all in the water! In case you were wondering... yes my elbow is bruised! Yes. We got the fish. It is a family tradition when someone does something really stupid, or clumsy, or gets hurt, what ever the situation to look at them and say, " what the hell are you doing?" you have to have a serious tone though when you say it, like you are irritated they just hurt themselves. My mom once stepped off the side of the road, when it was snowing and threw herself down a ditch... yes mom it is still funny! Yes, dad asked the question as he was helping her out of the ditch.... we are a nice bunch of people.

See the two towns in bold print? Sekiu and Clallam bay they are 2 miles apart... That is where we were on the coast. The dotted line going across the bay from the town of Port Angeles - is going to Vancouver, BC.... to give you all a reference of where we were.
The only tough part of the trip was trying to get in my run... Since I write the blogs, you get to hear about my part of the trip!




As you can see from the map on the right. This is it... this is all the road I had to run on. Yes there was the highway - but not much a shoulder so it made me nervous. Derrick drove me over to the town for my adventure. As he pulled away I turned on the ipod to find out, all my songs were magically erased. Great a nice 15 mile run with no music. I am not a purist here, I like me some music to run too! Ugh. Oh well first two miles ( a small loop out to the light house and back to town) was great. Then I decided to run the rest of the town. Well one trip down each road, kept my pace up - no one chains their dogs or owns a fence, so the animals run free. I guess they aren't used to runners, cuz I got them all stirred up! I even got chased a bit... nice heart rate booster! So once down each road was all I could take. A quick jaunt out to the prison... yes state prison in the middle of no where. I didn't go all the way out just up the first big hill, I didn't want a full four miles of hills.... ick. So yes I cut the run a bit short, I figure I made it 12-13 miles. not too bad for a town of 3 miles of road!





Let's see we skipped rocks each night after dinner, we decided that Detrix could take all state for rock skipping, 7 skips! he is a natural! Mom well not so good with the rock skipping. We ate and ate and had so much fun! Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for hauling the boat all the way out there - it is very much appreciated. We always have fun.

I will save the story of my mom and I watching an old fellow dock his boat. . . Always entertaining to watch people dock boats....







On the way home we got stopped on the Hood Canal Bridge. (they were letting marine traffic go through - all though we never saw a ship.... hmmmm) I have never been stopped on the bridge before... we got out and looked around. It was so cool to see the views from the deck of the bridge. Picture is from my camera phone.