An Awesome August

We met Brett in Spanaway in early August and spent several days at Jason and Courtney's house in Clearwood near Yelm.  We were taking our boat to Sekiu for the first salmon fishing trip of this season.  We took our boat to Sekiu on Saturday and Brett hung out with Jason while Courtney and Megan went to the Renaissance Fair in Bonney Lake.  Brett moved into a men's recovery house near Yelm and is doing awesome.  We are happy to see him in a safe place.

Brett's picture after he shaved his head and Courtney's picture in her Renaissance costume. 

Jason and Jayden joined us on the first weekend of our fishing trip.  Fishing was great on Friday, on Saturday we limited but it was very slow on Sunday.  In fact, we only caught the quillback rockfish that Bill is holding and a native king salmon that Jason had to release.  The weather and water conditions were great.

Kay and Lee came to Sekiu on Tuesday.  Bill, Teri and Lee caught their limit on Wednesday.  Teri caught the biggest silver of the trip weighing in just below 9 lbs.  Lee caught a nice 7 1/2 lb silver later in the trip.

Becky, Lindsey, Lindsey's friend (Elicia) and Brandon joined us on Wednesday.  Bill, Becky, Brandon and Lee fished on Thursday and caught their limits.  Elicia wanted to have her picture taken with a salmon so here it is.  Lee is holding his nice silver salmon.  Brandon learned that catching the fish is the fun part of fishing.  Then the work begins.  He learned the skill of scaling the fish.

Mike came up to Sekiu on Thursday and fished with Bill, Brandon and Lee through Saturday.  Brandon participated in a kid's fishing derby on Saturday and got a fishing pole for his entry.  The derby was sponsored by the Clallam Bay-Sekiu Lion's Club.  On Saturday afternoon, Lindsey and Elicia went out with Bill and Mike.  They had a great time and everyone that fished caught salmon.  In total, we caught 84 salmon - pinks and silvers.  Everyone had salmon to take home and we have lots of pinks to smoke and can.  All-in-all, the trip was one of our best.  We enjoyed all the company and the fishing was awesome.

So, our RV park is only 30 miles from Forks - yes, of Twilight fame.  The gals took an afternoon to see the Twilight sites.  We had so much fun.

We got pictures by Bella's truck(s) that were parked by the Chamber of Commerce.  The staff of the Chamber of Commerce were friendly and helpful.  They provided a map so we could do a driving tour of Forks to see all things Twilight.  They said that tourism has increased by 90% since the books and movies came out.  Most of the residents of Forks have got on the bandwagon to give tourists the best of Twilight.  Some of the sites we visited were actually used in the movies and some of them were places that were just written about in the books. 

Lindsey and Elicia knew more about Twilight than Becky and Kay but I was kinda out of the loop.  I learned a lot during our exploration but I have to admit that I haven't read the books or seen the movies.

The Swan house was the first place that we saw on our driving tour.  The house was the actual house in the movies with some shrubs and trees removed.  We drove by Forks Community Hospital where Dr. Cullen practiced and it is next door to the building where Dr. Cullen's office was located.  The high school in Forks was not the high school in the movie but we saw the local high school and took a picture of their sign.

We went out to LaPush to see where Jacob of the book and movies lived.  We had lunch at a burger place near the treaty line that divided the vampires and werewolves' territories.  We saw the Black's house and the motorbike that Bella and Jacob restored. 

Forks City Hall had a display case with lots of Twilight memorabilia and the owners' of the "Cullen" house encourages tourists to read messages from Esme on the porch and take pictures, too.

Our last stop in Forks was at the Thriftway Store.  It adjoins Forks Outfitters.  Bella worked at Newton's Outfitters and it is said that the store was based on the Fork's Outfitters.

 

Becky, Brandon and Teri took an afternoon during our fishing trip to go to Neah Bay.  We visited the Makah Museum and hiked to Cape Flattery.  The trail to Cape Flattery is through a beautifully forested area.  We enjoyed the the lookout perches, taking pictures at the viewpoints and Becky loved posing in the odd shaped trees.

The weather was just perfect for our short hike to Cape Flattery - the most northwestern point of the  continguous United States.  The sun was shining and it made the views amazing.  The 3/4 mile trail to Cape Flattery is a combination of cedar boardwalk and earthen trail and was recently renovated by the Makah Indian Tribe.  There were beautiful rocky coves that we could see from the lookout perches along the way.  At the end of the trail, there was an amazing view of Tatoosh Island.  In the far distance across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, you could see Vancouver Island.