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.

What Happened in July

The 4th of July weekend was a baseball weekend for us.  We had a great time going to Brandon's West Valley All Star games in Richland, WA and then to our Hollie Minor's All Star games in Milton-Freewater, OR.  Hollie is our great niece.  We were really glad the games were so close together and the time of the games were just right for us to watch several games for both Brandon and Hollie.

Right after the 4th, Nina and Dave Pearcy visited us for several days.  It was awesome to have a really good visit with them.  They are pictured sitting left of Bill when we went to Whistling Jack Lodge on Chinook Pass to celebrate Ron and Linda Stephenson's 48th wedding anniversary.  I think I caught them with their mouths full - Ron is in blue shirt and Linda is in gray sweat jacket.  Congratulations on 48 years together.  How cool!!!

Teri celebrated her birthday with a pool party at Becky's house.  We had a BBQ and followed dinner with my current favorite dessert - pumpkin cheesecake.

We hung out in the shade except Courtney who loves the sun.  It was a hot day but we made it a fun day.  Sorry, Becky, I got a weird picture of you when you were checking out your Dad's sore foot.  It was sore from taking a spill at the Columbia River when shad fishing.  He didn't stop fishing that day but it has been bothersome for a while now.

These pictures are so funny because Lindsey is posing and Merry is hiding herself with her hand.  It is totally the opposite of what they usually do.  Was there a full moon?

Brandon was enjoying his time in the pool.  Triniti is hoping someone will retrieve her ball.

While Mike and Becky celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary in Maui, HI, Brandon stayed with us from Tuesday until Sunday when he went to camp in ID.  Brandon and Teri made a camo helmet out of Brandon's bike helmet.  He used it at his friend's (Mason) birthday party that included an air soft war.  We also went fishing on Dog Lake at the top of White Pass.  It was really cold but we aren't sure if Brandon was actually really cold or needed an attitude adjustment because he wasn't catching any fish when he pulled the stocking cap over his head.  We managed to talk him into holding up the six fish that G & G caught.

Here's Lindsey when we picked her from the West Valley Youth Local Mission Trip.  It was an extremely busy and productive week.

The group was friendly and fun.

A group picture of all youths and leaders who participated in the local mission trip.  The group was made up of youths from Yakima as well as Roseburg, OR and Sacramento, CA.  Some the projects done in the Yakima Valley were replacing a fence at a church, weeding for a disabled woman and at a local church, helping with a free soccer day camp, feeding the homeless with a local organization, painting and cleaning a church (just a few of the many projects).  The youth were very busy.  Volunteers from the West Valley Church of the Nazerene prepared all the meals and everyone loved that. 

While the honeymooner's were in Hawaii, their fence got tagged.  Grandpa and Brandon scrubbed it clean.  A nice white fence must be tempting for taggers because this isn't the first time that they have been tagged.

Brandon and his friend, Gabe Miles, went to an awesome camp in ID.  Gabe's mom, Christine, took a  full vehicle of campers on the long drive.  She said no electronics on this trip and about halfway there she was wishing the kids had some electronics.  

One morning we had an amazing and long thunder, lightening and rain storm. It had been over for about two hours when we heard this helicopter.  It was flying over the cherry orchard across the road from our house.  The cherries were several weeks from being harvested and they used the helicopter to dry the cherries so they wouldn't spoil.  There is always something interesting going on around our house.