Birthday Parties & Buoy 10 Fishing

I have fond memories of what I perceived as endless summer days during my childhood. No homework to do, playing with friends, running around in our garden, shooting hoops, sleep overs, late movie nights, locking a pesky little brother out of my room - could it get any better?

Oh yes, it gets much better...

Summer 2009 was packed full of fun for our new family, August in particular was extra exciting. We celebrated Alexandria's 7th Birthday, twice. Once in Friday Harbor with all her little friends, their parents, and some of our family members. Some family coming from Bellingham, Kirkland and even as far as Alaska!

The following week, we made our way down to Olympia where we were met by a bunch of Andy's family - siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents - all there to throw another birthday party for Alex and see Floyd for the first time.

Both parties were a blast and we enjoyed seeing everyone!

From Olympia, we made our way down to Naselle to embark on our week long fishing trip on the Columbia River and around Buoy 10. It was absolutely blazing hot the first few days we were there, but what a blast! We fished the river for a couple of days (pretty slow, but fun to fish a new spot) and to top it off the scenery was gorgeous. After a couple of days with only a few bites, some Coho we ate for dinner, and just a lack of interest in battling with the other hundreds of boats on the river, we decided to make our way over the bar and out into the ocean. The Columbia River bar is nothing for the amateur boat captain to mess with. We had great weather and a great captain and made it across with ease.

We were nervous, because the bite didn't seem like it was happening and just as we started to give it a second thought we had one take down after the other. Our fishing day ended with 8 Coho on ice (4 angler limit), about 6-8 wild Coho released, and another 6-8 bites that we missed/lost. What a fun day!

In the evenings, we rode around looking for herds of local elk. We were there last November, but didn't see too many of the magnificent and tasty creatures nor did we see them very close. This time around we saw them most nights and a couple of nights they were feeding close to the road so we got to take a good look at them.

'Til next time (not sure when, evidently "blogging" is not one of my priorities)!

Best Wishes,

Carol :)