Monday, July 20, 2009

Videos of our adventures in Neah Bay


Morgans have a heritage of enjoying our free time in the outdoors. There are so many amazing things to see when you're out and about like this. Featured video snippets will include some of those great experiences, which we hope you enjoy.


"Even grandma has more guts than you, mom." —Connor




"Got it... got it!" —Jodi
We had an amazing experience when porpoises pay a close visit to us.



"He's purty!" —Jodi


"There's a knucklebuster!" —Dave
Patty and her catch on the knucklebuster pole.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Returning to Neah Bay...




We’ve returned from another successful trip to Neah Bay and can’t believe how quickly the time flew by. Such a memorable trip though!

For the first time in Connor’s life, Patty fished with us in the ocean! We tried to remember the last time she fished in Neah Bay and it was before Connor was born. It’s truly amazing she’s made the turnaround she has. Her health over the past few years has been so poor and words can’t describe how excited we were to have her join us out there for a few days.
The Chinook (King) salmon eluded us, but they eluded everyone so we didn’t feel bad. The Coho (Silver) were fun to play. All in all, we wound up taking home 47 salmon, of that total only one nice Chinook that Brett managed to get out.

We switched things up a bit by mooching. For the mooching technique, you use plug cut herring and toss your line out and wait for the nibbles. Set the hook and reel them in. This was a fun change because the motor is off (when the tide is right) and you can hear everything around you. A pod of porpoises would appear right off the boat and entertain us for several minutes. I caught some video of it and will try to figure out how to get it online.

Our usual mode for salmon fishing is trolling. For bottom fishing we changed things slightly there as well. We did some casting and it was a blast. The sea bass were right on top in the surf and would “hop on” right away.

After a day of fishing we like to have a fish fry back at camp with the fresh bottom fish we’ve caught. We get the tempura and panko ready and fire up the deep fryer and then Brett cooks them until they’re golden brown and delicious. Out of this world!
We had a Morgan derby going too, for whoever caught the largest Coho, largest Chinook, and largest Lingcod. Brett won the largest salmon category and I won for the Ling.
Connor has really gotten good at ocean fishing. I have to remember he’s only ten and will be marveled at how well he catches fish. He’s following in the footsteps of his dad nicely.

We’re returning.

We want to come back in August and play the Cohos. We certainly don’t need the fish, but they’ll be even larger than what we had this month and maybe we can hook into more Chinook!
This August trip is not going to be all about the fishing. Nature hikes are going to dominate the adventure so we’ll fit in maybe 2 days of fishing. I hope to capture a lot of photos from this upcoming trip!

Below is a slideshow with music that I hope you enjoy. It was again, a truly memorable trip enjoyed by all and we feel so blessed to have had it!


Sunday, July 5, 2009

Fourth of July...




Happy Independence Day, all! We hope yours went safely and was fun. This was the first year in many that we've been in town. When I think back, the last time we were in town for the 4th was when Connor was a baby. Normally, we are up in Neah Bay at this time, however, we are off to a later start than usual, which was actually nice to be around here.

We were invited to a party by some good friends, The Eakins. We arrived with the grill ablaze cooking up hamburgers and hotdogs and a full spread of a variety of dishes others had prepared. Everything was delicious and the cold beer was great too!

The kids had a blow-up water slide to play on and it was quite tempting to be honest. As a child, the grandest our waterplay ever got was a sprinkler or a slip-n-slide in the yard. This water slide was awesome and the kids were having a ball. Later they broke out into a water fight with balloons and water guns, which then led to buckets of water and even the adults got into it -- it was pretty entertaining to watch!

The weather was perfect, although hot. It was 88° here and we were thankful for the strategic placement of the awnings outside. Sun set and we were then graced with a great variety of fireworks.

I learned something...

Fireworks are hard to photograph.
They're difficult to focus on.
I should have used a tripod.
I'll get better at this next time.

View the slideshow and you'll see the pictures taken from this fun-filled day.