Back to school: A look back and a look ahead...

:: View 6 years of first days of school ::

School is back and we have a fifth grader on our hands. Each year on the front doorstep I take a snapshot. I thought I'd reminisce from the years past... our son is growing up so quickly.

He is still my baby boy no matter what size or age! Sniffle, sniffle...

I love you, my sweet boy. —Mom

Visiting the Olympic National Parks...

:: View the complete slideshow from this trip ::

With Summer drawing to a close, for our last vacation trip before school begins, we headed back to the Neah Bay area, but this time with a focus on hiking and checking out the points of interest within the Olympic National Park system. This was a beautiful, scenic trip that allowed us to venture on foot through different trails.

Cape Flattery Trail

Our first visit we have frequented before was the Cape Flattery Trail, which overlooks the waters we fish in as we did in July. It's a short trail through the woods with certain platforms for you to take pictures. With the tripod in tow and my remote at the ready, I made a point of making sure I was able to get into some of the shots, just for you, mom! (c:

Connor along the trail

Ozette Beach Petroglyphs

Previously, we learned you can find some petroglyphs the Makah indians carved back in the 1700s or so right on Ozette Beach and thought it would be cool to check out. We've been through one portion of the trail system before, which is called Cape Alava (see the archive, here). However, this time, we were going to do the loop and that included the Sandpointe trail as well. An 11-mile hike round trip.

The petroglyphs were cool to locate but we didn't find all of them, so we will definitely venture back. One specifically, that we were looking for was of Spanish ships apparently from when they first arrived. There's some of orcas as well that we'll get pictures of next time too. I guess it's good not to discover everything at once so that we have an excuse to return!

La Push, Washington

Have you read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series yet? Well, I've been completely engrossed in them and I'm on the last book, Breaking Dawn now. The storyline takes place in Forks, Washington and one of it's main characters in it is a native american named Jacob, who is from the Quileute tribe in La Push, Washington.

Anyway, this area is an old stomping ground of Brett's from when he was little, as this was their main fishing spot prior to Neah Bay. A lot has changed since Brett was a kid and Twilight fever was everywhere. It was sort of funny to observe and we understand there's actual Twilight tours as well (we didn't go on any, however). The beach and views were gorgeous and the driftwood laid in artistic disarray that seemed to create it's own sculptures. It was clear that the water in this area is quite rough and untamed.

The Hoh Rain Forest

Our last trip landed us at the Hoh Rain Forest, where we went through a short walk along the Hall of mosses. It was a magnificent display of gigantic trees and green everywhere among us with umbrellas of moss overhead.

It was magical being among the old growth trees and a great display of nature at its beautiful best.

:: View the complete slideshow from this trip ::

Taking mom fishing in the Puget Sound...

:: There's more... view the slideshow ::

It has been years since my mom, Leah, has fished; and it had been years for Brett, Connor, and I that we've crabbed, so we blended the two and took mom out for some long-overdue fishing and crabbing.

Mom started off the morning and caught a good-size king first thing and then not long after that, rounded off by catching an even larger king! Clearly, she has not forgotten what to do given the long break she's had.

Crabbing in years past had been so poor, we gave up, but it was Dave who motivated us to get out there and what a great surprise it was. I don't recall ever a time where the crab were this large and plentiful, so we were delighted to see the batch we hauled in.

Take a look at the short slideshow linked above for an inside look!

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.

Returning to Neah Bay...

:: Check out the slideshow ::

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!

Fourth of July...

:: View the slideshow ::

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.

Days to celebrate...

For my birthday, my wish was to share a nice steak dinner at home with family and it was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s ! Did you know my husband is the best griller? He can make the best steak, every time — No restaurant can top him!

It was a Father's Day celebration as well, and we enjoyed the company of Leah, Dave and Patty over wine and good conversation throughout the night.

With the steak (filet mignon - my fav!), we had baked potatoes with the works and steamed broccoli and of course, paired with our favorite cabernet sauvignon. I didn't want to go the usual birthday route with a cake, so I made homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert with a large dollop of freshly-made whipping cream. Heaven!

Hoping you had a great Father's Day with yours too!

Some shots of nature

:: View the slideshow ::

We took a drive today at the Kapowsin Tree Farm near our house. Saw lots of deer and even a newborn, as well as some elk!

(Now all I need is a new teleconverter to extend my shots)... will my wishlist ever end?

I love Spring!

Originally uploaded by Jodi Morgan

Where have you been all this time, Spring? I don't care, I'm just glad you finally showed up!

...now if we could just have you stick around longer.

A break for Spring...

:: View the slideshow from this trip ::

April is already upon us, can you believe it? Seems like we just celebrated the new year. Time seems to fly by so quickly.

We headed south with the camper down the Oregon coast. What a spectacular place. I don't know why, but their beaches are so much more beautiful (to me) than Washington's. Maybe it's because they have sand and we have rocks... who knows?

As it turned out, the weather, however, was not our friend. Lots of rain, tons of wind and a short bit of hail. One day, just to get out despite the weather, we tried to go for a drive and ended up returning back to camp because we couldn't see anything. It was too foggy and miserable.

We wound up staying inside the camper for two straight days and then wound up returning a day sooner than planned. The trip was worsened when my back started wreaking havoc on me. Due to having to remain inside the camper, it was difficult to get comfortable, which caused a great deal of pain and was another reason for us to return home sooner. I could barely move and was miserable.

On the days we did manage to get out, it was nice and we took it all in whenever we could, so that is why you're able to see some of the shots that were taken while we were out.

I don't want this to sound all negative. All in all, it was WONDERFUL to get this week off to explore and Oregon is the best place we've been to yet for camping. We hope to be heading there again in the summer when the weather will be nicer!