Bite of Summer…

This stretch of good weather in the PNW is Sweeeeeeet! I love it. Everybody seems to be in a better mood and ‘out’ enjoying the long sunny days…I personally had a non-stop, go-get-um weekend and I didn’t even go fishing…

Has anybody ever been to a wedding that involved a marriage between Catholic and Mormon families? Drama! I had 7 or 8 Mormon ‘ladies’ tell me that I was a sinner for drinking but they all wanted to ‘have’ my children…-at the same time. Huh?

The catholics drank and had fun celebrating while the ‘other’ party gave ‘evil eye’ and petitioned for polygamy…HAHHA! (Okay, that’s funny. If you’re offended I don’t give a shit so leave).

…It was a great wedding. Congrats Erin and Josh!

So, WE got shit housed all night and still managed to get up early the next morning to attend the “Bite of Seattle.”

We decided that we would do our part to “reduce the carbon footprint” and indulge in public transportation. Man, we are hungover here:

The ‘Bite of Seattle’ is a food festival. It’s rows and rows of food booths that I guess “represent some of the best foods that this city (Seattle) has to offer.”

Well, I hate to say it but that’s a lie. I’ve been going to the “Bite of Seattle” for years (15-20?) and it’s still the same. In fact, the last time that I went was 3 years ago and the same booths are still there, in the same location with the same food. Same long lines and crowds. There was NOTHING new.

Thank god for Beer Gardens and good company:

You can always get ya some ‘Gator on a stick’ though! Surprisingly it tastes like…uh…Chicken. Well screw me, everything tastes like chicken when it’s deep fried!

Of course, the Salmon was popular:

That’s about it. Every food booth there was something that you could easily ‘DO’ on your own. I was not impressed but I didn’t expect to be. It’s always the same food booths. Sad.

Key Arena is right there so Sonics gear was on sale (HA)!

I’ve been to less than a dozen Sonic games in my life (that’s more than mayor Nickels)! I’m not a fan of watching basketball. I am pissed that we are losing the Sonics though. I’ll save that forest for the trees…

All in all, the beer/ wine garden and ‘people watching’ at the ‘Bite of Seattle’ are the most entertaining aspects…I don’t think I’ll be back unless they get some better (new) food.

My hungover ‘posse’ agrees:

Helping Mom: Priceless

I mentioned in one of the comments that I was ‘helping’ my mom with her garden party this past weekend.  Not my first choice to spend a sunny afternoon passing out drinks and food to her friends…but, she’s my mom and I adore her…she asked for my help with her party, so I helped.

To keep myself entertained in between filling wine glasses and re-filling the shrimp tray, I took pictures of her garden…which was absolutely gorgeous!!

My mother created her garden from scratch, all by herself.  When she moved in, there was nothing back there but some grass and dirt.  Over the past 3+ years, I think she’s read virtually every gardening book that has been written!  Each plant has been carefully selected and placed in just the ‘right’ spot.  It may look a little chaotic, but there is definitely a method to her madness!  (For the college football fans…if you look closely, you will see the purple and gold section…she’s a HUGE Husky fan…go DAWGS!)

This is an island of flowers in the middle of her backyard…it used to just be lawn, but that was too boring for her!

Same island, opposite view.

This is her hummingbird garden.

A few close-ups of the flowers…

Turns out that hanging out in the sun in a beautiful garden is not such a bad deal…and the leftovers were delish!

Uncorked?

Kirkland Uncorked is the wine-tasting event being held in my neighborhood this weekend.  Hard to go wrong here…a fairly warm summer evening on the lake with a bunch of wine, food, and music.  Some friends and I decided to check it out…and we definitely had fun…but not because the wine was super delicious!

The location was fantastic - the Kirkland waterfront on a sunny summer night…

This was supposed to represent 60 ’select’ wines from Washington.  I am not a wine expert by any stretch of the imagination, and we definitely didn’t try ALL of the wines…but of all the wines I did taste, I only REALLY liked two.  My favorite was the Big F’n Syrah…yummy wine with a great name!

By far and away, the highlight of this adventure for me was my friends…

And once we had ‘experienced’ the wine festival (aka we ran out of tasting tokens!), we decided to go check out the boats/yachts for sale in the marina.  Captain Jmac??  Not in the budget this year (ha!), but it was fun to pretend…

And as a side note…I did a little checking and I learned that some of the admission fees from this event go to benefit the Hope Heart Institute, funding local education and research on heart disease…a subject very near and dear to me since my dad died from heart disease.

He would have seriously appreciated that I had a great time drinking wine with friends…for a good cause!

Catch and Release, Grandpa…

As the summer wears on and the weather gets warmer I continue to see more and more people out fishing.

Awesome.

I love seeing kids (yes, high school kids too) out fishing. I’m usually the guy that gives them some “good?” fishing advice and a couple of plastic baits. I rarely see anybody fly-fishing unless I’m fishing in the ‘yuppity’ fly-fishing circles and that’s OK with me…

I love it when young kids watch me fly-fishing. You can see a thousand questions in their eyes: ‘What in the hell is that guy doing and how and why?’

Well, the answer is simple. I’m doing something that I’ve done all my life and love more than anything: The outdoors and catching fish.

I hear it all the time: “Dude, you should have been born 100 years ago.”

Well, I’m here TODAY and the fishing is still good. Is it as good as my ‘old man’ and grandpa say it “used” to be? Nope. Not even close.

Regulations, population, regulations, more population, etc…Geez, stop breeding, people. There are some great ‘birf’ control methods out there these days… Just kidding!!! Seriously, Just kidding!!!

Truth is, there is plenty of good fishing thanks to the ‘conservancy’ of most anglers. You know who you are and you’re a friend of mine.

…”If you want to catch fish use worms.” -That was the advice that my ‘old man’ gave me when I was a ‘wee lad.’…-”Anybody can catch fish with worms.” Therefore, I became a fly-fisherman.

…With that said, I see ‘bait fishermen’ catching and releasing fish all the time. Heh, that is great and noble but it’s pointless. The fish you just released will be eagle/osprey food in a matter of minutes (which is sadly OK with a few of yous)….Trust me, those ‘birds’ do just fine without your help.

Why do the fish die? ‘Baits’ such as worms/crawlers, powerbait, corn dogs, fritos, whatever are usually “assholed” by the fish. Meaning, they fully ingest it. When you ‘pull’ the hook out you damage vital organs. Is a ‘bait fisherman’ going to cut the line and let the hook rust-out? Hell no. He’d be out a hook and have to re-tie his gear…

-If you want to keep your catch then by all means use worms, etc…I have no problem with this, I like to eat fish too. Just don’t bullshit me that you’re a “catch and release fisherman.”

-If you want to practice ‘catch and release’ then use artificial lures (barbless hooks, plastics, flies, etc.).

-Don’t be stooopid, fellow anglers. See ya on the water.

Hiking for Dummies…

In addition to learning how to fish this year, I have really wanted to start doing some hiking.  As a Seattle native, it is shameful to say that there are tons of beautiful places to hike in this area…and I’ve never hiked any of them.

So I was totally excited when my friends called Sunday morning and asked if I wanted to go for an ‘easy’ hike.  The weather was perfect and I figured they weren’t lying about the ‘easy’ part since we were taking their 5-year old son…Plus, the lake at the bottom of our hike is one that I have been fishing on (and yes, caught a fish!) and I wanted to see the view from the top.

It started off easy enough…like I said, if a 5-year old could do it…

This is me with the ‘little man’ at the beginning of the hike…he was there for me the whole time, encouraging me with the occasional ‘C’mon already!’ and offering quality advice like ‘Don’t slip, and if you do, grab on to a tree so you don’t fall down the hill!’  Good advice for the rookie, right?

And this is an easy hike.  It was a beautiful day and the trail was busy with lots of families with kids.  People were running up and down the trail, like it was a walk in the park…but I cannot lie.  By the time we reached the top, I was huffing and puffing a bit and sweating like crazy!  For crying out loud, it’s only a 2-mile hike up and we climbed just under 1,200 feet!  Clearly I need to spend more time NOT sitting on my ass!

With that said, I loved it and I can’t wait to do it again!  I definitely need to work on getting myself into ‘climbing’ shape, but the view was totally worth it.  My pictures do NOT do it justice!  It’s hard to believe this is just 45 minutes outside of downtown Seattle…

This is a picture from the top of the ridge looking down to the lake I’ve fished (which has risen a TON in the last month)…and hardly anybody is fishing!

And this is the view going the other direction.  (No, I don’t know the topless tourist…he was just a ‘bonus’ in this shot.)

I have to say, my first hiking adventure was definitely more fun with my 5-year old guide - - ‘That’s a rock…that’s a log…that’s a rock…that’s a log…’  It was a little challenging to keep him entertained with just walking the trail…so I eventually bribed him with my camera.  Ha!  Turns out, he’s a born photographer and he takes better pictures than most adults!  An example of his work:

All in all, a great day…

A new contributor…

I’ve added a new ‘author’ to the Dawg Blawg!

Welcome aboard JMAC!

A female perspective should keep things interesting around here…

Jmac meets the ‘Dawg Blawg author’ requirements: She’s a ‘Dawg’ (UW Husky), she’s from the pacific northwest and she has a great sense of humor…

My “partner in crime” SK8RAT will also be a contributor here when he returns from ‘overseas’ this fall…

So, everybody give her a warm welcome! Post away JMAC!

 

-ALSO… some quick ‘Dawg Blawg’ notes:

-I recently hit 10,500 views here with 500 plus comments and tons of emails. I don’t know if that is good or bad for 6 months but I’m happy with it considering that I don’t use any ‘tags’ or put links in my posts.

-Thank You to my friends on my ‘blogroll’ … drinks are on me!

-I highly encourage readers to comment in the ‘comments’ instead of emailing me! Most of ‘yous’ are more comfortable emailing me and that’s fine, I’m always happy to hear from you…

-I’m thinking that whoever hits comment #600 should win something. Do you like Rainier Beer?

Seattle Majestics vs. Dallas

It’s a gorgeous day in Seatown for football!

I’m off to Memorial Stadium to witness my first Seattle Majestics game as they take on the Dallas Diamonds in the conference championship game!

I’ll try to take a few good pictures and I’ll update the results later…

Good luck Majestics, GO GET ‘EM!

UPDATE…

Damn.

Majestics 6…

Dallas 38…

Ode to the Majestics, they played very tough against a Dallas team twice their size. DAYUMN they were big!!!

The Majestic defense fought ‘tooth and nail’ all game against a very mean Dallas offense.

Is there any chance that we could ‘trade’ for (or pick-up off of free-agency waivers) #46 from Dallas? She destroyed US!

Gah.

Regardless, for my first game, I had a blast. I’m sold. I’m all in for next season.

I’ll help spread the word:

Great game Rivas! You fooled Dallas on that ‘option’ twice (you led the way)! You need to be playing both sides (offense, too). I honestly was impressed with your defensive play. You’re badass!

-Again, what a blast.

-Congrats on a great season Majestics!

C’mon Rainier Beer, Sponsor Me…

Okay my clever readers, it’s open season…I need Rainier Beer to sponsor me for the next Olympics.

I need your best slogan for this picture.

Fire away in the comments:

-

UPDATE: I’m the Rainier poster child, now.

 

You can’t win ‘em all…

Although tired and recovering from vacation, Jmac and I went fishing Monday night. After catching some nice ones recently I decided to target bass again…

I think the bass gods are playing a joke on me.

Strike one:

Strike two:

And strike three:

Nothing but dinks. Jmac thought it was hilarious.

Our friends Dave and Lisa live on the lake and they were kind enough to invite us in and ’ease my pain’ with a couple of cold ones…Thanks guys!

I’ll be back, fishies…

Podunk Idaho

I spent the past week in Idaho doing my favorite kind of fly-fishing:

-Small creeks

Miles and miles of creeks that don’t get too much fishing pressure because they’re not easily accessible at elevations between 6000 and 8000 feet…(My fishing bud TP is the red shirt in this pic):

  

The snow melt/runoff has been ‘late’ this year so the waters are still high and moving pretty good. The hatches have been a little funny too but the caddis flies were showing.

Working a caddis fly into a nice pool on a bend:

 

And this rainbow took it:

 

Nice fish for this small creek and I was happy to catch them all day long. The fishing was tough trying to work the fly into the right areas but that’s what makes it fun…

Although they aren’t huge I love catching these fish. They put up a good fight and are pretty to look at.

-Beautiful rainbow here:

 

TP worked a nice pool and caught this 12″ brook trout (only because he got to it before I did, the son of a bitch):

 

That is an awesome fish for a creek this size! That brookie was holding in a nice ‘hole’ just above a log jam, sipping every bug that floated his direction. TP decided to ’sacrifice’ him for lunch and when I checked his stomach it was full of caddis flies (casing and all) and yellow-jackets.

Here’s another good-sized rainbow: (anybody notice that lateral line!)

  

 ’The Boys’ at the 4th of July parade in Hailey:

The ‘dorkfish’ of the trip:

 

 Enjoying a ‘goblet of beer’ at ’Grumpy’s Bar’ in Ketchum:

I loved this bar. All kinds of cool stuff to look at:

 

That’s pretty much it for my pictures…I’ll put up some more when ‘the crew’ sends them to me.

We had a blast, all in all it was an awesome trip with some funny stories and plenty of fish caught…I didn’t want to leave! I can’t wait to do it again soon!