Astoria, OR

Last month my wife and I drove down to Astoria, OR. A very nice drive from Seattle, once you get off I-5. Astoria has some beautiful Queen Anne style houses, actually the largest quantity of Queen Annes on the west coast after San Francisco. And a lot of them have not been monkeyed with (ie screwed up in bad remodels).

There is a lot to do here, especially as a tourist. There is a great farmer's market on Sundays, the trolley ride, the Astoria Column, the Goonie's house, historic museums, maritime museum, nice walks around the neighborhoods to look at some amazing architecture and of course a quick drive to some nice beaches.

We were able to get to Shipwreck Beach one day. As the name suggest there is a shipwreck here, the Peter Iredale from the early 1900's. At different times of the year the wreck can be completed covered by the beach or even more exposed then the photos I have taken here show. I would love to do a photo study on this.

While taking photos of the shipwreck during the sunset something amazing happened. Looking out on the pacific ocean right were the waves were starting to break, a swarm of birds just appeared spanning the whole length of the beach. I was speachless as I watched this amazing natural event happen. Everyonce in a while you would even see a line of pelicans fly by, diving down in between the waves, with a the swarming seabirds in the background. Luckily I was able to grab a couple of decent photos of the event.

I look forward to getting back down to Astoria again sometime in the future, even if it is just to go visit the beach.

Hey, that's my fish!

Now that I am back on the west coast I am able to drive up to Idaho for vacation again. This summer my wife and I went to the Sawtooth National forest to stay in the family cabin. The drive from Seattle to the cabin took us a little over 11 hours. It was a very mellow drive with none of the stress (TRAFFIC) we used to have to deal with when living in California.

Near the end of our trip my Dad, wife and I hiked up to Baker Lake. A very nice and short hike with a beautiful lake filled with trout at the end of it. Whenever I hike up to Baker Lake I always take my camera equipment with me as well as my fishing gear. The lakes clear and calm water allows me to take pictures of the fish after I have hooked them, without the fear of dropping the camera in the water or the fish getting away in the rapids.

In the past I have taken some fun photos of the cutthroat, golden and brown trout living in the lake. This year was no different, except for one incident. I was fishing on the west side of the lake when I got a strike from a smaller fish, about 10 inches. I didn't think much about it when all of a sudden the fish just takes off, catching me off guard. In the fish's spasm of unprecedented fighting skills, it goes right to the bank of the lake and proceeds to wrap itself and my line around a sunken tree branch. At this point I am mad at myself for being caught off guard like this and walk over to see how I am going to untangle the line from the sunken branch. Well lo' and behold I figure out why that little fish was fighting so hard, it was trying to escape the giant jaws of Big Ole' Brown trout.

The poor golden trout was swimming for its life, only to come to a jerking halt after wrapping my line around the tree branch. Where upon the brown caught up and latched on with its big jaws. I couldn't believe it and the only thought going through my head was, I need to take a picture of this or no one will believe me. And that is just what I did.

After the photo shoot I tried to go in and net that brown, who still had my fish in his mouth, but as I got close he did a mighty shake and the golden trout came unhooked. I stared at that brown while he swam away with my fish slow and cool and I swear I heard him say, So long and thanks for the fish!

Next time forget the photos, I going to put the net in my mouth and jump in to net that 22 inch plus big ole brown Pirate style, aarrrr!

I'm back!

It has been a while now since my last posting. I have moved from the southeast to the northwest and along the way lost my password to the blog among other things.

Well, I finally got that all sorted out and I am BACK online. I can commence with some photo posting. Stay tuned everybody (I hear only silence filled with cricket noises but hopefully that will change real quick.)

Aaron