Fishing!!

The VERY cool thing about this area is what the communities do on the weekends. Simply amazing!
Starting in April the towns from Seattle to Spokane start their "kid's fishing weekends". They invite families into the hatcheries to learn about types of fish, casting, cleaning, anatomy and trivia of fish. They also let the kids fish for 2 fish per kid. IT IS AWESOME!!!
For those of you who like to fish but know it takes a LONG time to catch one... this is THE WAY TO FISH!!!!!
For little kids- it is exciting- challenging and rewarding. Soon (rather than later) they will catch a fish. And if you are doing something "wrong" here comes a ranger or volunteer to give you a bigger worm , a bigger hook or another secret tip on how to "HOOK THE BIG ONE"......

For the kids- they even have a station where they learn to cast. This was very exciting for the boys. Madelon Rose almost threw her rod.... the boys took it serious and were very impressive!
Remember- these city kids are learning the simple things in life.... and they are totally embracing it!

We even met Smoky the Bear!

Madelon Rose was the FIRST one to catch a fish and she was thrilled. Her brothers were "disturbed" that a girl-- especially Madelon Rose ( who is silly ) could catch a fish "first"! Something was wrong with the universe and the chase was ON!
Blaise waited so patiently and at the end got 2 of the biggest fish out of the entire group. Elizabeth refused to get near the fish.....
The roaring river behind the Hatchery was gorgeous. Looking around- mountains. The sun was sooo very bright. I actually got sunburned. I forget we are a higher altitude. The day was relaxing!

                                                     Fish Trivia....

                                                     Water and boat safety!!!

At the end of it the kids had 6 fish to fillet. It was so easy, so relaxing so fun. In Texas, 4 thousand of your closest friends would have been there- the volunteers would be hating themselves for being there and you would have started before the sun came up because of the heat index.
It really is fun....... so far- I am relaxed and liking it!

Ok- cooking!!!
We got some oysters and prawns and thought we could just shuck the oysters like no tomorrow. HA HA!
It is HARD to shuck oysters.... REAL hard! And oysters on the grill-- ick! I like them RAW!!!!!
We also learned how to get my oven to broil... how to get the egg white NOT to turn to scrambled eggs when whipping it into the sauce pan.... and how to make a FRESH margarita!!!
Listen folks- you are taking your fresh squeezed lime juice from the store for granted! There is ZERO of that here and to perfect the most wonderful TX margarita was a challenge today.
We think we FINALLY got it..... to bad we wasted so much stock! Yes, getting good tequila, tequila agave juice, etc is hard! Sooooo- stop saying "What is their problem? Just go to the store!".....
WRONG! We are squeezing our limes- thank you very much!!!!
I didn't mind wasting tequila as much as I did watching my husband shuck an oyster! OMG-- I kept saying- let me take my hand off---- you are the one who needs both hands. I broke into a sweat!

I know it is hot there.... sorry! It is nice here and my garden is starting to grow. I need to put some tensil up in the cherry trees to keep off the birds! Yes, we have 1 cherry, 1 pear, 1 peach, 1 apricot and 5 apple trees. Oh- 3 sets of grapes! Yummy!!!
Next blog is on Henry--- That baby is sooo dang cute!
Hugs and Prayers to everyone!