...or not so daily journal. but i have an excuse! im busy! heh well anyways the past few days have been very exciting. on sunday i went to my aunt and uncles church. the sermon was very good and i got to meet a lot of people. we had lunch and i watched the seahawks pummel san fran, which is coincidentally where im going next. while i was there in front of the tube my uncle jon showed me how to tie the leaders that we used to "floss" for salmon. for you fishing illiterate, flossing is a not-so-fancy term for trying to snag a fish by dragging a hook and sinker through the water. my leader tying time continued into an episode of man vs. wild where the guy was trying to escape the everglades by eating live frogs and swiming with gators. anyways, during that show i realized how tried i truely was and i hit the hay.

monday. i got my first taste of "real fishing" today. uncle jon and i arrived at our destination the skykomish river at about 6:30, and i had my first salmon EVER on the line by 7. the river was a beautiful place. the mountains were so close and the pine tree engulfed shorline was backlit by the pink sunrise. we waded out into a few feet of water and i could see fish swimming around me. at one point a dying pink bumped into my leg. you would cast and then see a 2 jump and then you'd see one blasting up through the rapids. tail pumping and back exposed. it was very relaxing. i caught three pinks. uncle jon had to work at 11 so we returned and then aunt donna took me into downtown. bothel, where they live, is a little over a half hour away from downtown seattle. as we d\crested the last hill before the city i got my first glimpse of lake washington. we crossed the lake on an architectural wonder, a floating 6 lane bridge, that took us right into town. i immediately saw the needle and we went straight to the famous "pikes place market" where everything under the sun is sold. from flowers and jewelry to photographs and fresh salmon. we wandered through the whole place, stopping now and then to look at cool/unusual things. the place was so culturally diverse! i would be standing next to the vietnamese owned booth that sold fresh boquets of flowers and directly across from it would be spanish speaking people selling pottery. a block from there you could walk into a seattle version of ming hing and have some teriyaki chicken. beside that would be a small individual seafood market. at my favorite one the guys, fresh off the boat, would toss the fish back and forth when someone bought it. the man where the fish was displayed would throw it to the guy that would wrap it then to the guy that would ring it up then to a guy that gave it to the customer. the sounds that engulfed the market had my attention most of the time. i would be checking out some neat seattle photographs and then a deep bassist voice would arise from the noise of the market. the older african american man would sing his heart out, displaying to everyone his favorite hymns trying to make a buck. then i'd see a flower child leaning up against a wall putting his soul into his bamboo recorder. and outside by the waters edge was a man playing soft melodies on his flute. it was quite the melting pot of pople and sounds. tastes, i got my first sample of the authentic fish & chips that were raved about here. it was delicious and even more so because we got to have lunch out on the restaurants deck right next to the puget sound. whats more, there was sun AND it was warm. tow rare combinations. from there we went to a starbucks and were pleasantly surprised to find out, by my intuitive guess, that it was the ORGINAL ONE! inside, i could barely taste my strawberries & creme blended frappuccino due to the intense coffee aromas invading my nostrils so i headed out of the building to the sounds of beautiful acapella coming from this very talented group of african american guys. starbucks was our last stop so we headed back to the car quickly because i had a salmon fishing date that i wasnt about to be late for! we got home just in time and uncle jon and i went back out to the river and i caught more and larger fish this time. we casted until dark and then headed back along the tracks. i-was-tired so i hit the hay early