Welcome… to jon detweilers semi-annual journal. He is lazy and only gets around to it every 6 months or so, so here is your little snippet for the fall/winter season.

saturday. today uncle jon and i got up bright and early to hit the water again. this time back down to the skykomish. the sun was already up by the time we got there and there was only one guy on the water. david was along today and we fished for a while and then he caught one and then got bored so he proceded to mingle among the rocks and "lay to rest" some of the dying pinks. i somehow managed to land two very nice 10 pound range cohos and a few pinks and we took our catch home before noon. what we didnt realize that we had forgotten davids pole, which was a pretty nice one, back at the river so uncle jon blasted back on over there but found only fish guts and davids rock structure. needless to say, that put a little damper on the evening but after a little bit of r&r, aunt donna took me into a local seafood market and we gathered up a bunch of goodies including crab, halibut, clams, oysters, and shrimp. that along with the fresh salmon was all cooked up by our family master chef and we enjoyed a delicious meal. i'd have to say that the crab was the most delicious thing ever! i then rolled off my chair and passed out on the floor from all of the food intake and i woke up today in san francisco somehow. kidding, no we played some mexican train dominoes and hit the hay.

sunday. got up earlier this time for church. we went in for the first service and then i headed into uncle jons mens class and enjoyed it very well. after, we went back home and had a good meal, and had a bible study at their house later that evening.

monday. today was my last day (or so i thought). aunt donna took me on another hike and it was quite fun. at the end of the hike was a playground so naturally i gravitated toward the swings. david and katie followed and we had a little photo shoot jumpingoff the swings. we then walked around this amazing building, previously a monestary now a college, and left for a park. there at the park we had a short walk down to a beautiful bay of frogs, cranes, turtles, and the occasional nature photographer carying $10,000 worth of gear on his back. i got some very nice pictures ane we then headed back to the house... to play some more mexican train. i was really getting down the strategy for that simple game. david still always beat me. grr.

tuesday. ah yes, infamous tuesday. well, this was the day of my departure to san fran so we got up somewhat early and i headed down to aunt donnas childrens thing she does at the church so i could catch a ride with uncle jon after he got done with some work there. him and i headed out for downtown at like 10 ish and arrived at the station at like 10:30. i headed up to the counter to check in only to realize, by the ticket guy's keen observation, that my train left an hour ago. i says to myself... "self, how could this have happened?". i sit there in a few seconds in a state of utter shock and then i remember that i had had my ticket changed 2 days prior so that i could arrive at a destination in california closer to my aunt and uncle's house from the original destination of downtown and that change had changed the time that i would be leaving, not only arriving (its a little more complicated than that. im not as dumb as it looks) so i snap back to reality and then visions of my whole trip collapsing flood my cerebral cavity. a comforting hand on the shoulder from uncle jon assured me and then we left for home again with a new itinerary for my train tickets. we got back and i mowed the lawn and watched a movie. i had a good second last night at the detweilers and i was finally at peace with the situation.

wednesday. so i was off. uncle jon and i returned to the station thankfully on time and everything went smoothly. i hopped on the train and settled in for a long ride. my seatbuddy, and stealer of the window seat :(, was a canadian girl with a strong dislike of the war in Iraq. we had a few interesting conversations, and coincidentally enough she loved photography and she studied salmon there in WA somewhere. i ended up spending most of my time in the observation car. there was a beautiful sunset behind the mountains in oregon and i was able to fall asleep lying on the floor. we arrived at 8 am in martinez, CA and uncle chris was there to pick me up. we headed on over to their very nice home for a wonderful breakfast... continued in next blog