Sea Legs and Sea Bass

Yesterday, Mom, Dad & I went to Westport, WA, on the coast for a little fun time together. It's only about a three-hour drive from home, so it was nothing quite so ambitious as the last one. It was a lovely time! We got there about noon-o'clock, checked into our regular motel early, went and had a bite at the "Fish House" on the waterfront... a new place. Had wonderful fish tacos and some amazing clam chowder along with a couple very tasty fries... the first I've had in a looong time.

Then we went and enjoyed a Northwest beach for a while. And by that, I mean one where you need a sweatshirt even though it's summer. It was rather chilly the whole time... cloudy and in the 60's. We lay down on the smooth little pebbles and rounded shell fragments for a nice little nap. Listened to the rolling surf and just relaxed.


Drove south a bit after that to see if we could get to the lighthouse, but that was closed off. Then made a pit stop at the motel for books and things as Dad wanted to try fishing off the docks. I started writing out what I'm going to say for the WENN presentation I'm giving... and then we went to dinner at a local steakhouse. I had a chicken dinner, sauteed in garlic butter with mushrooms, onions and walnuts. Wow! That was good!

We slept like logs last night! The beds were so comfy and we were so tired! Had to get up at 5:30 in order to get on the fishing boat. Made that just fine. At first, I was fine... Dad and I played a set of Backgammon (and I won) on the way out to sea, but suddenly my stomach was getting sick of going up and down. It was like the car-sickness effect... (have to see where I'm moving or I get an uneasy feeling) except it was coupled with my nearly empty stomach not used to being up so early in the morning. Dad had told a few people on board that I was joining the Navy, so there was *no* way I was going to let anybody know what I felt like. So I just sat and watched the waves and after a bit I stood up to roll with the movement and keep my stomach still and that made me feel a lot better. This was my first time out on open ocean... we went eight miles out in order to find good hunting grounds. After the first few spots I did really well, catching my limit of sea bass. It was a bunch of fun! One guy caught a huge salmon, and a few others some lingcod, and somebody a flounder. The guys running the boat kept everyone supplied with fresh bait (sardines), so we could just stand there and keep reeling them in! The seagulls followed us pretty closely the entire time. At one point they were getting pretty aggressive. I almost hooked one as I was letting my line down... and one guy actually did hook one (but it was let go alright). They would chomp down any dead sardine we through overboard, so it's sorta understandable. We sure caught plenty of bottom fish though! On the way back to Westport I watched the deck hand fillet and clean over 160 of the bass that our company caught in total. This distraction made me not even think about my stomach... and the ride in was rather smooth since it was a calm day.

I was pretty cold when we returned... it was cloudy and cool the entire trip. And ten hours on a boat in the wind will chill you right to the core! I slept soundly all the way home in the car, still in my sweatshirt and coat with beanie hat on and with my blanket over me. Back at home I had a sandwich while we watched a Netflix movie. I took a couple stomach tablets because it felt uneasy from not moving up and down. LOL! What an adventure!

Jp