Sunday Recap

Ah Sunday!

Sunday's are probably the best day of the week, or the second best. Saturday might be *the* best. But often, Saturday's are filled with projects and chores, while Sundays are more for relaxation.

As you know, our favorite mode of relaxation involves a big lake and a fun boat!

We hit up our favorite lake again, Lost Creek, and promptly met up with the local marine Sheriff patrol. It was cool; they were just doing safety inspections, looking for required equipment like life jackets and fire extinguishers. The Sheriff that did our inspection was very nice and normal.  Too bad all LEO's aren't like that!

After passing the inspection we dropped the boat in the water and headed out to try and find a good fishing spot!

Last weekend we spent the day out on the lake, fishing and sunbathing, but we never got a single nibble. We only ever saw ONE fish jump!

Sunday started out pretty similar except that there were trout jumping everywhere! We fished for an hour, changing lures, moving the boat, changing lures. Then BAM! We got a bite! And then lost it. Then BAM! Another bite...and lost it. BAM! Another...lost it! This happened about 6 or 7 times.Then...total silence. No bites.

The boat was just drifting and I was getting frustrated with fishing. I decided to put some power bait on my line and just hang out.

Chris decided to go with the powerbait for a bit, too, but used the steering wheel to hold his pole for him. 

We never got any bites off the power bait. I did get a nice shot of my toes though. :-)

 It was getting late in the day and Chris decided to grab my pole and try for a fish. He said "Just 5 casts is all I need!" Well wouldn't you know it...first cast he lands this little beauty!

We could never get another bite. Crazy! We did enjoy the little trout for dinner, along with some salmon and veggies. But, even a bad day fishing on the boat is still a good day on the boat!

Later, when we got home we were super excited to be in a location with clear skies so we could watch the annular eclipse! We used our sunglasses paired with Chris' welding helmets to watch the moon move in front of the sun. It really was a spectacular sight! The light got dim, almost like a storm. It seemed grey and filtered. Really an incredible thing to see and so beautiful!

We tried to take some pictures, but they didn't really show what was happening. I have said before and I'll say again: I am no photographer. Other people took some incredible photos and they are beautiful. Ours are beautiful in their own way. Here are just a few samples:

These were all taken through the lens of the welding helmet. So pretty in their own way!

Did you get to see the eclipse? What's your favorite day of the week? Are Sundays for relaxing?

Spring Break!

I posted a comment on Facebook and said that Chris and I were kicking off spring beak* at Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino. My friend Mar noticed the spelling error (stupid phones) and said "tweet." I was confused. Then I realized what I posted and thought it was hilarious....then she pointed out that I was at Seven "Feathers" which made it even funnier!! Unfortunately, our "kick off" didn't go that well. Chris had a trouble call for a broken elevator at the casino so we decided to head up there, he could fix the elevator, we would have dinner and spend the night. It didn't quite go as planned.

First of all...he couldn't fix the elevator because his brand new laptop is not configured correctly from the factory and won't "talk" to the elevator. FAIL. Then we had dinner at the sports bar. It wasn't that good and the service wasn't that good either. Then we went up to our room on the third floor and attempted to go to sleep. Unfortunately the people in the room above us had small children. They were playing hockey, or soccer or just attempting to kill each other by running back and forth across the room like bandits. FOR HOURS. We laid down around 9:30 (we are such party animals) and by about 11:30 we had had it!! We got up and left. Checked out, drove home, and slept in our own bed without small hoodlums running around shrieking, thumping, crashing and crying above our heads. So much for a "relaxing" night away.

Oh well...c'est la vie, right?

We probably slept better at home anyway. Plus my kitty doesn't like to be alone. She was glad we were home to snuggle with.

That was last Thursday night.

We didn't do much over the weekend outside of normal stuff. The weather here has been SO spring. Rain, wind, sun, hail, rain, sun, wind, clouds....repeat. Chris spent some time working on his boat. I got a painting framed that my brother painted and gave to me. We cleaned up the house, which was a wreck from being ignored for 2.5 months. Nothing super exciting.

Chianti in the vineyards by Ken Buck

Monday, though, things perked up! We had made reservations at Lake of the Woods resort. And we rented snowmobiles! We picked up the sleds Sunday night and headed out early Monday morning to hit the snow!

Me on the sled in the "big meadow"

We had a blast!! I rode my own sled and Chris had his own. We couldn't have ordered better weather. Partly sunny, warmish and gorgeous! We put over 30 miles on our sleds and trekked all over around the lake in the Winema National Forest. Here are some cute pictures!

Me on the trail

Mandatory self portrait

Chris on his sled...getting ready to go play a bit while I relax.

Chris

Chris doing a jump on the big meadow.

Monday was a GREAT day! We had lots of fun. We rented a cabin at Lake of the Woods. After we returned the sleds we headed back up to hang out and enjoy the quiet and peace of the woods. Did I mention there was NO one else out there? Once again Southern Oregon doesn't disappoint. Spring Break week and there is no one else enjoying the recreation. Awesome.

Cabin 26 at Lake of the Woods Resort, Oregon

The cabin was quaint and small. It snowed quite a bit the whole time we were there. I didn't take pictures of the food, but we ate well! Monday night we had bratwurst and shamelessly stolen pasta salad.  Tuesday morning, after not sleeping that well (no thanks to our midnight raccoon visitor) Chris made breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. So tasty!

My sweetie making me breakfast!

Then we went and hiked all over the campground. Chris headed out on the frozen lake to check out the ice fishing holes. We found a really awesome picnic/beach area that we hope to visit this summer.

Beachfront picnic table and firepit/barbeque...can't wait for summer!

It was snowing and blowing quite a bit on Tuesday. We watched a Disney movie (Cinderella) in the cabin (that was what they had!) and then decided to head back out to the lake. We tried our hand at a little ice fishing. We really didn't have any idea what we were doing, and after not too long the wind and snow picked up again. It was fun, but next time we'll be more prepared with the right gear! Wouldn't it be fun to catch a trout in an ice covered lake??

What's up with the ice fishing? Where are the fish??

Our "fishin' hole"

 After the ice fishing we took a nap. Yes. An actual honest to goodness nap. For almost 2 hours. It was GLORIOUS!  After our nap Chris made dinner. Again, no pictures, but we had an old favorite. Seared pork chops, topped with cream of mushroom soup and frozen tator tots. Put in the oven to heat through and brown up the tots. So much comfort food! Delicious. Certainly not an everyday dinner, but perfect for vacation and the mountains.

HI!

After dinner we went for another long walk. We walked from our cabin down to the "big meadow" in the deep snow. It was probably a couple miles there and back. We went late enough that by the end it was a moonlight walk in the snow. The weather was comfortable and the forest was silent except for the sounds of our feet crunching in the snow, our coats rubbing together and our voices in the still night air. It was beautiful and enchanting. We could see the sliver of the moon and the clouds racing across the dark sky.

I forgot my blow drier...gotta improvise, right?

We slept quite well (despite middle of the night raccoon party on the roof) and Wednesday morning got up bright and early and headed back home to our VERY lonely baby kitty. She was ecstatic to see us and has been super snuggly all day.

Tonight we went for a 4.7 mile walk/hike around the top of Roxy Ann and then had lamb and feta stuffed red peppers for dinner. SO tasty. I blogged about them a while back. Delicious!!

We don't have any official plans for the rest of our week, but we may fit another adventure or two in before it is back to work/school.

OH!! I got my grades for my crazy-ass winter term!! I took 5 classes, 20 credits and I achieved a 4.0! ALL A's!! I am pretty darn excited about that! All that hard work paid off.

I'll be back later with more Spring Beak* updates!!

Charter Fishing

Chris and I have talked about going Charter Fishing, oh, about a million times in the almost twenty years we have been together. Guess what!? We finally got around to it!

We left Friday afternoon and headed toward the coast. We got a much later start than anticipated because (of course) Chris' pager went off mid-morning and he had to drive EAST to Klamath Falls, which is about an hour and a half in the wrong direction. Then he had to fix an elevator, and then he had to drive an hour and a half back home. AND THEN we finally were able to get on the road heading the proper direction (WEST-which is where the ocean is located...well at least here on the "west" coast). Anyway, we had planned to have dinner at the beach, but our late start meant we were stopping somewhere along the way.

Let me interject here just for a moment that there really isn't much "along the way" between here and the beach. It is miles and miles of highway and "blink and you miss them" towns. In fact, the couple of times prior to this that we have stopped along the way, it was either really not good, or the places were all closed because it was Sunday afternoon and who on God's Geen Earth eats at a restaurant on a highway home from the beach on a Sunday Afternoon?!?!  Apparently no one, because the restaurants were all closed.

Anyway, just outside of Grants Pass there is a little, unassuming looking "house" that has been converted to a "restaurant". Chris drives by it every time he heads out to work at the beach and thinks" I wonder if that place is any good?" They always have Friday specials like Prime Rib or Rib eye steak dinners. Well, we decided to stop and check out the Rib Eye special.

At first, I must tell you I was a little concerned. We walked into a very dark bar, with a very small (4 tables) dining area. The actual bar was already full with patrons at 5:15 pm on a Friday night. We sat at one of the four empty tables. In the dark. The music was loud (Marvin Gaye!) and the crowd at the bar was boisterous.

After a moment or two the bartender woman came to our table to get our order. She was friendly. She took our drink order and left. She came back and I inquired as to the name of the establishment. She said "Kate's Redwood Bar and Grill, and I would be Kate."  She came back a minute or two later and asked if we were "new". LOL I told her we weren't "new people" but that it was our first time stopping in at the restaurant. She then proceeded to inquire as to where we were from, and we chatted a bit. Then she sent one of the bar patron locals over to say hi, introduce herself and make friendly. Then she sent her daughter, who works there with her, over to say hi, introduce herself and make friendly. It was the funniest, friendliest welcome I have ever had to a little hole in the wall place ever! It was great! We laughed and joked and then had a delicious dinner of Rib Eye, mashed potatoes with the fixin's mixed in, green beans and then dessert (all for $19!!). The desserts were awesome...a little tiramisu and a little carrot cake. YUM. Chris said he would go back there just for the desserts! So, even though from the outside it is a little uhm...questionable (really it is perfectly nice, but I always question little bars on the side of the highway), it is really a great, casual, fun place to go that also has great food! There were a ton of regulars that stopped by and everyone just ordered the special. No one was looking at a "menu". "We're gonna have the special, Kate!" Anyway, if you ever are driving to the beach outside of Grants Pass, Oregon and need to make a pit stop, check out Kate's Redwood Bar and Grill at 12235 Redwood Hwy, Wilderville Oregon. Tell Kate that Chris and Corrie sent you!

After that we headed off down the highway to Brookings. We stayed, as usual, at the Best Western Beach Front Inn. Every room has a balcony that looks out at the ocean. It was so gorgeous! Cool, but not cold. The sky was clear; we could see the stars and the Milky Way. We could hear the clanging of the bell on the bouys and the fog horns. We enjoyed a bottle of 4 buck chuck and headed to bed. Unfortunately, we hardly slept due to a variety of factors. It made for a long night, especially since we had to be up EARLY (5:30!) to get ready, have some breakfast and make it to the charter boat. Let's just say I was a little, uhm, grumpy first thing in the morning after a night of almost no sleep, which was preceeded by 3 nights of very little sleep. FUN FUN.

Don't I look lovely first thing in the morning after no sleep? Uh..Not.

Chris looks a bit more awake.

It was dark and chilly when we first boarded our vessel, the Super~Star. The sun was just rising and the sky getting light by the time we headed out to the ocean. There was about 20 people on the charter. We headed north out of Brookings-Harbor for about 20 minutes or so. The Super~Star was built in 1977 and is a fiberglass hull fishing boat, with a maximum speed of 16 knotts.

As we reached our first fishing hole the sun rose brilliantly above the coast range mountains and glittered like gold across the mostly calm (for the ocean) water. Speaking of, the water was gorgeous all day. It wasn't rough at all. We, of course, did experience a few unexpected swells, but mostly it was just a really beautiful day with gorgeous water, cloudless blue skies as far as the eye could see, and sun sun sun!

We had worn multiple layers of jackets and sweatshirts, brought gloves and hats, but forgot our sunglasses! We could have used them. We were quite thankful for the multiple layers, because we layered them on and off and on as the day went on and depending on if the side we were fishing off of was facing the sun or in the shade. There was a bit of a chilly breeze, so if we were in the shady side it could get pretty cool.

Now the important stuff! We were fishing for a variety of rock fish and ling cod primarily. We started fishing, poles in the water, by 7:45 or so. IMMEDIATELY people started getting bites and we started hauling in black snapper, some yellow tail and ling cod. BAM. Bam. Bam. People pulling them in all around us, and we were, too! A couple different people on the back of the boat immediately hauled in HUGE ling cod (which are UGLY!).

It was unfortunate that salmon season in the ocean was closed because 3 different big, beautiful salmon were caught yesterday. We had to let them all go! We didn't catch any sharks or other crazy things. One guy caught a "china". Not sure, but it was an unusal fish to be catching that time of year, according to one of the boat hands. A few people pulled in some mackeral, including Chris, which the boat guys told him to leave on his rig to use as bait. In all, I ended up catching 1 medium ling cod, a couple different black snapper and two yellow tail. Chris caught several black snapper, a yellow tail and the mackeral. He didn't catch a cod :( bummer.

The cool thing? The boat crew made sure that everyone reached their limit on rockfish. Basically, people like me got the benefit of the better fishermen on the boat, because they would keep everything, after their limit the boat crew divvied things up so everyone that was out there got a full limit of rockfish. That was awesome!

We were out there for about 6 hours. The weather was gorgeous, the seas were calm, the fishing was good. It was really a great time and we are excited to go try our hand at charter fishing again soon!

In all we ended up with about 8 lbs of fish, fileted by the lovely boat guys. We are looking forward to some yummy dinners, including fish tacos!