June 15

Hello people to the south of me. How are all of you this beautiful, sunny, rainy day? That's right, while the sun is shining bright there appears to be a dark rain cloud over the boat, yep, not sure what that means except I'm glad for it. With the diesel oven on constantly it gets pretty warm in here so a little bit of rain should cool things down some. Finished with dinner, steak, baked potatoes, greek green salad and zucchini slices. I found the zucchini recipe on Pinterest, it is yummy and too easy. Sliced zucchini in rounds, top with marinara sauce then mozzarella and bake until browned. Try it, you'll like it. The greek salad was romaine lettuce, greek olives (hence the greek salad name), feta cheese, tomatoes, red onions and a vinaigrette. They ate it all gone and they raved about the zucchini! Amazing. The aunt has become more talkative over the past two days, maybe it takes her a long time to warm up but it's been nice to have more conversation flying around. They caught two more halibut and one they had to throw back cuz it was too big but not big enough. Rules, rules, rules. It has to be bigger than this, can't be bigger than that and has to be bigger than whatever to keep. So this one had to go back to his friends, he was about 6 foot and Brad thinks he weighed about 120lbs. Would have been fun eating, right? Got some pictures but it might make you sad to see a big fish like that and not get to keep him. Our new assistant guide, Thierry has been fun to have around. I miss Luke though, he is doing charter fishing trips during the summer. Will see him again in Sept. Thierry is from Europe, somewhere, he may have said but he is a little bit hard to understand. He tries to speak clearly but that accent is still pretty strong. He finished off the ding dong cake this morning with his 6 am coffee, he really likes chocolate. But he also likes the strawberry cake. This evening I'm making the chocolate dessert, you know the one, Better than .....! or Robert Redford or Tom Selleck. Byron calls it Victoria Principal.......bet I just lost anyone under 40....hahaha. If you don't know these actors, look them up, they were hot stuff back in the 70s and 80s. Anyways, I'm sure Thierry will like this dessert too. Not sure what kind of soup for tonight, I'll get around to it later. I probably have 4 hours before I see any boats approaching. Soup is on the stove, Navy bean something or other. I have resorted to using a soup package every once in a while cuz coming up with menu ideas is starting to get old. Plus, all they really want is something to warm them up after coming in from the cold. Just got done visiting with hubby, I just love his voice, so soothing and loving. Sometimes I feel like Sally Fields when she accepted her Oscar that one year... YOU LIKE ME, YOU REALLY LIKE ME! :-) Anyways, I always enjoy our visits. Having a hard time tonight though, we figured out it's probably because I'm worn out. I know, I'm a wuss but this gig has been 24/7 for two months. There are no down days unless you count the few travel days to pick up clients in Kake but even those are consumed with making sure the boat is ready for people and food is prepared. And those turnaround days are killer. Sure, I get off the boat for a few hours but they are mostly spent at the grocery store or Minnie's house picking up my laundry - that's right, she is a sweetheart and does my laundry in between hunts, her daughter Holley even comes over after work and pitches in wherever she can. I will admit I have been able to grab a few hours for dinner out with Byron when he was here and coffee in the morning at the Highliner Coffee shop. But this break is coming at just the right time, I can feel it. I want to sleep in my own bed, potty on my own toilet (TMI?), swing in my garden chair and maybe even cook in my own kitchen. Plus I need some grandkid hugs, lots of them. Okay, have to quit talking about it, now my eyes are watery again. cripes. We are in Port Camden tonight, very pretty. I have a view of a very long body of water that travels out to the channel with shoreline on each side. And the boat is moving constantly, around and around, so I get to see the view from all angles. Some of the shoreline is very rugged, there is no place to land a skiff when the tide is out. Rocky shores go straight up and down, the ones next to me right now are about 10-15 feet high, no way could you get on that shore. Hope they find more hospitable ones down the way. And I know they are hoping to find that elusive bear, so far, what they've seen are either sows with cubs or boars that have been rubbed, neither are a good option. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.....dj