The Fishermen Of Long Beach .......

I have to admit I love fishing!  I'd love it even more if I was on a boat with these four good looking guys!!  Unfortunately for me, I have to have "the patch" to keep from getting seriously seasick.  Hard for a scuba diver to admit, but all that bobbing and weaving just makes me feed the fish.

As I said before, the campground is packed with fishermen and their boats.  I have seen a few walk past my rig with a fish or two, but when these guys came in yesterday afternoon to the cleaning station about 100 feet from my rig, I jumped up for a picture.  They said their camp got 11 salmon today!!  Krikey that's a lot of fish!!!  They clean them here, apparently dumping the leftovers in the dumpster, cut and wash the steaks, then vacuum seal the packages and drop them in the portable freezer they brought along.  This ritual is then repeated every day!!

As to the "other" fishermen across from me ... here's a look at the fire they started, much wider and about half as long as their boat.  Surprisingly, the Park Ranger drove by this morning, right up to the trailer to check out the burn area, then left.  I imagine these guys won't be lighting up anything else.  If this park wants a better rating from it's customers, maybe they should be riding around a little more often.

At the kite festival on Tuesday, this car was parked next to the engine they were giving away.  Nick Russell was hoping they were giving away the CAR!!  He would look pretty nice driving Miss Terry in this red beauty.

Here's a few more kite flyers.  The chiropractors of Washington and Oregon will probably make a fortune at the end of this gig.  Everyone ... and I mean EVERYONE, walks around looking up, sooner or later ending up with a crick in their neck!!  

Here's part of a train with brilliant gem colors and fluttering tails, resembling dragonflies.  These kites aren't as pricey as you might think.  You don't have to fly them, just launch, take a chair and enjoy the view.

If those are too big for your taste, you can always make your own kites like these.  Stick a few wooden skewers in the ground, top with bendy straws (bent over) and watch them move back and forth in the wind.  It's really quite fascinating!

On the other hand, you could always go BIG with one of Eliot Shook's kites, hand made and sewn by a true artist ... none of them are the same.  This red, white and blue model is pretty spectacular and will run you about $600!!  Makes those straws look pretty good, right?

Today's kite agenda is all about handcrafting.  Anyone who creates their own designed kite, can enter the comprehensive competition and earn bragging rights for an entire year.  You do have to be able to fly it and it MUST be pretty!!  I'll probably drop in for a few pictures, then I'm headed down to Cape Disappointment.  There's five star pizza on the menu tonight!!