very interesting...as a luggage problem

following in the footsteps of the original hypocritical blogger, i am giving a shot at my own. what have i got to lose, eh?

i finally got outside today. Actually quite a tremendous feat since i've moved to seattle, believe it or not. working 50-70 hours a week with no play makes erita a dull girl. any way, i digress. it was a beautiful, rare (so i hear, but so far evidence proves otherwise) sunny day in seattle; cool, slightly crisp, with that fall smell in the air and the fall sunshine slant to everything. so what was my activity of choice? none other than . . . . . SALMON DAYS! that's right, the relatively quiet town of issaquah becomes a booming metropolis during the first weekend in october, all to celebrate an event that culminates rather morbidly. salmon spawning--did you know that out of 7 species of salmon that struggle, jump and fight their way upstream, 5 of those species die at the end of their journey (if they make it that far) ? well, consider yourself enlightened.

so monica and i decided to join the crowds. i'd heard from a co-worker that it was one of the best festivals around, and she was right. arts, crafts, food, PEOPLE, funnel cakes, strawberry shortcakes, people, giant salmon that you can take your picture with, salmon "dragons" like Chinese paper dragons, complete with guy with little bell preceding it. crazy. anyway, wandered over to the salmon hatchery to see what all the fuss was about. actually pretty amazing--you walk over this little footbridge, and if you just happen to look over the side, you see this little creek so chock-full of salmon (big, little, dead, very much alive, fighting or just trying to stay alive) that you can hardly see the bottom. the stream is so shallow that some of the big "king" salmon have the top half of their body protruding from the stream at all times. some of these guys were massive! looking at the fish ladder, i decided i would rather not meet one of those angry-looking hooked jaws on their turf. i prefer mine grilled please. speaking of, there was this fabulous kiwanis salmon bbq ---the freshest salmon you'll ever taste grilled right before your eyes. monica, a self-described previous fish hater, cleaned her plate and started eyeing mine :)