Shadow of Mordor Release

Woohoo!  Jared's game that he has been working on for 4 years released today, and so far, the reviews are GOOD! Early signs indicate that the game is selling well and that people are loving it.  GREAT JOB JARED!  Jared works very hard and it is always nice for the rest of world to see the fruits of his labor.

Here's the website for the game, you should check it out. However, instead of just checking it out, go out and BUY a copy of it.  That's even better!

Congrats to Jared!

Methow River

And now to the reason for going to Winthrop -- the Methow River.  Instead of posting shots from each day (because we did hit the river EVERY DAY), we decided to make one post with all of them together!

Here's a shot of Jared catching a Westslope Cutthroat!  It was a good looking fish and as you can see, Indy was quite interested.  He caught a Rainbow as well, but of course, that was on a day we didn't have a camera.  Doesn't that just figure!

The river had lots of nice bends in it with pockets of deep water.  You could just tell that if you could get the fly in front of the fish, it would bite!

Another shot of Jared fishing...this part of the river reminded Kristina of the Doll Hole on the Salmon River.

This is a little further down from the "Doll Hole".  The water was clear and you could see that it was deep.  Perfect fishing...

Indy enjoyed the river as well (you can tell from that wet fur).  But of course, she was a good dog and sunned herself on the bank to dry off while Mommy and Daddy fished.  What a good little dog?!

She had to go check the river out here...at least Jared was done with this hole!

Being a good dog again, she is watching her father fly fish!

More shots of even further down river...we didn't venture much past here because the property for the house we rented ended.  But, as you can see, we had quite a STRETCH of river!

Here's a nice shot of Kristina showing her fishing skills!  Man, can she cast!  She can place that fly and bubble just about anywhere!

We will definitely be back again to visit!

Back to Woodinville

On the way back to Woodinville we decided to take a different route than the one we took to get to Winthrop, we drove the North Cascade Highway -- and boy was it gorgeous!  It is definitely a must for anyone in the area.  It typically closes each year in the October time frame and it doesn't re-open until April (or later).  One particular year it seemed like it didn't open until June!!  Anyway, it is closed a LONG time, so when summer finally arrives, DRIVE IT! We stopped at the top and Jared snapped some GORGEOUS shots!  The sunlight was perfect!

You can barely see her, but Kristina is out walking Indy near the road.  They are those two small specs at the middle left of the shot below (away from the truck).  That just gives you perspective on how BIG these mountains ARE!

These next shots are from a visitors' center at the top.  There are plaques to explain how all of this formed and you can get really close to the edge and see how dramatic it is!

Man, glaciers are amazing!  Great job on the photography Jared!