My preconception of the greater Seattle area before visiting was that it was a place slightly dryer than Puget Sound, the body of water it sits on the shores of, but not by much. And yes, it rains … a lot.

But I’m starting to think perhaps Seattleites, hunters and anglers especially, cultivate this perception to hide the amazing outdoor opportunities in and around the greater Seattle area.

If the six lines running through a week on a calendar page demarcate a beginning and ending of something, then some weeks should have fewer lines than others as they seem to start and just keep rolling, and weeks like the one I just had should be one solid block.

Before I left on my trip back in May, a friend suggested that I make sure to hit as many National Parks as I could along my way. At the time, I didn’t give it too much thought; I was too focused on the fish. Then, in Meeker, Colorado, I stayed with guide John Kobald. I was given a guest room that doubled as a library, and unable to sleep, perhaps because of some excitement at the prospect of big brown trout on the fly the next morning, I started flipping through a hardcover copy of a book entitled These Rare Lands, by Stan Jorstad. It was a visual journey through America’s national park system, and the images seemed almost surreal.

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Since outdoorlife.com launched it's weather page it seems the magazine's editors have been cursed by Mother Nature. First Gerry Bethge had a tornado watch interrupt the middle of his deer hunt in Ohio. Then John Taranto and John Snow had blizzards during their mule deer and elk hunts in the west. Now it's my turn.

The first morning of my two-day redfish trip in Louisiana was a beauty: warm sunny weather with a nice breeze. But as the day went on, a large storm system began to move in from the west and it was clear that our day of fishing would be cut short.