Rocking Music, Food In Wash. State

This is complicated, but bear with me: I had to go high up in the North Cascades mountains of Washington, to the new Suncadia resort, to hear a professional football player who can rock, and to try the newest thing coming in seafood. And I'm glad I did on both counts.

First, the fish: It was Tasmanian salmon, arriving on the west coast via the Honolulu fish market. With its firm texture, deep pink color and nice oil content, it was every bit as good as the Alaskan salmon that generally arrive at markets in the summer to great fanfare, and great prices. Chef Andrew Wilson, who is doing wonderful things in the resort's Portals restaurant, explained that even despite flying the Tasmanian fish halfway around the world, he can offer it at better prices to his guests without sacrificing the quality of Alaskan fish. He prepared filets of the salmon beautifully, with crispy skins and tender, medium-rare centers; paired with a Washington wine, it was one of the best things I've eaten this summer, especially as part of a multi-course feast that included perfectly roasted lamb from closer to home than Tasmania.

The rocking was done by Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Craig Terrill (number 93 on your scorecard), who turns out to be quite an accomplished rock-and-roll singer/songwriter. With Midwestern roots from his native Indiana, Craig writes and plays songs that evoke the sounds of Bob Seger and John Cougar Mellencamp; he and his band of professional musicians delivered a set at Suncadia that had the mountains reverberating. Quoting Dire Straits, the boy can play. He's also one of the largest rockers on record; I'll bet he could bench-press Meatloaf. His teammates Matt Hasselbeck, Chris Spencer and Tom Ashworth were there to watch him rip through a set of twenty songs that included his original compositions and covers of Seger, Van Morrison and Springsteen songs. Pity that Terrill's golf game, which I also saw first-hand, isn't as good as his singing. The guy putts like a linebacker.

With Tasmanian fish, resorts in the mountains and singers who eat quarterbacks for a living, this is shaping up to be one unusual summer for travel, at least for this Guru.