Washington

After 43 days on the road, I am happy to be back home. Today’s travels took me from San Jose, California, over the Cascades, and to my partner’s home in the south Sound.

Here goes a great new adventure! I flew today to Atlanta, Georgia, as part of a grand exploration of the southeastern United States.

Once again, I was in for a real treat on my morning commute.

A short drive south of Olympia, Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve presents a most unusual landscape. Hundreds of small mounds of dirt, some as tall as a person make an oddly undulating grassland. Scientists have studied this landscape for nearly two centuries and have yet to agree on a convincing theory for how or why they were formed.

On a recent walk around Capitol Lake in Olympia, I spotted these ducks hanging out on a log.

Sometimes the commute is mundane. Sometimes it is spectacular.

A random photo grab while I was driving near Shelton recently …

Lisa and I went for a hike in Woodard Bay Conservation Area recently.

Had a night to myself last night so I looked on AirBNB for last-minute getaways and found a steampunk caboose! Couldn’t pass that up, so I booked it and drove up there straight away.

Lisa had a bit of a head start on me, having spent Thanksgiving visiting her friends in Edisto Island. Today I flew from Seattle to Charleston and then drove to meet them.

Today, Lisa and I took the ferry across to Orcas Island and explored for the day.

We mostly worked today, but did make time for an afternoon hike through Iceberg Point at the south end of the island.

Lisa showed me around some of her favorite places on Lopez Island today.

The plan was to spend the night in Seattle, have fun watching a friend’s band play, and then set out for a weekend of visiting more parks in the San Juans, ideally to use my kayak to visit a couple of the marine state parks.

All great things must come to an end. Today we parted company and I flew home to Seattle. I had a window seat and was able to capture a few nice landscape photos on the way home.

I flew down to Salt Lake City today. I’ll work for a couple of days from there and then my daughter and I will embark on a road trip together for a few days.

I arrived this evening a bit early for some meetings at Adobe’s New York offices. As is often the case with travel, there were some misadventures and delays, but it all worked out OK. The highlight of this evening was a stay at the TWA Hotel.

I hiked Green Mountain with a couple of friends this weekend.

Today we drove north across central Washington for a park visit and a stay in mountains at Sun Mountain Lodge near Winthrop.

We worked from Pullman Thursday and Friday and then headed out in the afternoon. Not much to share from this day, except that I got to introduce Lisa to a favorite place in Richland, The Lodge at Columbia Point.

Remember when I said I had to be back in Eastern Washington right away?

For something a little different, I drove across the state today before heading to Utah for a few days to visit family. (Why? I need to be in eastern Washington right away when I get back.)

The idea, again was to visit some more parks for the 146 Parks project. Weather intervened and my plans had to change a bit, but a good trip was had nonetheless.

My partner and I took an impromptu trip to Portland and Astoria this weekend. We discovered two great hotels and added three new parks to the 146 Parks project.

The plan was to head east and visit a bunch of new parks for the 146 Parks project. That only sort of happened, but a good time was had nonetheless.

It was going to be a long day in any case. But when our 2am flight from San Juan became a 4:30am flight, there was no longer a direct flight available for us from Newark to Seattle. So … we took the long(er) way home.

I am on a brief solo road-trip this weekend. I woke up, looked out the window, and got outside as quickly as I could to capture this morning’s sunrise.

I often hike Dungeness Spit when I need a moment to myself. On this morning, returning from one such hike, Mother Nature sent me this inspiring visual with the receding fog.

My partner and I visited the Grays Harbor Lighthouse in Westport recently.

I hiked the Talus Loop Trail near North Bend in May.

I had the opportunity for a long weekend away and decided to make some progress on my parks project.

I hiked the Lime Kiln Trail, east of Granite Falls, in mid-May.

This was a more quiet day. Few photos. I was ready to be home.

Ah, spring break is here.

In the first few days or this trip, I’ve flown from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, boarded the cruise ship, and sailed to a private island in the Bahamas.

… and today brings me home. Mostly freeway miles, but the side trip through Harrington and Odessa on SR 28 was well worth it.

Today I explored the Columbia and Spokane River valleys on the way to Spokane. It was gray and snowy pretty much everywhere I went today, but that’s what I was looking for.

I had fun driving today, mostly looking for winter farm scenes in the high plains east of Wenatchee, before winding up in Omak for the night.

We hiked the Northrup Canyon Trail in eastern Washington today. Here are a few of the fun desert- and cliff-scapes we observed.

I decided to take this weekend and drive to winter (i.e. that part of Washington that actually gets snow in winter).