Washington State

Washington State

We now live in Washington State. People around here don't refer to it as Washington State, because we know which state we are talking about. We know it's not Washington DC. And we know we are talking about Vancouver, which is a town in SW Washington, not the "other" Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. So it's Vancouver, not BC, and Washington, not DC, as I saw on one T-shirt.

Washington is a lot like Oregon, in that there is the coastal region, wet and lush, the valley regions for agriculture and major cities,the mountains and the high desert; the dry Central and Eastern parts of the state. The Cascade mountain range is bigger in Washington, with Mt. Rainier towering over the landscape. And as the birthplace of Boeing and Microsoft, Seattle is home to billionaires. Of course, Bill Gates probably has slipped down the list a bit, but still... I've been to Bellevue Square, an upscale shopping area in Bellevue, Washington, which is not too far from the wealthiest people in Washington and I swear, the smell of money came wafting in on the breeze. A heady experience, let me tell you. Old town Seattle is fun to explore and it's not a complete trip without seeing Pike Place Market.

• http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/

We've explored a lot in Washington since we moved over to Vancouver. It's been a joy to explore new places. We had a beach house in Manzanita, Oregon for awhile and that's about the only place we went to for many years. Then we expanded our horizons and have been able to see other parts of this area and some of what it has to offer. The above photo was taken on a vacation several years ago. This is beautiful Stehekin, and if you want a great day trip, or a weekend or longer vacation, this is a wonderful place to visit. We went for the day. You travel by ferry up Lake Chelan in central Washington and it is just magnificent.

• http://www.stehekinlanding.com/

Another wonderful little side trip is in the town of Wenatchee, Washington. Do yourself a favor and go to Ohme Gardens.

• http://www.ohmegardens.com/

If somebody hadn't told us about his wonderful park, we would have never known it was there and missed out on a great spot. Check out these web sites as they have detailed information and better photos than I was able to take.

Washington has a great coast area also. It's more wild than the Oregon beaches are, but it has it's good points too. The photo below was taken on the Long Beach peninsula, in the southwest corner of the state, at the historic town of Oysterville.

• www.funbeach.com