Posted
on November 11, 2016
“I'm
leaving for Washington tomorrow.”
That's
a pretty confusing sentence – one that depends on context
to be understandable. If you know that the person saying this is a
lobbyist or Congressman, you'd be pretty sure that she or he is
heading to Washington, D.C. If you know that the person lives in
Seattle or has been planning to climb Mount Rainier, you'd be pretty
sure that he or she is heading to Washington state.
Of
course there's going to be both a (capital) city and a state named
after George Washington! He was our first president and an important
fellow in our nation's story!
Well,
when I talk about Washington, today, I'm talking about Washington
state, because today is the anniversary of it joining the nation in
1889.
When
I think of Washington, I think of the Cascade Mountains and Olympic National Park...
 |
| Above, Olympic National Park Below, Mount Rainier in the summer |
 |
| Above, Northern Cascades National Park Below, Mount Saint Helens exploding in 1980 |
...of orcas and
islands (including Orca Island)...
 |
| Above, San Juan Islands Below, orcas at Orcas Island |
...of lumber and apples...
...of Dale
Chihuly's glass art and of Seattle's Space Needle...
...of waterfalls and
a little taste of Bavaria.
Of
course, there is so much more to the Pacific Coast state. On the
border with Canada, Washington has a lot-lot-lot of rain and fog,
except where it doesn't! Check out the precipitation map, which shows
that more than half of Washington is quite dry, but the rest is
REALLY wet:
Parts
of Washington are so very cloudy and rainy, Forks, Washington, is the
setting for the popular Twilight series of vampire / werewolf books.
What does the series have to do with clouds? Well, author Stephanie
Meyer's vampires sparkle and shine in sunshine, so they
live in an area that has very few sunny days.
Actually,
Seattle is sunny or mostly sunny only about a fourth of the days of
the year. Compared to my home, Southern California, that's a lot of
clouds and “drear”!
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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