Water, water, everywhere.....

As we drove Whidey Island the afternoon we stopped at several beaches from Possession Point on the southern tip to Deception Pass Bridge at the northern end connecting the island back to the mainland. Periods of misty rain and breaks of sun are the norm although they are having a 'rainy cool' spell right now.Last week was warm (83) and dry and they were in burn ban conditions in western Washington. The rain here is deceptive as they rarely have downpours as we do. Eastern Washington state is basically a desert with 10-12" of rain per year. This is where all of the Washington State apples, pears and cherries come from. It is irrigated from the Columbia River where they actually let them take water to create farming and living conditions. (No precious mussells to protect downstream here !) Seattle, although having a reputation as rainy gets only 37" of rain per year, less than North Ga or New York City. The northwest peninsula just over the huge Olympia Mountain range gets up to 180" of rain and Sequim, where we will be for the Lavender Festival next week, is wedged between the Cascade and Olympic Mts and gets 8-10" per year making it dry and cool for growing lavender.

The pics you see are of the black sandy beaches here..... no swimming here. The beaches are covered in logs that have washed up and lots of rock and sea stacks . Deception Pass is a narrow connection to the mainland where the water rushes through the small opening.

After our long first day we found ourselves in Bellingham, Washington, 44 miles from Canada ready to collapse in a bed somewhere. Still light as we hit the bed at 9:45P.M, it was light at 5:00 A.M. when we got up ! Long days. Cool and misty this A.M. A 'beautiful gray morning' as the morning weather people call it.