It's pig, cow, goat, sheep, chicken, turkey, duck and exotic time - The Skagit County Fair

The buzz about the Skagit County Fair has been almost non-stop for the past month. We attended on Thursday, and now I see why the buzz was so bright and insistent. The Skagit County Fair was a completely different experience than the Texas State Fair. First, it was postage stamp sized compared to the TSF. Second, it was attended almost exclusively by local people, a bunch of which were farmers. Third, the food portion of the fair run by the locals featured their own food products, and it was wonderful. I didn't have a corn dog or a funnel cake or cotton candy - there were so many better choices.

The first inkling we had that this fair was going to be quite different was the flower judging. One entire wall of an exhibition area was devoted to flowers. I now know who the premiere

gardener of Skagit County is. Her name is Judy Peppers, and her multiple entries all won blue ribbons as well as best of class ribbons and the overall best of show: Stem Lettuce. Don't ask, just look at the pictures - you'll pick it right out. Some of Ms. Pepper's winners were just amazing - from individual flowers to arrangements. I also saw flowers I've heard of but never seen (delphiniums), as well as flowers I haven't ever heard of and saw for the first time. I also learned about fuchsias - there are 8000 varieties, you know. It was a great kick-off to fair day. The exhibition of flowers, produce, arts and crafts was the most exciting portion of the fair for me, and up here quilting is NOT with the needlecraft - it's an art & displayed with original photographs and paintings.

The most enthralling portion of the fair was the Raptor Rescue show. This is an obviously named organization who save hurt and maimed raptors including falcons, hawks, owls and eagles. They travel with a set of show animals who are too damaged to be rehabilitated to the wild. The narrator was this young pigtailed girl who had an encyclopedic knowledge of raptors and was able to share it in an entertaining but serious manner. We were able to see some magnificent birds very close up. I had no idea that an immature bald eagle is a variegated black and whitish feathers. I learned that one owl can eat 2000 mice in a year. I was amazed to hear that falcons dive at 250 miles an hour after prey and have specially designed nostrils so their lungs don't burst from such a sudden rush of air. The handler of the birds - especially of the eagles - have to physically train to be able to handle these birds, as well as they have to form an emotional bond with the bird. The handler/bird bond keeps a mature eagle, who can exert 200 pounds of pressure using its feet, from crushing the bones in the handler's arm as it perches on the heavy leather glove.

Another charming aspect of this fair was the cat and dog judging. The dog judging went on all day long - from obedience to breeds, to classes of dogs (like hounds). My favorite domestic animal judging was the cat competition which included cage decoration. I mean, after all, what can you make a cat do? The cat cages were about 3 foot long by 2 foot high, and they were the homes of the cats during the fair day. We had cats lounging (and sleeping, of course) in miniature kitchens, and bedrooms, and in homemade settings that defy description - such as outer space. The 4H runs a cat club for the elementary school set, and they are encouraged to enter. There's also a bunny club as well as a dog club - well, you get the picture. We were baffled by the barn labelled "Exotics". Upon entering we discovered birds, turtles and snakes. Check out the picture of my favorite exotic.

And there were cows. Lots of cows. Every age, every size, every color. There were a few steers, but this is really dairy country. That means Holsteins and Jerseys. Big Bubba (a 3000 pound Holstein cow) with his 2000 pound friend Margaret Thatcher was displayed in his separate pen, so he and she could be admired. Big Bubba was so big that I couldn't get him entirely in the picture. My favorite part of the cow stuff was the Dairy Quiz Bowl. It was a long table set up in the cow barn around which sat 10 junior high school age kids. They each had buzzers which sounded and a light lit up when the buzzer was pressed. A mom was Alex Trebeck, and she was asking dairy questions. I couldn't answer most of them. (Like: What's the name of the web site for butter? Answer: Butternow.com). It was soon obvious that these are dairy farmers' children, and it was equally obvious that the boys just liked to press the buzzers.

Horse events went on all day long. I've also noticed this is horse country. There was every type of riding competition as well as racing competition. We saw pole racing - the first time I'd ever seen that. The horse and rider weave around a set of poles as fast as possible and then race back to the starting line.

Without a doubt though, my favorite competition was pig showmanship. Imagine a boxing ring sized pen with sawdust over the floor. To begin the competition 3 - 5 children arrive one at a time each herding a 300 pound pig using a cane slightly longer than a conductor's baton. What they really needed were tasers. Pigs don't exactly 'get along' in close quarters. They are smart and willful and they like to BITE one another. I'm certain they would bite people given a chance and the right circumstance

Children and pigs milled around the boxing ring sized area. Some pigs would just wander around, while others didn't like the show idea at all and kept trying to escape back to their individual pens. The judge would say, "Let's move them to this end of the pen." Children would begin tapping the snout and faces of their individual pig as well as slapping them with the flat of their hands along the pigs' spines - seemingly a signal to walk. The pigs had their own ideas about where they wanted to go, and protested by squealing madly when given any direction they hadn't thought of themselves. At some point, the judge would say, "Now show me your pig at his best." Then it was a mad scramble of trying to get a pig into a somewhat posed position, attract the judge's attention, and keep the other pigs off yours. This is where the dads, holding what looked like elongated tops to Coleman Coolers, would leap up and shove these 3x3 foot pieces of hard, thick plastic between 2 pigs busily biting one another. There was blood drawn - fortunately, pig blood rather than human. I can see where a bad tempered pig would be nothing to fool around with. My favorite pig showman was "Sean". He was about 6 years old and a Novice - this was his first competition. I tell you, the pig was twice his size and his face was red as a beet when he finished - but he was game. He never gave up, and he controlled his pig - well, mostly. The only audience were family members and close friends. Everyone knew everyone. I'm pretty sure we looked like $3 dollar bills sitting in the stand (notice 'stand' - it was about 6 feet long and had 3 tiers.) It was really fun though.

Entertainment was on a stage constructed by the local lumber company that was 3 steps higher than the folding chair audience of 200. You drifted in, sat down, ate, applauded, rested your feet, corralled your kids, visited with your friends all while the 'entertainment' occurred. I had two favorite acts. One was the Accordion Band - yep, all accordions and 2 tubas. Most of the accordion players were ladies of a certain age who all wore flower wreathes in their hair along with their big blue sequined vests. They were really good musicians. After their concert I went up to talk to them, and boy, were they thrilled. They were very excited that I wanted to take their pictures. I found out that "Hugo" - apparently in Mount Vernon he only needed one name - was a famous accordion player. (Don't ask because I don't know what the criteria for 'famous' IS for an accordion player.) Anyway, he formed the Accordion Band in 1935. It played for decades with Hugo teaching crop after crop of children how to play the accordion and drafting them as adults into the band. When he died, the band withered, but was reborn in 1995 and has been going strong ever since. They play at fairs, art shows, festivals, nursing homes, churches, and I got the feeling anyplace that would have them. They do a killer polka. The pictures show them smiling, but they smiled like this the entire time they played. I can hardly wait to see them again.

The other entertainment that captured us was Sterling, the Magician. We sat down on the folding chairs in front of the 'stage' to eat our grass fed beef burgers prepared on a home grill right before our eyes as this 19 year old kid walked out in a red satin ruffled shirt, black vest and black pants. He confided that he was from Lynden (a town 30 miles north). Drake and I just looked at each other. My expectation was a show slightly better than what you could hire for a child's birthday party. This expectation was reinforced by his slightly nervous start and faintly inept manipulation of the infamous metal rings. He certainly had enthusiasm, and it quickly became apparent that he had started with his least successful stuff working up to his magnificent finale of sleight of hand manipulations of several appearing and disappearing decks of cards. When his hour was up, we had been totally charmed and completely entertained.

Overall the musical entertainment had one common thread - all first class musicians who were locals. We saw one band and later complimented one of its members who played multiple instruments. He couldn't wait to give us a card and confide that his band played every 2nd Wednesday at the Rockfish Grill and Brewery - which we've been to twice. Yummy fish and micro brewed beer. We met the musician at the Wine Tasting venue run by the 3 local wineries in the county.

I visited for a long time with one of the winery owners and I really enjoyed two of the blends that they are making. This was dinner time, and to join the glasses of wine we had...........wait for it............. handmade crepes from one of the local food booths. Mine was a buckwheat crepe with home smoked salmon, spinach, fennel, lavender and blueberries. Drake's involved onions, homemade Italian sausage, tomatoes, onions. That was the 'fair food' I was talking about earlier. We polished off dinner with dessert from the Dairy Bar - run by the wives of the dairy farmers. Ice cream, anyone? We were stuffed, so we didn't enjoy the Swedish pancakes or the pulled pork BBQ (Remember the pigs from earlier? Trust me, their highest and best use.) Not to mention the chowder and other seafood delicacies. Corn dogs never looked so shabby. The locals were, however, shaking their heads over the fried twinkies being served at the carnival portion of the fair. They were agog when I described the fried butter I had eaten at the Texas State Fair.

Overall it was more than a fun day. It was a celebration of what they do best in this county. They should be proud of their flowers and their animals and their produce. I think us being from as far away as Texas was a real treat for them. We were new people, and everyone we met couldn't wait to share especially when they discovered we were going to be here until December. Their friendliness here is naive and charming. We were told many times about neighbors, friends, children, or old college mates who live in Texas. They would just beam when we would nod and say, Yes, we know exactly where Plano, Arlington, Kileen, etc. is. Then, this being farmer land, the conversation would turn to the weather and with much head shaking they would confide they wouldn't ever want to live where it was that hot. We would cheerfully agree that they were completely right.

We spent over 8 hours at a fair the size of a couple of football fields. There were no new cars. The commercial exhibition was so small and pitiful that I felt sorry for the vendors. We actually paid a reasonable price for excellent food. The entertainment was relaxed and people were appreciative. We watched the teen queens who were all horse girls in their tight blue jean short-shorts and their shin high cowboy boots hanging out front of their horses' stalls which they had individually decorated not only with the horses' names but with flowers and other homey touches. There were people lounging on blankets as their toddlers slept. The teenage boys were showing off their muscles. The test kitchens were filled with 4H girls being encouraged by their mothers. There was an entire building devoted to the arts and crafts of the 4H kids. Other kids were lounging on their cows, cleaning up manure, grooming their bunnies, showing off their cats or dogs or sheep or horse or cow. The ferris wheel was small. There were only 10 carnival rides. It was almost as if we had dropped into the 1951 movie "State Fair". This event was a snapshot of what are the most important things to the people who live here. Check out the pictures by clicking on this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/2010Tour6SkagitCountyFairWashington?authkey=Gv1sRgCJC_rcny3NL7vAE

Driving to the top of a mountain

We live very close to the Cascade National Park and the Mount Baker Recreation Area. One of the things I've discovered being up here is that every populated area west of the Cascade Mountain Range has 'their' mountain. Our mountain (the Bellingham area) is Mount Baker. People are always referring to it such as: "Well, you can certainly see Mount Baker today." If you meet someone and ask for touring tips, it's always, always mentioned. "You know, you have to see Mount Baker." I'm rather amused because you can 'see' Mount Baker anytime you look up and east. It is impressive since it's about 10,800 feet tall and is surrounded by other equally impressive peaks that all top out over 9,000 feet. They are dark grey and the tops are still snow covered. The Mount Baker area is what you could call a casual skiing area. There don't seem to be formal ski resorts lining its base, and there are lots of references to places to snowboard, sled, snowshoe and cross county ski that are virtually if not totally free and accessible to whomever wants to use them. This is the kind of ski/winter sport experience you can get when the US Forest Service is managing the resource. You get the feeling that in the summertime, everyone is just waiting for winter to begin. We discovered that if you drive up into the Cascades around Mount Baker that winter has never left. We did have on mesh tennis shoes and ankle socks on the drive, but quickly realized that we needed to break out our hiking boots and wool socks just to walk around. You actually had to climb up a snow hill to get to the top for the pinnacle scenery

Western Washington is very beautiful and has great contrasts. This was very evident in our trip up the mountain. As you can see from the picture above, we found snow higher than our heads at the very end of the scenic drive (Hwy 542) on the 2nd of August. On this road we also found flat as pancake farmland planted in food crops, and Christmas trees, ice cold rushing rivers, towering fir trees, an old growth forest, and as we reached the end of the road - a hair raising highway driving experience as we wound our way up and up and up. You'll see from the accompanying pictures why the end of this road is called Artist's Point.

This Mount Baker Recreation Area, which is managed by the US Forest Service, was originally inhabited by the Nooksack Indian tribe who lived in bands along the Nooksack River. "Nooksack" is the English approximation of an Indian word for a type of edible fern that was a staple in the Indians' diet. This entire area was extensively logged (and still is - but sustainably) beginning in the 1880's. It took a 'donkey engine' (gas powered engine) that could cut up the big logs so they could get them off the mountains that really got the logging developed into a major industry in this neck of the woods. There was constant logging here all the way thru the 1920s. There's one small area, which today is a research station, where there is still old growth forest. It's a very small area, and I have no idea how it managed to escape the axes and saws. At this time of the year, the forest area was mosquito heaven. I could barely stand still long enough to have a picture made when we did manage to find the 'social trail' into the old growth forest. A social trail is one that people have established by simply using the same path over and over again, but isn't recognized nor maintained by the forest service. The log section to the right is in front of the Ranger Station. The picture to the left is a standing tree of about the same size. They are both about 700 years old. We exited the forest pretty fast due to the bugs.

Next stop was another contrast - a 100 foot high twin water fall where two forks of the Nooksack River meet. At this time of the year, the snow melt from the surrounding mountains are filling the creeks, and the river. There's lots of white water on the Nooksack, and some really treacherous white water rafting areas. Parts of this river are so difficult to raft, that it reminded me of the Animas River in Colorado which is a Class 5 (meaning only adrenaline junkies, teenage boys, and those with a death wish should attempt to raft it.) The water fall was loud and breathtakingly, but I really liked the fork flowing into the waterfall. This was some of my favorite scenery on a scenic overload afternoon. ( I'll send all the pictures under a separate email for those of you who want to see all the images from this day trip.)

This was a relaxing day of driving, pausing, ooohing and ahhing, picture taking, and marveling at not only the terrain contrasts but also the temperature contrast. It was 'hot' yesterday - yes, it's a relative term, but to these folks, it was hot - 78 degrees. When we reached the top of the mountain, it was 60 degrees. That's about as warm as it's going to get up there, and we feel like we had a perfect weather day yesterday. We topped off the day by finding the burger joint of Burlington. Even at 7 pm yesterday evening it was mobbed - and the burgers were good - not Cool Al good (best burger I've ever eaten), but good nevertheless.

Next trip will probably be a biking outing. We've been biking two mornings - looking for the best place for an exercise ride.

Festival Day in Washington

The last blog was told in pictures because I was too tired to write after hiking up Sauk Mountain. Today was more my speed - we attended two separate festivals. Festivals up here are like the spring festivals in Texas. The weather stays so mild in the summer (yes, I'm rubbing it in), that it's a joy to be outside - thus, festivals.

The first fesitval we attended today was the 18th Annual Chalkfest in Bellingham. Here's the premise: Anybody who wants to buy a square of sidewalk can create a picture using only chalk. You can refine it with your fingers and with water and you can use brushes, sponges, etc. - but you can only use chalk as your medium. You can be any age. A square of sidewalk costs $25 for adults and $15 for kids. To put on this festival, the city of Bellingham closes about 3 city blocks of their main downtown street to cars. The chalk pictures are drawn on the sidewalks along the main street as well as they shoot off onto the sidewalks of side streets. The pictures are no closer than 20 feet or so apart, unless it's a family project - then kids (whose squares are slightly smaller) draw closer to their adult supervisor/participants.

I'm sending the pictures out under a separate email, and you can either look at the pictures first and then read the blog or viceversa. (I think I'd look at the pix first. because the blog refers to them.) Stop reading now, and open up the pictures and look at them, then come back to the blog.

The first thing I noticed was the method of chalk application. The sidewalks were not the smooth as glass concrete we are used to in Texas. Instead, think of a concrete that has stuff embedded into it - in Oklahoma, it would be chunks of rocks - here it's bits of crushed shell. It's not pebbly, exactly, but it's not smooth either - it's pitted. Amazingly, lots of people - who must have the toughest fingertips in the universe - applied their chalk without the benefit of gloves. Application was interesting. Some people put down a heavy layer of chalk which almost seemed to stand on the concrete, and then sprayed it with water and smeared the resulting chalk paste into the concrete by smoothing it over and over with their fingers. This is a tricky application method since one small mistake is a disaster - if you slop the color over after you've wetted it down - well, you can't fix it. I thought the smartest people were the ones who were using gloves - some of which had pads built into the fingers, and knee pads. Oh, yes, everyone over the age of 20 had pads for their knees. The really experienced artists had special chalk, spray bottles, multiple pairs of gloves, knee pads that fitted onto their knees as well as pads to kneel on, AND a lawn chair to rest in.

This festival has two streams of participants - first group is about 50 artists 'invited' to participate. Everyone else was just Joe Blow (that's Okie talk for regular people). There was a certain skill level difference which is obvious from the pictures. Intriguingly, there were lots of people my age and older who were having the time of their lives creating their square. I talked for awhile to the "Hamster Farm" lady - that's actually her name (Hamster), and she laughed when I asked her if she raised hamsters. She's actually a beef rancher and sells organic beef from her farm in Ferndale. She was very proud of "creating the place I live and love". Her picture made me fleetingly think that perhaps she lives in the countryside around ToonTown - see the movie Roger Rabbit - to understand this reference.

I think my favorite contestants other than the hamster farm lady was the little girl who was about 3 years old drawing herself. Her picture is the stick figure who has a belly button. What isn't shown in that picture is her mom standing beside her encouraging her but not telling her what to do or draw. The kicker to the picture is that beside mom is the brand new (less than 6 weeks old) baby brother/sister in the pram - still too little for a stroller. I also liked the 'rooster' lady. When I asked her how she decided what to draw, she said it came to her just as she knelt down to begin. She confided that birds made her happy. The picture certainly shows it, doesn't it? From an artistic point of view, I think my favorite picture was the shockingly colored skyline of skyscrapers. Drake's favorite was the abstract guitar - done by a 20 something artist while her sister, using a serious camera, continually snapped pictures of her creating her square. Their two beaming parents were happily watching both of them.

This was a different kind of festival. There was an air of artistic achievement and gratification that is missing when you attend a traditional art show. There's a commercial element in the traditional show which isn't bad, but the joy of creation isn't necessarily witnessed. That's it exactly - as a patron of this festival, we got to witness the joy of creation by the artists. That kind of excitement just thrums in the air. The artists (pro and amatuer alike) were just thrilled when I asked if I could photograph their squares, and every one of them was eager to engage in any conversation I initiated. Many of them have participated for years. It was obviously a summer highlight for them individually and for this city. It was just crowded enough to be fun without being a crush.

The center of the street of chalk art was the traditional outdoor art festival. We saw some really excellent affordable art. We are now on the hunt for a new piece that will represent this adventure in the northwest. We found a potter today that had a really whimsical touch - creating pottery with elements from nature - both subtle and direct (like a covered pot that looks exactly like a turtle), and I'm wondering if I should have bought one of her pieces. We also saw a photographer whose photographs transcended the usual sky/water/tree/building type of work. I didn't inquire about the one I really, really wanted - I'm sure it was too expensive. I am ordering a handcarved magnet in wood from another artist since she sold the one I really, really liked.

Overall, this was a great festival. If I get to go again, I'm going to do a square myself. Of course, when I'm finished with it, a portable crane will have to be brought in to get me back on my feet! However, moving onward - we weren't finished with this day. Our next festival of the day was called "A Bite of Skagit". Gosh, that sounds like the title to a horror film, doesn't it? Actually, this was several restaurants inside Skagit County donating their food and skill creating "bites" that you could buy for $1 each. All the money collected went to the area food bank. Yes, hunger is a problem here too. Everyone knows how important I think this is, so I wasn't going to miss supporting this effort. It was in downtown Mount Vernon, and was even more local than the Bellingham festival. This was a community effort, and we had the added bonus of learning about the food coop that several famers in the are belong to and that Drake and I can join for $2 a month. The coop is actually a store where you can buy local food. Another bonus was that we got to sample several of the local restaurants and farms (yes, there was a farm selling berry shortcake - and I had TWO helpings - one raspberry and one strawberry - YUM).

The final picture is of our new bikes. I should have mentioned that we started the day with a short bike ride in Burlington. Aren't these cute! I got BOTH bikes for $50. Now, that's a deal. Of course, they are 18 years old and they are 10 speeds, but I think they are really, really excellent. You should see me in my helmet (are you listening, Sarah?). My final word is that I would like some petitioning prayers for my safety. I'm a bit wobbly (understatement), and I'm scared I'm going to fall. However, my fears or not, we are going to be biking the San Juan Islands and Lummi Island in the next week or so.

And, yes, I'm having a wonderful time. This week I've played bridge twice, eaten at 3 new restaurants, found a dozen more that I want to try, gone to two festivals, did a couple of short driving tours, and bought 2 bicycles. Oh, and did I mention that the temperature never hit 80 this week?

Mount St. Helens and Tacoma Washington

I have to start this posting with a few commments about the family wedding. First, we pushed ourselves really hard to get from Mississippi to Washington State in time to rent an apartment and move in prior to the wedding. It taught us that we don't want to ever do that again. There were too many things we passed by simply because we didn't have time to stop. When you think that we left Mississippi on June 27th and arrived in Washington on July 6th with 3 days out of that time spent in Rowlett, Hurst and Tulsa, you can see what I mean. We had an apartment rented by the 9th and we moved in on July 10th. On the 15th we left for Portland, Oregon to pick up Sarah and Jay and then on to Black Butte Ranch outside of Sisters, Oregon for the wedding of the cousin closest to Sarah's age.

Fortunately, the wedding was terrific. This resort had everything - multiple pools, golf courses, bike rental, surrey rental (wierd combo of a wagon and pedals for 2 bikes), tennis courts, and a bunch of other stuff. The entire Perez/Smith families had condominiums rented for us courtesy of Drake's sister and brother-in-law. We were able to share early breakfast (our condo), late breakfast (in-laws condo) and after hours food and drinks (Drake's sister/brother-in-law condo). We went to lunches and dinners together and shopping. We biked. [This was very good news for me - rode about 15 miles in 2 days and didn't have any physical repercussions! That means I will be biking here in Washington.] The wedding itself was lovely and the reception afterwards involved salmon and steak perfectly prepared and lots of dancing. The highpoint of the reception for the Perez/Smith family was when Sarah caught the bridal bouquet! Oh, we had a lot of fun with that. We teased Jay, Sarah's boyfriend, that the Perez brothers would be calling on him SOON to inquire about his intentions. Vincent, the other unmarried cousin in Sarah's generation, declared repeatedly that he was now 'off the hook'. Sarah took all the ribbing good naturedly, and she gave the bouquet to the 7 year old flower girl who was a niece of the bride. That little girl was so happy, she never put the bouquet down the rest of the party. Sarah and I both remember the weddings she attended as a little girl, and the highpoint was always hoping against hope she would be able to catch the bouquet.

After the wedding weekend, we went back to Portland and sent Sarah and Jay on their way to a 10 day vacation up here. They headed for the Oregon seashore. I hope their experience was better than ours. We headed to Long Beach which is a peninsula off the west coast of Washington. It's a 28 mile beach, and it was terrible. First, it's gray sand. Second, there's NOTHING to pick up. There are no shells, no rocks, nothing interesting to collect unless you are into brown seaweed. The only remotely interesting thing was that this is birder heaven. Scores of birds winter and summer here. I guess the best part of the Long Beach trip was this cheesy place called Marsh's Free Museum. It's filled with every bad souvenir you can imagine. The ceiling is covered in the owner's collections. He has a stuffed everything from polar bear, lion, bear, every type of deer, elk, moose, as well as sheep, 2 headed cow, and "Jake" the alligator man. It was so funny to look up and see collections (think washboards, unusual tools, stuffed birds and animals, china, crystal, etc. etc. etc, while the shelves are filled with stuff children (and me) can't live without. He also had the biggest collection of machines you shove a quarter into and receive knowledge of your future or how strong your kiss is or your grip. It was a hoot, and it saved Long Beach. I didn't get over to see the lighthouse on the tip of the peninsula or the Lewis/Clark interpretive center - both of which would have probably been worth going to. There's only so much time in this life.

We actually went to Mount St. Helens on the way down to Portland just before the wedding. Now, that is a very interesting place. For you younger readers, this is a volcano, and it exploded in 1980 flattening a large portion of the area around it. Actually, it was a several part event: First the blast that collapsed an entire side of the mountain, The blast along with the tons and tons of rocks and mud knocked down countlesss acres of trees. The lava flow which changed the courses of several waterways and created new lakes. Finally, there was the ash plume that covered the cities to the east of the mountain in 2 feet of ash blotting out the sun for days. This was an amazing event of nature, and due to the monitoring of the mountain prior to the eruption, scientists can now predict when an volcano is going to erupt. The science generated by the Mount St. Helen's eruption has saved countless lifes around the world. Even 30 years after the eruption, you can still see the marks on the land, but surprisingly, nature is recovering at a much faster rate than predicted. It was definitely worth the 100 mile detour over mountain roads to reach it. The Johnson Ridge Visitor's center has some wonderful scale models that showed 'what happened' in each event - the picture at the top is the lava flow. The tree picture is an example of what happened to trees in the blast path of a mountain exploding. The water picture is a new lake created by the eruption, and the picture to the right of the broken tree is a shot of the mountain today and the landscape leading up to it. There were actually people accidentally trapped on the mountain at the time of the eruption in 1980, and one fascinating wall recounts their experiences in trying to get off an exploding mountain. There were very few people actually killed. There's also a great movie of the actual explosion, lava flow and ash plume because it was being monitored carefully as it started to belch prior to the eruption.

After we left Long Beach (I'm back to after the wedding now), the drive to Tacoma was visually very interesting. The coastline here is nothing like anything else I've seen. The closest comparison is to some parts of the Louisiana coastline prior to Katrina and prior to the oil spill. Lots of it is marshy with this tufted grass that seems almost like a peat bog. There were new wildflowers, and the scenery was excellent. Our Texas license plates seem to generate interested conversation with locals every time we stop for gas. We went to Tacoma because I persuaded Drake that what we wanted to see was the Glass Museum in Tacoma.

We were quite impressed with the lovely downtown area of Tacoma, and had a great lunch at Woody's - outdoors overlooking the glass museum and the marina which is in the middle of downtown Tacoma. Glass art became this city's signature thanks to a glass artist - Dale Chilhuly - a Northwest native. His pieces are world renowned and he has inspired glass artists from all over the world to come to this town. He has almost single handedly started the Glass Museum which includes a Hot Shop - a place to create glass art pieces. The City has gotten on board and constructed an elevated bridge connecting two main downtown streets. The bridge is filled with Chilhuly pieces as is the renovated Union Station which is now the home of the United States Courthouse for the northwest. You can see the blue ballon like sculptures (glass) which mark the bridge. To the left and right as you start across the bridge are walls of glass creations by Chilhuly. I first heard about this artist from my friend Margie who loved to collect pieces of glass. The last portion of the bridge is glass art overhead. This left picture is representative of about 50 feet. It was like being under a sea filled with magnificent creatures.

We saw three amazing exhibits inside the actual musuem - each a wonder in its own right. The one I only went to because it was there was the exhibit in which children designed pieces (made pictures) and glass artists in the area created a glass piece based on each child's inventive picture. It's a pity they wouldn't allow us to take pictures - some of them defy description. Imagine a banana riding on a hotdog bun with flames shooting out of the back of the bun. A glass artist created this design in glass, and that was one of the tame ones. I think the artists had as much fun as the children. It was apparently a state wide contest, and the winners got to see their creations come to life in the Hot Shop at the museum. This exhibit just won me over with its whimsy and creativity. There were children at this exhibit and you could feel their excitement as they looked at the 50 pieces. This is just the type of exhibit that needs to travel around the country. It would be a wonderful introduction to musuems and art for the elementary age group. The other two exhibits were more traditional in that they appealed to adult patrons. Both were outstanding. I felt like I'd seen pieces of art that will be with me forever.

The museum supports glass artists in that it has this Hot Shop in which they can work. Large pieces need large fire boxes to keep the glass malleable, and lots of special tools. In return for getting to work in the Hot Shop, each artist agrees to be watched by an audience. There are theater seats above the shop floor, and a commentator telling the museum patrons what they are seeing. This place also had a killer gift shop. I actually got three small pieces of glass art. They are flat disks about the size of 50 cent pieces with flotsam and jetsam embedded in them - including Mount St. Helen's ash - a nice tie in for us.

Overall, this was a wonderful trip combining family and fun with touring new sights. What could be better?

Tour: Ferndale, Birch Bay, Blaine, Lynden, Washington

Even though we are moving tomorrow, we decided not to waste today. After outwitting the cable company - surprisingly easy for Drake, we took off for the area just north of Bellingham. There are a series of small towns between Bellingham and the Canadian border, and this area is the truck gardening, dairy farming, grass fed beef, organic farming area just north of Bellingham. It's a large valley (Nooksack Valley) at the base of the short mountains that lead up to Mount Baker which is a jewel in the Cascades Chain. We didn't get that far today - that will be another tour.

First, we stopped at Pioneer Village in Ferndale which was a bit of a let down after just being in Mississippi where American history goes back to the late 18th/early 19th century. "History" up here (not counting the Native Americans) only goes back to the late 19th century/early 20th century. However, you have to applaud the Ferndale businessman who moved a large number of early pioneer buildings to create this village in a park like atmosphere. Drake actually talked to a guy who confided that one of the buildings was his grandmother's house. I thought the flower balls which line Main Street in Ferndale were much more interesting than Pioneer Village.

Ferndale also had another attraction - Hovender Fragrance Garden. This is a small park outside of town which was at one point a working farm. It's now a labor of love by a small group of gardeners who are growing amazing, amazing flowers. They claim that this area is the most conducive to flower gardening in the entire country. Well, I don't know about that, but the flowers were spectacular. Here's one picture, but I'll be sharing an entire album of flower pictures I took at this garden with selected friends who will be interested. I did discover what makes this place 'fragrant' is that there are extensive herbs grown. I'd never seen horseradish growing before - and the large lettuce like leaves smell intensely like the freshest horseradish imaginable. I thought of the cooking afficianados I know when I was wandering this portion of the garden.

Moving on - we decided to wander around the back country roads as we wound our way to Birch Bay. Boy, am I glad we did. We stumbled on the Pleasant Valley Dairy which was selling cheese! That was a first for me. I thought you could only get it at the grocery store. We met Jenny who, with her husband and two small daughters, own a family farm of registered dairy cattle. Her grandmother-in-law first started selling cheese she made in the 1970's, and she passed down her recipes. The cheese is outstanding. Jenny makes several different kinds (including feta - one of Sarah's favorites), gouda, farmstead, and mutschli. She flavors the gouda and we bought two flavors - Herbe (onion, parsley, celery and garlic), and wait for it.......jalapeno! The plain gouda is also so good we bought a bit of that too. She confided that she even has some cheese that has aged for 3 years. She called it "stinky cheese" and admits it's a better cooking cheese. I took her word for it. She does 'ship', and if you want to try it email her at cheese98248@yahoo.com. The web site is coming on line soon. The cheese was a welcome addition to our lunch, and we are planning a dinner tonight of cheese/crackers and fresh strawberries we bought at a roadside stand. The berries (Barb's Berries) came right out of the fields.

Our next stop, Birch Bay, was the first time I've ever seen 'mud flats' in person. It is created by low tide in a protected bay like this one. What really, really excited me was that the beach is PEBBLES. Wow. Is that right up my alley, or what? And, yes, I did get a few rocks. They are so cool. Some are two types of rock fused together. Oh, I'll quit - you all know how I am about rocks. Drake says he's going to start calling me "Lucy" because of my habit of picking up rocks just like Lucy did in the movie The Long, Long Trailer that she made with Desi in the early 1950's. This movie was the impetus for the I Love Lucy series on TV. If you haven't seen it, it's a quaint hoot. I do want to stress that I'm collecting pebbles, not big ROCKS. There's a difference.

No tour day would be complete for me without a museum, and we found a great lunch spot at Semiahmoo Park. This park included the Alaskan Pacific Association Musuem which is really all about early Washington State salmon fishermen and canners. (They moved up to Alaska from Washington after the salmon fishing methods changed. It was really a very interesting place. There was an actual salmon fishing boat - like an extended rowboat, really. The fisherman would lower gill nets, haul in salmon, load the fish into open compartments in his small boat, and when full then off load the fish onto pickup boats, and start all over again. They would stay out on the ocean for a week or more at a time during the 'season' in these small boats. I can't imagine the smell. Another interesting feature of this museum was that it sported a Semiahmoo totem pole called Salmon Woman out front. Now, this museum is about serious fishing and they have bronzed a 57 pound salmon (largest caught in this area), and it won a prize at the Pacific Exposition of 1915. I've included a picture just for you fisherfolk.

The prettiest town we saw today was Lynden. This town was settled by the Dutch and as we enjoyed ice cream, I noticed that all the natives seemed blond haired and round faced - facial and hair characteristics of most of the Dutch people I saw in Holland. They also have maintained that sense of precise order and cleanliness that seems a hallmark of the Dutch. I didn't see a single piece of trash much less a dead flower or unpruned tree, or peeling sign or even anything that wasn't at a 90 degree angle. This town also has a wonderful shaded street that goes on forever with overarching 40 foot trees lining both sides of the road. I include the picture of the windmill because another characteristic of the Dutch is that they have a wacko sense of humor which always seems at odds with their devotion to order and beauty.We'll be coming back here in August to enjoy the 100th anniversary of their county fair.

We meandered back to Bellingham, and if this day is any indication, we are going to have a splendid time up here. There is an amazing amount of stuff to do. I can hardly wait to get out on some of the hiking trails. There will be a blog hiatus as we get moved (tomorrow) to the new apartment, recover a bit, and then we leave for Oregon on Friday the 15th to attend a much anticipated family wedding.

We have a land address!

We rented an apartment today, and we finally have a land address after being without one for the past month. For those of you who care, our new address is: 128 Heritage Place #117, Burlington WA 98233. When we arrived, we drove into Bellingham to discover it full of people! Can you imagine? This is actually a city of 200,000 people. I'm afraid that Bastrop spoiled us to the small town life. Burlington is 25 miles south of Bellingham and is in a cluster of small towns. It's between Sedro Woolley (yes, that's really the name of a town), and Anacortes (where there's a ferry). Ferry access is rather important in this part of the country. Plus, we wanted to have relatively quick access to the Olympic Penninsula. Burlington has about 10,000 people, with another 10,000 scattered throughout the county.

We haven't let any grass grow under our feet. I already have a library card; they have a brand new 20,000 square foot library. Next, we found the Senior Center because Drake wants to get his bridge game set up. (They play every Friday.) Plus, we discovered they have a hot lunch every day for $3. I found a thrift store - remember, I said I wasn't eating on a card table anymore - well, I'm not. I bought a wooden table and two chairs ($60 - not quite St. Paul garage sale prices, but close). It will be so much better for sewing, and I can set up a computer permanently on the card table. I'll Craiglist the table and chairs when we get ready to leave. We even went to play blackjack for an hour today at the Indian casino 5 miles north of Burlington.

The new apartment is ground floor, 2/2 with covered parking, pool, hot tub, exercise room - pretty standard stuff, but Drake was happy to match the Bastrop apartment price. We arrived here on Monday evening and we will move into the apartment on Saturday. It took us 2 days to find a place that met most of our criteria, and 20 minutes for them to 'approve' us. Wasn't that a big surprise. I'm waiting an extra day to move in because they are cleaning the carpet today, and I want it to be thoroughly dry. Oddly, the fridge doesn't have an ice maker. I thought that was weird. However, they do have recycling at the apartment - recycling is mandatory in Washington.

Even stranger for us is that NOTHING up here is air conditioned. We didn't see a single place to live that had air conditioning. A lot of the small individually owned stores don't have AC either. There's been a lot of bitching up here today since it was 91. Everyone is very, very unhappy. The weather is going to moderate beginning tomorrow (83 for a high), and then for the next 10 days, the temperature is going to be 72/55 - and no rain at all. I know everyone in Texas is moaning or cursing. I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. I'm sure my autumn will also be a new experience weatherwise.

We'll be here until November 30th. This silly apartment complex won't prorate the rent on the month you move out. We originally wanted to leave the first or second week of December, but we would have had to pay the entire month's rent for December. I don't think we'll be doing that, so after we eat turkey, we'll pack up and leave. This will give us a leisurely trip down the west coast and we'll turn left at Death Valley to get to Arizona in time for Christmas.

Stay tuned for a play by play description of Washington State and Canada. It's going to be a ball.

Up the Center of the USA and turning left at South Dakota

If cotton is King in the South, then corn is the Emperor of the Heartland. We drove through 500 miles of corn. Almost as soon as we crossed the Kansas border going up I-35, all we could see was corn. I felt like I finally understood the Omnivore's Dilemma, a book Sarah gave Drake for Christmas which is about the industrial food chain in the United States. One of the sections is how our entire food chain is based on corn - we are more dependent on corn than the Native Americans were. Think about it: Corn syrup is in EVERYTHING. We feed every animal we eat corn. And, it's not only food that we use corn for - but when the food bits are extracted from corn, then there are non-food uses for the byproducts. Plus, can anyone say ethanol? Well, anyone who raises food in this country from the corporate level to the family farm level knows a cash crop when they see it. It was truly awe inspiring to see the corn waving in the wind. One funny thing is that when the corn started in Kansas, it was 4 feet tall. The last small field we saw in Montana was virtually unrecognizable as corn because it was only 6 inches tall. One last thought: You think driving across West Texas is boring? Try driving across the corn fields of Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota.

When we "turned left" on I-90, the corn fields pretty much disappeared. The central belly of South Dakota is cattle country, and it is also very boring to drive thru since it's mostly flat and monotonous. Scenery wise things picked up when we arrived at the Missouri Valley. This is Lewis and Clark country - they canoed up the Missouri in a northwesterly direction for a great part of the journey. The valley is lush and green and looks pretty much like every other big river valley that I've seen. However, once you passed this area, then a new type of landscape appeared: Soft rolling hills - Drake compared it to green ski moguls undulating across the land.

Then the first really interesting scenery popped up: The BADLANDS. This whole area reminded me of the Palo Duro Canyon. First, it's unexpected. There are these gently rolling green hills, and then next thing you know - up pops up these sand stone hills that are eroded like Bryce Canyon and colored like the Painted Dessert. It's rather like suddenly stumbling onto a moonscape in the middle of an oasis.

We couldn't leave South Dakota without a visit to its most famous attraction - yes, we went to Mount Rushmore. I actually expected to be diasappointed after watching North by Northwest. (For you movie challenged: this is a Cary Grant movie partially set at Mount Rushmore. In fact, he and Eva Marie Saint climb over the carved faces trying to escape the villain. FYI - the National Park people wouldn't let them actually climb on the mountain - so they built mock-ups of the carvings. You see the carvings as gigantic in this movie.) Therefore, I expected the real thing to be sort of small and insignificant. Wrong. It was impressive, and some smart person designed the lead up to the view of the carving very cleverly. They have a Walkway of States with each state flag flying and granite pillars with the date of each state's admission to the Union. I liked Mount Rushmore. I ate ice cream, took pix, and looked for Cary Grant.

Before we left South Dakota, we stayed overnight in Deadwood (the infamous town where Wild Bill Hickok was killed). We ate dinner at Saloon 10 where he was killed (actually we were upstairs in a wonderful restaurant). Drake was very, very happy to gamble for $2 stakes at Blackjack. Deadwood was really very quaint, and it also has a great bike trail - the George Mickelson - which is a 109 mile gravel/asphalt road laid down over over railroad tracks. It looks like excellent daytime fun. Overall though, South Dakota is a total drag until you get to the southwestern corner.

We skirted the edge of Wyoming, and we actually were only 75 miles north of Yellowstone National Park, but we just couldn't see much fun in being in one of the most popular national parks over the 4th of July weekend. We really have raced up here because of the necessity of being in Oregon on July 15th for the big family wedding. As Drake put it: "We can only skim the cream" which means that I didn't get to go to any tacky souvenir shops or other whacko places that appealed to me - like the REPTILE GARDEN!!!!!

We drove completely across Montana. It has interesting scenery from one end to the other. We did get to go to the Little Big Horn Battle Field. Now, when I was in school it was called a Massacre - exactly as it was portrayed in 1876 in every newspaper across the United States. The National Park Service has really done an excellent job in telling the REAL history which was a battle won by the Sioux and the Cheyenne in a last gasp effort to continue living the nomadic life. While it's called "Custer's Last Stand", in reality it was the Last Stand of the Native Americans. The reaction to the battle by the whites was so ferocious thanks to the inflammatory journalism and the self promotion of George Custer, that the Indians had no chance of preserving their nomadic way of life after the battle with Custer's 7th Calvary. After Little Big Horn, Indians were hunted down mercilessly and forced onto reservations or killed - didn't matter whether they were men, women or children, and it didn't really matter to the soliders which choice they made. It was really fascinating to hear about how the Little Big Horn (or Greasy Grass Battle as the Indians called it) came about, the strategy employed by both the Calvary and the Indians while looking at the actual field of battle.

The battlefield is marked with white markers showing where each soldier was killed, and red granite markers mark the places where the Indians were killed. I think the most interesting thing I learned was that as a result of a forest fire in 1993, archeologists were able to recover over 5000 artifacts from the battle that had been hidden by the grasses and reconstruct a much more precise picture of the battle. There's a large monolith at the top of "Last Stand Hill" which lists the names of all the soldiers and civilians killed in the battle. Under it are buried the common soliders who died. (There's a marker for Custer, but he's actually buried at West Point). The Sioux and the Cheyenne have a monument which is a stone wall circle with a wire sculpture on one side.

During the Ranger talk, they called Little Big Horn one of the most important battles in American history, and after hearing the actual facts, I have to agree. It solidified the white opinion of what to do about "the Indian problem". After Little Big Horn, there was no more pretense of treaties with the Indians. The Indians were overwhelmed and forced onto land which they didn't have much if any say in choosing. History shows again and again that unfortunately when one culture is so overwhelming in numbers and weapons, the opposing culture loses everytime.

Montana was rolling hills covered with cattle. The 19th century cattlemen must have dropped to their knees thinking they had died and gone to heaven the first time they saw Eastern Montana. They did learn the hard way over the winters of 1886 and 1887 that you really can't raise cattle on open range in Montana. That's when Montana was finally fenced. The cattle look like raisins dotted on green muffins. There is so much water in Montana that the roadmap looks like the wrinkled skin of a really, really old person with the tracings of all the creeks and rivers on the map.

As you drive farther west, the landscape changes and the Rocky Mountains appear in various ranges. It was thrilling to go over Bozeman Pass - a famous immigrant pass over which wagon trains traveled. We joked that Drake was so concerned about the V-8 engine pulling the trailer over mountains when 150 years ago, oxen were pulling wagons over these passes. 20 mph then would have seemed miraculous - much less 50 mph. The evergreen trees were magnificent growing right up to the edge of the roadway towering over everything, and we started seeing our first aspen trees. I can't imagine ever getting tired of this scenery. Oh, and did I mention that the temperature has been hovering between 60 - 75 degrees? It's really tough to stand this weather - especially after Mississippi.

Tomorrow we roll into Bellingham. We've driven over 4000 miles since June 5th. I've never driven in this part of the country before. Not only is this country huge; it is magnificent. The resources are amazing. It is so obvious that people across this country work hard everywhere. We overheard a table of men in work clothes and boots casually say they were amazed at the number of people taking pictures of the landscape. One then said, "When I look out over this land, all I see is work." One person's playground is another person's work place.

We are both very excited about getting to see the place we've chosen to live for the next 5 months. We'll let you know how the great apartment/house/duplex/townhouse/condo search goes!