Smoke Makes Me Homesick For Washington But I Am Not Going To Rant About It

About once or twice a year I'll have a moment or two where I get slightly homesick for my old home zone of Washington.

Last night my oldest nephew sent me a photo which made me homesick for the first time this year.

It is a simple photo, sent from a phone. In the photo my grand nephew, Spencer Jack, is standing next to two of his aunts, with the one in the middle being his namesake.

My nephew was told he can't go wrong by naming his kid after his richest relative. And so he did.

The thing in the photo that made me homesick is not the bottle of beer next to the aunt on the right that appears to be floating in the air.

The thing that made me homesick was the campfire. I have not sat around a campfire on a foggy winter day in this century.

Texas BBQ smoke smells good, but that smoke smell smells different than the smoke smell you get from the firewood that you have available for burning in Washington. Like Alder. Or any of the Evergreen softwoods, like Cedar, Douglas Fir, Pine or Hemlock.

Changing the subject from smoke to ranting.

Elsie Hotpepper informed me today that I have been in rant mode lately. I realized I was not quite sure exactly what a rant is, as in the precise definition. So, I consulted the Urban Dictionary, where you know you're going to get a precise definition, and learned....

To rant is to speak aggressively about something. or to take your own tangent about a subject and talk for a long time in a passionate manner. To suddenly give a long speech that usually results in rambling and repeating of nonsense.

Well, reading that definition I can clearly see that it is true that I am a ranter. I constantly and consistently ramble and repetitively repeat nonsense.

I hope this new self awareness about ranting does not make me self-conscious about it to the point that my venting via ranting comes to a screeching halt. Because I really enjoy rambling repetitive nonsense, in what, apparently, is a rant.

Linda Lou Tip Toes Us To Tulip Town With Chris & Sheila

Seems like just yesterday I made mention of the fact that Linda Lou Took Me To Skagit Flats Beaver Marsh Looking At Olympics as part of an ongoing multi-party effort to make me homesick for Washington.

In that particular blogging about that particular homesick issue I made mention of the fact that Miss Chris and Miss Sheila also contributed on that particular day to the making me homesick thing.

And then the following day it happened again. 

Above is a photo sent to my phone by Linda Lou. All the text with the photo said was "Tulip Town".

Way back in the final decades of the last century, when the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival sort of exploded, overwhelming the valley with over a million visitors during a short time period, with the crowds particularly crowded on weekends, something had to be done to deal with the massive traffic jams.

There are multiple exists from Interstate 5 to the Skagit Flats, including three in Mount Vernon. The Mount Vernon exits had the heaviest traffic, causing backups onto the freeway, through town, across the river, and onto the flats.

And so measures were taken to direct Tulip viewers to exit any of the Skagit Valley I-5 exits, with signage directing the way to the Tulips. Bus tours were added where one could park at one of the valley's malls and hop a bus to take your Tulip Tour.

Attractions were added all over the valley so as to try and disperse the crowds. Hence Tulip Town was added, as a sort of backup to the extremely popular, crowded Roozengarde.

Helicopters were added so as to monitor the traffic so as to direct cops to bottlenecks to keep the traffic flow moving. I suspect by now the helicopters have been replaced with drones.

I think experiencing living in the midst of an actual tourist attraction is what caused me to react with puzzlement when I would read something in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about Fort Worth's imaginary tourists. Things like a sporting goods store would give Fort Worth the top tourist attraction in Texas. Embarrassing idiocy like that.

Washington has, I think, three Cabela's now. None of which try to claim to be the state's top tourist attraction. Has the Star-Telegram ever apologized to its readers for being part of the Cabela's scam?

I almost forgot about yesterday's homesick contribution from Chris and Sheila. Below is what those two put on Facebook yesterday from their current visit to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.
 

The above photos all appear to be from the aforementioned Roozengarde. I asked Chris and Sheila if they got in a visit with Hank Frank, who lives close by, but I have yet to get an answer to that probing question.

I wonder what will make me homesick today?

Linda Lou's Making Me Homesick

 For at least two years, maybe longer, there has been an ongoing effort by more than one individual attempting to make my homesick for my old home zone of the Pacific Northwest State of Washington.

The most concentrated of these homesick campaign efforts has been a series of vintage postcards featuring Birch Bay.

Yesterday, New Year's Day, the above showed up on my phone, from Mount Vernon's Linda Lou. No text, just a photo of what looks to be a road aiming at Mount Rainier. Yes, it really does look like that.

I have a friend here in Wichita Falls, originally from Dallas, a lifelong Texan. A couple years ago she flew to the west coast for the first time, to Seattle. She had never been to a location before where no matter which direction you looked you see mountains.

And then the friends she was visiting took her their cabin, near Enumclaw, close to Mount Rainier. They arrived at the cabin after dark. The next morning she walked outside and found herself startled by seeing Mount Rainier, so close, looking so big. She described it as mesmerizing.

Above is another Washington mountain scene. This one is the view from Artist's Point by Mount Baker. That is not Mount Baker we see in this view. I think Mount Baker would be to the right.

Artist's Point is near the Mount Baker ski area. In winter I do not think it is possible to get a direct look at Mount Baker from this location. Well, maybe one could cross country ski to the location of the parking lot that opens in summer when the snow has withered away.

Okay, now that I am homesick it is time to go do something else....

Sharing Homesick For Washington With Jan's Big Beautiful Appomattox Buns

I have discovered I am not the only one exiled from the Pacific Northwest who suffers pangs of homesickness when seeing images which evoke what it is like to live in that scenic wonderland. 

One is particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon when one finds oneself living in a part of America pretty much devoid of being any sort of scenic wonderland.

Janice Small shared my journey through the Burlington, Washington education system. I do not recollect ever seeing Janice Small after that day we all graduated from Burlington-Edison High School, many decades ago.

But now, years and years and years later, I have found Janice Small again, now going by the name Jan McNutt. I suspect a husband may be involved in that name change.

This formerly Small person now lives in Virginia.

Appomattox to be precise.

Where Ms. McNutt is famous due to her Big Beautiful Buns, which she sells Saturdays at the Appomattox Farmer's Market.

Ms. McNutt posted that which you see above, on Facebook, yesterday, as in, on Saturday, the day she was busy selling her Big Beautiful Buns.

The photo is a view of Bellingham Bay. Bellingham is a town in Whatcom County about 20 miles south of the border with Canada. I lived in Bellingham for a couple years back in the 1970s. Bellingham, and Bellingham Bay is the location of the southern terminus of the Alaskan Ferry.

When posting the above photo Ms. McNutt commented "Getting pretty homesick for beautiful WA!!! Hoping to get out there this fall."
 
I too am getting pretty homesick. I was hoping to get out there this summer, but I do not see that happening...

Today's 34th Anniversary Of The Mount St. Helens Eruption Has Me Feeling Homesick

This morning after I realized today marked the 34th Anniversary of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in my old home state of Washington, I blogged about this on my Washington blog in a blogging titled The 34th Anniversary of the Mount St. Helens Eruption on May 19,1980.

Thinking about the Mount St. Helens eruption which boomed over three decades ago got me feeling more melancholy than feeling even remotely nostalgic. How could anyone get nostalgic about a mountain exploding, killing a lot of people and doing a few billion dollars in property damage?

The melancholy homesick thing kicked in when I watched the YouTube video below, which I had used in an earlier blogging about Mount St. Helens and Harry Truman on my Washington blog titled Mt. St. Helens Harry Truman's Spirit Lives On.

Watch the video below and see if you can guess what makes me melancholy and homesick in addition to the woeful tone of the song.

If you guessed seeing mountains, rugged scenery and forests of tall evergreen trees you would have guessed right.....

Today It Is MMG Making Me Homesick For Skagit Tulips While Grilling Russian Salmon

Today's make me homesick moment once again comes from Facebook. This time via an entity currently calling herself Margaret Mikota Grants who shared a collection of photos of the Skagit Valley tulips, currently in their annual bloom and color the valley mode.

Miss Margaret, also known as MMG, is currently planning a reunion of the class with whom I graduated from high school.

MMG is doing this reunion planning from her Minnesota location a couple thousand miles distant from the Skagit Valley location of the place at which we attended high school.

MMG is currently taking a break from reunion planning and is instead here in Texas not visiting me.

Instead of visiting me MMG is fishing at a venue called Fork Lake whilst staying in a town called Alba. Neither of which I had heard of and had to Google to find they are located a few miles east of Dallas.

When I lived in Washington I had a fairly regular supply of fresh salmon, among other types of fresh seafood, such as dungeness crab, oysters and clams.

For lunch today the smokeless grill in my kitchen is grilling pink salmon filets. From Russia, processed in China, bought by me in Walmart.

Such a thing should make me homesick, but for some likely irrational reason, it isn't...

McNutty Strikes Again With Mount Rainier

 

Yesterday McNutty Inspired Iconic Commentary About A Texas Town & Seattle. 

This morning, on Facebook, it happened again.

As in this morning Miss McNutt posted another image of Mount Rainier, as part of her continuing series of posting images which make herself, and others, like me, homesick for our old home zone of the Pacific Northwest.

Currently Miss M is located further from her old home zone than I am, as witnessed by recent photo documentation of Miss M and her multiple offspring playing in the Atlantic Ocean.

McNutty posting today's Mount Rainier photo prompted Miss Carol BD to ask "Are you trying to make yourself homesick?"

To which Miss M replied, "I do get quite homesick! Plus, it's been too long of a stretch since my last visit!"

I do not know when McNutty had her last visit to the PNW. I know mine was way back in August of 2017. I would have been back since then, but this thing called COVID intervened.

Today's McNutty Mount Rainier Facebook posting included an informational factoid blurb about Washington's biggest volcano...

Mount Rainier, also known as Tahoma or Tacoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about 59 miles south-southeast of Seattle. With a summit elevation of 14,411 ft (4,392 m), it is the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Washington and the Cascade Range, the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States, and the tallest in the Cascade Volcanic Arc.

The mountain is only 59 miles from Seattle. I do not know how many miles in any direction from my current location I would have to go to find a mountain...

Homesick With Spencer Jack Taking Pictures Of Volcanoes

I am being inundated with pictures from Washington that are making me a bit homesick.

On Monday it was a picture from Maxine that had me blogging Leaving Mountain-Free Texas To Hike With Maxine In The Noisy-Diobsud Wilderness.

My one and only time hiking in the Noisy-Diobsud Wilderness I had an up close encounter with a really big bear. It may have been a Grizzly. I have not had a single bear encounter in Texas, that I can recollect.

This morning it was my great nephew, Spencer Jack, who sent me pictures that made me a bit homesick.

That is one of the pictures you are looking at here, which is a picture of Spencer Jack's favorite girl friend, Brittney, taking a picture of Spencer Jack taking a picture of the Mount Baker volcano.

Spencer Jack took his dad and Brittney to the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest to walk across Upper Baker Dam and to go swimming in Baker Lake.

Regarding swimming in Baker Lake, Spencer Jack's dad reported...

The water was so incredibly clear. And I expected it to be much colder than it actually was. But an unusually warm summer made for a pleasant swimming outing.

I blogged the rest of Spencer Jack's Upper Baker Dam pictures on my Washington blog in a blogging titled Walking Across Upper Baker Dam With Spencer Jack.

I think I will book a flight north so I can go hiking with Spencer Jack in the North Cascades before the snow arrives in a couple months. 

Cutthroat Hiking With Maxine Makes Me Homesick With Wild Mountain Blueberries

I made mention a day or two ago of the fact that of late I have been hearing from multiple people whom I have long known opine that it is time for me to move back to the Pacific Northwest. These opinion expressers always include verbalizing wonderment as to how I can possibly stand to live in a backward state like Texas.

I always reply to that backward state question by saying Texas is not all that bad, Texans are not all right wing nut jobs, even though such may be in the majority in the rural parts of Texas. I have basically enjoyed living in Texas, for the most part.

But, during this COVID nightmare of limits and restraints, I have been feeling homesick. Someone will send me a photo of something in Washington, and the homesick feeling surfaces. Like yesterday, Maxine emailed and in the email were three photos, one of which you see above.

Part of the text describing the photos...

"We had our last high country hike October 3rd. Hiked up to Cutthroat Pass and then down to Cutthroat Lake and out that trailhead. OMG-Fall colors were in their prime."

The scene you see above is located not far east of the location of my former abode in the Skagit Valley.

At my current location I would need to drive hundreds of miles to see anything like that which you see above.

The Washington Trail Association webpage about Cutthroat Pass via the Pacific Crest Trail.

Many decades ago, way back in the previous century, it was Maxine who led me on my first hike up the Mount Baker volcano. That hike begins at a trailhead at a location called Schriebers Meadow. If I remember right the last time I hiked up Mount Baker from Schriebers Meadow it was with Hank Frank's dad, my Nephew Joey.

And the last time I was at Schriebers Meadow was soon before moving to Texas. I drove myself and two others to that location to do some late summer wild blueberry picking. I am fairly certain I have photos of that wild blueberry picking expedition.

Just a sec, I'll go see if I can find them...

The photos were easy to find, cleverly filed in a folder labeled "Blueberry". Way back in the 1990s I got myself a Casio digital camera. Such a thing was quite unique back then, way before smart phone cameras came to be. That now antique Casio had the ability to rotate the lens to aim the lens at the photo taker, allowing the easy taking of what are now known as "selfies". 

I have long been way ahead of my time in things like this. So, in the selfie above we are at that aforementioned Schriebers Meadow. That splash of white you see behind my right side is part of the Mount Baker volcano. I was probably trying to get the mountain in the selfie.

And then in the above selfie one of my co-blueberry pickers appears to be standing on my shoulder. That is only an illusion.

Now off my shoulder, the above person, who we will refer to as Nurse Ratched, and the person below, who we shall refer to as Big Ed, moved to Texas at the same time I did. 

I remember Big Ed was inept at picking wild blueberries. Doing such requires a high level of dexterity. You can see the bluish tint in the green meadow. That which is blue are wild blueberries.

And the above is that aforementioned volcano named Mount Baker. It is a several mile hike to get from this location to hiking up the slopes of the mountain to the point where you can see and smell the steam venting from the volcano crater.

After I saw those photos from Maxine today I asked her what she used to take such good photos. Turns out Maxine has the same Samsung phone I have. That had me trying to figure out what setting I needed to set different so as to take good photos like Maxine takes.

Maybe it's a change of scenery which makes for improved photo quality...

Over 700,000 Fans In Downtown Seattle For Seahawk Super Bowl Victory Parade & Moment Of Loudness

Every once in awhile I get myself feeling a bit homesick for the Pacific Northwest. Usually this homesick thing happens when something happens in the Washington zone that I wish I was there to see.

Like when the Kingdome was imploded earlier this century. Or was it late in the previous century?

Or when the 1999 Battle in Seattle happened during a WTO meeting.

During both the Kingdome implosion and the Battle in Seattle I got live reports, via phone, from people on the scene. I remember a particularly tearful account during the Battle in Seattle when the caller was describing watching her Starbucks being destroyed on the ground level, below her skyscraper riot viewing location.

And now today, the largest crowd ever to assemble in Seattle, is downtown, even as I type.

Over 700,000 people. More people than the population of Seattle, lined up from the Space Needle to the Seattle Seahawk CenturyLink stadium, two miles to the south, as the Seattle Seahawk's players paraded past the fans, escorted by the Washington National Guard, with the players in Humvees and those weird Seattle Amphibious Ducks that haul tourists around town.

Washington's Governor, Jay Inslee, proclaimed a "Moment of Loudness" to last 30 seconds at 12:12 Pacific time, which was a couple hours ago. 700,000 is about 10 times the number of noisemakers that can fit into the Seahawk stadium. Those Seahawk stadium noisemakers twice triggered earthquakes this year.

I have heard no reports, yet, that the "Moment of Loudness" has triggered any earthquakes.

Anyway, very cool day, in more ways than one, for Seattle, Washington and the Pacific Northwest. I wish I was there....

Virtually Flying Over 5 Volcanoes With Madame McNutty

I have been seeing the above the past few days via Facebook. Even though this has been appearing for days the post has generated only one comment, that being...

"Very cool, must be view from Hurricane Ridge?"

Well, Hurricane Ridge is in Olympic National Park, at the north end of the Olympic Peninsula. From Hurricane Ridge I think there are only two, maybe three volcanoes one might be able to see. Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, and maybe Glacier Peak.

When flying to Washington it is when you start seeing the whitecapped volcanoes that you know you are getting close to landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The view in the above photo is looking north, from Oregon. That would make the volcano in the foreground Mount Jefferson, with the next volcano being Mount Hood. Then we cross the Columbia River to Washington, seeing three of Washington's five volcanoes, Mount St. Helens on the left, Mount Rainier in the middle, with Mount Adams on the right.

I don't know if this photo of Pacific Northwest volcanoes fits with the theme of Washington scenes which make me and Madame McNutty homesick for our old home zone. Seeing this didn't make me homesick.

I prefer to see scenery from ground level, not the bird view...

FNJ Photo Documents Melting Mount Baker

Photo documentation, sent by my Favorite Nephew Jason, was in my email this morning, documenting the current melting status of Washington's Mount Baker volcano.

The text accompanying the two photos...

FUD --.

As promised, photo documentation of the local volcano appearing nearly naked.  I have never seen this much rock visible.   And as we chatted about the other day, it is only mid-August!  Snowfall in the mountains normally doesn't start until late September or early October.   If we have a warm September, perhaps Mt. Baker will be topless by the end of summer.  That's my bet.

Both snapshots were taken late this afternoon.   These views weren't available the past few days due to wildfires, but the mountain became visible later today after the sun burned of the marine fog.  

The first photo is from the parking lot at Fidalgo Drive-In looking east.  That blob of land located behind the oil tanker and in front of Mount Baker is Hat Island.  I have not been to this Hat Island, but I have camped once on Saddlebag Island which is just a hop, skip and jump to the north. 

The view from the Fidalgo Drive-In has dramatically improved after the bowling alley across the street was demolished.

The accompanying text from FNJ continues below the second photo...

For the second photo, I stopped off at March's Point on my way home from work.  This view shows so much of the mountain, which is normally dressed in snow, showing just bare rock.  The water you are looking at is Padilla Bay, and the group of homes and buildings on the lower right is the unincorporated community of Bay View. I think I sent you a photo you used in your blogging years ago from this exact same location.  Let me search for that, so we can compare snow cover.

Well I found it: Spencer Jack Drives His Pickup To Frozen Padilla Bay, however, it looks like I took that 2016 photo looking southeast and not northeast.

Anyway, I'm tired now and ready for dinner. Hope these photos don't make you too homesick.

-FNJ

Well, Mount Baker still has a lot of frozen water to melt. Long ways to go to be as shockingly naked as California's Mount Shasta. 

Thanks for the photo documentation, Jason. I was already homesick, so these photos did not make that condition worse...

Mountain Biking Gateway Park While Maxine Makes Me Homesick For Goose Rock

Since today is Saturday I did what has become my Saturday habit of late, as in I took my handlebars to Gateway Park to do some mountain bike pedaling.

I had myself a fine time pedaling today, rotating my wheels for over an hour.

And then it was on to Town Talk where my treasure hunting was not too successful today.

This morning I got an email that made me a bit homesick. The email was from Maxine. Maxine lives upriver in the Skagit Valley of my old home zone. Maxine is in training for her annual hike over the Cascade Mountains to Stehekin.

Maxine's hiking training today is taking place on Goose Rock in Deception Pass State Park. The trails of Deception State Park, including Goose Rock's trails, were sort of my Tandy Hills equivalent when I lived in Washington.

It was a longer drive to get to Goose Rock than the 4 mile drive from my abode to the Tandy Hills.

If Goose Rock existed at my current location I think it would likely be called Goose Mountain. And it would be a major tourist attraction because there would be nothing like it for hundreds of miles in any direction.

In about 3 hours the Tacoma Wedding of the Century will be taking place. Two  months ago if you'd asked me I would have said I would be at this event. I also got invited to a Train Wreck today in my old home town of Burlington.

This morning Betty Jo Bouvier asked  me which event I was going to be attending, the Train Wreck or the Wedding. I told Betty Jo I would be attending both in spirit.

I think I made the right decision in deciding not to fly north to Washington at this point in time. I got an email  this morning that reminded me of what a hotbed of crazy Tacoma is.

The temperature in Tacoma right now is 69 degrees. Transpose those two numbers and you get the temperature right now in Fort Worth, as in 96 degrees.

I believe today's Tacoma wedding is an outdoor deal at something called the Japanese Pavilion in Point Defiance Park. At 69 degrees I would have been a shivering mess.

Once Again Maxine Has Made Me Homesick For Washington & Japanese Fishing Floats

Last Thursday, in a blogging titled A Hot July Day In Texas Thinking About Catching A Llama With Maxine I lamented about a Maxine salmon barbecue that had me thinking, yet again, about moving back to the Wonders of Washington.

Rarely a week goes by, of late, where someone from Washington does not send me something which makes me feel a bit homesick.

Yesterday it happened again, once again via Maxine.

Last Friday Maxine told me over the weekend she was floating the ferry to the Olympic Peninsula to drive to a knitter's convention in a cabin on the beach in Moclips.

Moclips?

The name was totally familiar, but my memory of place names and their location in Washington is fading as the years of exile pile up. I had to look up Moclips on my Street Finder program to restore my memory that Moclips is slightly north of Copalis, which had me further appalled at the sad state of my failing memory.

Copalis, as a kid, was just about my favorite place we would journey to for a weekend of camping, or a week of summer vacation. There was a store in Copalis which had all sorts of fun stuff.  Every trip to Copalis my brother and I would go to that store and spend a lot of time deciding what balsa wood rubber band propelled airplane we would buy and fly.

I was last in Copalis and Moclips the summer of 2004. I remember quite clearly that it was near Copalis I first saw the Tsunami Evacuation Route signs which had been added since the last time I visited Washington's Pacific coast.

With all the brouhaha of late regarding the impending 9.2 long overdue SUPER QUAKE off the Washington/Oregon coast, and its predicted 300 foot Tsunami, I wonder if those evacuation routes have been altered. Getting oneself to high ground above 300 feet would present a challenge along much of the coast.

In the picture above I am fairly certain we are looking at Maxine, standing on the Moclips beach, with the Pacific Ocean and a very bright sunset creating a Maxine halo, even though Maxine told me she took the photos she sent me. I think the above one may be an exception.

You looking at these photos, who have never been to the west coast, does it surprise you that a Pacific beach can be such a big flat space?

Above, that line you see across the horizon under the setting sun, that would be the line of waves crashing in from the Pacific Ocean.

Maxine told me she and her fellow knitters had fun finding sand dollars on the beach. Finding sand dollars constituted a really fine time when I was a kid.

Another big deal when I was a kid, on the beach at Copalis, and other Pacific beaches, was finding Japanese glass fishing floats. These were glass balls of various sizes, some quite large, which Japanese fishing boats used to float their nets.

The floating balls would break free and journey across the Pacific to wash ashore on Washington beaches. I do not know if this still happens. I suspect Japanese fishing fleets no longer use glass balls. I do know that Japanese glass fishing floats are currently valuable collector items.

I do not remember if me and my brother ever found a Japanese fishing float. I do remember we had ourselves a mighty fine time looking for one....

Skagit Valley Homesick With Zachary Jack

I saw that which you see above a few minutes ago, this Sunday August afternoon in Texas, and quickly found myself feeling a bit homesick.

The photo is from Andy Porter Photography. The photo was posted on Skagit Breaks Facebook page.

The Skagit Breaks caption above the photo tells you that you are looking at "Clear Lake under clearer skies". I suspect the use of the "clearer" word was made because of late the skies of the Skagit Valley and most of the west coast have been smoky, due to massive wildfires.

Near as I can tell this photo was taken from atop a monolith known as Big Rock. Big Rock is located about a mile to the east of my old abode in Mount Vernon.

I used to regularly hike to the summit of Big Rock. A hike the likes of which I have never experienced in Texas.

Nor have I ever seen a view in Texas the likes of that which one sees from atop Big Rock.

Due to such a view being impossible in Texas due to the fact there are no volcanoes in Texas.

That is the Mount Baker volcano one sees in the background, hovering above the Cascade foothills and the Skagit Valley.

There are five active volcanoes in Washington.

If I remember right the last time I hiked up Mount Baker was with Spencer Jack's Uncle Joey, also known as my Favorite Joey Nephew.

Joey lives in Clear Lake, the little town named after the lake by which the town sits, in the above photo. Also living with Joey in Clear Lake is his newlywed wife, Monique.

Joey and Monique are currently scheduled to be having a baby boy arrive in late September, or early October. I last talked to Joey when his grandma and I called him the last time I was in Arizona, which was last month.

Today whilst I was riding my bike for a short while I amused myself trying to think of a good name for Joey and Monique's baby boy. It is hard to top Spencer Jack as a cool name.

But, I think I thought of one.

Zachary Jack.

Just say that name.

Zachary Jack.

Zack Jack for short.

Or just Zack.

Or ZJ....

Spencer Jack Celebrates Graduating 2nd Grade Making His Uncle Homesick For Washington

There seems to be a conspiracy afoot to make me homesick for Washington today.

Incoming email a few minutes ago from FNJ (Favorite Nephew Jason) with several photos, including the two you see here.

The text in the email said...

Spencer Jack explores Cap Sante after finishing the 2nd grade today.

Cap Sante is a Gibraltar-esque rock monolith in Anacortes. Anacortes is on a real island, called Fidalgo. In the photo above FNSJ (Favorite Nephew Spencer Jack) is sitting atop Cap Sante. In the distance behind Spencer Jack, on the left, is another island.

People reading this in Fort Worth, this is what real islands look like. They are surrounded by a large body of water. Not a dry ditch.

Below is a view looking west, at the Cap Sante Marina and downtown Anacortes. Many a time I helped launch a boat with my mom and dad from the Cap Sante Marina.

I don't know if we can see it, but on the left side of the above picture is where Spencer Jack's dad's Fidalgo Drive-In is located.

I Googled Cap Sante to see if there was a Wikipedia article about it. There is not. But I found a blurb on Yelp that was a fitting description, once I fixed the grammar and typo mistakes....

From the majestic trees draping precariously over the bank, to the beautiful sweeping view of Anacortes and beyond, Cap Sante Park is a must-do on your next trip to Fidalgo Island.  There are plenty of vantage points for photography, and usually there are at least a few yachts, sailboats, and/or large ships within view. If you're in an adventurous mood, hike down the easy path to the beach below, or just stay on top and admire the surroundings.  

That is true, there are often large ships to be seen at this location, called supertankers, bringing oil products to and from the Anacortes Refinery complex, located on the east side of Padilla Bay, on Marsh's Point, in the direction Spencer Jack is looking.

Time flies way too fast. Hard to believe that Spencer Jack is now a third grader....

A Happy Thanksgiving From A Pair Of Poodles Has Me Homesick For Washington

Ruby, Theo & David With Kristin
Getting Ready To Ski

This morning I saw that Tacoma's best known Adventure Poodles, Blue & Max, had written their annual Happy Thanksgiving blogging.

Apparently, on or about Thanksgiving, Blue & Max sent my nephews, David and Theo and niece, Ruby, up somewhere in the Cascade Mountains with their secondary caretakers, Michele & Kristin, for some fun in the snow.

It looks like the snow location may be the Snoqualmie Pass summit zone. There are several ski areas in this location. The Snoqualmie Pass summit zone is a fairly short distance east of Seattle and Tacoma, on Interstate 90.

Among the things I miss about Washington, that I don't have in Texas, is the extremely varied topography within very short distances.

In my current location the topography is pretty much the same in any direction for 100s of miles. There are no snow covered mountains in this parched part of the planet.

Where I lived in Washington, in the Skagit Valley town of Mount Vernon, I could drive about 10 miles to the east and be up in the mountains. Or go 10 miles to the west and be on a Puget Sound beach. Or in the tourist town of La Conner.

In Washington I could get up on a Saturday morning in November and choose to go cross country skiing, or go have a weenie roast picnic on a beach, or hop a ferry 20 miles from my abode, in Anacortes, and head out to the San Juan Islands, which is in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, and thus is a reliable escape from rain, if you feel in need of escaping the gray dripping.

View From My Bedroom Window Of My
Van & Car Covered By Snow

The Puget Sound lowlands do not get a lot of snow. Some winters pass with no snow. There was one snow storm in the 1990s that was the deepest snow I ever saw in the Puget Sound lowland zone. I was pretty much trapped in my house for a week. I could not drive anywhere, but I could cross country ski to the grocery store.

When the thaw finally came I had all sorts of problems. Water was backing up on the flat roofs. Two drain pipes broke off. It was a mess.

Go here to visit me in Washington. Scroll down and you will come to more photos of the most snow I ever saw piled up in my location in Mount Vernon.

In Western Washington when you want a really major change of scenery you can drive one of the passes over the Cascade Mountains to a starkly different type of topography than the evergreen western side of the mountains. East of the mountains the hills have no trees growing on them, except for the 1000s of acres of fruit orchards.

In Eastern Washington you have a climate much more like Texas. Very HOT in the summer.

There is a big river than runs through Eastern Washington, called the Columbia, with several big dams, like Grand Coulee. Because of the big river and the reservoirs behind the dams, much of the desert of Eastern Washington has been turned into land upon which all sorts of things grow. One of the side benefits of Grand Coulee Dam was the appearance of lakes in various coulees (Washington Indian-speak for canyons), like Sun Lake. Sun Lake State Park was one of my favorite places to go in summer in my younger years.

Dry Falls, by Sun Lake, is the location of what at one point in time was the biggest waterfall the world has ever known. The melting of the last Ice Age and its massive flooding is what made the coulees of Eastern Washington.

Can you tell I'm feeling a bit homesick for Washington? It has been over 3 years since I've been back. That is the longest I've been away from Washington in my long life. I'm thinking I will likely be going to Arizona and Washington soon.

Mark K's Make Me Homesick Mount Baker Photo

The make me homesick photo you see here I saw on Facebook, this morning of the second Wednesday of 2023.

Skagit Valley photographer, Mark K, took the photo after he saw multiple looky-loos parked roadside gawking east at the extremely colorful sunset.

Below is one of the Mark K sunset photos.

For those reading this in Fort Worth, those bumps on the horizon are actual islands, surrounded by real water of the saltwater sort, not imaginary islands of the Fort Worth sort, where there is no surrounding water of any sort, but one day may be sort of surrounded by water, if a cement lined ditch ever gets dug, with dirty river water diverted into the ditch.

In the Mark K photo at the top, that big white bump is a volcano, known as Mount Baker. Washington has five active volcanos. In addition to Mount Baker there is Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens and Glacier Peak.

I have been invited to a birthday party taking place next summer at the Mark K estate on the Skagit Flats.

I have been told if I make it to the Mark K birthday party there will be blackberry pie and strawberry shortcake. I think it was Miss Carol BD who promised me blackberry pie and strawberry shortcake if I showed up.

Currently I would say there is less than a 50/50 chance I will make it to the Skagit Valley this coming July.

I think I have mentioned previously that from the living room of my abode in Mount Vernon, when the leaves were not on the trees, I could see the Mount Baker volcano. 

From my current living room, no matter what window I look out, I see pretty much nothing...

Moon Over Homesick Mountain With Many Real Islands

I saw these two homesick provoking photos on Facebook this morning on the You Know You're From Anacortes When page.

The one above is a bit of a hyper realistic view of the full moon rising over the Mount Baker volcano.

The one below is more accurately depicting what the view looks like when viewed only through ones eyes.

Anacortes is the second largest town, population wise, in Skagit County. Anacortes is on Fidalgo Island.

Fidalgo Island is a real island, not an imaginary island such as what some in the island-free town of Fort Worth, Texas think is an island. There are two bridges which connect Fidalgo Island to the mainland. These are real bridges over real water, one of which, the Rainbow Bridge, in La Conner, is an actual iconic signature bridge, not an imaginary iconic signature bridge of the Fort Worth type.

One can take a ferry from Anacortes and Fidalgo Island to the San Juan Islands. One would think the San Juan Islands would be in Island County. But, instead the San Juan Islands are in San Juan County. There are no bridges to any of the San Juan Islands.

A blurb courtesy of Wikipedia about San Juan County...

San Juan County is a county located in the Salish Sea in the far northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2010 census, its population was 15,769. The county seat and only incorporated city is Friday Harbor, located on San Juan Island.

Fidalgo Island connects to Whidbey Island via the Deception Pass bridge. Two ferry routes also connect Whidbey Island to the mainland.

A blurb courtesy of Wikipedia about Island County...

Island County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2010 census, its population was 78,506. Its county seat is Coupeville, while its largest city is Oak Harbor. The county's name reflects the fact that it is composed entirely of islands.

I do not know why Fidalgo Island is in Skagit County instead of in Island County. Or why the San Juan Islands are not in Island County.

It's very perplexing.

But not nearly as perplexing as that town in Texas which has built three little bridges over dry land, hoping one day to put a cement lined ditch under those bridges, and then divert Trinity River water into the ditch, creating an imaginary island, which is only going to further confuse the town's few tourists...

Doonesbury Has My Aunt Asking If I Will Return To God's Country If Texas Secedes From The Union Again

In my mailbox, this morning, I found another Christmas card from my favorite Auntie A, who lives in Eastern Washington, near Othello, overlooking the Columbia River.

A blogging a couple days ago, titled My Aunt Told Me She Will Believe Corporations Are People When Texas Executes One I blogged about that day's Christmas card from my favorite Auntie A and how my Auntie mails me stuff she reads relating to Texas, often focusing on the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, a governor who  regularly causes jaws to drop in other parts of the country.

Today's Christmas card from Auntie A included a strip from a Doonesbury comic. It has been years since I've regularly enjoyed Doonesbury. Is Gary Trudeau banned in Texas? I have no idea.

I think the characters in this particular Doonesbury comic strip are known as Duke and the son of Duke.

In the comic strip Dukes asks his son, "SO HOW DO WE MAKE THE CASE FOR TEXAS SECEDING?" To which Duke's son replies, "POP, CHECK OUT THE PETITION TEXT. IT'S FILLED WITH ERRORS IN SYNTAX, USAGE AND PUNCTUATION. YET OVER 120,000 TEXANS SIGNED IT.

To which Duke says, "WOW, THAT'S AMAZING." And then starts a sentence with, "SO LOSING TEXAS..." to have his son finish Duke's sentence with, "DRAMATICALLY IMPROVES THE GENE POOL! THAT'S OUR ANGLE!"

Well, the above, from Doonesbury just seems really rude to me. Losing Texas improves the American gene pool? Am I understanding correctly?

Regarding this Doonesbury comic strip my Aunt had this to say....

Thought you might enjoy this comic strip. If Texas does secede, will Perry be president?! 'Tis one of his ambitions. Will you need a passport to visit us? Will Texas oil need to be taxed by states?! Will you move back to God's country if Texas secedes?!

Well,  I have to say, watching Top Chef Seattle has had me wanting to move back to God's country, regardless of the secession status of Texas.

This week's Top Chef Elimination Challenge, featuring Pacific Northwest berries, had me homesick. Every episode of Top Chef Seattle seems to feel the need to have Dungeness Crab, which also contributes to the homesick feeling. And then there is that God's country scenery. Has Top Chef ever filmed in such a scenic location before?