First line of text in the email...
It was really chilly, but the mountain was out.
Ruby and David don't look too chilly, but Theo sort of looks to be shivering with his teeth chattering.
When someone in Western Washington says the Mountain is out, it means the sky is clear and one can see Mount Rainier looming above.
However, none of the photos show the Mountain. In the chilly photo I believe we are looking west, so the Mountain would be in the direction Ruby, David and Theo are looking, oriented slightly to their right, or south.
The text in the email also made mention of that structure behind Ruby, David and Theo...
Also, the bridge to Harstine Island. Built in 1968, I think. Replaced an 8 car ferry!
Another photo gives us a closer look at the bridge which replaced an 8 car ferry.
No details regarding how long it took to build this bridge over actual water. I suspect it took way less than four years. I doubt also that those piers holding up the bridge were ever referred to by any local idiot as being signature piers. I also doubt the building of this bridge to replace an 8 car ferry was turned off and on for years whilst waiting for federal welfare money to arrive from more prosperous parts of America.
Meanwhile, in Texas, this morning we blogged about Fort Worth's multi-year mess of trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect to an imaginary island, in a post titled Bud Kennedy Awards Fort Worth A Gizzard For Panther Island Mess.
One can not imagine how long it would take Fort Worth to build an actual bridge over actual water, particularly deep water subjected to tidal water movement.
Continuing on with the photos from Harstine Island.
I could not tell who was standing by the swings on the Harstine Island beach. But, the camera which took the photos of David, Theo and Ruby is an iPhone which takes incredibly good high resolution photos, so I cropped out the lone swing stander to see if I could see who it was.
Okay, that looks to be Theo. No guess as to why Theo is standing solo by the swings, whilst wearing boots. Had he been clam digging? And what is that tool in Theo's right hand? And am I right? Is this Theo?
I am looking forward to being on a Birch Bay beach with Theo and his siblings next summer. Since we last built sand castles together Theo, David and Ruby have undergone some professional sand castle building training, in San Diego. I suspect Theo will be the lead sand castle building project engineer, with me following his directions.
I hope the Mountain is out every day when I am up north next summer.
But, at Birch Bay, a few miles south of Canada, we are too far north to see Mount Rainier when it is out. At Birch Bay, (and the Skagit Valley) if you said the Mountain is out, it would be the Mount Baker volcano you would be seeing, not Mount Rainier.
But, Mount Baker is never referred to as the Mountain.
The Mountain is reserved to be used only for Mount Rainier.
Now that you are causing me to think about it I remembered that one can see Mount Rainier from the Skagit Valley, when one is out on the Flats, and the air is clear.
The reason Mount Rainier is on the Washington state license plates is because it is the only mountain in the state which can be seen from all over the state, well, most of the state...
UPDATE: I was informed my spelling of the island was wrong. I used the spelling from the original email I got telling me about the new cabin, as in it was on Hartstene Island. But, the island, apparently is actually Harstine Island. It is the private development on the island which goes by the island name with two e's.
UPDATE 2: A second email from David, Theo & Ruby Headquarters told me to zoom in on the last two photos and I would see that the Mountain is out in the picture. I did so, saw the Mountain, and cropped out the version you see below, clearly showing that the Mountain was out.
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