CA and WA both wonderful states.

CA flowers in
Februaary.  A former LA resident, I enjoyed soaking up desert charms in February, while home in WA enjoyed the beauty of unexpected snow in significant quantities. However, I was told that it did not last but a few days, and it seldom ever does stay. We all live in a beautiful world. Deserts with their own special beauty, islands scattered off our coasts, majestic mountains that start north of the Canadian border and never slow down until close to Mexico, and even then, pick up again to adorn the lovely Baja California lands. Rivers like the Columbia River and Mississippi, and islands like the San Juans and Gulf Islands in the West Coast waters. Add these sights to the beauties of rolling wheat fields and blue lakes farther east, endless sand beaches in the southeast, and forests of the northeast. Be sure to help Nature take care of all this, and help us to share with the world.

San Juan Islands, Washington Staqte, Fun in the Water

The book, San Juan Islands: Into the 21st Century was published less than two years before The Columbia River. The San Juans are scattered across the Strait of Juan de Fuca, recently renamed the Salish Sea, between Bellingham, Washington State and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. They enjoy a relatively warm temperature -- average about 75 days and 60 nights in summer. The waters are part of the North Pacific, so never really get warm. However, with the sun overhead, islanders and visitors enjoy paddling around and waterskiing, sometimes in dry suits. This man could use a couple of kayak paddles but doesn't seem to care.

The San Juan Islands are a vacationer's paradise at least six or eight months of the year. Even in winter it is rare to have any snow in this part of the world, but it does occur occasionally -- and leaves within days.  In the 1800s would-be gold prospectors headed for the Fraser River of Canada had to go first to Victoria to get a license and often paddled their boats through the calm San Juan group. Only four of the larger islands (about 172 islands plus others more popularly called rocks) are served by Washington State Ferries. Residents on other islands must take a small boat, commercial small boat, or a barge rented to take vehicles or other heavy gear on and off islands.

The North Pacific Ocean waters farther south at the mouth of the Columbia is the villain that sends formidable swells at times to confront the outflow of the river and make it difficult for boats to enter the ocean. Essentially, the north-to south coastal shore of Washington stretches from around the San Juan Islands and Olympic Peninsula to the mouth of the Columbia River.

Pacific Northwest -- water everywhere. Columbia River. San Juan Islands

Winter rains bring wonderful spring blooms. The rhododendrons shown here are in a garden, but they grow wild in some Northwest areas, too, especially the Olympic Peninsula. The Columbia River shores around Portland, Oregon, warm and protected from most strong winds provide ideal climates for roses, resulting in a major Portland Rose festival. The San Juan Islands near the north end of Washington have acres of wild foxglove and wild strawberry plants, too. San Juan Islands: Into the 21st Century was published a year before Columbia River by Caxton Press. It is as enjoyable to read as the river sagas. I like to tell about history, what happened in an area, through the tales of the people who actually lived and worked, dreamed and died at a site, thus creating the history. I realize that dates, treaties, governmental actions, and some structure is required to make sense of it all. People
and what they did are more fascinating to me, though.
Enjoy your life stories and smell the flowers.

A virtual wilderness of water

The Columbia River makes a U-shaped turn after passing the Tri-Cities (WA) area and heading west to the Pacific, still hundreds of miles away. Here it is unfettered and wide. Add the winds that narrow down through the Columbia Gorge to these waters and you have turbulent waves as large as the ocean swells. Few settlements grace the shores, either, except for rows of vineyards  that stretch almost to the water's edge making gardens out of the eastern Washington and Oregon desert-like lands. From a boat I found this stretch lonely  but dramatic.