Northwest of it all

Last Monday I made a business journey to the far northwest corner of the continental US to Sedro-Woolley, WA. It was fairly exciting to make the trip, despite the roughly 6.5 hours of flying time via Cincinnati and the time change to -3 hours. I did miss seeing Kim and Helen this past week, although we were glad that her mother was willing to stay and visit while I was away.

The town, about 1.5 hour north of Seattle is a quiet place that grew up around the logging industry. If I was there this coming weekend, I could see the bald eagle festival. Although I would still rather be at home with Kim and Helen! There wasn't time to sight-see, but of course I did soak in the views as we drove around. It's an amazing place with snow capped mountains that lead into the Cascades, yet extremely flat farm areas that make up a river valley. The area boasts one of the largest tulip harvests around, actually exporting tulips to Holland. And some of the winners of the annual chainsaw carving competition can be seen lining the downtown streets.


Here is a map of where I was at:

View Larger Map
Note the flat river valley where the town is at and the surrounding mountains. I will definitely have to take a camera next time!

The surprising thing to me was that I expected cold, snowy, rainy, dreary weather up there and it was actually warmer (34-45' F) than in South Carolina. I missed the 3" of snow and sub-freezing temperatures. It's the proximity to the Pacific that gives them their weather, and it keeps the local weather forecasters busy I could tell.

Here's a picture of Grandmama and Helen checking out the snow (Helen's first time!).