9-13-00: We decided to drive out Highway 2 to start exploring our new home, because it looked like there were lots of waterfalls along it. There are – as well as this reminder that you aren't in Kansas anymore. The yellow signs read CAUTION STATE SPONSORED HWY OF DEATH. We later learned that a lot of accidents occur on Highway 2, because it's a narrow two-lane blacktop that has had a huge increase in traffic in recent years. It is not so much the sentiment that the road is dangerous, but the public criticism of the state that seems uniquely coastal.

9-13-00: Just a little further up Highway 2 lies the Skykomish river. This was my first introduction to Pacific Northwest rivers – very different from the sluggish, brown farmland-runoff waterways of the Midwest.

9-13-00: Looking upriver from the same spot. Notice how blue the water looks! Like most rivers in this area, it's fed by glacial runoff... and its just as icy cold as you would imagine!

9-13-00: My shadow, reflecting through the crystal clear water.

We did eventually find our way to Wallace Falls.

On another day we decided to take a little afternoon walk in the woods. We saw a sign that said Granite Mountain Lookout – 5 miles. Great, we thought. Five miles is about right for a nice afternoon hike. What the sign did not say (and we did not know to consider yet) was that the trail was also 2500 feet of up in addition to the 5 miles of lateral travel. We were exhausted by the time we made it to the top, but here you can see a very tiny Eric standing to the left of center on the snowfield, with a tarn in the foreground. This photo remains one of my favorites.

Another shot of the summer snowfields on Granite, with beargrass and some other alpine flowers in the foreground. I liked the way the off-white flower looked framed against the true white of the snow, plus the contrast of flowers and snow in the same picture is always fun.

9-17-00: Next stop, ocean. Looking out over Samish Bay from Larabee State Park on a typical Pacific Northwest autumn day.

9-17-00: Eric surveying his new domain.

9-17-00: Eric's response to my mother cautioning him, Don't fall!

9-17-00: I found a good perching spot, too. Eric took this picture of me up in a madrone tree. It remains one of the best pictures of me that anyone has taken. I think it helps that I'm looking at me sweetie taking the picture.

9-17-00: Eric engaging in what has become one of our favorite pasttimes – tormenting tidepool life. After considerable coaxing we were able to get this sea star to pose for the picture.

Once it got into the idea, though, we were able to get several good shots. I like the contrast of colors – purple starfish, green algae, blue-gray sea, brightly colored hippies.

9-17-00: Eric finds a seat on the sea-carved rocks. I really love the formations made by the sea. Rocks like this are fairly common along the Washington coast.

Eric and I pose for a picture in front of a particularly artistically carved area of the beach. Our friend the starfish insisted on being in on the act, too. Little did I know at the time, but we were lucky to get this shot – this part of the rock actually spends most of its time at least partially submerged, and the next time I visited the area (at high tide) it was completely under water!

9-17-00: The brilliant purple starfish and green anenome typical of Pacific Northwest tidepools, but utterly alien and fascinating to my Midwestern eyes. This is the photo where I learned the trick of using my shadow to adjust the natural lighting of the shot.

We went looking for more typical Pacific Northwest beach, and ended up on Long Beach in the southern part of Washington. It is much more of a typical beach, but lacks the rocks and sea stacks typical of Washington and Oregon. We did, eventually, find those, too.

We ventured briefly to Eastern Washington. I like how the hills look like they're covered in crushed brown velvet for miles on end.

And the East does have its own rugged beauty.

10-31-00: I've always enjoyed jack'o'lanterns, but this year I decided to do something a little different. It's supposed to be a werewolf, although it ended up looking more like a crazed cat.

10-31-00: All lit up on Hallowe'en night, though, it looked plenty spooky for the little ghosties and goblins.

10-31-00: Eric's pumpkin was a little forbidding, too. Not so forbidding as to deter the kiddies from the chance at candy, though.

11-14-00: One thing we have in the PNW is waterfalls. If you look very carefully, about 1/3 of the way down the photo and a little to the right of center, you can spot Eric next to the falls. This is one massive waterfall! As near as we can tell, it is unnamed and just considered a steep spot in the river by local standards.

11-14-00: It snows very rarely in Seattle, but you can drive to find snow just about any time of year. We decided that this day our goal was up and we drove to the snowline. Just about 10 minutes walk from the snowline on this day is the summit of Suntop, a lookout just on the edge of Mount Ranier National Park. As my attire suggests, it was chilly but not cold in the sunshine at this altitude.

11-14-00: Eric takes in the breathtaking view of Ranier. Actually, I was getting ready to take this picture when he walked right in my field of view to take a leak. I decided to take the picture anyway.

11-14-00: Eric taking his revenge for the previous picture by throwing snowballs.

11-14-00: Our first introduction to the PNW notion of a trail. This trail slides downhill at about a 25 degree angle, which seemed positively unreasonable to my flatlander eyes. Since then I have learned that some trails are only passable at low tide, others require wading through knee-deep water (even at low tide!), or climbing 100 feet of rope ladder to scale a cliff, or using a handcart to inch your way across a deep ravine. This trail is a bunny by local standards! I still think it is a beautiful picture of the Cascades in winter, though.

12-16-00: As the days grew colder we took to staying home and tormenting our pets. Here, Patchouli picks up signals from the mother ship as he sleeps.

12-16-00: We figured out that the previous tenant had been feeding the squirrels....

12-16-00: In fact, the squirrels were downright demanding about being fed! We bought squirrel food – what else are you going to do?