Whale of a time in Anacortes

Earth Date: 2014, July 16th
Location: Anacortes and the San Juan Islands

Today's adventure took us 81 miles north to the small town of Anacortes, Washington. On the orca boat we headed East out into the San Juan Islands. We almost made it over to Canada!

Our drive, and final whale watching location

Despite the rumors of Washington's weather, we had a very pleasant day out on the water. The tour was about 4 hours long, but that included stopping in the San Juan Islands to pick up and drop off passengers. Amanda holds romantic dreams of living in similar islands one day, while I fear that life will be too quiet and remote.

Orca with Olympic peninsula in the (distant) background

The breach in "Free Willy" looked way more impressive =)

Spy-hopping orca popping up to see what is going on

The sad seal

Orca in front of False Bay

The seals were not too happy about the orcas in the water! However there were some creatures on the ocean that day that were very happy to see the majestic porpoises:

Photos of the Mt Rainier hikes

Mt Rainier and the reflecting pools

Earth Dates: 2014, July 12th and 13th
Location: Along the route from Paradise to Sunrise, Mt Rainier National Park

Amanda and Zach have already covered our hikes throughout Mt Rainier National Park. This post will contain very few words; instead my goal is simply to add a few pictures from our hike.

As navigator, I will add a map showing the parts of the park that we visited throughout our two days. The short version is we went from Longmire -- Ohanapecosh -- Sunrise, making the southern and eastern edges of a "box" around Rainier. [Given that we were stained in Ohanapecosh, the order we did this trail is not as advertised above!] The detailed picture:

Map of our trail

Onto the pictures with captions:

Grove of the Patriarchs: A cool swing bridge and some large trees, but not much else.

Amanda at Box Canyon lookout

Stump of destiny (Box Canyon Springs)

Mt Rainier as seen from the trail to Myrtle Waterfall (trailhead at Paradise)

Gopher (?) checking out the surroundings

Amanda at Narada Falls

View on the trail to Dege Peak

Power pose

The parks of Portland

Earth Date: 2014, July 10th
Location:  Washington Park in Portland, Oregon

While Amanda was nursing the consequences of her visit to the Irish pub, Zach and I went out to the rose garden and the Japanese gardens. I had been to the rose gardens a few times, and it was similar to how I remembered it. In fact, there were only two major differences:

1. This year they started charging for parking at the Park
2. Mount Hood was actually visible. I had started to suspect that it was a legend invented by Portlanders, as it had been hidden behind clouds on previous visits.

Mt Hood making a rare appearance

Amanda missed the Shakespeare garden .....

Bill looking over his garden

Marking away the hours

The real treat for me was going to the Japanese garden. I had only been once before, and then we were running through it half an hour before it closed. This time I got to spend a lot more time in quiet contemplation.

The photographers' Maple Tree at the Japanese Gardens

Water art