I guess anyone who knows me would say that I tend to take a lot of pictures... :-)

This has been one of my favorite sections on my website!  This is the 8th Year... Can you believe it?!?   I guess it goes without saying that I take a lot of pictures.   Every so often,  I get lucky, or the scene I'm taking a picture of is so outstanding, that one will stand out from the others... I'll try to put at least some of those here.

Some of you have said I was a month behind, but that's just because the picture is from the month before... I can't post a month's "best pic" until the month is over... :-)

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Across the street from our house, the tree-covered Rattlesnake Ridge rises some 2500 feet above us, giving us a majestic view to enjoy out our front window.

When the snow line begins to creep down the slopes, we're treated to a contrasting view of snowy trees on the slopes, with bare trees farther down.  On this day, I managed to catch that contrast with fog... which made for a VERY nice picture!

The Shadow Lady and I too a drive down from the Snoqualmie Pass "The back way", which is now a US Forest Service Road that seems to follow the original road through the Pass.

It'd snowed the day before in the higher elevations, which is why we took the drive, hoping to take in some scenery... we were not at all disappointed!

We went for a walk along the shores of Rattlesnake Lake, which is just a few minutes from where we live. 

It ended up being the last trip to the lake before we were 'officially' parents, and the memory of the walk and talk still rings in my mind as vividly as the reflection in the waters of the smooth lake.

For the Seahawks Opening Game flyover, the National Guard flew a flight of CH-47's over the stadium.  They flew just above the roofline, and slowed way down, for maximum effect... it was a very stunning display.

The angle I happened to have, being up on the very top of "Mount Quest" - I literally was in the very back row, not far from where my season tickets were last year - I managed to catch the trailing Chinook along with Old Glory...

Since it was September, two days before the 11th, I thought it was a very appropriate picture.

As we were pulling out of Sitka for our Anniversary trip, a whale breached several times, and I managed to catch him at it. (scientists think its the males who do it)

He'd done it a couple of times before, and in the end he did it about 6 times in a row.

You see that sort of thing on the nature shows... but when you see it in person, its pretty impressive!

We took a drive up to Sunrise Point, in Mt Rainier National Park, which brings you very close to the Mountain, and up to 6400 feet...

The views are INCREDIBLE, which makes it sort of easy to get a really nice picture, as you can see.

 

 

 

My cousin is visiting from Florida, and we took her to the Butterfly House at the Pacific Science Center, part of the "Seattle Thing" while she was here.

There were about 700 butterflies in the large room set up for them... it was hard to get me out of that place, to be sure! :-)

I happened to notice these two butterflies, performing what I surmised was a mating dance.  The flapping wings of the flying butterfly made for a great effect, I thought anyway.

The Shadow Lady and I drove to our new place up in North Bend, mostly to check out the route and explore the new neighborhood a bit.

Along the way, we were treated to this awesome view of the upper Snoqualmie Valley, which is where North Bend is located.

We are REALLY going to like living in North Bend, that's for sure!

The Shadow Lady and I drove up to Skagit County to check out this year's Tulip Festival, and were not disappointed!

Carpets of color is how they describe it... and I'd agree.  The colors and the smells are quite incredible!

We walked around a couple of farms, eventually ending up in the Rosengarde... It was one of those days where you wish time would pass by a bit more slowly than usual, you know?

 
The Shadow Lady and I were driving down from Snoqualmie Pass, and we decided to take a short detour.  Along the way, we found the entrance to Olalie State Park, and decided to get out for a look around.

This view is from a viewpoint at one end of the park, looking up a set of falls... its pretty spectacular!

About a mile upstream from here, a diversion dam siphons off some of the water down a shaft to a turbine at the base of the falls.  The turbine turns a generator that generates electricity... a "Dam-less" power station, if you will.

The park surrounds the power station.

 
On a lazy Saturday, the Shadow Lady and I went for a drive to see what we could see, and ended up crossing Deception Pass, an inlet of water on the North end of Whidbey Island.

The inlet was named by Captain Vancouver, while exploring the region in 1772.  He thought that Whidbey was a peninsula, but realized that he had been deceived as to the character of the land mass when he discovered this channel so he gave it the name of "Deception Passage".  

I guess it was shortened over the years to "Pass". 

Its a beautiful location, and one of the most photographed locations in Washington. 

 
 
The Shadow Lady and I went up to Vancouver for a weekend to pull us out of the 'work a bit on the weekend' rut, and clear our minds... and of course have fun! 

On our trek around the city, we stopped by Totem Park, a stand of totems donated over the years by local Native Americans to show and promote peace.

Each totem depicts the lives of those in a particular family, while the one on the far right is to memorialize the Chief who welcomed the white settlers into the region.  He was Chief over a majority of the local tribes, and was respected by Natives and Settlers alike. 

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