Back from trip to PNW (pics)

[dmede]

Well the honeymoon is over. The weather in Vancouver and the San Juan Islands was fantastic. So much so that I have been lulled into beliving that I could live up there!

Here are a few pics:

our cabin at Cayou Cove
http://static.flickr.com/53/148284671_b47ffd6beb.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/56/148284650_84201524be.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/54/148284638_d5613653e6.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/45/148284642_26aef3b47c.jpg?v=0

Note: sorry for the links, I posted these with the proper tags but it won't display the pic???

[dmede]

what you do on a beautiful day on Orcas Island
http://static.flickr.com/55/148284662_a8a7a7c2f4.jpg?v=0

my best impression of Joe
http://static.flickr.com/55/148284657_529fc9a22e.jpg?v=0

Boatyard behind our cabin
http://static.flickr.com/50/148284685_3f82237430.jpg?v=0

what every person in the San Juan’s has in their backyard
http://static.flickr.com/48/148284673_e07ee8480e.jpg?v=0

[dmede]

http://static.flickr.com/45/148284689_97f0f0e7a4_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/53/148284618_374ca1d676_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/48/148284715_dd0a7ab3d3_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/46/148284729_3c438a5df0_o.jpg

these seemed to work ok. I don't get it.

[pcford]

Hey! You are ruining Smalser's story about constant rain and wind and two hours of daylight a day.

Don't know where else I would like to live.

Unfortunately, our quota of Californians is filled.

But thank you very much.

[Les Schuldt]

Say, I thought I read somewhere that wood boat owners get a waiver on the "California Quota".

Extra points if my kid graduated from U Dub?

[dmede]

Hey! You are ruining Smalser's story about constant rain and wind and two hours of daylight a day.

Don't know where else I would like to live.

Unfortunately, our quota of Californians is filled.

But thank you very much.

I'm really from Hawaii, how many of us you got?

[pcford]

I'm really from Hawaii, how many of us you got?

Sigh. There's really too much of everybody. Traffic in Seattle is nuts. I pity commuters.

Only yesterday I was remarking how much Seattle has changed in the 35 years I've lived here. (I'm from eastern Washington...went to school in the Bay Area at UC.)

Used to be salmon jumping in Lake Union...middle of the city!...log rafts going down the Ship Canal. There was a shake mill in Ballard.

We don't get out of the city as much as we should...it's a wonderful region.

[Mark T]

Nice photos. The small vessel Baten is a Jay Benford design. I've been contemplating building that one or it larger sister.
Mark

[Nicholas Carey]

The weather in Vancouver and the San Juan Islands was fantastic...I have been lulled into beliving that I could live up there!Dont' forget the Non-Disclosure Agreement they made you sign before you could come up here. I'm pretty sure it requires you to only speak the party line about the weather up here: 40 deg F and drizzly 300+ days per year. And the skeeters are size of model airplanes, too. :D :D

[dmede]

Here's a few more of Baten:

http://static.flickr.com/52/148380768_572716dbb9_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/51/148380759_2da7951be2_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/49/148380746_7cce9979e2_o.jpg

[pcford]

Dont' forget the Non-Disclosure Agreement they made you sign before you could come up here. I'm pretty sure it requires you to only speak the party line about the weather up here: 40 deg F and drizzly 300+ days per year. And the skeeters are size of model airplanes, too. :D :D

Don't forget the part about the sun going down a little after 3pm.

[dmede]

Dont' forget the Non-Disclosure Agreement they made you sign before you could come up here. I'm pretty sure it requires you to only speak the party line about the weather up here: 40 deg F and drizzly 300+ days per year. And the skeeters are size of model airplanes, too. :D :D

(oops, totally forgot) ahem... I hereby retract and amend my previous statements re the PNW. It is a terrible place to visit and you will be greatly disappointed by it once there. The only indication that it’s daytime is when the mosquitoes disappear as the wind picks up. The beaches are littered with the bodies of long dead Californians (presumed to have died of grief from a lack of freeways and In&Out burgers). You’ll spend all of your time inside. Their seafood quality has been greatly exaggerated and the residents are not particularly nice or clean. :D

That better?

[dmede]

Say, anybody on this board actually live in Vancouver? I missed my chance to go back to the Granville Market on our last day and pick up some venison snacks from the Oyama Sausage Co. I talked to the guy there but he can't mail me any :( so sad.

[Bob Smalser]

Glad you had a nice time, David......when the sun does shine here, it really shines.

The highest skin cancer rates in the country are right here in the Puget Sound area. ;)

http://www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060429/NEWS/60429004

[pcford]

Glad you had a nice time, David......when the sun does shine here, it really shines.

The highest skin cancer rates in the country are right here in the Puget Sound area. ;)

http://www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060429/NEWS/60429004

Well done! Gotta hand it to you!

[chucksw]

You got lucky. Last couple weeks have been abnormal. The summer rains haven't started.

Chuck
Portland

[G. Schollmeier]

Glad you had a nice time, David; I hope to be over that way in a week or two.
I haven’t been here long enough to take the oath yet so I’ll spill a few beans. I have spent more time than I would like watering new sod this spring and I am drawing a sun shade for my almost completed deck. I will have to admit that the traffic south of Marysville and into the metro is as bad as I have ever seen. Once the neighbors got use to my Minnesota accent they are real sociable.

Gary :D

[dmede]

Glad you had a nice time, David......when the sun does shine here, it really shines.

The highest skin cancer rates in the country are right here in the Puget Sound area. ;)

http://www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060429/NEWS/60429004

It was fun and the good weather was both unexpected and much enjoyed. It was downright muggy in Victoria this past Monday.

I'm not too worried about PNW UV levels, my fist 18 years of life were spent on the beaches of Kauai, most of them without any sunscreen at all. I'm much more carefull these days but the damage is done.

I'll come back up in the winter and if it's not any worse than my two winters in Vermont then game on! ;)

[pcford]

I'll come back up in the winter and if it's not any worse than my two winters in Vermont then game on! ;)

In all honesty...winters are mild. About two weeks of freezing weather. Total rainfall isn't as much as people think...about 30 inches. Less than NYC. But people do have problems with gray skies. People that have lived here a while get uncomfortable when it doesn't rain for a while. You'll hear people say they want it to sprinkle a bit. Keeps things fresh and cozy.

[Bob Smalser]

Rainfall varies greatly within short distances.

While Seattle may get 40 inches, I get 60 inches just 35 miles west as the crow flies....and areas another 30 miles west get up to 200 inches.

Sequim, Pt Townsend, and the islands in the Olympic rain shadow get only 25 or so.

[Old Sailor]

Spent two summers sailing on the schooner Zodiac in the San Juans, and it didn't rain once, though morning fog was kinda dicey sometimes.
Old Sailor

[dmede]

Becky's art professor from Arizona lives on San Juan and when we were visiting he mentioned they only get about half what Seattle gets due to the rain shadow effect. Grey skies are my biggest challenge down here as well. I’m solar powered and get cranky if I don’t see the sun for long periods. But that’s what coffee is for right?

The thing I found most interesting with respect to climate was how much of a beach culture Vancouver has. We stayed at the Sylvia on English Bay and sometimes it looked like Santa Cruz out there. No one in the water of course, but lots of slippers, board shorts, skate and surf shops etc.