Monday, June 22, 2009

Why We're Called the EVERGREEN State!

Hi everyone! Hope all the dads in your life had a wonderful Father's Day! We took a drive up to the summit at Snoqualmie Pass for breakfast at a great little pancake house...although they have SO much more than pancakes! Hubby has always wanted to try breakfast up there on one of our Saturday morning excursions. However, it's 50 miles up there and 50 miles back! And we don't usually go THAT far for breakfast! LOL! So, the kids and I decided to take him up there for Father's Day. We hit a little rain on our way up and hubby and I could have sworn we saw a little snow or ice mixed in it. Once we got up there the first thing I noticed was the temperature on this sign. This photo was taken after we ate, and it had actually gone up a couple degrees! It says 46 degrees! Yep...first day of SUMMER!
After we finished our breakfast it had stopped raining and there actually were some patches of blue. We decided to drive around the area a bit. Not much up there right now except some beautiful scenery. This is a popular ski area and also has a great place to go snow tubing in the winter! The area around here is quite rugged and the pass is often closed during the winter because of avalanches, mud and rock slides and heavy snow. Snoqualmie Pass is on Interstate 90, which connects Seattle to Spokane. It is the longest interstate in the country and eventually ends in Boston. When my daughter was deciding on colleges to attend, I was so worried she'd pick one of the several schools on the OTHER side of the mountain! But fortunately she stayed on this side, although Bellingham can have it's own rough winter weather!

Anyway, I just wanted to share a few pictures I took while up there! Click on them to get a better view!

The clouds were still out...that's a piece of the mountain sticking out in the middle, between the trees.

The evergreens are gorgeous right now! Even though we had 30 days of no rain, it's still quite green around here!What a difference from the hustle and bustle this area sees during ski season. These are a few lodges with the lower part of the ski slopes in the background. The clouds are hiding much of the mountains!

I just love being among the clouds up in the mountains! There's actually still a little snow up there!

Okay...the photo below is a flower I saw on the frontage road. I had to stop and get a shot of it! Can anyone tell me what it is?

This is a shot of it with a sweet cascading waterfall in the background.

Well, hope you enjoyed a little peak of the Pacific Northwest! It is so beautiful up here and we have the nicest summers. This week our high temperature is suppose to be 71 degrees and sunny days! Come on out! ~~Annie

10 comments:

  1. You state is amazingly beautiful!
    Loved all the pics...Wish I knew what flower that was, it is so unusual!
    Have a great week!

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  2. Those are beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing them. There sure aren't any mountains here in Ohio!!! Isn't is amazing how different each place is? Have a great week. Not sure what the flower is either. Let us know if you find out!!
    ~Melissa~

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  3. Annie,

    Simply gorgeous! I've been to Oregon but we somehow missed seeing Washington although the hubby's father was born in Olympia. Anyway, thanks for sharing. The flower reminds me a one of those chocolate covered coconut cakes I use to eat as a child..they also had them in pink.

    D

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  4. Thank you for sharing such beautiful pictures! I'd love to get out that way one of these days, Dawn

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  5. Great pictures of your pretty green state! We're known as the Pine Tree State as well. That was the first thing I thought of when visiting my sister in Bellevue, was how similar Washington was to Maine.
    So glad you had a nice father's day.
    Hugs~ Birgit
    ps. Congratulations on your winnings too! Just playing catch up. :)

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  6. we do live in a beautiful state that is for sure...glad you all had a great time...and yeah the weather is going to be puurrrfffeecctt..:)

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  7. How beautiful! I can't wait to move...

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  8. Beautiful scenery, enjoyed seeing it.

    Debbie

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  9. Your pictures are amazing, I love the ones with the mountains and fog! So pretty! Is that some type of Yucca flower?

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  10. Hi--just happened across your blog and I think I recognize your flower---tiarlla or foam flower--just type the name in a search engine and it will come up with a picture and a description of the flower--hope this is the one

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