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We are spending about three months out here in the West, specifically living in Liberty Lake, Washington, working in Spokane, Washington and traveling in both the Inland and Pacific Northwest. This has afforded us the opportunity to experience the culture and climate in this part of the United States, as well as a chance to travel about in Washington and Idaho and a small part of Oregon and Montana. We always thought the Pacific Northwest was Washington and northern Oregon and when we heard we were going to be in Spokane we thought we were going to the Pacific Northwest, however it turns out that the Pacific and Inland Northwest are quite different in many ways. We were surprised how different eastern and western Washington are. Eastern Washington is gentle rolling farmlands, with some small mountains like Mt. Spokane. There are many rivers, dammed up to make lakes, and a perfectly pleasant non-humid climate. Summer days are sometimes in the 80's, reaching at times to the low 90's, while sinking into the low 60's and even the 50's at night. There has not been one day when we wanted air conditioning turned on. The people we meet are extremely friendly. In stores, the clerks are very outgoing and helpful. On the other hand, there is a bull-headed, redneck type of person here who can be obnoxious. We continue to be exasperated by people who drive in the left lane on interstates, at the speed limit, and absolutely refuse to move over even if the right side lanes are empty. We marvel at every house having 2 and 3 and even 4 car garages that are larger than the houses themselves. Trailer homes and double-wides have nearby outbuildings, larger than the home, to house vehicles. SUV's, pickup trucks and vans are everywhere. Junker cars come to die here and then find themselves in a zombie existence driven for years beyond their mechanical and esthetic life times. So far, we have driven the North Cascades Highway, visited Whidbey Island, taken a ferry from Whidbey to the Olympic Peninsula, toured the Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula, driven along the Columbia River Gorge, gotten as close to Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainer in the South Cascades as a tourist can get, observed bison on a refuge in Montana, seen the Grand Coulee Dam, observed a young American Bald Eagle in a tree below Deception Pass Bridge, hiked around Coeur d'Alene, Priest and Pend Oreille Lakes, ridden on bikes along the former rail bed of the Hiawatha Line in Montana, hiked in Glacier Park in Montana and driven through Stevens Pass in the South Cascades. It has all been totally fascinating. The variety of scenery is staggering. The immensity of the land is humbling. The amount of open space is unbelievable. The most amazing thing is - we had no idea this was all out here. Click on the links on the left side of this page to see photos from some of the places we have visited. |