It's nice to get visitors

This past week, my friends Jessica and Mike from D.C. came to visit, since they just *had* to be part of my blog. According to Jess, she reads my blog occasionally when she wants to see nice pictures from the beautiful places I visit. This was a pleasant surprise to me, since I have no idea if anyone actually reads this stuff (or even looks at the pictures).

Anyway, they arrived late Tuesday night and stayed through Monday, barely missing out on the airport drama that happened in London. In the five full days they were here, I have to give them credit for seeing more of this state than most people see in a year. Wednesday, they hung around Ballard and went to the aquarium in the afternoon. Thursday, they headed to Mt. Rainier and got taken in by its beauty, despite the overcast weather.

Friday was the official beginning of my weekend. I took the day off from work and gave them a tour of Fremont (and Seattle) during the day, and then went sailing with them, my boss, and another co-worker on Friday night. I must say that it was a little strange giving out orders on the boat to my boss. Since this was the first time on the boat for all four of them, I was *really* hoping that there was good wind, but it turned out to be dead for much of the night. Fortunately, our patience paid off around 7:30 as the wind slowly and sporadically picked up for our last hour of sailing.

On Saturday we made the long (3 hour) drive down to Mt. St. Helens, and got a good education on volcanoes. I had been wanting to see it for some time now, and I'm glad this was their "gotta have it" activity for the week. The weather cooperated and magnified just how different this landscape is from the rest of the cascades. No Douglas firs, very little vegetation, and not a whole lot of water either.

Sunday was the icing on the cake, as we headed up to the North Cascades National Park for what turned out to be a fabulous hike through Heather Pass and Maple Pass. Once again, the weather was flawless and provided us with 360-degree views of some of the most rugged landscape the West has to offer. Our hike up to 7000 feet gave us views of two turquoise alpine lakes, and partially or fully glaciated peaks in all directions. Jess and Mike were particular impressed with the smurf-blue lakes in the park, and seemed adequately challenged by the 2100 vertical foot ascent.

All in all, it was an excellent weekend for me, and I think they would agree. August is a great time to visit this city, to escape all the heat and humidity elsewhere in the country. Why is it so hard to convince people to come then?

I'm hoping Mike will be nice enough to mail me the pictures he took with his digital SLR, which are no doubt much nicer than these!