What ever happened in Washington?

Another delay in posting... This time the delay was due to the new picture in the title. I've been obsessing with creating that picture over the last couple of days. It is still a work in progress, but some of the things I want to do are going to take some time.

As for Washington, I stopped in the city of Spokane to look around. I went to the local mall and drove around the campus.

I noticed a number of political signs for some Republican politician telling the locals to "Not let Seattle steal this election." I assume he meant that the voters should vote for him instead of some Seattle democrat, but it just seemed like a lot of bullshit to me. We hear that kind of stuff here too; it is small-minded Republicans playing on the insecurities of small town people. I find that kind of campaigning repulsive.

I also noticed the same posters missing that statement further west, in the more central part of the state. There are more things I'd like to say about him, but I guess I'll hold off on that as I don't know the full story.

I passed over the Columbia River, and it was a truly incredible sight. Some of the large lakes in Wyoming are smaller than it is wide. And it goes for miles. I got to see more of it on my return trip, and I was impressed with the number of dams I saw. That made it a little less impressive, to me, because that made the river seem like a long extended reservoir. Knowing that all the water is simply being stored isn't as cool as would be if all that water was flowing freely to the ocean.

I stayed in Yakima, Washington, with a friend and the next day we traveled to see Mt. Rainier. It was a short hour or so jaunt into the mountains just to see it, but I was glad I did. I even managed to forget to take my camera, so alas, I have no pictures. Here is the wikipedia page on Mt. Rainier: Mt. Rainier. The last picture on that page was a place we drove by, so there is at least some view of what I saw.

After Mt. Rainier and a lunch, I continued on to Oregon, to the city of Portland...