I feel very fortunate to live here. I have traveled around the USA and have seen a whole lot of places that are nice to visit but none that I would trade for Washington State. Ya, so it rains 6 or 700 inches a year but that keeps the landscape green and the Californians out.

From my house, in two hours or less, I can go to the Pacific Ocean, any one of the mountains in the Cascade or Olympic ranges, the dry hot deserts and warm lakes of eastern WA., the absolutely beautiful San Juan Island chain in the awesome Puget Sound, British Columbia, the Olympic Peninsula Rain Forests, watch the Mariners in our 511 million dollar stadium or too many other great places to try to name here. Another big bonus is that every day I get to look at the backdrop of Mt. Rainier and Puget sound and I never get over how breath taking it looks. When I start taking it all for granted I take a vacation some where and it puts it all back into perspective!

This is Longbranch, one of my favorite places. Tacoma is on the water on the far side in front of Mt. Rainier. At the bottom is the marina at Longbranch. In the middle are some of the hundreds of islands that live in Puget Sound. Fishing, scuba diving, wind surfing, sailing, camping, hiking, some of the best snow skiing (boarding) in the world, hunting, whale watching, whatever you like to do, it's here.

If you ever get a chance, come and visit Washington, IMHO it's the best place in the country, the problem is the secret is starting to get out and the rush hour traffic is starting to reflect it.