Day 10: Snoqualmie to Sunnyside

The next morning, after a great breakfast of fried potatoes, carrots, and onions, Molly and I went for a hike in the mountains above Todd's house.  The trees aren't quite as big as in the Olympics, mainly because the area has been logged at least a couple times in the last 100 years.  It still feels pretty impressive to me, though.  And wet.  We're only just over the Pacific Crest, so it still rains all the time.

The lake you can just barely see is the head of the Yakima River.  Without that lake, and all this rain, most of the hops in this country wouldn't grow.  Nor a large amount of its apples, cherries, asparagus, and most anything in the Yakima Valley.

It starts as little tiny streams,

Which become bigger falls (like this one that powers, through a small hydro-electric generator, Todd's house), and eventually the Yakima, with all of its canals and irrigation ditches.

One day, we'll find a way to build a house like Todd's.  It's cosy, small, and has just enough of everything you need.  Like one whole wall of books.

But we had to go, sadly.  Our niece Laura, was turning 6, and we had a birthday party to go to.  Not that we really wanted to go hang out at bowling alley, but we did want to see my parents and my brother's family, too.

It's a strange transition to drive out of the Cascades.  It was odd enough to bike into them, but with driving, the change is even faster.  One minute, you're in a rainy pine forest, as not 5 miles later, it's semi-arid mountains and desert.  By the time you get to Sunnyside, 110 or so miles further down the river, the landscape is so different you would think you drove halfway across the country.  Nothing but scrub would grow here if it were for the water from the river.

But like the last time we came to Central Washington, the sunsets are still amazing.

Even looking away from the sun, the clouds get lit up.

Oooooooooooooo.....

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh....

Some bowling, a little dinner with family, and drinking the case of Fremont beer that I brought.  Not a bad way to end a long day of driving.