My month in Washington

My take on Washington

where I went this month

I think you can see that I really did try to get around the state this month.  Washington's only the 18th largest state - quite a difference from the last 7 states I've visited.  I have to go back as far as North Dakota (#19) to find a smaller state.  So I had hopes of making it to most areas.

But the map shows I missed a big chunk in both the southcentral and the northeast areas.  These western states really make me miss the relatively small states east of the Mississippi.  Even Illinois comes in at #25.  

Washington's land

Despite the vast differences in types of land between the eastern and the western sides of the Cascade Mountains, Washington can uniformly lay claim to beauty.

But more than land, WA is defined by its rivers, which it seems packed with.  The big one, of course, is the Columbia - the largest river that empties into the Pacific and the 4th largest in the US.  And 745 miles of its route runs through Washington.  But my posts mentioned several others as the month went on that are major rivers in their own right - the Snake River, for instance, and the Yakima, the Skagit, and the Palouse.  These rivers are likely how eastern WA is able to be such an important agricultural area, because otherwise I'd expect the climate to be too dry.

Back to the land, though, there were the strikingly different landscapes I saw in western WA compared to eastern WA.  Stunning, really, the differences.  The west was clearly marked by its access to moisture with miles and miles of evergreens and other trees and natural growth.  The east was clearly marked as very dry - desert-like in many areas.  Any trees were located at water sources, because water sure wasn't coming from the sky in useful amounts.

But as I mentioned, both sides have legitimate claims to beauty.  Yet, for all its beauty, I didn't see much in the way of what you might call unique natural wonders.  In fact, offhand I can't think of any.  I guess you'd have to say the natural wonders were in the land itself, so you'd need to visit an area rather than a spot.  And I guess that makes WA unique.

Washington's people

I talked with quite a few people besides just my friends.  The folks here aren't the Southern style of friendly but they were very willing to talk to me and free with their opinions.  Everyone I talked to liked where they were living, and since they lived in a wide variety of places, their reasons also varied widely.  A few folks hesitated when I asked if theirs was a nice place to live, but they all said yes, without qualifying it.  

I found most people pretty helpful, no matter where I met them or what I was asking.  (Except for that odd woman in the Moses Lake campground office asking why I wanted a dumpster for the campground.  I still can't figure that one out.)  And Washingtonians seem to be greatly attached to outdoor activities, because I saw them all over - at trail heads and campgrounds and riversides and marinas and horse stables.  

But sports aren't the only thing folks enjoy.

I've found people all over the country that keep chickens in their yards, but this is the first state I've seen a bumper sticker about it.

Driving in Washington

Yes, that's Mt. Rainier in the background.

In general I found drivers in Washington to be about like those in most other states.  They were mostly (though not always) polite and rarely tried actively to keep me from merging into a lane when I needed to.  They mostly obeyed stop signs and traffic lights and rarely jumped the gun (as I saw done in other states).  They were almost always good drivers in the sense of being able to stay in their lanes and follow traffic instructions.  While these are traits in many states, I've learned they aren't to be found everywhere and are therefore not something to be taken for granted.

I had more people thank me for pulling over for them than in most other states, which I really appreciated.  But I also had that one jerk who blared his horn at me for pulling over as far as I could but that still left me a little bit in the lane of travel.  And after saving him the trouble of having to pass me on a winding 2-lane road.  As I mentioned at the time, I've only been blared at in 2 states, and I was really saddened to have Washington be one of those two.

Roads in WA were in pretty good shape statewide.  There were a few places where I got lost or turned around which were sometimes the fault of the highway department's lack of adequate signs, but also sometimes the fault of Google for giving poor directions.  Mostly, when I wanted to know something, the highway department would soon provide a sign with the answer, and I don't ask much more than that.

What I didn't see that I wanted to see

Actually, quite a few things that I didn't already mention in my daily posts.

Up in the far northwestern corner where I didn't have time to go, I wanted to run to Bellingham for at least a couple of reasons: it's the southern end of the Alaska Marine Highway ferry system; Squalicum Harbor is the 2nd largest on Puget Sound (which is saying something).  In Blaine is a Peace Arch at the Canadian border.  I've seen it before but that was many years ago.

There are several passes across the Cascades; I took the one farthest north but a scenic wonder lies along one of the others.  Snoqualmie Pass, on the highway between Ellensburg and Seattle, lies near Snoqualmie Falls, which are 100' taller than Niagara Falls.  I hear they're beautiful and I'd've liked to see them.

Speaking of Seattle, the Aurora Bridge is a landmark for several reasons, among the most pleasant being the statue of a troll that's underneath it.  This troll holds in its hand an actual Volkswagen (with California license plates), presumably having grabbed it off the bridge.  And Seattle has other unusual bridges, among them the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and the Mercer Island Floating Bridge, ranking #1 and #3 respectively on the list of the world's longest permanent floating bridges.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge (the new one, not the original Galloping Gertie that failed in a 42 mph wind) is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world.  I traveled over it a couple of times when I lived in the area but would be willing to see it again, now that I know how to drive on long bridges.

Because the US Supreme Court declared Long Island in New York to be technically a peninsula, Whidbey Island here is now the US's longest island outside of Hawaii.

Clarkston, where I ended my month, is actually a seaport.  Yes, it's 450 miles inland, but container ships can travel up the Columbia and the Snake Rivers to offload.  I didn't remember to look for the port facilities while I was there.

And you'll remember all the times I learned after the fact that I should have made time to see one thing or another.  But I barely had time to see what I did, so it couldn't be helped.

My conclusion

I've always liked Washington; after all, I lived here very happily for more than 16 years.  I have good friends here and places that I love.  There's a lot of sentimental value for me here.

So it doesn't come as a surprise to me that I mostly enjoyed my month here.  Of course, losing Gracie was a sadness that will be with me for a long time.  And I'd lived through so many days of rain and overcast weather during my month in Oregon that I was seriously dismayed to find that I had to live through still more of them here.

But when I was here before, I really liked the people and places on both sides of the mountains - and I still do.

Many people consider WA to be a solidly Democratic state but, as so often with political questions, the truth is more complicated than that.  When I lived here, I thought of the west side of the Cascades as mostly Democrat and the east side as mostly Republican.  I don't know if I was right then, but now, in recent elections, the Democrats have dominated primarily in the metro area extending from north of Seattle down to Olympia, with a few offshoots here and there.  The Republicans have dominated almost everywhere else in the state.  The problem Republicans have here - as is the case in almost all states - is that their strongest support is in rural areas with relatively low population levels.  Democrats have their strongest support in urban areas that often have the majority of each state's population.  As far as I can tell (though I haven't studied it), it's like that in every state across the country.  So you could say - and I have said for years - that Washington has a very strong 2-party system, despite its top offices being dominated by Democrats.  

WA also has for some years done all voting by mail.  The rate of fraud has been extremely low (something like 10 cases in the last 15 years).  I loved it because it was vastly easier to vote.  I could do it in my own time sitting at my kitchen table, instead of having to remember to get to a precinct on whatever days and between whatever hours the polls were open.  Apparently the state's residents think it works because they haven't yet repealed it.

All of this is by way of saying that I've been seriously considering moving my residence back to Washington.  I've never made friends easily and it's important that I have so many who live here.  But I lived with too much rain for more than 30 years and I just don't think I could be happy choosing it again.  On the other hand, eastern WA is too dry for my taste, which doesn't run to deserts.  I don't know.  I'll keep thinking about it.