Getting behind

Boy, I've really been slacking off the last few days; this is the longest I've gone without an update since I started this blog. I've pretty much just been being a bum since last Friday hanging out at Albin's place in Washington, I'll post a separate update on those festivities in a day or two.

I swung by the big fish hatchery when I got to Leavenworth and got to feed the rainbow trout in their outdoor aquarium as well as getting to see tons of big old Chinook Salmon that had come up river to spawn in large tanks. I have gotten out for a couple easy hikes though and the knee has been holding up well. It's still swollen but the swelling is going down. It's still stiff and sore but I'll be heading back to the doctor tomorrow for an MRI, he'll have the results back on Friday. At least then I'll know for sure what's going on, one way or the other.

Being used to living in Iowa my whole life it's strange to me how varied the climate is out here. When I left Bellevue the other day heading towards Levinworth I was in very lush and dense forest with tons of ferns and fungus. I climbed up and over Steven's pass and as soon as I got over the pass the forests opened up and weren't anywhere as dense. Just an the other side of the pass it's a much warmer and drier climate. If I'd traveled the same distance to the west from Bellevue I would have been in another totally different climate because I would have been standing on the beach.

I don't know how the winters would be out in this neck of the woods but the summers are tough to beat. It's over 90 degrees today which is on the hot side for the area but there is very little humidity which doesn't make it seem very bad at all. The summer weather out here seems just about perfect.