Raining this afternoon and rather cool.  We’ve become hardened for Alaska.  Still we had one fabulously clear day traveling from near Mt. Hood to here at the foot of Mt. Rainier.  At first had the one snowball in our rear view mirror and later faced the somewhat ominous Rainier looming in front of us.

We tour and walk mostly between showers but sometimes with rainsuits or umbrellas.  We are traveling north with the spring.  Daffodils at every stop from San Diego to Seattle.  In Oregon we took one fine day to see the wonderfully tall Multnomah Falls and other features along the enormous canyon of the Columbia River.  Then we turned south to loop around Rainier across snow covered slopes.  At first the peak was hidden by clouds but as we crossed its shoulder the icy lobes fingered toward us from the hoary crown.  Finally we turned again and coasted down to our campground.  Did not see the peak again until the day we left.  Escaped the rain, cold, and bare trees by driving to Portland where we walked about the Magnolia and Rhododendron garden that was in full bloom despite the gray weather.  Rained every day we were in Oregon except the last as we left.

Here we visit old friends of Anne.  On this Sunday afternoon we are sharing wine, smoked salmon, and other snacks.  Wonderful.  Tomorrow we are on to Bellingham at the border with Canada.  We will stay there for four nights to regroup and tour.  Our ferry tickets say April 28.  I guess we are in Alaska next week.  Amazing.  Took us two and a half months to get there, but there we go. 

Tomorrow we have to sneak past the congested gold rush towns of Bellevue and Redmond.  Bellingham will be quieter.  Alaska is a different world.  How has it changed in ten years?  We will let you know.