Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

About 60 miles north of Seattle, between the mountains and the Sound, is a place called Skagit Valley (pronounced "scadge-it"). It's a large flat area with fertile soil - the result of repeated flooding from the mineral-rich, glacier-fed Skagit River.

Apparently the soil & climate are well-suited to grow rare, strange-tasting root vegetables: Skagit produces more than 90% of the U.S. supply of turnips and rutabagas. Flowers also grow well there - particularly daffodils, irises, and (most popular of all), tulips.

Every April is the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. It's kind of a strange event: basically you drive there, look at big fields covered in bright flowers, take a few pictures, and leave. It attracts a wide cross-section of society: Old people in Buicks out for their Sunday drive, young families in minivans and Subarus (it's Seattle, remember), software developers on Harleys decked out in leather, affluent folks with cars that cost in the six digits, and hillbillies in jalopies.

We went on Sunday with our friends Alex & Crystal. I guess we don't really fit into any of those categories; maybe we're in a different group: people who were out to enjoy a (mostly) sunny Sunday and sample the local food (and beverages) in La Conner, the town that's the main destination.

Here's the photo album.

Ominous Skies

One night this week we were walking around on Queen Anne hill - one of the most scenic neighborhoods in the city. It was cloudy all day, but just before dusk the sun barely started to pop out of the clouds and created some really weird light. It made for a few interesting pictures...

UW Cherry Blossoms

The main campus of the University of Washington is roughly 20 minutes on foot from our house. It's a very nice campus - lots of greenery and cool architecture. There are plenty of big fir and cedar trees to give it a Pacific Northwest feel and on a clear day there's a great line of sight to Mt. Rainier.

In spring the campus becomes a bit of a tourist attraction when the cherry trees bloom. We heard about this and walked there on Saturday to take some pictures. It was too cloudy to see the mountains, but the trees were pretty impressive. The album is here.

Summer?

Spring is definitely here in Seattle, but Monday felt more like summer - it was 75 degrees with bright sun. We went for a walk around our neighborhood and took some pictures of the lake, the city, and the flowers.

Enjoy.

Whistler in April

We just got back from spending two perfect days skiing at Whistler. They've gotten a decent amount of snow since our last visit in February, and coverage was good (unlike last time). Sunny skies and warm temperatures made for fantastic spring conditions: soft & forgiving bumps, fast groomers, and flawless tree skiing.

Our friends Alex and Pavel accompanied us and we all had a spectacular weekend. Depending on how the schedule works out for the next few weeks, this might be it for our skiing season. If so, our two days up in BC were a quite satisfying end to it.

Anya was the photographer for the trip; she took some cool pictures with both our old point-and-shoot and our new SLR.

Pavel also took some great photos; his album is here.