to make this easy to see, all dark green is Washington.. all the white broken lines and patchy images within the state is all of Puget Sound, with many islands clustered throughout that region of water. the furthest west of the state is the Pacific Ocean the south of the state is Oregon the east of the state is Idaho the north of the state is Canada.. Vancouver Island is just above the Puget Sound waterways, where it dips down on the map. you gotta see the entire map to get your bearings on just where it begins. now, the far left of this water part of the map, you see an extreme letter "L", with the crook of it at the bottom? that's Hood Canal. where I was today, was at the very crux of that letter, where it comes down, and jets back up again, and ends. the point at the very bottom, is all around the Indian Reservation. if you can imagine a small letter "V"..at the bottom of that water, is right where we were..part of the "V" on the left...driving back down to the point and back up the other side of the "V"..but not to the end of it..just enough to make a small "V". from one point at Hoodsport, where we started, down and up again to Union, takes about twenty five minutes..so I guess on this map..it's even a smaller "V" than I describe. How can I say...lower case 'v'... anyway, it does feed into larger water but heck, that's a lot of Puget Sound to get through. the other side of the water is where Seattle is and that's where the "Clipper" is, to take off and head to Victoria, Canada. can you imagine what a fun ride it would be, to go by ferry boat, tripping through some awesome sites, of islands on both side of you, as it cuts through miles of water? is that clear as mud? I don't know if I got it accurate enough but I gave it my best shot :)

I love the baby trees pic too, B2. I really don't think it's gonna win anything, but it's my kind of picture! Half of Yellowstone is baby trees since the fires, and I was taking pics of them all over the place, then when I was heading somewhere one day I noticed that sign just as I was passing it, I came to a screeching halt in the middle of the road, did a U-ee and went back to take some pics of it! Digit and B2--and anybody else, which of the second and third rainbow pics do you like best? I'm planning to enter two of them, and the first one you both picked is pretty much a shoo-in for me to enter, but I can't decide between the other two! My best-friend-from-Denver-who-now-lives-in New York likes the double rainbow one (second one) best. Anybody around here like one of the other better for some reason? Sorry about the helicopter-shadow, Digit! It took me a while to figure out what you were looking at, but I way see it now! I checked it out, but there's no way I can crop it to get rid of that, so I'll just have to hope whoever looks at whichever one I finally decide to enter, they won't happen to have whirly birds on their mind when they're looking! ;-) [Yeah, I learned about that polymorph stuff when I started looking up the hawk too!] Still don't know for sure what the hawk is, and haven't had a chance to email the raptor site guy to see what he thinks, but I have a good month yet to enter pics, so have plenty of time. And if it gets to the end of the contest and I still don't know for sure what it is, I'm gonna enter it anyway! It'll be the first one I'm entering, which I like better because the bird has its head turned a little bit further so the beak is slightly more visible. This is turning into my own private picture thread, so here are a few more! These are the two I entered on Friday for this week. Both taken at Longhouse Ruin on Wetherill Mesa at Mesa Verde when I was there in 2011. I like the first one because most "ruin pics" only show the ruins themselves but this one shows the canyon too so you get a better "feel" for where the ruins are! And the second one! Well, I've kinda gotten into ladders in the last few years--usually ladders into the various Anasazi ruins, so I picked a "ladder pic" to enter! And, speaking of ladders! I can't enter these in the contest 'cause they're on the Ute Mountain Tribal Park (Cortez) and not a "National" Park/area, but this is the ladder up to Eagle Nest Ruin on the Tribal Park--one of my favorite places! AND---speaking of LADDERS! This is the "ladder" you use to get up into the Horse Collar Ruins at Natural Bridges National Monument (west of Blanding, Utah). I've been up--and down--it three times now! Any opinions on the second and third rainbow pics? Thanks, all, for "liking" my pics! I'm in Picture Heaven right now! In getting "caught up" from my hard drive crash the end of 2010, I've downloaded approximately 10,000 pictures into the computer in the last month or so, and am really having fun "seeing" them! I had never looked at most of them, even on the little camera screen, and was totally surprised with some of them--like the hawk pics--that I didn't even remember having taken! I'll see if I'm able to edit and caption 10,000 pics over winter! And I will have garden pics to post again now when something comes up!!! Skybird P.S. AFTER posting the rainbow pics here I realized the horizon is "crooked" in all three of them! I'm not gonna re-post them, but I've straightened it out in all of them, so if that's a factor in anybody's opinion, the horizon will be "fixed" in whichever two I decide to enter! Whoever woulda thunk you could "fix the horizon!!!"

Hi Jim, I was thinking of your posts. I saw a Bald Eagle on my way to work 2 days ago! This is the second time I've seen it in the same location. It was flying next to the thruway on Grand Island at the south end where the Buckhorn State Park is. It doesn't look like a park there; it is a marsh, lol. I remember reading that the eagle(not sure if it is a pair) actually lives on Strawberry Island which is a tiny uninhabited island close to Grand Island. It is very exciting. Thankfully no one was near me as I was driving so I got to slow down to get a good look. Remy Here is a link that might be useful: Buckhorn State Park

I live in Lovettsville, VA, which is in Loudoun County. We are considered "Northern Virginia" and are just outside of Washington, DC. I grew up in Fairfax County, which is even closer to DC than where I live now. I feel lucky to have grown up near DC and try not to take it for granted. It's still pretty amazing driving over the bridge and seeing a view of all the memorials from the car.