Hi Bonnie,

I lived in Washington for sometime. First when I was stationed at Fort Lewis and later in Vancouver. I still have relatives in Bellevue. It is one of the most beautiful states in America (along with Oregon, Colorado, and western Wyoming). One of my favorite spots is the Bavarian village of Leavenworth. The town is a tourist trap I know, but the area around there is absolutely beautiful and the shops in the town make a nice respite after hiking all day in the mountains. I used to spend days up in the hills hiking and rock-climbing but I haven't been able to do that in years. My absolute favorite climbing spot is SawTooth Mountain and Longs Peak, CO.


>Carl,
>
>Well, ok, Douglasville I've heard of. <g>
>
>>I was in Bellevue during the 6.8 quake of March 2001. It is not something I ever want to experience again!
>
>We felt it here, but since we're about 100 miles east of Seattle, it was only enough mild shaking to know that there had been an earthquake *somewhere*. However, I lived in the San Francisco area (actually in Napa, north of SF) for 6 years before moving up here to WA. We had an earthquake centered in Napa Valley on Labor Day weekend in 2000 that hit in the middle of the night. Worse one I'd ever been in and it was only a 6.something (can't remember exactly). Lots of cracks in the house after that one and a lot of people I knew in Napa lost things like their chimneys. My computer monitor went bouncing off my desk and landed upside down on the floor, but amazingly wasn't damaged at all. I moved here a month later. <g>
>
>>So, how did you end up in Washington? It is a beautiful state (except when it's shaking real bad or blowing tops of mountains off <g>).
>
>Oh, *that* is a very long story that I won't bore you with. <g> It *is* a beautiful state and I *love* the mountains (I do a lot of day-hiking in the summer), but east of the mountains (where I live) it's a bit dry and too much of a desert for my tastes. But oh well, I'm stuck here for a few years anyway. <g>
>
>And speaking of blowing mountain tops, we went to Mt. St. Helens last month (you may have read Ken Levy's blog about it ... http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdata/archive/2004/03/17/91562.aspx). It was pretty amazing.
>
>~~Bonnie