Wow Karen, your pictures are amazing! I am so sorry that we didn't get a chance to meet up, but I feel like I was there with this post. It is so neat to see my "home" from the eyes of a visitor. Right now it is 9am and it is still really foggy. I am heading down to San Juan this afternoon for my brothers wedding rehearsal and tomorrow for the wedding. They are getting married at El Adobe which is a restaurant within walking distance of the mission. Hoping to get there a little early so I can hit the antique mall before going in to the rehearsal. Glad you had a nice trip and made it home safely!

My husband grew up there, his sister still lives in the family home.( near Salmon Creek) the only crime she has experienced was she was robbed by teenagers while she was at work. They came in through her doggie door. One robbery in 64 years..not too bad. There's meth areas, but it would not be in the newer nicer neighborhoods. Meth is everywhere anymore, every town has it somewhere. Obviously a older single woman wouldn't be out late at night in those areas. My sister in law goes to see her half sister in assisted living after work, and also goes out karoke with her friends late at night. Never a problem. Vancouver has gotten HUGE as compared to 20 years ago. It has very good medical facilities, great shopping and a very nice park system. Fort Vancouver has a amazing 4th of July ! Not going to lie, traffic is bad every time we go. I'd rather not drive thru to Portland on I 5, we always take 205. There also is the metro bus system..very efficient. It does NOT rain 3 out of 5 days. Winters can be gray and drizzly, but no one is shoveling several feet of snow either. When it snows, it's rare and in inches. It lasts two days and is gone. Spring, Summer and Fall are very nice. There's lots to do, and no one bothers going to Portland for groceries. But if you did, you do not have to declare you are not from Oregon and pay Washington taxes on them. A car yes, but groceries or clothing no..never at IKEA either. There are nice grocery stores and a Costco right there. They go to the airport exit because IKEA is there. We will be there again tomorrow for two days.

Nancy, Gold is better than plain brown. Honestly, anything is better than plain brown. Around Thursday or so I noticed green leaves falling from some trees---they didn't even turn brown first. I think our trees are confused. Why wouldn't they be? Every week they are exposed to lows in the 30s and highs in the 90s. How they even know what season we are in at this point is beyond me. Currently it is 90 degrees at our Mesonet station and 89 at our house. There's reports of haziness and smoke in the air, but none of us are spotting any plumes of smoke, so I think that, as the rumored cold front moves across the state, it may be pushing smoke, fog, haze, smog, dust or whatever ahead of it. There was a 1,700 acre wildfire in the county west of us yesterday and it looked like smoke was hanging over the river this morning, so maybe it is that. Our gold foliage peaked around Thursday or Friday and is going to a dull golden brown today. I believe the hard freeze we had a few days ago has really impacted the tree foliage. Further south in Texas where the freeze didn't happen or at least was not as prolonged as it was here, they have better foliage color than we do right now. At least 3 or 4 of the red oaks in the yeard near our house have some red, and our big red oak near the road, which is my favorite tree, is beginning to show some red. It probably will peak next week though it is hard to tell in this weather. We turned back the clocks at bedtime last night so at least we'd be in sync with the rest of the area when we woke up today. It didn't matter what time the clock was showing---I woke up at the same time I do every single day, even if the clock showed it was an hour earlier. My body clock gets pretty firmly set on a time and doesn't really care what the clock says. It takes me at least a month to adjust to a time change and then before you know it, we're springing forward or falling back all over again. Jennifer, I'm glad you feel a little better today and hope you didn't cough your way through making the announcement at church. Hot and windy, hot and windy, hot and windy. It feels more like earliest September than early November. Chris sent me a text about a half-hour ago---a shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, near San Antonio, TX. Word is several people were shot, including children, before police arrived and took out the shooter. He said he had heard 15 people were down, but I haven't seen any firm number on any media yet, and often early report are erroneous. It just seems to me like the world has gone mad---it is sad when people are not safe in church. And, in a state like Texas with open carry, it is unfortunate someone in that church wasn't armed because perhaps they could have stopped the shooter. It seems wrong to carry a gun to church, but we cannot kid ourselves---these shootings can happen anywhere any more. I'd like to be working in the garden, but all the swarms are still out there---Asian lady bugs, wasps, bees, yellow jackets....so I'm indoors. Oh, and the fire ants and harvester ants all are out and scurrying around. I guess maybe they are busy storing up provisions for winter. Dawn

Mary, I watched a BBC TV prog last night about the 1953 Coronation and the Crown Jewels used in the ceremony. It is the first time HM Queen has taken part in a programme and explained the various items of the regalia all of which have great 'spiritual' significance. I learnt that the first part of the ceremony dates back to 973 AD but that in the 1650's Oliver Cromwell had the orb, sceptre, crowns etc melted down and the only ancient item remaining is a golden spoon used to anoint the monarch with holy oil. That dates back to the 1100's. Also noticed that HM Queen doesn't suffer fools gladly and when the obsequious narrator asked her what the Royal Children were doing back at the Palace while the long ceremony took place she replied "How would I know, I wasn't there." She does have a wonderful smile though! The voice-over female was also rather breathy and gushy but altogether quite an informative show. It will probably follow to your side of the Pond. I think similar progs are on the way. What I remember of Coronation Day was that it was wet and cold and although we had the day off school some of my class had to attend an outdoor 'service' in the rain. Later about a dozen people crowded around our 9in screen TV at home (including the milkman) and as we children got bored and restless we were sent out . .. probably into the rain again. Edited to add that HM said the 'golden coach' is most uncomfortable as it only has leather 'straps' for springs and can only travel at one mile an hour as the horses can hardly pull the tremendous weight. Personally I have always thought it looked quite hideous!