Sasquatch Hunting 2013 Part 1

Before I get into the incredible awesomeness of my Washington trip, I just want to address the issue of the flood here in Colorado.  We do live in Boulder County, but my home and my family are totally safe in Lafayette.  There is most definitely messed up shit around us, but we have not been personally impacted aside from the fact that Felix hasn't been in school since last Wednesday and school is still canceled until this Wednesday at the latest.  He's driving me nuts, but that's just how it goes.  I almost never ever watch the news, but I've found myself tearing up sometime after 5 every night.  Everything the news shows looks absolutely nuts, but it just looks wet and rainy at my house.  

Anyway.

I got home last Wednesday from visiting my best girl Laura in the northwest corner of Washington.  She lives in a small town on a highway dead ending at a mountain, where cell phones don't work, and has the best nature ever.

Laura has a crazy poodle named Butter (yep!).  Laura and Butter hooked up a little more than 8 years ago, right before I moved to Holland to become international lovers together forever with Chainsaw.  Anyway, that poodle has a lot of energy and requires daily trips to the river.  The river behind her house is approximately a five minute walk through the forest from her house.  We made multiple trips to the river from many different access points. 

It's salmon spawning season, which means the rivers are full of salmon making their pilgrimage to the place of their birth to procreate after several years at sea.  Then they die.  If they didn't already die on their trip.  Dead bodies galore!

In that case, our first stop was a hike up to a point in the river Laura called "The Aquarium."  Earlier in the summer it was her swimming hole, but these days it's full of monster salmon taking a breather before continuing up the rapids.

This is also at the aquarium.  Laura told me that rocky area she's standing by is full of fossils.  In fact, she said, "I dare you to pick up a rock right there and have it not be a fossil."  I found a couple to spite her, but she was right!

There's a pair of bald eagles that live by the river by her house, and I was lucky enough to put my eyes on the pair together twice and one of them alone once.  I didn't get any good pictures, but it was super awesome to bask in their eagle glory!

One day we drove up to the end of the highway to do some hiking, stopping at Picture Lake for some... pictures.  This is the first time I've been to Picture Lake and found it actually doing its job.  We snagged some fellow lake viewers to take some best friends forever pictures of us.

Please note that we are both wearing our 2013 official birthday shirts.  

This is getting long, and I have tons more pictures and stories to share, so I think I'm going to cut off here for part 1.  Please enjoy this picture of Little Kitty lounging seductively until we meet again.  I'll be back soon with piles of majesty to feast your eyes on.