Happy to be here

This week, I'm at my grandparents' house in Eastern Washington. It's absolutely beautiful here ... I have always loved the desert hills. I'll be very sad to leave here and go back to the East Coast, where the beauties are tamer.

Last bits of sunlight touch the hills on the Fourth of July.

At the airport, looking at the ridge.

My grandpa took me soaring--flying on an unpowered glider--and it was lovely. The view was terrific, but we didn't get a lot of lift and so didn't go very far.

The Columbia River and Rocky Reach Dam. It's hard to get an untilted picture in a tilted plane. Even my unsuccessful efforts made me a little queasy.

We weren't the only ones soaring today. Two other gliders were trying the same air we were, and having about the same success. Apparently the haze was blocking some of the sun's heat, so thermals weren't forming the way we needed them to.

We may go to the lake later in the week, and if we do, I'll try to get some good pictures from that too. I'm just drinking in all the beauty, so it can tide me over when I'm living in the city in a flat area. There's a part of my soul that lives off mountains and wildness, and it certainly will miss this place.