The Michigan Meteor

Things I haven't seen in a while: flowers in bloom outside' unfrozen lakes and hummingbirds

The rhododendron belongs to my sister-in-law. Also in bloom, roses and petunias

This path follows a peninsula that juts out into Lake Washington. Lots of old growth Douglas firs in the interior. Lake full of mergansers and unusual ducks

. An eagle flew by on my run though I was too intent on looking ahead. My mother-in-law lives a mile south of this park overlooking the same lake

male Anna's hummingbird. Hard to take with an iPhone. It helps that he is twice the size of the ones we have. These stick around during the winter even though it snows occasionally. In the spring, there are also calliope, rufous and black chinned hummingbirds, the latter being the Pacific version of our ruby throated kind

On the night before we flew to Seattle, I was sitting in my friend's living room drinking wine after seeing The Post (liked it, Meryl Streep was great). Suddenly the house shook. It sounded as if a giant was treading down her street. WTF? we said. Turns out at that moment, a meteor had streaked across the sky 25 miles away and exploded setting off an earthquake. Lots of videos on line. We were facing south so we didn't see it but Naomi out of an east window did but assumed it was a winter thunderstorm. Pieces of the meteor on top of frozen lakes have been retrieved all week. The meteor went directly over Josh's house shaking it severely. Steve thought I had returned early from my night out and was walking my roller bag on the roof but there my already packed suitcase sat and no sign of me. Local excitement.

On to Seattle. Our super cheap fares netted us both middle seats  with me in between two morbidly obese ladies whose flesh was oozing over into my space. Added bonus, the ventilation system wasn't working so it was a toasty 95 degrees. And the person in front of me decided to recline into my lap. Fun times. Fortunately our return flight was much better and shorter. Usually we rent a car in Seattle but it is especially expensive there plus they recently built a light rail system that would get us 75% of the way to Steve's sister's. In a few more years, it will go all the way there. It was clean, fast and efficient both ways and relatively cheap, even more so once you are 65, which will be in 2 days for one of us. Steve's brother and his wife flew in the night before and now have their own space 6 miles north. Despite how far north Seattle is relative to us, it has a very mild climate. All was green with a few flowers out. At the Audubon center, the guide told me about the many birds they have there at Seward Park. They had about 6 Anna Hummingbirds fighting over the feeders. Lots of brown eyed juncos which look much different from the ones we have. Chickadees are smaller and more chestnut colored. I told her that the main bird we have is the Northern cardinal. She had never seen one before. Must never have crossed the Rockies as they are quite common.

So I was able to run a lot though many times through drizzle and once with very strong winds. No ice. Days are shorter there due to how north it is so the first morning I ran with a head lamp on around a lake. Strange to be running in total darkness though lots of other runners were out. Occasionally a dog walker would go by with no lights on, just the reflections of my light in the dog's retinae. There had been a windstorm the night before knocking down branches so I would occasionally get tangled in them. I slowed down quite a bit as I am so afraid of tripping but on the other days, I ran much faster maybe being so close to sea level.

Lots of photos of course to follow.