Hunting the Horny Back Toad

Happy May!

I'll rejoin Bloglandia soon.  (To update you on May Vacation at the least.)  But first, I've just gotta say . . .

. . . Oingo Boingo's "Not My Slave" is the best song ever!

Last Sunday, I was thinking of checking out a wildlife area in Snohomish County, but it was really raining pretty heavy so I thought maybe we could chance a visit to the Skagit Valley at the apex of the tulip season.  The rains had stopped by the time we got there, but I think we got the jump on most people.  Still, there were shitloads of people everywhere.

So I just took drive-by photos.

It was madness, I tells ya!

A beautiful, warm and sunny day yesterday.  We took a drive up north on Hwy 9 and then east on Hwy 20 to Rasar State Park.  Spring is coming along, though not as quickly as I'd like.

We went to Tokeland over the weekend.  It rained.  It stopped raining.  It rained some more.  It stopped.  It rained more.  Etc.  But it never stopped being gray.

On Saturday, we drove to the Long Beach peninsula, hoping to get a walk on Benson Beach and the North Jetty.  But the wind was fierce and freezing cold.

Instead we drove into Long Beach and I bought taffies.

On Sunday, we awoke to a beautiful morning.

So we came home.

The End.

 

 

I know I complain about it every year, but . . . (So it's a tradition!  Carry on!) . . . having my birthday in early February makes for very limited travel options.  Ideally, I'd go somewhere tropical (or neotropical or southwestern deserty), but that would require taking at least a week off of work.  Since most USAnian employers are so . . . not outrageously generous . . . with vacation time, I just can't see squandering that much paid leave  - in freaking February, for crumb's sake.

Far more important are the Happy October! Adventure (one week off) and the May Vacation (two-three days off).  And I need at least a day or two sometime in summer.  (And mustn't forget Bucko's birthday and the Midwinter Holiday!)

So every year, I wonder just where the heck in the region I can go.  East of the mountains is too bleak.  In the mountains is too snowy (and snowy only works for me when celebrating the Midwinter Holiday, or else unscheduled time off due to Seattle-always-comes-to-a-standstill-when-it-snows).  So that just leaves the coast.  The coast is pretty dandy regardless of weather.

But then I have to decide where on the coast I want to go.  Usually, I have the state pride and want to stay in Warshington.  (To heck with Oregon and their pretty coast!)  But then some years, I decide that I really want to go to the pretty coast.

This was one of those years.

And their coast really is so much prettier than ours.*

 

 

 

 

 

* Actually, Washington's got some really nice sections of coastline too.  It's just not as accessible.

I've been having fun tonight, scanning old photos.  Here's me and the first Mr. Cootie in 1991.

OMG!  Don't I look just like Wynonna Judd in this picture?!

A partially leucistic Red-tailed Hawk seen last weekend in Skagit County