Well I’m a little surprised at how long it’s been since the last post! Maybe in part because of the difference between how beautiful the views were, and how marginal our pix came out due to the pesky smoke from lingering wildfires. Lifting off from Renton out over Lake Washington was probably the best view we had.
2745 Lake Washington & Cities
Seattle at the left and Bellevue at right seemed clearer than they were, because the foreground lake looks crisp. But a zoom pic of Seattle shows how much smoke there is, even after I’ve tweaked at it in a photo editor trying to minimize haze more as it looked to the eye.
2743 Smoky Seattle
Before heading South we enjoyed a short flight out to Snoqualmie Falls taking the dear friends we’d hiked there with for an aerial perspective, and this was among the glorious views out in the clearer air of the valley.
0626 Snoqualmie Falls
After dropping them off back at Renton we headed toward the South over Auburn on a slow climb where the thickening air was clearer above the lowest smoke layer, enabling this long zoom of Mt. Rainy-er free of rain (and even low clouds).
2750 Lk.Tapps to Mt.Rainier
In a spot with thinner smoke and a better sun angle I even managed to get this slightly better long zoom pic.
2777 Mount Rainier
The smoke still makes the colors strange though, and our eyes magically made it look more spectacular. This wider view has more natural colors.
2789 Mountain Memories
Every flight North and South along this corridor brings memories of hiking, camping, driving, and of course flying here when the air after a rain was so clear you could almost see stars in daylight. Maybe our eyes partly see memories and automatically edit out some of the smoke.
Mount Saint Helens still shows effects of the dramatic eruption, though we could see many signs of new growth in the debris flows.
2911 Mount Saint Helens
Soon we flew past Portland memories and resolved again to go back and take in all that’s new in that exciting and dynamic city. We’ve heard of people being “over” Portland, but not in the sense we were – and it’s unlikely we’ll ever be “over” it in the sense they were.
3011 Not Over Portland
From here we got back into ever-increasing smoke all the way to our overnight stop in Grants Pass.
John & Anne Wiley 
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