Welcome to Lake Country.

When I joined the military--almost forty years ago!--I quickly learned that the first question out of every fellow inductee's mouth was, "Where are you from?", and that upon answering "Washington State" the response was almost always the same: "Oh, I guess you have to get used to rain there, right?" Uh, no. Where I was born and raised, you had to get used to sun, dry, and, in the summer, hot.

Washington State is roughly one-quarter temperate rain-forest, one-quarter mountains, and, east of the Cascade Range, one-half desert. I'm from Richland, at the confluence of the Yakima, Snake, and Columbia Rivers, and it is anything but wet.

On our third day we drove over the mountains to Patty's vacation home overlooking the Columbia River, where we were to spend four days with a big family reunion day in the middle. Sandi and I drove over early in our rental expecting to find a modest, even utilitarian dwelling. Oops! Our primary (and only) home should be this nice!

Nailed to a tree in the back yard:

It's not a lake but, as I said, the Columbia River, upriver from and benefiting from the widening of said river as a result of the backup of waters behind Rocky Reach Dam about ten miles south. It makes the river about a third of a mile wide, enough for what, as you will see, is euphemistically called recreation.

Patty's shack from the front...

from the back...

from the side...

and from the deck.

We give the gathering of animals in a group some pretty descriptive names. Deer, for example, gather in a herd and bees in a hive.  Did you know that squirrels gather as a scurry, larks as an exultation, spiders as a clutter, hyenas as a cackle, butterflies as a flutter, cockroaches as an intrusion, flamingos as a flamboyance, finches as a charm, and goldfish as a troubling?

Here's the first of a big group of goldfish ready for some fun: my brother Tom and his wife Ronna, Sandi, Patty, and, of course, your humble journalist.