nPostednon November 11, 2016
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n“I’mnleaving for Washington tomorrow.”
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nThat’sna pretty confusing sentence – one that depends on contextnto be understandable. If you know that the person saying this is anlobbyist or Congressman, you’d be pretty sure that she or he isnheading to Washington, D.C. If you know that the person lives innSeattle or has been planning to climb Mount Rainier, you’d be prettynsure that he or she is heading to Washington state.
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nOfncourse there’s going to be both a (capital) city and a state namednafter George Washington! He was our first president and an importantnfellow in our nation’s story!
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nWell,nwhen I talk about Washington, today, I’m talking about Washingtonnstate, because today is the anniversary of it joining the nation inn1889.
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nWhennI think of Washington, I think of the Cascade Mountains and Olympic National Park…
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| Above, Olympic National Park Below, Mount Rainier in the summer |
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| Above, Northern Cascades National Park Below, Mount Saint Helens exploding in 1980 |
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n…of orcas andnislands (including Orca Island)…
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| Above, San Juan Islands Below, orcas at Orcas Island |
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n…of lumber and apples…
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n…of DalenChihuly’s glass art and of Seattle’s Space Needle…
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n…of waterfalls andna little taste of Bavaria.
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nOfncourse, there is so much more to the Pacific Coast state. On thenborder with Canada, Washington has a lot-lot-lot of rain and fog,nexcept where it doesn’t! Check out the precipitation map, which showsnthat more than half of Washington is quite dry, but the rest isnREALLY wet:
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nPartsnof Washington are so very cloudy and rainy, Forks, Washington, is thensetting for the popular Twilight series of vampire / werewolf books.nWhat does the series have to do with clouds? Well, author StephanienMeyer’s vampires sparkle and shine in sunshine, so theynlive in an area that has very few sunny days.
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nActually,nSeattle is sunny or mostly sunny only about a fourth of the days ofnthe year. Compared to my home, Southern California, that’s a lot ofnclouds and “drear”!
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nAlsonon this date:
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nLāčplēsisnDay in Latvia
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nVeteran’snDay – alsonknown as
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nArmisticenDay and
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RemembrancenDay
RemembrancenDayn
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nNationalnDay in St. Maarten
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nNationalnYoung Reader’s Day / Week
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nAnniversarynof a record-breaking balloon ride
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nIndependencenDays in Angola and Poland
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nOrigaminDay
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nNovembern holidays
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nNovembern birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in November
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nDecembern holidays
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nDecembern birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in December
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