By day four we couldn’t wait to get home. At this point every night was a different nightmare about all of my plants being burned to a crisp, the dahlias being eaten by aphids, the tomatoes dug up and destroyed by the chupacabra, rough dreams. I was homesick. We woke up early and hit the road. We were pretty close to the Washington border to start… so … Welcome to Washington!

welcome to the evergreen state!
Just over that border in the central part of the state, Washington has tons of wineries. One of our favorite places in the state to visit is Walla Walla (home of excellent onions, a liberal arts college and really nice wines). There are just hills and hills of beautiful vineyards.

columbia valley vineyards
Opening up into one of the valleys along the Columbia River.

columbia river basin valley
Washington really must love us. She greeted us home with a nice downpour, low 60° temperatures, and dense fog. This picture below was just at Snoqualmie Pass, up in the mountains. As much as I usually despise this type of weather in the summer, we REALLY need some rain (it’s not rained but about 1/2″ at our house in over 60 days) and after the stifling 106° temps in Texas, this was a very welcome relief.

welcome home, lpod
Getting closer to home as we get over the pass.

foggy and wet at snoqualmie pass
And on our lovely 520. If I call you when I’m “in traffic” this is most definitely where I am sitting. There are worse places to be stuck in traffic, I can admit that. But man, the traffic on this bridge stinks.

520 - the bridge of agony
Guess what? My dahlias didn’t get eaten by aphids. They were thirsty and have been a little munched on, but they survived. And they are beautiful! I have about 6 different plants, this is the first to bloom…the others are getting close. I can’t wait to see what colors they are, I totally forgot what I planted! Even my tomatoes were thriving. My hydrangeas are a little angry and crunchy, but they’ll survive.

my dahlias survived! a true welcome home
Thanks for following our journey from San Antonio to Seattle! I tell you, I’ve made that drive twice in my life so far…the 2nd was waaaaaaaay better than the first!
O i’m reading this backwards. I’ll go back to the beginning. but glad you had the welcoming rain and beautiful flowers and healthy veggies.