Short Trips
J Pod just happened to be "home" that day as our guide and water taxi driver, Brad Armstrong, steered his 28-foot Eagle Craft boat into the calm waters off Pender Island in the southern Gulf Islands.
A half-dozen whale-watching excursion boats -- and one University of Washington research boat -- crisscrossed the bay to try to get the best vantage point to watch the 26-member pod of orca whales fraternize and feed.
By Jeff Larsen | July 29, 2004
PORT ANGELES -- You've heard about Olympic National Park's magnificent wilderness beach strip, with globally intriguing spots such as Point of Arches, Cape Alava and the Giant's Graveyard.
We've told you about Dungeness Spit, arching six miles into the wind-swept Strait of Juan de Fuca, and its picturesque lighthouse.
Many avid Washington hikers have tripped along the wonderful wildflower bluffs of Ebey's Landing on Whidbey Island.
By Greg Johnston | July 29, 2004
The SUV getaway
July 29, 2004
VANTAGE, Kittitas County — The Eastern Washington of the Miocene Period wasn't a bad place to live. The creation of the modern Cascades was still several million years in the future, so the region received more moisture than today, resulting in more temperate conditions. Of course, you had to be lucky enough to live during one of the times between the huge lava flows that burst forth from giant fissures in southeastern Washington, periodically icing the eastern portion of the state with thick layers of dark basalt.
By Cathy McDonald | July 29, 2004
