Wife

I still find it a little hard to believe that my son has a wife! It has a strange ring to it. Wife.

Rain

Every day it rains! I know this is Seattle, the rainy city, but this is late July! I'll have to check my records to see if we have set a record for most consecutive July days with measurable rainfall.

Dow goes above 14,000

Hello news media, where are the big headlines? The Dow surpassed 14,000 for a time today. For reference, the Dow was at 7,200 in October 2002, less than five (count, them, FIVE) years ago. Yahoo News has nothing. MSN news has it in a list. Fox News has it in blue font.

Guess what, the "Bush Economic Plan" is working great!!! Steady 3% growth in GDP, averaging 150,000 new jobs every month, where are the headlines??

Humidity

It was so humid yesterday, she complained.

I checked. Late afternoon yesterday, the outside temperature was about 80 F, and the outside humidity was about 60%.

Hey, that is a humid day for Seattle! :)

Triple Digits!

It is rare to see temperatures in the 90's (Fahrenheit) in Seattle, but today's high at my house was 101 F! I can't say it was humid, though. The humidity bottomed out at 26% today.

Great Conversationalist

My daughter is a great conversationalist. We met for dinner at a little Chinese restaurant at 6:30, closed the restaurant at 10, and stood outside talking for another hour. So 4 1/2 hours nonstop conversation, and the time flew by. :)

Flower Hike

My dad and I, and a few others, went on a flower hike today. This means someone brings several copies of a list of the vascular plants expected on the hike, and everyone checks them off when they see them, or writes down new ones. We pool our knowledge to agree on what to call what we are looking at. It took 7 hours to go 6 miles with only 1,400 feet elevation gain and loss. It is slowest at the first, when the check lists are nearly empty. There was some pretty scenery, like this waterfall.

Wild ginger (Asarum caudatum) is not rare, but it likes to live in the shade, and getting a good photo of it is rare for me. Note the long tips on the three purple petals, reaching almost to the edge of the picture.

We have many types of saxifrage in our forests. The group thought this one is Saxigraga punctata.

Independence Day Hike

I took my second annual Independence Hike today, same route as last year, 15 miles with 3,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. Beautiful day, clear skies. Last year we were two, this year we had 7 hikers. :)

Mt. Rainier from a high viewpoint to the east.

The flowers were surprisingly different. I don't recall seeing any of this plant (Monotropa hypopithys, or Many-flowered Indian Pipe) last year:

Interesting wood steps, attached to a log lying at a steep angle.

The Wedding

My son got married yesterday. They chose to have an outdoor wedding in Seattle. He looked handsome, she looked beautiful, and the weather was gorgeous. After two days of clouds and rain and worries, the wedding day dawned clear and cool. Here are a few wedding photos.

The maid of honor wore orange, and the best man (my daughter) wore black with pink roses. You know what they say, "Sometimes the best man for a job is a woman."

They met at a mountain lodge, and their first activity together was a hike in the mountains, so the wedding had an REI outdoors theme, as evidenced by the outdoor setting and the reception table decorations. It is hard to see, but the flower vase is a Nalgene water bottle encircled by pine cones, the candle holders are small Nalgene bottles, and the napkins have little bags of home-made trail mix (M&Ms, peanuts, and raisins).

Bride and groom with my youthful 87-year-old father. That is the Space Needle and Mt. Rainier in the background. It was a Seattle Chamber of Commerce Day!