Return of the free wireless. Two Posts!

When my brother was in town we did some standard tourist stuff but we did drive all over creation on day. The first few pictures are from that trip when we were driving around Washington. I would also mention they were taken in September so only the highest mountains have snow on them and in some cases glaciers.




This picture was taken from a low scenic overlook looking back towards the East. Mt. Rainer is in the distance and it would be around maybe 40 miles away as the crow flies. Below is the Hood Canal, a separate offshoot that is part of Puget Sound.











Looking to the Northeast at Mt. Baker and a smaller peak to the right. I'm not sure of the distance but it's significantly farther away than Rainer. It's close to the Canadian border.











This was taken later on the same day. We drove around Puget sound and into Rainer National Park. This is a close up of the top of Mt. Rainer - again notice the glaciers. I believe there are 14 named glaciers that can move up to 3 feet a day, both forward and back.











This is a valley on Rainer. The "rocks" are really gigantic boulders that were left as the glacier retreated up the mountain. According to one of the information plaques on the Mountain one of the glaciers in the picture above reached all the down to the bridge in the picture. Scientists think the glacier is due for a major move down the mountain.













From the same hill earlier in the day looking back East at downtown Seattle. It's probably 25 miles away but that's a guess.












Here is the zoom in of the Seattle Skyline from that same vantage point. It's a little blurry but I think it might give and idea of height and distance we were looking at.










After my brother left I went hiking with some friends. We climbed to what is considered a sub alpine lake. I need to find out what the difference between and alpine lake and a sub-alpine lake is but I assume it's just height. Notice how clear the lake is. It was a long decent hike and the view was pretty solid.










Same lake looking in a different direction.












Lastly - in terms of both coolness and creepiness the new google link is pretty high on both counts. http://play.blogger.com/ shows a steady stream of the pictures being uploaded to the Google cloud at all times. It's addicting and scary.