Washington My Old Home

Washington has become a tourist Mecca in the past few decades.

With iconic attractions like Pike Place Market, Mount Rainier and the Space Needle along with the Cascade Mountains, the Olympic Mountains, Mount St. Helens National Monument, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, 5 volcanoes including Mount Baker, destination tourist towns like Leavenworth's Bavarian Village and Winthrop's western town, both in Eastern Washington. In Western Washington you can sort of visit Holland in Lynden. Another tourist town is La Conner in the scenic Skagit Valley, where in the Spring the valley floor is covered with tulips and other flowers.

Add in a thriving arts scene including music, theater and museums, plus, orchards, breweries, wineries and to give you plenty of energy to see and do it all, the world's highest per capita number of places to buy coffee.

And in the past decade Seattle has become the homeport to 5, or is it 6, cruise ships, sailing to Alaska, sort of a modern day version of the Alaska Gold Rush when Seattle served as the launch pad to Alaska, with many Seattle fortunes made outfitting gold seekers.

In Washington you can try and seek your fortune in the many casinos owned and operated by Washington State Native American tribes, like the Tulalip and the Puyallup.

While it is true that it rains in Washington, particularly on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, in summer you'll find many days without a cloud in the sky.