Here in Puget Sound country winter is relatively mild. While it is not too cold and does not snow often, it is dark and gray and rainy and long. We natives walk around wearing red and black plaid wool lumberjack jackets listening to the old "Twin Peaks" theme music and drinking French pressed coffee or carefully extracted espresso in the morning, switching to microbrews and/or hand-crafted, small batch distilled spirits in the later morning.

So, don't move here. You'll hate it, especially if you are from California.

When I am not out in the drizzle preaching the virtues of a stateless society to North Face-clad leftist hipsters I like to look at the photos I took (and then promptly forgot about) the previous summer. Here are a few shots from September 4th, last Labor Day. We brought the kids up to Jetty Island, an accessible only by boat small sand spit in Puget Sound, off the once great logging port of Everett, Washington, at the mouth of the Snohomish River. Most of the year the water is about 45-50°F, but by the end of the summer in the shallow bay flats it is not too bad. Jetty Island is a big local kiteboarding destination. Some of its habitués are pretty damned skilled and provide hours of entertainment for kids and a chance for Mom to read a book in peace and give Dad an excuse to play with his camera. (All images shot with a Canon 5Dsr with Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto).

While I was at it I thought I'd toss in a few of my kids and some gulls . . .

jakemccauley