Over Stevens Pass...

After spending the weekend in Mount Vernon with daughter Mary Mae and her family, we headed back to Eastern Washington late this morning. After seeing the g-kids off to school and MM and Scott off to work, we went to the Public Health Department in Mount Vernon and got our flu shots. Our local Group Health clinic in Spokane is not going to be giving them until late October. We thought it would be best if we got them earlier so that I had time to build up immunity before my back surgery in mid-October. Group Health is so prevalent in Skagit County that the Health Department bills them directly -- nice!

Since we had driven over on Friday over the North Cascades Highway, we decided to return over Stevens Pass as we hadn't come that way for many years. It was not nearly as nice a drive as it had been on Friday. It was quite overcast and chilly this morning (I actually was wearing my jacket), but by the time we got to central Washington the sun was shining and it was HOT! (83 degrees in Wenatchee). We stopped at the big fruit stand on this side of Leavenworth and got some of the season's first Honey Crisp apples. These are my favorite apples. They don't keep well, so you just get to enjoy them for a month or so in the fall. They are somewhat tart and crunchy, absolutely delicious!

There is beginning to be lots of evidence of Fall's imminent arrival. The fruit stands are full of peaches and pears and the first of the apples are beginning to appear. This wild rose plant we saw on one of our walks with the g-kids had the the fattest reddest hips:

All of the beauty bushes in the Mount Vernon and Burlington area are beginning to turn from green to red and we saw leaves on the ground under some of the trees.