While most of the country gets used to the summer heat, here in the usually mild PNW, we feel like everything around us is more normal if we have some cool weather and some rain.

In the winter time some  Northwesterners go South to warm up but a real Northwesterner heads north in midsummer just to cool off.

Now we are in our version of a heatwave…it’s in the 80’s. I know this is “cool” to the rest of the country but for us it’s…well, let’s just say it’s not why we live here…we live here for cool summer weather and mild winters. None of us have air conditioning. We become unhappy in the hotter weather…no, we become  miserable and more than a little “testy”. So, being one of the more miserable and “testy” among us, I took a 2 1/2 hour trip to my brother’s home to the Olympics Mountains to soak up the foggy morning and read a book without sweating.

A foggy summer morning in the Olympic Mountains of Washington State.

His wife designed the home and he built it.  His wife designed and works in the vegetable/flower garden and my brother built the hardscapes.

Ditto

My vacation from heat lasted all of 27 hours including the 5 hours of driving. It was worth every drop of gas and every drop in degree…we even had a fire in the fireplace.