Rebecca, absolutely beautiful photos! They remind me how much I loved "winters" in San Diego during my childhood, when the hills and valleys would get so green because of the the rain. The mountain ranges also remind me of the McDowell Mountains near North Scottsdale the few weeks in January and February when the rain would turn them into that same beautiful shade of pine green.

Salsabike, that carving is amazing! DH and I did the Maltby-Granite Falls 100K on Valentine's Day, but I don't remember seeing that sculpture. My FD was acting up on that ride, and I dropped my chain at least 5-6 times, so I'm not surprised I missed it. We decided to do a new ride the following weekend and did the Woodinville-Granite Falls 100K, which was awful. Not only did it start with that long climb on the Woodinville-Duvall Rd., which I always hate on RSVP, but so much of the ride was on busy highways with a lot of cement trucks. I wish we had just done Maltby-Granite Falls again. In any case, I'm halfway done with my first P-12. Considering the horrible winter weather the rest of country is enduring, we in the PNW are so lucky with our unusually mild and sunny winter this year.