the day when it pays to be an enginerd

Most days I sit at a desk, in meetings, discussing, brainstorming, filling out checklists, checking design manual constraints, emailing, scheduling, updating, summarizing, and generally doing a lot of nerdy tasks. That's mostly my life as a transportation engineer in a design/construction office.

However some days are better than others. Like the day we wrangled a helicopter to come to our office and fly over a bunch of future project sites so that we could have someone create a "design visualization" displays to take to open houses and community meetings.

So some of us luckys got to ride along.

Looking west towards the Cascades (Cashmere, Leavenworth, and Stevens Pass are that direction). Hwy 2/97 on the right side.

Centered over Hwy 2/97 looking west.

Over the Columbia River, looking south towards the pipeline/pedestrian bridge (foreground) and George Sellar Bridge (Background). Wenatchee to your right, East Wenatchee on your left. Yes they are two different towns.


Looking north up the Columbia River towards Lake Chelan.


If you are ever wondering why people from Washington think they live in the most awesome place in the U.S.A... (I have heard the term "mountain snob"...) maybe these pictures will help tell the story. We don't mean to degrade where anyone else lives, we just LOVE it here! And just know that about 2 weeks after these photos, the WHOLE valley turned white and pink as the apple and pear blossoms in all the orchards bloomed. Drop. Dead. Gorgeous.

I love my job. It rocks.
I also love my home. We are so very very blessed.

If ANY of y'all are ever in this area and would like a free place to camp (our back acreage) or a tour guide, or a cup of coffee, just give me a holler because I would love to introduce you to the valley and the mountains!

Also, Annie and Kyle, the Wenatchee Valley misses you -- come back soon!