Such a day!

We managed to escape for a day, from gray chill, over the pass into full -on Eastern Washington spring. We went to a place called Frenchmen's Coulee, near the Columbia River, and climbed up big basalt pillars. The skies were the color of bluebirds, the sage was tangily fragrant, the crickets were chirping, the rattlesnakes weren't out yet, and a nice breeze came up just as it got a bit warm. At the top of our last route, an about ninety foot tall pillar, you could stand at the anchors, look back towards the Columbia, and savor the sagebrush-covered mesas and valleys while catching your breath. We did have a close encounter with a huge swarm of bees, which came swooshing through a gap in the pillars like the bees in the cartoons used to do, only they didn't form a big arrow and go after us. The noise was alarming, and I just yelled,"BEES!" and shot back the other way; my friend heard me, and scooted behind me. Afterwards we laughed, because they must have been honeybees on the move, which usually aren't aggressive, but it was instinctive to flee. We tramped back to our car through clumps of wildflowers and sage bushes, grabbed a cheeseburger and a small chocolate malt on the way home, and slept like rocks.