Living in the Pacific Northwest, we have lots of shorelines within a few minutes, or hours drive. And we have lakes and rivers, which also have shorelines, along with the oceans. The shoreline closest to me is along Silver Lake.

This was early in the morning on my way to work. About 50% of the shoreline is in private hands.

Here you can see both shorelines.

Puget Sound is an arm of the Pacific Ocean, and it’s just a couple of miles west of where we live. Shorelines along the Sound are both public and private, and there are dozens of public parks along the shore where you can watch boats, seabirds, and surfers.

This is Puget Sound at Picnic Point, just a bit southwest of us.

This pleasant beach is Washington Park in Anacortes, just south of the Canadian border.

One of our very favorite beaches is Dungeness, along the Olympic Peninsula in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates the US from Canada. We have been there in all weathers and most times of the year. It is a wildlife refuge, and you often see birds and animals that live near the ocean. You can walk the entire Spit to the lighthouse at the end, a very strenuous five-mile trek.

In 2012, we went to New Jersey for an event at my husband’s old Catholic Church. While there, we took a drive to the Jersey Shore. The weather was absolutely spectacular, very warm for October.

Can you spot the bird that is different? In the upper right-hand corner is a Common Tern. This was a mixed flock of Skimmers, Terns, and Gulls, and did they make a racket!

Washington State is well-known for the mighty Columbia River, which has provided great fishing and hydroelectric power for decades. It has a very rocky shoreline

The two beaches along the river are entirely different kinds of rock. The above beach is basically made of broken pieces of the columnar basalt you can see on the cliffs across the river. Not much fun to walk on, but I think it’s beautiful, especially up close.

Here’s the link to this week’s Original Post. And Tina’s gorgeous post. And Patti’s too.