2010 Olympics: Visiting Vancouver from Washington

With just a little over two weeks until the city of Vancouver kicks off the 2010 Winter Olympics and embarks on a two-week celebration of cold-weather sport, it's pretty clear that most tickets and hotel rooms are long gone. But impetuous or die-hard fans with a streak of chronic procrastination needn't lose all hope of checking out the sporting event of a lifetime.

With a little creativity and flexibility, travelers willing to keep their passports on hand and hop the border a few times can actually stage a fun Olympics trip out of Washington instead of Canada. more >>

Getting Pumped for Ski Season

It’s not even November yet and the white stuff has been flying fast and furious over the Cascades. It’s enough to send visions of sugar plum fairies and hot waxed skis flying in the heads of snow-plowing youngsters and hard-charging mogul shredders alike.

While today will bring some more rain to the lower-elevation ski areas, forecasters expect another round of snow this weekend to continue the fluctuating snow level tease before the chairs start running and the lodges start breaking out the beer and hot cocoa sometime next month.

With the approach of an El Nino winter, this season bodes well for powder lovers in Washington. Even the scientists say so—forecasters with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have gone on record predicting that we’ll see an epic ski season in North America this winter. more >>