A cold awesome Christmas day....

Being the designated driver.. I mean the person who would drive my parents to see the eagles the first thing I had to do was to scrape and chisels the ice off the windshield.. It had rained and then the temps had dropped to 27 F / -3 C freezing everything..

The road up to the eagles started a bit icy with freezing fog but when we got to the Skagit Valley the skies opened up and the Cascade mountains with the fresh coat of paint where out in all their glory..

Just north of that the snow alongside the highway was getting very noticeable but staying crystal clear outside and cold.. After a lovely breakfast at one of the few places that were open we were off to see the eagles.. The first road was covered in a very thick ice and although we saw a few, nothing would compare to what we saw next.

There is a place at the river where the salmon come up to spawn, that is where we saw at least 30 and probably more eagles, along with 20 Canadian geese and a dozen seagulls.. I warmed up the camera with a constant shutter click.

The main photo was my favorite of all of them. The first extra I was torn between 4 in flight photos.. This one shows an eagle looking determined where he/she was going along with their beautiful wingspan. The second extra shows a concerned / exasperated eagle.. There were at least 40 people walking the river shoreline and the road looking at them.. I did wonder what they were thinking about all of us admiring them.. The last photo between the light showing the beautiful feathers and...

We then took the back roads home seeing the snow covered farms, a zillion snow geese, the small towns and their history, and stopping for ice cream.. A magical day...