Looking at a map of the Evergreen State, how many of our Washington place names are unique to Washington would you guess? Doing some Googling, I only found five:  Seattle, Port Townsend, Ritzville, Mossy Rock and Moses Lake. But my oh my the other names:

Custer  —  MN, SD;  Oak Harbor  —  TX, GA, FL, LA;  Spokane  —  OH, SD, MO, LA;  Bellingham  —  MN, SC, MA;  Arlington  —  13!;  DesMoines  —  CA, NM, IA;   Edmonds  —  ID, NC;  Raymond  —  11!;  Black Diamond  —  MT, PA, FL, AL, AR, AZ;  Cheney  —  ME, IA, KS, MO;  Pullman  —  AR, IL, TX, MI, WV;  Rosalia  —  KS;  Odessa  —  9!”   Starbuck  —  MN;  Colville  —  KY:  Chattaroy  —  WV;  Kettle Falls  —  MN;  Mesa  —  TX, MS, AR, AZ, CO (with many more with this as part of the name).

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Here is a lesson for all of us.  She had come early to a meeting and took out the packet of photos she just picked up at Fred Meyer and was writing the particulars on the back of each photo. Would that we all would follow suit.

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As you zoom along I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass, have you ever thought to stop at Snoqualmie Falls? The falls are quite magnificent (even on a gray day):

In the parking-park, there is a kiosk explaining about the falls and the importance of these falls to the Snoqualmie people:

And I realized that I had been mispronouncing the name all these years.

It is Sno-qual-mie and not Sno-qual-A-mie.  How about you?