There is so much water. So much.

It’s been seven days since I found myself in the mysterious, far away land that is the state of Washington and I think it’s slowly beginning to dawn on me that I’m staying. Will flew home on Tuesday and much of the early excitement has cooled off. I generally have my days to myself now. My girlfriend is gainfully employed, leaving me plenty of time to explore.

Everyday, I come in over the bridge (sometimes in dense fog, which is disconcerting) and have free reign to go wherever I please. If I want to wander through Old Town or go to Trader Joe’s, no one can stop me.

But the thing I keep coming back to is the water. The Puget Sound is over 100 miles long and covers a total area of more than 1,000 square miles; riddled with fjords and streams. Tacoma itself is surrounded by water on three sides. Water is all around.

For someone who spent his entire adult life in the high desert of Arizona, nothing could be more foreign. In the desert, water is precious and scarce. Some people haul freshwater 50 miles just to drink and wash with. It’s so hard to come by that the Arizona State Constitution makes it illegal to deny someone a glass of H2O. Water is life-giving. Every drop must be saved. Water can also be devastating — monsoon rains flood canyons and sweep through burn areas, leaving nothing but destruction.

In Washington, the water is calm and ever-present. Life is teeming everywhere you look and no one worries about the Sound drying up. What a luxury it is to know that the water will always be there. And what a strange concept for someone who came up from the drought-stricken dry forests of northern Arizona to wrap his head around.

— 30 —

Jonny Eberle is a water-obsessed Arizona transplant living in Tacoma, WA. You can follow his blog right here and also follow him on Twitter.

Incidentally, this is my 150th post on this blog! Thank you so much for reading!

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