Southwest is one of my two favorite airlines: flights leave on time, tend to arrive on time or a little early. They did all right by me today: 2-hour flight to Chicago, 3-hour layover, 4-hour flight to Seattle. 

There is no mis-identifying Mount Rainier from the air. Lots of jagged mountains and then this one big, substantially snowy one, standing apart from the others, its top rounded like a child's early attempt at making a castle in the sand. Imposing.

Flying west leaves time for exploring on arrival. I'm off to explore.