Edmonds Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

Our two favorite summertime vacation locations are Cannon Beach in Oregon and Yellowpoint Lodge near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

A few decades ago we would have voted for the groundhog village and the burning underground coal mine emitting smoke near the badlands of North Dakota.

There is an explanation.

In three years launching a journalism career in Bismarck I recall only one vacation we could afford, at an isolated motel near the groundhogs and the smoke.

Don't get me wrong. My time in North Dakota was not wasted.

I wrote some bad news stories, and some good ones.

We met a lot of...