Rain and Mexican Food

There is only audio in this video but this was taken from my bed at 4:20AM!!  It was much louder than it sounds. 

Torrential downpour!!  But so warm.  This is NOT Seattle rain. 

OK, the pics and videos are all in the wrong place but I'm leaving it as is because at least they are there and I've already spent way too much time trying to figure it out.... 

The weather here is in a lot of ways similar to Seattle.  We have some of the same plants and flowers.  Lots of Rhododendrons, but even more Lilacs that Seattle.  The trees are more spindly, kind of like what you see on the way through Central Oregon on the way to Bend.  It is a bit further north so the days in the winter are even shorter and darker than Seattle in the Winter -I didn't think that was possible -and longer in the Spring/Summer.  I also didn't think that was possible aside from going to Alaska.  But we are a month away from the longest day of the year and it is totally light well past 9:30 PM.  And the sun rises again before 4:30 AM.  The sun doesn't actually wake us up but the birds do.  I have never, and I mean NEVER heard such loud, constant bird chirping in my life.  Not even while visiting the Amazon or game reserves in Africa.  Crazy loud birds that start around 4:15 each morning.  The early bird gets the worm I suppose.  But not only do we have longer/shorter days but the weather when it comes is much more intense.  The winds are crazy strong, the rain is torrential downpour at times and we have yet to see what an intense snow storm would feel like although the kids have their fingers crossed that next winter will be OUR winter.  We will see.
Also, in news, I finally found a place that sells decent salsa, chips, refried black beans, pickled jalepeños.  They even have American tortilla chips.  We were at a party a couple of weeks ago and I saw the host bring out a jar of salsa.  I wasn't even going to try it because the jarred salsa here is sickly sweet and gross.  Like, I've thrown away several jars because they say HOT on it and I think, oh, this one will be good.  But this one was actually marginally good.  I think compared to homemade or my several favorite go to salsas in Seattle this would be mediocre at best but having gone a couple of years (except the month we were in Seattle last summer) without salsa, it was great.  Josie is into it now too. We have gone through 3 sizable jars in 3 weeks.
For some reason I can't post my pictures... but if I get bogged down in technical issues I will never catch up.  No pics for now.  Hoping to get them up soon. ..