Last day of hiking

We had a leisurely morning.  We got up, had some eggs, and headed out. We stopped at an information center since all the official national park visitor centers are closed Tuesday and Wednesday. This was more like a gift shop with some info. They recommended a couple of hikes. We did the blue lake trail. It was about an hour drive to get there but a nice hike. 

On our way back we stopped at Diablo lake and let the boys fish a little while we just admired the scenery. These glacial lakes have a water cooler that is soffit to describe. It was similar in glacier park; blueish, greenish but crystal clear. Very nice. 

We took one more short hike to an Indian rock shelter. We got back “early”, a little before 8, and had some tacos. The kids played on the badminton and swings at the campground. 

We have eaten 5lbs of blueberries from the U-pick place so we may stop to get more. We are going 75 miles east but have to go 50 miles west first in order to get around the road closed due to wildfires. This brings us right back rot the blueberry spot :) 

To summarize everything so far, we have had great weather (temps in the range of 55-69 at night and 65-75 during the day) with no rain. It has really been perfect weather. The scenery is awesome; nature is amazing! And the kids have been great. Sure they have had their moments but after 4,500 miles in the car someone is likely to invade your space  no or eat the last chip, or let one rip and they have been great. 

North cascades

Yesterday we left the coast and started heading east to north cascades. We left around 11 and made a few stops along the way. First to a smokehouse store for some smoked salmon. Next we stopped for some you pick blueberries ($2.50/lb) and some seafood. Then for some donuts and ice cream. Unfortunately the Sasquatch museum was closed otherwise I am sure we would have been in there until sunset. 

After we arrived at the campground, we basically dropped the camper and went into the park. All the visitor centers are closed, and not many people here. They don’t even have someone at a gate collecting fees. We took one hike to a lake which was very nice. We also stopped at an overlook which had some wonderful views. Other than that we drove the 69ish miles until the road was closed for wildfires and turned around and headed back. 

Epic fail

This morning started out by making bacon. I have been looking forward to this bacon for a few days. Sleeping in and bacon sounded like a great idea! Well the picnic table is a little far from the electric hookup so I just cooked it inside… well… at some point my excitement must have gotten to me and the electric fry pan full of ready to eat bacon (and said grease) tipped over on to the floor by the door which happens to be where we store all of our shoes. Better to have bacon that tastes like feet than no bacon is my motto. All bacon was consumed. Shoes have a little less traction than the used to. We will see how the rest of the day goes. 

Update; the rest of the day went well. We visited deception pass state park. The kids did some swimming and fishing and we hiked to the bridge. We were pretty sure we saw a whale in the sound but just two spouts and then it was gone. After we drove around a bit and found the naval air station where we had been seeing the EA-18’s flying out of (variant of the fa-18).  For dinner we had some freeze dried backpacking meals we had bought a few years ago just for fun.  We played some pickle ball and went to bed. 

Keeps getting better

While heading north we had a great time at the museum of flight. Then we hit church at a small mission church. Made it to the campground around 8pm and had some noodles for dinner. 

Sunday we took the ferry to the San Juan islands. We took the suburban with us and drove a loop from friday harbor around the island. 

We learned about the Americans and British both trying to claim the islands and almost started a war. The only death was a pig. We visited another lavender farm. Had ice cream twice (since it is national ice cream day) looked for some orcas and had a nice dinner by the water. 

This is one of the best places in the world to whale watch and we tried but nothing today. The orcas they are most well known for haven’t been hanging around for a couple of years.  

Junior rangers again 

Bennett has sure grown up on this trip

Before the ferry we had some time to walk around the harbor and watch the boats. 

We had a great dinner including grilled oysters. 

Seattle

It is always tough picking your favorite part of the trip but after a couple days in Seattle, some of the kids are saying this was the best but salmon fishing might be better?

After nearly 4,000 miles, and plenty to go, I thought it was best to change the oil on the suburban. That was my job first thing in the morning. 

(The biggest crab legs we have seen)


Then we went to pikes place market. Fun to see then fish flying and some of the other cool shops. We walked around the waterfront area; saw some cruise ships, and other fun things. 









Nate’s highlight for sure was the trip to the exotic car dealership. Ferrari, Lamborghini, rolls Royce, mcclaran, lotus and more. Lots of fun! The salesman even let Nate start one up and “play” a bit. Nate really wanted the yellow lambo, but I went with the dark grey hardtop. 

Next we went to the Ballard locks. Saw some boats go through the locks and watched some fish in the fish ladder. We had a good seafood dinner (fish and chips and chowder) and then headed back to the downtown area. 





The space needle was cool. We were there a little before sunset. We had a little time to play on the nearby playground. Then we went 550’ up and spent some time on the outdoor viewing area. It was cool to see the transformation of the city lights from day to night. We also spent a little time on the lower level which is the revolving glass floor.







Saturday we went to the museum of flight. 

On the move

Not much going on today. We had some baked goods from the Ukrainian bakery down the road, made a quick stop inside the park to visit the gift shop (we get a sticker at every park) and headed out. It was cloudy so there were no views of mt. Rainier- we were glad we visited the last 2 days. Mary is good at making reservations for good weather. Haven’t had any rain since we have been on the trip. Just nice cool weather. 

We arrived at the KOA in Kent, WA between Seattle and Tacoma. Kids enjoy some swimming and we had dinner before heading down to Olympia to visit Molly. Got a view of the state Capitol and walked around the water a little bit. Nice trip. 

Tomorrow we visit Seattle. 

Rise and shine

Today we went to the sunrise area of the park. We left the hippy camp a little before 8 am and drove the 60 miles to the sunrise area. It took about 1.5 hours. 

This is a different view of rainier.  This is the north East view. The littles became junior rangers again. 

We did a couple of hikes but nothing as strenuous as yesterday. We hiked to frozen lake which still has icebergs and back to the visitor center for lunch. The hike wasn’t too difficult and there were a couple of places that are still snow covered. Amazing that there is still quite a bit of snow this time of year! We had perfect hiking weather, sunny and upper 60’s. Luckily we packed our own lunch because the gift shop and cafe is not open Tuesday or Wednesday. We did a quick hike to emmons vista. 

On the way back we stopped at a lake and did 2 quick waterfall hikes. 

Finally we planned to have dinner at the national park inn. That was really expensive and take out only so we trucked on. Then we stopped at a Ukrainian restaurant but although there were people in there we couldn’t find anyone to serve or seat us. Mary really wanted the borscht. Finally we found a pizza place   Good pizza and good beverages. Tomorrow we head to the Seattle area. On the way home we found some elk 

I think the whole family is having a good time, but it is so enjoyable just being able to have fun with the kids and listening to them laugh. I am really appreciative of their sense of humor. Also, though they may get on each other’s nerves from time to time (especially in the car) they all seem to be loving each other and playing/laughing and enjoying each other. I hope they remember these times for many years to come. 

Rainier (The mountain not the beer)

This is becoming one of our favorite national parks. Awesome scenery everywhere. 

We got up and had a good breakfast. (Normally we just have yogurt and cereal). We had breakfast sandwiches today. We were in the park by 8 and started our hike around 9:30. We took the skyline trail. It has an elevation gain of 1,700’ and is listed as strenuous. This is more than we have ever tackled. We made it and it was worth it! I think it was around 5 miles round trip and took around 4 hours just like the ranger said. We saw lots of great views, some marmots playing, quite a bit of snow (some still covering the trail) glacier streams, waterfalls, wild flowers and lots of great Mountain View’s. 

We were tired after that but we had lunch and kept going. We drove to the east end of the park and did a shorter (2 mile) hike through the grove of the patriarchs. 

The kids played in the river a bit and we saw some REALLY old trees. Like 1,000 years old. 

One more hike to a lake but lots of misquotes so we cut that a little short. 

Overall my watch says over 25,000 steps with more than 11 miles and over 200 flights of stairs. Who knows the accuracy of all of this but it was a lot for sure.