Finally, a Hurricane that doesn't disappoint

We tried to plan out a way to make our road trip easy for everyone so we decided that we'd leave for Olympic National Park when it made sense based on Sadie's schedule. Since we'd be driving out right past our hotel on the way out, Mark and Laurel were nice enough to just swing on by and pick us up from our hotel in mid-morning. It was another beautiful day as we headed out on the roughly three hour drive to Hurricane Ridge.

We made it out of Tacoma - including going over the (in)famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge (well, the new one obviously) - and since it was lunchtime, we decided to stop at the next place that looked decent. Laurel found a place on Yelp called Butchers & Bakers in Port Gamble and as we drove into the town, we were all impressed. It was very pretty with hills and water views and everything there was really nice. The restaurant was in an old building and served sandwiches but when we got there, the bakery part looked awesome. Jess and I ended up eating cookies and brownies for lunch and it did not disappoint. We even bought more for later.

We headed out and made one more diaper change stop at a rest area near Sequim and from there, we headed into the park. With a $30 entrance fee, we were glad we had one more month's use of our National Parks pass. For some reason the line of cars to get in was very slow and we found this to be a theme the whole time we were there - I still have no idea what everyone took so long with unless they were paying with pennies.

After a short drive up to Hurricane Ridge, we stopped at the the Visitor's Center there. It sits at 5200 feet and offers views of the Olympic Mountains on one side and a view of the Salish Sea on the other side. The mountain views are impressive and with rolling meadows in the foreground and mountains in the background, it looks like something out of "The Sound of Music". Mt. Olympus is just under 8000 feet so it's not terribly prominent but since it was a clear day, you could definitely see it and the glaciers on it. On the other side, you could see San Juan Island in the distance and see Vancouver Island and the city of Victoria in Canada. We did a short trail - after all, Laurel had 20 lbs. strapped to her which made it tougher - and saw the sights, such as the ski lift the native people built hundreds of years ago (we assume; there was no sign so Mark and I had to fill in the blanks).

After the drive back, we stopped in a park (which doubles as the spot of the Clallam County Fair) and let Sadie crawl around on a blanket. Too bad we forget our discs or else we could have played on the premier course on the Olympic Peninsula. After killing some time, we headed out for dinner in Port Angeles. Despite being at the height of the tourist season, it was dead downtown except for the one restaurant we wanted to eat at. Apparently, it's the best one on Yelp and that's all anyone wants to eat at. With an hour wait, we passed and went to a Texas BBQ place that was pretty good too (or maybe we were just really hungry at that point).

The hotel situation in that area is pretty bleak - it looked like mostly lousy hotels/motels and the couple decent ones were Holiday Inns and were very expensive. Even though I've never done it before, Mark and Laurel have used Airbnb before and had good experiences so we booked a place in Sequim. It was a pretty nice drive into it and felt like you were in the country which was nice. For this one, the owners were home upstairs with their dogs and we had the basement, which was fine in terms of space for us. The owners were trying to peddle their side businesses - hers was yoga and healing or something and his was Sasquatch sounds, about which he's written books. Yes, you are reading that right. The owner met us when we got there but otherwise left us alone which was good since we turned in early. Our bedroom was her yoga studio I think so it was creepy having a huge picture of a young monk right across from the bed. I swear that as we went to sleep his eyes were open but when we woke up they were closed.

As Mark says, "No one out here probably even knows what the Whalers are." Note: He said this as I was wearing a Whalers shirt today and oddly enough, as we were walking back to our car after dinner, we passed a group of young guys (smelling of weed, of course) and one had a gray Whalers shirt on. What were the odds?

Sounders

Since we're leaving for a mini road trip tomorrow, we had a relatively light day today. We started out by heading over to Mark's house where we took an Uber  to the Seattle Sounders game (our first one ever so we're now part of the 21st century!). The only soccer Jess and I have ever attended has been a couple Carolina Railhawks games so seeing an MLS game at a stadium that's known for its atmosphere would be fun.

Unfortunately, the Sounders aren't good this year but the crowd was still lively as we got to the stadium (and it was still pretty early). There was a lot of noise as people were heading to the gates all while chanting and banging drums. After getting inside, we got up to our seats - which thankfully were in the shaded part of the stadium, making for a very comfortable game given the beautiful weather - and checked out the club level. Between this and last night at the Mariners, we can definitely get used to the good life! We grabbed some food and waited for Greg to arrive.

The fans there are pretty good with their chants that everyone knew and the main supporter section was standing the whole time. It was a throwback game so they wore 70's jerseys from when I guess the Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps existed in some previous league which would have been cool but I kind of wanted to see their newer kits.

The game itself was good as Seattle scored on a penalty a few minutes in and dominated the game. Sure, a third goal by anyone would have been great (for recreational reasons only, of course) but we ended up being even from the games Friday and Saturday with some swings in there so that was fun. After it was over, we said good-bye to Greg and grabbed another Uber back to Mark's house.

Mark and Laurel were nice enough to cook for us again with burgers on the grill and fries. It was great to spend more time with them and Sadie and we had a wonderful evening. After leaving, I dropped Jess off at the hotel while I went to the airport to drop our car off since we wouldn't need it anymore. That took a little while (basically just waiting for the shuttle back to the hotel) but it saved us over $100 vs. dropping off in the morning so it was worth it.

After repacking, we went to bed and awaited our morning road trip.

As they say in Seattle, "We love the Sounders!" Note: Not a lot of people seem to say this. It's definitely a Seahawks town...

Falls to Pearl Jam

It was hard to top yesterday and we definitely weren't in a hurry to do anything. We had bought tickets to the Mariners game at 7 PM so we had all day to kill. We ended up not getting ready until mid-morning and then we headed up to Snoqualmie Falls since we had heard it was a popular site and meant to do it last time we were here. We also have friends in Snoqualmie so we thought maybe we'd see them there too.

The falls themselves were cool but it's not like it was something that took more than 20 minutes to fully see. I guess there are a couple different viewing areas and some hikes but after yesterday, we didn't care to do it. Besides, the sunburn I got being out all day yesterday was pretty bad so any sun felt extra hot. Our friends ended up not being around during the time we were up there so we just headed back to our hotel, ate lunch and then took it easy. I tried to figure out a plan for returning our car and figuring out where to stay during our last night here so that we didn't inconvenience any of our friends.

About 5 PM, we headed out to the light rail station to go to the Mariners game. It was pretty easy and cheap compared to sitting in traffic and paying for parking and we got to the game in plenty of time. Our seats were on the club level and the recommendation of Jackie and Erich, our old seatmates at the Canes game for a number of years. They, along with their sons and some friends, met us and Greg at the game (Greg's girlfriend Mary ended up being stuck at work and couldn't make it) and we all had a great time. Greg is the one I've gone to most of the ballparks with and it may have been over 10 years since we saw an MLB game together so that was nice. The seats were great - the club level was nice and less crowded - and the game was close too. We even made $3.50 putting in a few bets throughout the game so it basically paid for itself.

The game was busy but it wasn't because people were super into the Mariners vs. White Sox; it was because there were post-game fireworks set to the music of Pearl Jam. A lot of people stuck around and it was decent display - if we liked Pearl Jam, I'm sure it would have been awesome. The trip back was a little more packed on the train but not too bad and we were back to our hotel at around midnight, which is pretty late for us.

As they say in Seattle, "Eddie Vedder is the greatest musician of all time." Note: Judging by the crowd, they probably do say this.

Sledding in July

We wanted to do some hiking while we were here so we decided that today we'd go to Mt. Rainier and do something there. Even though my friend Greg has been living in Seattle since last September, he hasn't made it to Rainier yet so he was happy to come with us. After meeting us at our hotel at about 7:30 AM, we decided that we'd go to the most popular part of Rainier and do the hike that is probably the most recommended. That meant doing the Skyline Trail Loop at Paradise and it certainly did not disappoint!

It was a two hour drive up and when we left it was cloudy, although the forecast said it'd clear up during the day. As we arrived at the Paradise Visitor Center, it was busy but at least there were parking spaces. While it was still pretty cloudy - and thus you couldn't see any mountains - the sun was starting to show through at times so we were hopeful that it would clear soon. We stopped at the gift shop, got Jess her stamp and bought a few drinks before moving our car to a different lot (since we'd be there for hours) and heading out on the hike. We spoke to a ranger beforehand and she warned that there was still snow in parts but she said the entire 5.5-mile loop was passable if a bit challenging.

The beginning of the hike was paved but it was pretty steep. We knew we'd gain about 1700 feet in elevation but at least a good chunk of that was at the beginning. After we got off the paved part, we were basically in the clouds so visibility wasn't great. We could see short distances which meant snow, wildflowers and marmots galore. We hadn't seen marmots in person during our other trips and this time they were right by the trails and didn't seem concerned that people were right next to them. We also saw a lot of fat chipmunks too.

The trail itself was pretty steep and was tough for Jess at times because the stretches between rocks and steps were sometimes pretty wide and her legs are short. It was very rocky and uneven and steep at almost all points during the first half of the hike. There were a few less rocky parts but that meant it was either kind of sandy or there was snow. Yep, it turned out that even in July, large stretches of the trail were completely covered by snow. Thankfully there were flags and you could follow the footsteps to see which way to go but it was very easy to get a little off course.

We climbed up about 1400 feet to the major veiwpoint of Panoramic Point but unfortunately it was still cloudy so we couldn't see anything in front of us. Behind us was the peak of Rainier, and after stopping for a few minutes to eat lunch, the sky cleared slightly and Rainier was briefly visible. It was pretty amazing although it didn't look as big I expected but that was mostly because we were halfway up and there were still clouds to the side of it.

The clouds came and went rapidly so we left and tried to get up above the clouds and hope for better views. After a short distance, we got to a point where the mountain was completely visible where again, it was only for a short time but we sat there for a while and got to see it come in and out of view a few times. When it was visible, you could definitely see the glaciers up top and the blue hues looked amazing. I did manage to drop our camera and of course it fell down about 10 feet, bouncing off rocks on the way down. It didn't work at first when I got it back but thankfully Greg had this happen to him before and it just required some adjustment to the lens. It seems like it still worked (after all, that's where most of these pictures came from) so we continued on.

After hiking up a couple hundred feet to the high point of the trail, we walked along a giant mound of snow. I think it was a glacier but can't be sure. We saw a huge mountain goat - which I first thought was another snow mound - just sitting there along with people practicing and preparing along the snow below the trail for what I assume was a summit attempt. At this point, the ranger had said there were areas of more snow so we expected that somewhat but there was definitely more than we bargained for. While we thought the uphill parts were tough, it was a lot harder climbing down the snowy steep parts.

Lucky for us, there were a couple people that decided they would use their jackets or a garbage bag to sled down. They may have gotten a little wet doing it but considering you're likely to fall anyway, it seemed like a good idea. The guy offered us an extra garbage bag and we took it. It turns out sledding on that works and is a lot faster and easier to get the down the hills! We took turns sledding at various points and while you didn't have a lot of control, it definitely worked (and was a lot of fun). Here's a video of Greg on one his slides:


(And yes, I'm an idiot for not shooting it landscape.)

We did have to cross a couple of streams too. It wasn't like they were moving that quickly or were deep but you definitely could get your feet completely soaked like I did. There was no clear path through it so you had to guess at which rocks wouldn't move and would stay near the water line. It wasn't easy to stay dry but we all made it with no one falling into the water.

The trail down wasn't that bad and we ended up getting more great views once we got below the clouds. We also saw more marmots sunning themselves on the rocks and the snow. When we were at about mile 6 of the hike (somehow we ended up doing nearly 7 miles so we must have meandered around a lot in addition to the hike from the parking lot to the trailhead), we had to go back up a steep area to get back to the visitor center. We also saw a group of people carrying out a gurney with something tied up in a bag. We think it was a training session but they didn't say that so we don't know if they were recovering a body (though I later checked the news and didn't see anything about it).

When we got close to the trail's end, we saw a nice waterfall and there were a few deer grazing by the path. We were all pretty tired - it ended up being an 11-hour day in total, which was longer than we had planned on - so when we got back to the hotel, we parted ways with Greg and took it easy the rest of the night. It also turned out that despite being below or in the clouds much of the day, we were out long enough that I got badly sunburned so that wasn't terribly comfortable once it really set in.

As they say on Rainier, "You've reached the summit when you're about halfway up." Note: No one says this.