NP #10 - Day 3 - August 11, 2014

Day 3: August 11, 2014

We had a quick breakfast in our cabin, then got the obligatory pictures under the national park sign,

 

then hit the road to Seattle, just in time to mesh up with rush hour traffic.  We parked a little northwest of the Space Needle, and walked down to it through much of the Seattle fair park area – very neat.  We paid about $84 for four tickets to go up the Space Needle, road the elevator up and spent a total of about 10-15 minutes tops. The kids liked it and it was a clear day but it’s certainly JUST a bucket list thing.  We actually spent more time in the gift shop than we did at the top of the Needle.  

 

After the needle, we walked over to some sort of indoor food court and all four ordered different food but it was quite relaxing.  We got back in the car and after another small traffic jam heading east to get on to Interstate 5, we headed north then west to North Cascades National Park.  The drive was fairly uneventful.  The kids watched The Little Rascals movie for I think the second time that day and third time in total, including the plane ride out.   The only humorous part of the drive can best be shown with the following pictures:

 

We arrived at the Skagit River Resort exactly at 3:00, check-in time, and the temp was 93 degrees – surprisingly hot!  We checked it and got to pick out our own coffee beans to grind at the cabin.  We were also directed to three different trash cans on the facilities, all of which were full of “bunny bread”.  The kids could go get all they wanted to feed the bunnies that roamed all over the resort. 

We checked into cabin #5 and it was awesome – a full house with kitchen, bath with tub, a living room and two bedrooms.  The only thing noticeably missing was air conditioning! 

At 3:30 we headed into the park and at 4:00ish, we arrived at the Newhalem Visitor’s Center.  This park was quite different from Rainier in that it seems that very few people frequent it.  It’s actually a no-fee park.   

We bought the kids’ magnets and hat pins and got the passbooks stamped then the park ranger gave us some good suggestions as to how to spend our time there.  From the Visitor’s Center back door, we took a 1.9 mi loop hike down to the Skagit River (the River Loop Trail)   

The water was freezing at the river but the kids and I got our feet it and I walked about 1/3 of the way out into the river.  It was fun.  

We hiked back up to the car then headed a little further east on Hwy 20 over to the Gorge Falls and to another set of falls just east of Gorge Falls (mile marker 124.5).  They were both amazing.

 At a little before 6pm, the kids, which generally have been phenomenal on this trip, were starting to lose it with each other.  We left the park and ate at the Buffalo Run restaurant just outside of the park in the town of Marblemount.  The restaurant had this need outdoor garden seating area that was beautiful.  We had a good dinner then went back to our cabin.  

At the resort is an “obstacle course” that we ran through and the kids played on the playground and feed the bunnies, which was just adorable and reminded me of when they were very little, feeding the bunnies in Oregon those first few years.

We took showers then went to bed and boy was it hot.  The one fan in the entire cabin went to the adults in the room with the queen bed which put the kids in bed together, which didn’t last long.  Eventually, as usual, it was time for musical beds which eventually put Grant in bed with me and I’m surprised that I’m not covered in bruises. 

But all-in-all, another great day.

NP #9 Rainier - Day 2 - August 10, 2014

Day 2:  August 10, 2014: Everyone was up bright and early the next morning.  After a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, oatmeal, sausage and coffee (all in the room), we headed into the park at 7:30, through the Nisqually entrance (SW corner of the park).

Our first stop was a few miles in where we stopped to hike back to Carter Falls.   

It was an unplanned stop and was a 1.1 mile hike back but I don’t think we made it all the way.  After crossing a log bridge, which was a little unnerving because 6-year-old Grant could have slipped right off the side, we hiked along a creek and saw lots of little falls but I think we turned around prematurely.   

Despite probably not seeing the grand finale, we had a great time.  The weather was quite cool and the entire hike was completely tree covered (with the exception of the very beginning).  Part of the trail back was on the Wonderland Trail, a trail I’d like to take in its entirety sometime in the future.  I am guessing it’s a 90-mile trail but it looks spectacular. (I think we probably went a total of 1.5 miles roundtrip).

After the Carter Falls trail, we drove past the Paradise area, the Ohanapecosh area, and up north to the Sunrise Visitor Center for our main attraction of the day – the Sourdough Ridge Trail.  We started from the Visitor Center parking lot, elevation 6,400 ft. and walked straight up a hill, that frankly, took my breath away.  The air was thin and the elevation change was pretty steep.  We hiked over to Frozen Lake, which was spectacular, then went, questionably legally, off the trail and onto a snow patch where we just had no choice but to eat some snow. 

Then rather than circling back to the Visitor Center, we detoured over to Shadow Lake where we put down a tarp and had a picnic of turkey summer sausage, cheese sticks, crackers, cherries and apples.  It was absolutely beautiful and absolutely delicious.   

We put our feet into the lake for a little bit then headed back towards the Visitor Center.  I think that the entire trail was a little over 4 mi and the kids were amazing – complete troopers.  It was quite hot by the time we got back.  We walked straight over to the snack bar and got Gatorade and soft drinks, then went to the next door Visitor Center and bought the obligatory hat pins and magnets, and got all of our passbooks stamped.  

Around 2:00 we left the Visitor Center and headed back south towards the Ohanapecosh area but not before we had to pull off to the side of the road so that Grant could drop a duce on the side of the road – a Bomersbach trip wouldn’t be complete without one side-of-the-road #2 bathroom break by Grant.  In the Ohanapecosh area, we hiked back to Silver Falls by the shortest means possible but once we got down there, we hiked on the rocks up the falls a little bit and drank some water from the falls.  

It was amazing but very hot – luckily very shaded but still, surprisingly hot.  The hike back to the car was straight uphill and the total hike was probably 1.2 mi. Once again the kids were amazing.  They raced back up the hill as if we hadn’t been on a single hike that day.

Heading west back towards the Nisqually entrance, we made a quick stop at the Box Canyon which was a very narrow, but completely straight drop (180 feet) down to a raging river.  Grant asked is they had tanascoops (actually meant telescopes – cute).

A few miles farther west we made one last stop at Christine Falls – very beautiful, then left the park around 6:00 with the kids yelling, screaming, sassing, and otherwise being awful.   

When we told the kids we were going straight to dinner, Grant got pissed and said, “But I haven’t gotten to be in the cabin all day!”  Really?  We passed the Gateway Inn and drove a few more miles west, stopping at the Copper Creek Inn for what should have been a quick dinner.  Our waitress was a B- at best but the food was good.  We all got burgers, except Grant who got a PB&J that he didn’t like and spent most of dinner waiting in the bathroom line due to a continuation of a bought of diarrhea. 

The kids were beat.  We got back to our cabin a little after 7:00 and because we drew numbers at dinner, I got to take my shower first, then G, then Ry then Nick.  Ry and Nick got ice from the mini mart and then the three of them practiced their underarm farting ability while I sat and wrote this all down. 

It’s now 8:45 pm and I am exhausted and going to bed.  We have to be up early tomorrow to hit the Space Needle. 

But National Park #9 is in the books and what a park it was.  Spectacular.  And the first one we’ve been to where I wish we had another day.

NP #9 Rainier August 9, 2014

Day 1: August 9, 2014:  Today we left Dallas at 11:00am and flew to Seattle.  The plane trip was the least adventurous one we’ve had yet since having kids, which is a very good thing.  We arrived in Seattle at 1:00pm Seattle time, picked up our white Dodge Caravan minivan and headed south towards Mt. Rainier National Park.

We got stuck in a small traffic jam in Tacoma due to a pretty bad wreck, then we stopped at an Albertsons in Spanaway, Washington and bought some breakfast/lunch groceries and a Styrofoam ice chest.

We pulled into the Gateway Inn around 5:00pm and checked into log cabin #4. Besides being very dark, it was the perfect room for this trip.  

 If you walked to the edge of the parking lot, the Nisqually entrance to Mt. Rainier was literally 50 yards or so from our Inn.  We unpacked our luggage and groceries then walked over to the restaurant that is part of the “main lobby”, mini-mart and souvenir shop.  The kids split a chicken strip dinner, I got chicken teriyaki (the owners are some sort of Asian) and Nick got fried fish and shrimp.  The food was all decent but not worth going back to.  

We walked back to the room around 6:30 or so and were literally asleep by 7:30 (the room had 3 double beds and night 1, Nick and Grant slept together in one bed, Ryan slept in one and I slept in the one right by the front door.

National Park #8 Crater Lake August 19,2013

This was our last day here.  We got up, watched Soul Surfer AGAIN, then packed up and headed back to Portland.  We explored the west side of Portland briefly, driving through Forest Park, the largest urban forested park in the U.S.  Is was gorgeous except for all the hippies everywhere :-) We passed Voo Doo donuts and kept on driving cuz the line was ridiculous.  That's the second time we've skipped because the line was too long so we STILL haven't ever tried them. We were going to just check into our Holiday Inn Express by the airport and swim but we got there around 1 and check-in wasn't for a while so we looked over in the distance, looked at each other and said, "What the hell...let's go to Mt. St. Helens".  It was a 90 minute drive over there and as soon as we got close we lost any cell phone connectivity so we really had no idea what the must dos were.  The mountain blew out to the north and we were coming in from the south so we never got to see the actual crater but man, we saw some beautiful stuff.  Some of the most amazing lakes EVER, along the way.

 



The first sign we came to after entering the park was Ape Cave. So we said, "Sure - a cave full of apes.  How bad can that be?"  We found a place to park then took a short hike to the trailhead for the cave.  As we approached, we say people walking down the trail with head lamps, coats (it's 80 degrees outside), etc.  so we thought this might be a slightly bigger deal than we realized.  But what the hell, we carried on.  We walked down the first set of stairs and there was at least a 15 degree temp drop immediately.

We went a little ways, woefully unprepared, the four of us holding hands, relying on Nick's iPhone flashlight app!  It was pitch freakin' dark in there AND scary.
So I said, "You know, both kids have headlamps in the car and we have a flash light.  We could always go back and get them", for sure thinking that there was no way the kids would want to walk all the way back only to walk all the way back.  Instead the response was, "YEAH!!!  Let's do that."

So here we are on round two:

Don't let the light fool you.  That is ALL from the flash.  I couldn't even see the kids when I took their picture.  It was AWESOME!!!!!

With that we headed back toward Portland.  Bye Mt. St. Helens.  Wish we had more time for you.

We stopped and ate pizza at the Blind Onion in Vancouver, Washington, then checked into the hotel around 7:30 or 8:00.  Am really glad we went on our adventure because the hotel didn't even have a pool and the hot tub didn't work.  What a great trip it was.  Up EARLY tomorrow to catch our 7:30 flight back home to Hades.  We'll miss you Oregon.

National Park #8 Crater Lake August 16 & 17, 2013

Today (the 16th) was one of our "stay in Cannon Beach" day.  We walked into town and hit the souvenir and candy shops.  They fired up the salt water taffy cutter and wrapper while we were there which is always cool

We stopped off at Local Grill & Scoop for some beer, wine, chocolate milk and cheese fries then we walked back to the house, stopping along the way to eat wild blue berries (1st time we've done that!!)

Saturday August 17 - Ah, our last day here always makes me sad.  This morning we walked south to the Waves of Grain Bakery and had cheese muffins and cookies.

 

Then we walked back and spent the rest of the day on the beach building sand castles throwing boomerangs.

Then we ended our day with a great dinner at the Lumberyard, a place we hadn't eaten at since the very first night of the very first year we ever came here.  It was delicious - we had frickles and crab legs.

Since it was our last night, we stopped by the Picnic Basket (one of the candy stores) and got one final treat then went home to watch the sun set.