As soon as I moved to Washington, I determined that someday I would climb Mount Ranier. And then I realized that would be really hard and require special gear like...oxygen; so, I decided that hiking somewhere near the base might have to close enough!
A few months ago, Richard and I wrote up a Seattle bucket list-- the things we absolutely had to do or see while we lived in Washington. Visiting Mt. Ranier was right at the top of that list, so on Memorial Day weekend, we decided to tackle it...family of 3.75 style!
It is still quite snowy this time of year in the mountains, so we didn't go very high in elevation.
One of the first orders of business was getting the proper gear for our outing. Binoculars!!
Anna has mastered the art of drinking without hands, which should serve her well when she starts driving a car!
Up until this outing, I had ruled out camping with our family, indefinitely. I love the s'mores, the campfire, the food, the starlight, the stories and songs...its just the sleeping (or lack thereof) that I have a hard time with. The trip made me rethink my decision. It was so beautiful, and the weather was so mild, and the campsites so close to necessary amenities, that I decided that someday, when my bladder is bigger, we will go camping again!
There were many cool things to explore here. We went to a campground/hiking area called Ohanapecosh. We have already decided to come back to Ranier again at the end of summer so we can get closer.
There was this awesome cutting of a tree that had a timeline etched on it. It started growing somewhere in the 1200's.
We decided to hike Silver Falls-- a loop that we thought was merely 1.3 miles (and entirely appropriate for a 2 year old to handle). Unfortunately, the 1.3 mile listing was for the first half of the loop. Anyone who has hiked with kids knows that miles triple in length. So really, we hiked around 7 miles on that hike!
Anna was really good natured for about 2/3 of the first half :)
finally we made it to the halfway point.
And then Anna checked out for the second half.
The video is of Anna flying down the trail to meet me. These outings with my family are the best part of my life. They make me feel like I am the richest woman alive because I can't imagine being happier. I live for the weekends because I get rejuvenated for any monotony that the upcoming week might hold. As long as I can explore with my family on Saturdays, I can deal with almost anything during the week. I am so glad there are so many things left on our bucket list to discover.
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