Going West 2013

Saturday started out as a chill out day, a little shopping, a little thinking about moving in with Katie and Jordan while the camper is worked on. We all got together in the afternoon and went to Tacoma to do a little sightseeing and pick blueberries. There is a park in Tacoma called Charlottes Blueberry Park. There are hundreds of blueberry bushes, picnic tables, etc.. Anyone can go a pick berries, no charge. We did, though we were a few days early. By next weekend there will be ripe berries galore. We got a few quarts, had lunch, and decided to go to Brown’s Point Lighthouse Park on the Puget Sound. Without the Garmin we never would have found it, no signs, down the end of a narrow residential street. It turned out to be a nice park with a small light, the keeper’s house is now a vacation rental and museum. If you rent it you agree to open it from 1 – 4 on Saturday to the public. Downtown Tacoma is nice, we didn’t walk around, but did find the Fire Station 9 brewpub and sampled some of their product. It was gay pride day, so several streets were closed off. This provided a somewhat more extensive tour than we originally planned on.

Today after Mass we picked Katie up and went to Mt. Rainier National Park. The mountain is visible from just about everywhere as it is by far the highest mountain in the area. We drove up to Paradise, a part of the mountain that has a lodge, visitor center, and many trails. This is the starting point for people climbing the mountain. We walked a couple of steep trails to viewpoints where the glaciers are pretty close. Both trails ended at snow fields, and we weren’t equipped to walk in snow, but we got high enough and close enough for some breathtaking views. The wild flowers are just starting to bloom, Avalanche Lilies are most dominant, some Indian Paintbrush and a few others are out, but there are buds galore. In another week or so there will be flowers everywhere. We didn’t see too many flowers, but the sky was clear blue, no fog, no marine layer, no plume from the summit. The weather doesn’t get any better for mountain viewing. Even on the trails in the snow the temperature was in the sixties.. We also viewed several waterfalls and walked a trail around a mineral spring and marsh area. The Nisqually River from the glacier of the same name is a boulder-strewn gash down the mountain, a testament to the force of the water at certain times. Dinner was at Katie’s, now we’re preparing to drop the camper tomorrow and move in with Katie and Jordan for a couple of days. Lucky them!