Camping at Mt Rainier

We accidentally went to Mt. Rainier. I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know how beautiful Mt. Rainier is - we were surprised by the enormous crowds and also by how spectacular the scenery was.

We camped at Cougar Rock, which was a very nice campground. We stopped briefly at Narada Falls, which I loved.

We then drove up to Paradise, with the intention of hiking the Skyline Trail. (We ended up parking way past the visitor center and hiking 4th Crossing, Golden Gate and half the Skyline Trail, should you be interested). Parking here is impossible, as it is flooded with tourists (we heard people speaking at least five different languages), but it is so beautiful. We didn't hike a single inch of trail that didn't have beautiful views. And there are creepily tame marmots frolicking all over the place, too.

We goofed around the campground.

We also hiked to Carter Falls and Madcap Falls, which entailed crossing the Nisqually River on the most scenic bridge ever.

And then we ate lunch in Longmire on the way home. We ate nutterbutters with nutella, because that's how we roll.

And that's it! A quick and lovely camping trip as we head into the end of the summer.

Mundane busyness

We are persevering. Skipper and I returned from California a week and a half ago, leaving Cook at a work conference in San Diego, and made it through a workweek on our own. Cook returned Friday night, and we went to the wedding of yet another delightful cousin on Saturday. (I got to see ALL my delightful cousins, which was lovely.) And we heard a LOT of river metaphors.

Here's Skipper and Cook in their wedding finery, next to an actual (McKenzie) River.

 And here's Momotaro and Uncle Rock Star. Momotaro made friends with another little boy his age (the child of the delightful cousin of some of my delightful cousins), and Skipper played hide and seek with them.

Here, also, is Cook, listening to The Drunk Guy at the next table over, because there's one at every wedding.

 And also Cook being whapped in the face by Ume, who is now one entire year old.
























And here is Skipper, worn out by the weekend, on the way home on Sunday.

And THEN we picked up Duchess from the airport late Sunday night.And then we dropped off Skipper at the bus to camp on Monday morning. It's been hectic.

This is Skipper, apprehensive about camp.



















This is the reminder note Skipper made for herself about camp.



















And this is just Duchess, whom we are very happy to have home.  She had a great time at rowing camp. She made some fast friends, had some fun flirtations, and got a lot better at rowing.

Vacation

Remember the ancestral family wooden boat? It got a makeover, and we got to go on its first trip back to Catalina in its refurbished state.

We had a lovely time. The weather was great, the boat didn't sink, and we didn't get stabbed by cactus. Here are photos.*

*Wondering where Duchess is? She's still rowing. She'll come home this weekend.