Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 10

Cow Appreciation Day was July 9. As we were driving, I called out, "We appreciate you," a few times to cows we were passing. Tee Hee.

 

Road Trip! 

We decided a couple days before that day that since we were in Washington, we could go to Mount Rainier National Park using Lucky's National Parks Pass. We also found out that now you have to have timed reservations to get into certain areas of the park... between certain hours. All our kids are used to us getting them up early for trips, so we were able to get to the park early enough we got in no problem. 

 

Welcome to Jurassic Park, err... Mt Rainier National Park.

Jeremy's parents came with us and it was nice to share that experience with them. It reminded me of when we went to Yellowstone with them in 2017. I visited Mount Rainier once when I was a child and it was so foggy, we could only see glimpses of the mountain from time to time while we were walking around. This trip the sky was so clear, we could see so much. It was gorgeous.

We took so many pictures (with our phones and our Nikon camera) that it's hard to narrow down which to put on this post so bear with me.

We got some tips from Utah's Adventure Family about places to go and Jeremy did some research so we had a plan. We went up the Paradise Corridor through the Nisqually (Southwest) Entrance to the park. It's a good thing we went in the morning as it got busier and busier throughout the day. We didn't do some of the things we planned to do and that's okay. We had a full day with what we did.

 

Christine Falls

Ricksecker Point

 

Narada Falls

See the fence toward the top left of this picture?

That's where we are standing in this next picture. And you can see the bridge I took that last picture from at the top right of this picture.

It was a short hike for this waterfall. Jeremy, Lucky, and I decided to go down and back up and it was pleasant. The mist felt so good.

We told our other kids when we got back up that we got a picture of the waterfall. This is the picture. Tee Hee.

 

Nisqually Vista Trail

Look at that smile. Jeremy was happy to be there.

We got to see where the Nisqually River comes from the Nisqually Glacier.

It was definitely a hike, including hiking across snow on the trail that had not yet melted.

How Nichole takes a break in the middle of hiking

How Jeremy takes a break in the middle of hiking

 

Lunch Break

We stopped at yet another overlook (we stopped at so many).

Look. It's Narada Falls again but from a very different angle.

 

Reflection Lake

At first we thought the lake was too choppy to see the reflection, then we reached a point where people were going right up to the edge of the lake to take pictures and when I went there, I could see why. There was a still part right at the edge protected from the wind blowing across the rest of the lake. There was the reflection.

Longmire Museum. 

Outside the museum was a cross section/tree slice (aka cookie) showing different historical events during the tree's life. That was cool.

The museum also had a gift shop. My father-in-law likes any excuse to get me slug themed items (slugs are my thing). They are easier to find in the Pacific Northwest. Go figure. He got me a banana slug plushie which Jet immediately claimed. I'm happy to share. The boys named it Timothy. Jet took his hat off (which he also claimed. It's actually Jr.'s hat) and put it on Timothy but when we got back in the van he took the hat off and said, "No, banana slug. That's not your hat," while pointing his finger at Timothy in a scolding manner. Heh Heh.

It was a long but wonderful day.

 

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.

Dragging Our Whole Family Birding... Again

This is from an adventure we had back in April but I'm posting about it now.

 

We didn't make it to the Greater Sage Grouse lek this year because of weather (check out our adventure on my April 9 blog post) but Nichole took a break in the middle of finals to get up really early in the morning (like 2 or 3am) with the rest of us to go an undisclosed location (can't tell you where it is) to a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek. So cool. Jeremy and Nichole had been there before but the rest of us hadn't. These grouse are smaller than the sage grouse but they were big enough to get a good look at them (when it got lighter). Like with the sage grouse, we heard them before we saw them. Then when we saw them it was neat to see the similarities and the differences in their displays.

They make such cools sounds, different from the sage grouse. Some similarities in sound but mostly different.

After the lek, we went to another spot but didn't find our target bird in that area. Oh well. We did see plenty of other birds. We can't complain because we did see the Sharp-tailed Grouse earlier. We also saw a skunk while we were driving around.

We headed to the Golden Spike National Historic Site where we got to see where trains from the East and the West met to finish laying down tracks from both directions. We visited way back when Jr. was in 4th grade and had his 4th grade National Parks Pass. This time, Lucky was able to get his parks pass there and did the Junior Ranger program there to get another badge. Fun. Jet was cute and wanted to be like his brother so the ranger gave him a badge, too. Awww. Isn't Jr. the greatest? (I did not write that last sentence but when I looked at my blog I didn't realize that. I was trying to figure out what Jr. had to do with Lucky and Jet getting badges. Ha Ha Ha. This is what happens when I step away from the computer while I'm in the middle of writing a blog post. Ha Ha Ha. I love my family).

We got to go see the trains they keep there and learned a lot. Jr. Jr. asked a lot of questions which I thought was awesome.

We had a good adventure that day.