Keeping up with the Bragassas: September 2011

Monday, September 26, 2011

Mt. Rainier National Park

Day 6 - Wednesday, August 17
Mt. Rainier National Park

Today, all we did was hike around the beautiful Mt. Rainier National Park! The scenery was phenomenal as was the weather! We were able to see some beautiful views of the surrounding mountain ranges as well as some cool animals (like mountain goats and marmots). Here's some of the pictures from our fabulous hike:)

Our new bumper magnet and motto for life:)

Picture from the visitor's center...I never remember to take off my sunglasses

Getting ready to hit the trails.

This is the peak of Mt. Rainier which is 14,411 feet above sea level! Mt. Rainier is also one of the most prominent mountains in the United States and one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. While we were there, we looked through some binoculars and saw some people summiting the mountain...even through the binoculars they looked like ants so I'm sure we can't see them in this picture but they are there:)

The wildflowers were unreal! The pictures just don't do it justice!

Weird icy lake

Brian saw this and said "Let's go...it can't be that bad"

And then we saw this and he kept going while I complained...

And then we finally got to the icy part and you have no idea how steep this way! You can't really tell, but it was super steep and that is mushy snow, ready to give way any minute. Brian tried to cross it until I about had a heart attack!!

Pretty meadows.

Self portrait.

So beautiful!!

I felt like I could just reach out and grab it!

Our marmot friend.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Driving to Mt. Rainier...or should I say...Mt "Sun"ier

Day 5 - Tuesday, August 16

Seattle, WA to Mt. Rainier, WA

Tuesday morning we actually woke up super early and went to the Fisherman's Terminal and to Pike Place Market since we arrived a little bit later in the afternoon on Monday. We first swung by Fisherman's Terminal in hopes to see the fisherman unloading their latest catch, but unfortunately we were given some bad information and when we arrived, the information desk people told us that the boats won't be back for a few more months which kinda threw a monkey wrench into our morning plans. Once we felt like we had had enough of staring at docks covered in bird poop, we drove on over to Pike Place Market to watch the famous and fun events at Pike Place Fish Market. It was a great time to go as no one was really there yet and all the vendors were setting up all the fish, food, and flowers. We even got a chance to walk into the first Starbucks...generally the line is out the door and the wait is ridiculous! Sadly, we were a little limited on time since we had to go back to our hotel, pack up, pick up Vida, and then check out so we could get a move on to Mt. Rainier.

All the docks where the boats usually are...some of the boats are on the show "Deadliest Catch"

Really pretty and really cheap flowers

Huge salmon

Fresh fruits and veggies

Throwing fish for a touchdown!

Giant Piggy Bank

haha!

Video of the Pike Place Fish Market guys throwing fish!

After we left Seattle, we headed for Mt. Rainier which was about a 2 hour drive. We definitely lucked out and found a great ski resort called Crystal Mountain right outside of Mt. Rainier National Park which allowed dogs, and get this, gave us half off for being military!! Not to mention that all of our meals were included... I told the lady I will definitely be going back there if they practically pay me to stay;) I must say, I've been to these cute little isolated ski resorts in the winter when they are covered with snow and buzzing with people, but I would be lying if I didn't say that these same cute, little, ski resorts are kind of creepy in the summer. There was hardly anybody there! I bet there was a total of 40 cars taking up the parking lot for 3 different hotels and not to mention 6 or 7 huge parking lots which are slammed in the winter! Needless to say, it was really pretty and super nice to have everything so quiet! The food was great, service was wonderful, and the scenery was unreal!!

Crystal Mountain opens up their gondola daily for people to ride to the top of their property for what they claim to be the best view of Mt. Rainier. The funny thing was that from the bottom of the resort, you would have no idea that this huge volcanic mountain is right on the other side, but when you get to the top, Mt. Rainier practically pokes your eyes out! It was breathtakingly beautiful and hardly anyone was there!!! The weather was great, hence the Mt. "Sun"ier title! Brian, myself, and Vida (yes they let her ride the gondola up!) all rode to the top and just sat there in awe for about an hour...Vida was actually more preoccupied by the curious little chipmunks running around than anything else. I swear she would have ran off the cliff trying to catch one...thank God she was on a leash. From the top, we could see Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Baker...we literally felt like we were on top of the world! If it was this beautiful from outside the National Park, we couldn't wait to see what it was going to look like from inside the park.

View driving to Mt. Rainier

I thought the highway signs were funny...

On the gondola on the way up.

View from the top...BAM!!

Mt. Adams

These little chipmunk squirrelly things kept taunting Vida...they would walk right up to her and sniff her and she would just sit there shaking, not moving a muscle.

Brian taking in the scenery, Vida thinking about how she's going to catch the rodents.

We had to ask 3 different people to take this picture before they finally got the whole mountain in it...seriously people! Learn how to take a good picture!! This one turned out pretty awesome though!

On the edge...

I forgot to mention that we decided we would walk down the mountain instead of ride the gondola... we descended 3000 feet over a 3 mile hike which took us about an hour and a half. It was super steep and my legs were killing me at the end!

Vida playing in the left over snow:)

The Emerald City

Day 4 - Monday, August 15

Port Angeles, WA to Seattle, WA

Monday morning we woke up without any real plans set in stone...we wanted to go to Olympic National Park but then we would be back tracking which we didn't really want to do, and we had Vida which put us in a serious predicament when it came to checking out of the hotel on time since we couldn't bring her to the park with us. Eventually, while eating breakfast at a great bagel shop, we came to the conclusion that we should just make our way over to Seattle and we should stop along the way if we saw anything cool that we needed to take pictures of or check out. That being said, hotel reservations were the next thing on the list...which required about 30 minutes of calling around trying to find the best deal.

Now we had two options when it came to getting to Seattle...one was to drive all the way down the Olympic Peninsula and then back up to Seattle on the other side, or we could take the ferry across Puget Sound and save time and gas money. Of course, like I said earlier, this whole trip was kinda on a whim...which meant I really didn't know if they would allow dogs on the ferry until we practically got there which was stressful to say the least. Once we finally got on the ferry, it only took about 30 minutes to get from Bainbridge Island to Seattle and the scenery was beautiful the entire time!!

Once we got off the ferry, I had the fabulous idea to try to find a dog park so that Vida could get out and play for a little bit...let's just say that the GPS thought it knew where the dog park was and it send us on a wild goose chase! Long story short, we could see the dog park...but Vida never got to play in it because we couldn't find the parking lot! I felt so bad for her but since I'm such a great parent, when we got to the hotel, I ran her around the hotel a few times like a loony person:) After I felt like she was tired enough to sleep for a while, Brian and I left to spend the afternoon/evening in Seattle.

Our first stop was Pike's Market which is a huge arts/crafts/farmer's/fish market in downtown Seattle right on the water. As we were driving over, I noticed this big white cloud right over the city's skyline...a few minutes later I caught another glimpse of this "cloud" and realized that it wasn't a cloud at all but it was Mount Rainier!! It seriously towered over the entire city and was beautiful! Whoever said Seattle is a rainy city was a liar! We had beautiful weather and were able to sit out a cute little pub for happy hour, and then make our way over to a fun sushi restaurant. The day seemed to fly by, but we had a great time!!!