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:)
No comments:
Post a Comment