Thursday, May 11-Friday, May 12                                                                                       Ellensburg, Washington

We wanted to see Mt. Rainier, even though the road was only open as far as the Paradise visitor center, and even though there’s a legend (could be true) that no one has ever actually seen this mountain top.

It was chilly and rainy at the south entrance to the park.  There is a small museum and inn there; we had lunch and got in a short hike before driving up to Paradise. The rain quickly turned to snow, and it was coming down pretty good by the time we pulled into the parking lot.

All around us were walls of snow; probably 20 feet deep.  The visitor center was surprisingly busy with groups of students and other adventurers.  Some groups had been out on snow shoes.  Buzz really wanted to try that, but there weren’t any in his size.

We watched a film that made me want to come back and see the mountain when the wild flowers are blooming.  There are over 100 species here, but they don’t appear until mid summer. We did see some glacial lilies on our hike.

The hiking is reported to be fabulous, and many climbers attempt to summit the 14,000 peak of Mt. Rainier, but only half are successful.  We thought it was worth the trip, even though we didn’t have much time to explore and couldn’t camp (obviously!).

We spent the night in nearby Ellensburg, a nice college town with some good restaurants and interesting shops.  We had dinner at a restaurant housed in an old church which has been painted yellow. It has a rather obvious name, Yellow Church Cafe!  The food was really good.

One of my favorite stops on the trip so far; Dick and Jane’s spot.  These guys have been working on this masterpiece for many years, and it’s really cool!  I especially appreciated the liberal use of bottle caps, one of my favorite decorative items. Andy read my thoughts as we walked around, and said “don’t even think about it.”  I think our house would lend itself to come inspired art such as this, but I won’t push my luck. Andy’s patience level is cosmic, but even he has his limits.