Blue skies smilin at me...

Just returned from a fantastic and amazingly memorable weekend. After a brief skype session with my brother Dan and his wife Angie a little over a week ago, we all decided to get together this very weekend. It was fairly ad-hoc and sort of came together in a very quick and organic manner. They live in Moscow Idaho where Dan is attending grad school. We figured Seattle would be a fun equi-distant rendesvous. After some research Mt Rainier began to emerge as an even better spot to meet (since none of us have been there, and all of us have wanted to go). The weather has been fairly atrocious the last little while but we just figured, whatever, rain, snow, hail... bring it on.

We met in the town of Packwood, WA and stayed in a cheap little "inn." It was fun. In the morning Dan and I chased a herd of Elk around town. Very quaint and lovely place. Saturday was surprisingly and quite stunningly clear and GORGEOUS! It was also Public Lands Day, so the park had free entrance!

What an amazing place. You climb up and up, and it gets more and more stunning, then suddenly BAM Rainier emerges.. it is sort of breathtaking. We commented on the fact that the mountains around Rainier get a little bit of a raw deal since they are stunning, yet... largely ignored... we recognized them and showed our appreciation.

We arrived at Paradise, the park village there. It has an old old lodge and a fun visitor's center, and tons of great hiking. I'll let the pictures do the talking, but we had a fantastic time in that unbelievably serene setting. It was such a postcard, and again, the weather literally couldn't have been any better. This was probably one of Annie's last rigorous hikes for a while. She and Angie took a shorter loop, while Dan and I hoofed it up to a pretty incredible overlook! I was still proud of my cute little pregnant wife!

We rolled off of Rainier at mid-day and coasted into the Seattle area. We decided to avoid Seattle and instead head along the western shore of the sound. We stopped into Gig Harbor (because we saw it on the map and thought it would be fun to eat in a "harbor"). It was stunning as well... couldn't have been more serene... another post card. We could see Rainier in the background, and this cute little harbor town was out of some movie. We had some great seafood there and then yummy ice cream.

We stayed that night with my old college roommate Garet Barney and his family in Bremerton, WA. It was SOO fun to see them. We sang a little, visited a little and laughed a lot. We went to church this morning in Bremerton and got home this evening.

What a great weekend. Seriously one of the best. Thanks Dangie for an unforgettable time. The chats, tunes, and shared sunshine will be a happy thought for a long time.