Hiking Rainier National Park

We have visited Rainier National Park once before, when we were visiting Seattle for the first time, but it was covered in snow and we couldn't do much hiking.

We saw a few hoary marmots while hiking. They were very hungry little hippos.

We saw some people walking around with crazy shoes and big ice picks, which I guess are the implements you'd need to actually climb to the top of Mt. Rainier. I think that would be a pretty cool challenge for us to tackle someday. Lydia seems less enthused.

I think this speedy devil was a chipmunk.

We were back in Kirkland in time for one of my favorite activities: sunset over Lake Washington.

Lydia and I have been trying to construct a zygote for the last couple of months. I was mentally prepared for it to take a long time to happen or maybe never happen. Well apparently we are both in working order because Lydia handed me an open Amazon shipping bag and said something like "I accidentally opened this but it's for you." When I looked inside there was a little "positive" pregnancy test at the bottom of the bag. Let the games begin.

I Did a Poo Poo

I showed Lydia some of the liquid treasures that I imported from New Belgium in the far away land of Colorado.

Fact: Poo Poo point is the best named geographical formation in the United States.

Things got very Poo Poo almost immediately.

And the Poo Poo quickly ratcheted up from there.

Apparently the area is perfect for paragliding because there was a lot of activity.

At the top you can see there's some fake grass which I assume the gliders use as their runway. The view was pretty solid. I was thoroughly wiped by the end but I'm glad I didn't give up on this Poo Poo.

A Very Holy Hike

Today we hiked around Saint Edward State Park to see the sights.

The Saint Edward Seminary is an unmissable feature of the park. The school closed in 1977, fell into disrepair, then underwent a $57 million renovation to turn it into a hotel and restaurant. Finally they found some productive to do with seminaries.

Ever knowledgeable Wikipedia says that a "proposal by McMenamins to develop the main building into a hotel, restaurant, and conference center was withdrawn in spring of 2007 due to backlash from the Citizens for Saint Edward Park."

Once we got far enough away from Hogwarts the place started looking like a proper park. 

Washington's trails are funny because even when they are rated as easy they are often a bit strenuous just due to the amount of elevation involved. Everything is so damn hilly here. I did realize how easy I had it back in the Midwest.

We checked out the local outpost of fancy pants ice cream chain Salt & Straw. They have a lot of weird fun flavors but I'm too scared to get more than just a taste of any of them. If I'm going to go all in on a cone investment it's going to be a tried and true chocolate flavor, not something weird.