Ohanapecosh d1
Picked Sara up from last day of soccer camp. Took fun photos of her playing. Lunched w/parents. Still packing food till 2:30pm before leaving. Stopped at Freddies for gas near enumclaw? No bathroom, so retreated to 31 flavors for treat & restrooming. Around 5pm. Don’t arrive till 6:30pm at camp. Begin looong, exhausting process of camp setup. E1&e20, adjacent. Wayne shows up at 7:30pm, with little traffic. I’m jealous. But we have bikes! Still not ready for dinner. Crackers and fruit. More work. Finally make sandwiches at 9:30. Roll to bed. Everyone tired & grouchy.
D2
Such a better day. Wayne takes 2am run w/lw. Both sleep in. I take 0600 w/Sw and we stay up wandering around the campground getting bark and sticks for a cool building project. Retreat to car to eat & warmth.
Much of today is about remembering camping routines. What is the most efficient way to do things? We wandered thru the morning. Organizing. Pancake breakfast. Bacon. Hot chocolate.
It’s the best weather day of the weekend. We all want to go to Paradise, but know there will be no parking given our slothly pace. So we move slower and embrace the leisure of a sunny quiet campground. We hatch an intention to go to Paradise after naps.
Poppa takes both girls to the visitor center. Sara works on her workbook the rest of the day, finishing it. There’s bike riding. Poppa watches for cars as Laura gains confidence in riding. Sara sweeps thru the campground with her Dad.
Naps.
3:30pm awakening.
Movement to car at 5 ish. Up to Paradise. We marvel at the snow and robust, swelling waterfalls. The changes in 5 wks. We get geared up for snow. Head to the Inn to eat dinner 6pm. Nice time. Salmon cakes w/ yummy mashed potatoes split w/ Wayne. Spinach salad w/ subbed Parmesan cheese nice. Sara has grilled cheese and Laura hamburger. Glorious desert of blackberry pie, choc cake, brownie w/ vanilla-shared by all.
Mom’s knee didn’t need snow stress. We split ways. Wootens walked on the snow, sledding & photoing the sunset. Driving back by 9 pm. Bed by 10:30pm. Girls giddy.
D3
Awoke as a family at 7:45- delightful! No early morning trips. Weather more cloudy, but not too cold.
More leisure at the campsite. Sara got a junior ranger badge with Poppa. The boys went to Packwood for ice. I biked around the campsite by myself a bit. Laura practiced biking more. I took the girls wading in a small beach/eddy area of the river when a campsite got emptied.
We did the late afternoon adventuring with a hike to Silver Falls. The falls is flowing high. I was anxious to hold hands. The girls pretended they were in a magical forest. I spun a tale about Grimmel and his golden whistle in Jim Powers tradition for the girls as we hiked.
We got back for dinner of burgers. We got to attend the ranger program on volcanos. Dad stayed after and watched the bats hunting over the area of open space in the amphitheater.
D4
More biking in the morning. It was just a great place for Laura to ride and ride and ride. We packing up camp. Dry the whole time! What a blessing.
We took the southern route. Mom drove with me. I followed Wayne. Dad went off to get some real hiking and solitude from the mass of family. The drive was beautiful.
We stopped in Elbe for lunch and went to Scales burger. I forget they don’t have a bathroom. You have to drive down the road a mile to the local state park. Ugh. But despite that huge inconvenience, the food was good and filling and the day was fine. We drove home. Back at 5:30pm.
I was exhausted. Too tired to even take a shower. We unloaded and dried stuff. I was way to tired to contemplate fireworks. Dad went and walked along the Burke to Gasworks.