Last Sunday we took a trip to the opening of Seattle’s downtown branch of the public library. The building is an impressive 10 story masterpiece of design and architecture. Most people like it, some people hate it.
I am in the love it category. Here are some obligatory pictures of Sara and I in the new children’s section.
Well my most ambitious “Do It Yourself” project to date was installing a new screw drive garage door opener to replace the antique that burned out last week as Karen went to go for a workout.
We drove down to Home Depot and picked up their top of the line Genie. This thing is pretty neat. It has a screw drive and is probably half as noisy as the old one. It would be even less noisy, except when opening it has “Excelerator Technology”. Basically that is the marketese for “it opens twice as fast as it closes”. When it first opened, it was so fast that I thought I had adjusted the tension wrong and it was going to jump the track, but no it just always opens the door in about 8s.
Installing it was a chore. The ceiling is very low, and the header bracket would not fit. The old one would not quite fit the rail, hence the term “hack”. I broke out a hack saw and remove part of the I-beam to get the interface to fit. Then of course the motor landed right between the two studs, hence the “erector-set” contraption to mount it to the ceiling. Of course the “saf-t-beam” units had to be drilled into concrete and I shorted a wire while stapling it to the wall. But all those minor set backs aside, we finally have quite a neat little door opener and one that I hope won’t fall off the ceiling or break anytime soon.
This weekend we celebrated our 7 yr anniversary by visiting Mt. Ranier National Park and staying at Alexander’s Inn just outside the SW entrance. We left home at 9:30am on Saturday 5/1. We had to stop once for a bathroom break and refueling Sara at a McDonald’s. We ate a packed lunch at Sunshine Point at noon. The day was warm, in the 60’s, sunny, and perfect. Sara seemed surprised by the spray coming from the mighty Nisqually River (her first). While we ate lunch by the river, Wayne let Sara taste the juice from a grape. She liked the taste so much, she started actively grabbing for grapes after that.
From there, we drove to Paradise which sported 142 inches of snow. This is the first time I’ve been to Ranier this early in the season. We tried to hike to Nisqually Vista. This trail was hardpacked snow and the only one marked with wands. We loaded up Sara in our new Kelty pack for her first official hike. We started off merrily until the screeches began. Evidently, Sara did not like the jarring of Daddy slipping up and down snowy slopes. We tried to changing her diaper in the snow, but she was not appeased. Alas, we finally turned back. Turns out, she was tired and couldn’t figure out how to nap in the Kelty. Luckily, she learned later in the trip. We wandered around the lodge and visitor center. Finally, we turned toward Alexander’s anticipating a warm bed and delicious dinner.
We were not disappointed. Wayne ate pork stuffed with apricots, apples, cranberries, and raisins. I enjoyed a steak dinner. We skipped desert as Sara was a little fussy and wanted to save her parents the extra calories. In the room, I enjoyed the luxury of removing boots and having my feet cooled by evening air by the window. Sara played between us in the bed and finally fell to sleep around 9:30pm. Daddy didn’t last past 8pm. I found an intriguing book on the Inn’s shelves, Philip Yancey’s Reaching for an Invisible God. It caused me to ponder deep thoughts about God, like how doubt plays a role in an active Christian faith.
Breakfast made up for the calories missed at dinner. Delicious hot chocolate, coffee, coffee cake bread, blue berry bread, sweet strawberries, chocolate chip pancakes with butter, hashbrowns, smoked salmon scrambled eggs, and hot biscuit with homemade blackberry jam. Sara decided the agenda by announcing that we all needed a nap with some screeches during breakfast. We slept for 45 minutes. By the time we packed, checked out, and drove to Longmire, it was 11am.
From Longmire, we picked up a thread of the Wonderland trail, paralleling the Nisqually River and the road going NE in air conditioned old growth forests. The smooth trails allowed Sara to nap. We crossed one river and 2 logs and felt like we were really hiking finally. North of Cougar campground, we wandered into the Nisqually river bed and made it to the make shift bridge. Next time, we’ll try for Carter falls. All told, we hiked 4 miles. We ate lunch at Longmire and headed for home by 3pm. Sara’s now asleep and we managed dinner and unpacking.
Look at how quickly Sara learned to sleep in the pack!
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