Free Sunday, Malibu Chicken, Volcano and Mountain

Sunday morning. It’s weird not getting up and getting ready to make it to church for 10:30 choir practice. Dear always leave the house before 8, so it’s usually just me and #3 around the house. Dear only gets 2 Sundays off during the year, unless he’s sick (very rare), so having free Sundays with the family is a novelty for him. Condemn if you want, but we always enjoy the time away from responsibilities and expectations. It’s a very demanding job and the breaks are always refreshing for Dear. But then, at the end of our time away, he’s ready to get back into the swing of things for the next 50 Sundays. How many other people do you know who are at church 50 Sundays out of the year?

‘Nuff said. We enjoyed our first Sunday off. We actually left the hotel early and were on the highway north before noon. Yes, that’s early for us on vacation! We decided to drive for a while to give the church people a chance to clear out of the restaurants. You know how annoying church people can be on Sundays when they’re hungry. Maggs graciously found us a Sizzler Steak House north of Longview (WA not TX) and we enjoyed our lunch of steak, shrimp and Malibu chicken.

Sizzler always reminds me of when I was pregnant with #1 in Florida. The only kind of food I could stomach for the first 3 months of my pregnancy came from either Church’s Chicken (a 20-minute drive from where we lived in Boca Raton) or Sizzler (just 5 minutes down the road). I guess that’s why I love their Malibu chicken – I pretty much lived on it back then. At least for a few months at a time.

After lunch, we drove on to see the Mt. St. Helens Volcano. The Visitor’s Center has a gift shop (naturally), exhibits to see and read, and the ever-popular informative video that plays twice every hour on the :05 and :35. We caught the 3:05 show and learned some interesting facts about the MSH eruption in May 1980. Do you remember where you were when it happened? I don’t remember the exact moment, but I do remember the cloud of volcanic ash in the air over Southern Missouri where we lived at the time. Very impressive.

We did the one-mile scenic trail walk (I can’t remember why – other than to walk off the Malibu chicken) in the 96-degree heat and were all sweating (I was “glowing” rather than sweating) and panting by the time we got back to the car. There was a heat advisory alert for southern Washington, so we didn’t see many other people on the path. Wimps. Send ‘em to TX in August. Then they’ll understand heat advisory!

FYI, the scenic trail walk was not TO the volcano site, just around some marshy looking water thing filled with lily pads and ferns that used to be Silver Lake before it got blown away by the 1980 eruption. We would have had to drive another 90 minutes to actually get to MSH. We chose not do to that because the informative video was so, um, informative that we felt like we’d already been there.

Back in the car and on the road again relishing the air conditioned comfort and recovering from the MSH walkabout. Maggs and I had a difference of opinion as to how to get to Mt. Rainier National Park. Since I sit in the back seat with my Rand McNally Road Atlas and Maggs is in the front between the driver and the passenger with her global positioning software microchip, she won. It wasn’t the scenic route that I would have chosen, but she got us there just the same. The drive through the park was spectacular and Mt. Rainier is awesome. Many photos.

Outside temp at the park entrance was 97 degrees. When we got to the highest point on our particular route, the temp was 63. I was most amazed at the snow that was still on the ground – even with air temps averaging in the mid-80’s. How is that possible? At one point, the snow was so deep around the trees that it looked like a Vermont winter scene instead of Washington in June. Several of the reflection lakes were still frozen over!

For the first time in our travels since our trip to Beaver Creek, CO in 2005, we saw a bear! Up close and personal. Well, from about 50 yards away. It was a baby black bear and he (she?) was munching plants on the hillside above the roadway. Photos, of course. But we didn’t get out of the car because baby bear on the hillside = mama bear somewhere close by. But we saw a real live bear in its natural habitat. I know. It doesn’t take much.

Further up the mountain road toward Paradise, Dear and #3 found a spot to get out of the car and play in the snow. Dear thought it was really funny that he was walking in the snow in shorts and t-shirt. #3 did the follow-the-leader thing for a few steps behind Dear, and then decided to challenge his dad to a King of the Hill manly man tussle. #3 ended up face down in the snow. Men, men, men, men, manly, men, men, men…you get the idea. More photos.

On the way down the other side of Mt.R, we could see some weather coming in and by the time we got to the bottom, we couldn’t even see the top of the mountain for the clouds. It started sprinkling and soon was raining with little pea-sized hail mixed in for good measure. Not good for the rental car, so Dear pulled over under some trees for a few minutes until the hail stopped. Then we drove out of the rain shower in about 10 minutes – the only rain we’ve had on the trip thus far. It’s because we brought an umbrella with us. If we hadn’t, it probably would have rained every day!

After Mt.R, we drove on in to Renton (Seattle area) and found the hotel that will be our home for the next 3 nights. I’m excited to see the sights in Seattle (too bad the Rangers aren’t playing here this week) and take a drive around the Olympic Peninsula into the Olympia Mountains. Maybe we’ll see a Pacific Ocean sunset.

Pictures are posted at www.myspace.com/alemapyak. Enjoy!

ttfn