Mt Rainier trip

Our family took a quick trip in the new van to Mt. Rainier. We stayed at the Stone Creek Lodge Cabins for two nights. We had a nice hike to Faraway Rock from the Reflection Lake parking lot. It was nice to get away from Seattle for a few days.


...our daughter is currently zoning out with a pacifier at my feet in her bouncy seat, so I have a few more moments to write more than two sentences. I have noticed that my blog entries have become brief ever since the baby was born. It has been a wonderful time, but it has also required adjustments in time planning. Those days of having 8 hour chunks of time to work on full time on one project are over for a while (unless I want to give up sleep altogether). Taking all this vacation time (6 weeks) for the birth has been the wisest decision I have ever made (and confirms what every father told me at work prior to me leaving, that they all wished they would have been able to take more time off).

Prior to the baby's arrival, Rebecca and I had grand plans of several longer trips during our time off. We talked of going to Glacier National Park via the train for a week, spending more time at her parent's cabin, and maybe one other trip. Looking back, I think we did a great job of taking the two shorts trips that we did. Now that we have taken those trips and learned what worked (taking the pack-n-play with us so Josie had somewhere to sleep that she was very used to) and what did not (underestimating how many diapers and wipes are really needed in a 3 day period), we are much better prepared to scoot out of town for short weekend trips in the future.

This trip to Rainier went really well. Being there midweek meant the crowds were manageable and we didn't hit the traffic at Paradise that is becoming a problem on the weekends. Rebecca found a great cabin rental via the web...

http://www.stonecreeklodge.net/

...which was very relaxing to come back to at the end of day driving and hiking. We arrived on Wednesday to cloudy weather. We drove up to Paradise after checking in, but couldn't see the mountains because of the clouds. We did see a fox and some deer along the drive, but didn't take any photos.

Thursday we drove out to Reflection Lake to take a short hike. The weather was incredible and Josie liked riding in the Ergo baby carrier (sometimes she likes it, sometimes she hates it)(another lesson learned: bring both the Ergo and the sling in case she decides she suddenly hates one or the other). We had some stretches of snow on the trail, but it was manageable. We then drove up to Sunrise and loved the view (but the drive up to the view was frightening at times, the drop off was impressive).

On Friday, we headed home at a leisurely pace and missed the high traffic times on Seattle freeways.