We woke up to a tempting offer to
stay an extra night in the yurt, and though I have no doubt another day in
Portland and particularly at the Traveler’s House would have wonderful, we
needed to continue on our journey. We
said our goodbyes to our fellow travelers and our new friends who run the
hostel, feeling confident we will see them again. Despite valiant effort, we
hadn’t even made it through half of Rachel’s list. On our way out of town we hit our 13th (out of 35) for a late
Swedish breakfast at Broder Nord. Our
server was adamant that we could not order all that we tried to order – it was
way too much food. The food she did let
us order was scrumptious – the perfect finale to our Portland feasting. And in
the end, she agreed we could order a little more to go for tomorrow’s campsite
breakfast.
I got some feedback from a
dedicated reader (thanks Tony!) that I have mentioned the scavenger hunt
several times but have not provided appropriate background info.
At first I wasn’t planning on blogging about our finds at all because I
didn’t want to tip our hand, but finding these items have been some of our best
stories, so must be included. Our family
was invited to be a part of a summer-long scavenger hunt…we have to find 20
items before the start of school at which point the participating families will
gather to compare results. Winners get bragging rights. We were
invited in by people who may not have been totally aware how much we enjoy a
challenge like this! The 20 items we are
searching for are: a funny sign, a drive in movie theater, something or someone 100 years old, a log ride, an exotic plant or animal, someplace haunted, a covered bridge, a dog in a stroller or purse, whole family's reflection in
something other than a mirror, an old fashioned, stand up
arcade game, a bride, a mascot, something that brings good luck, a lifeguard (bonus points if they are manning
their post/tower), a self-playing piano (photographed in action), a funnel cake, a turtle, a street performer (bonus points for family
members joining in on the performance!), a tractor, and something unusual not on the list. I'm not saying if I've blogged about every find we've made...
Our first stop today was Mt. St.
Helen’s. It was a little hard to motivate ourselves to add the hour + drive each way to our day, but it was definitely worth the
effort, especially given the perfect visibility of the mountain today. I
remember the ash coverage in Los Angeles in 1980 so it was quite amazing to see
where that all came from and to learn more about the devastation that the
eruption caused. 
From there we headed to Mt. Rainier to camp for the night. It felt like most of the day was spent driving, this time with Amy Poehler keeping us company. (We prefer Tina's book.) We stopped for lunch between the two mountains around 4 pm in Toledo, WA - hometown of Scott Lyons and a place I heard stories about when he was a student at Caltech in the early 90s. I learned after we left that I should have ordered a fresh strawberry milkshake...good thing we are passing back through on our way back down!
We arrived at our campsite around 7. It is a large campsite with many campers, but
unlike in Crater Laker, you still feel relatively isolated from the other
people. We went on a quick walk to get a
view of the mountain before it got dark.
As with much of this trip, we were extremely lucky with the weather.
[Even the predicted 100+ degree weekend in Portland didn’t come to pass – it was
overcast and in the 80s most of the weekend.]
Apparently, last night there was a huge thunderstorm right over the
campsite and the mountain wasn’t visible at all during the day. Today the sky is crystal clear, and the
mountain is breathtaking – literally every time it comes into view, I gasp a
little. And there was a full moon to boot.
Julia and I have mastered the
tent and put it up in record time.
Rachel, a fire pro, had a little more trouble this time around largely
because collecting wood in the Park is not allowed and we didn’t have any
kindling with us. She did get it going
well enough, considering we weren’t even hungry for dinner. It became clear we had drawn the interest of
our camp neighbors, 10-year-old Herminia (Mina) and 8-year-old Penelope
(Penny). Before long the guitar came
out, and that coupled with the allure of big girls was too much to resist. When I asked if they would like to come over
to our site, they ran right over…followed by their parents Connie and
Nick. We had a nice, musical evening around
our campfire (that Nick supplied kindling, wood, and the effort to maintain),
and only ended when quiet hours went into effect at 10 pm. I told Connie about how part of this trip has
been about meeting people and pulling life lessons out of those experiences and
she said she thought that this time the learning opportunities were all theirs. Mina has had a few guitar lessons but it
seems meeting Rachel might be a real inspiration for her. And, if you want to pull out how to be a good
big sister lessons, spending time with Julia is a good start. I learned some great ideas for visiting
Seattle – their hometown.
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