Day 16: Mt. Rainer National Park and Women’s Cup Soccer! (SPOILER ALERT!) – June 30

For some nonsensical reason I seem to sleep later when camping than I am usually able, and by that I mean like 7 am.  We had conflicting agendas today, wanting to explore the beautiful Mt. Rainier National Park and wanting to be in Seattle in time for the 4 pm kickoff of the US vs. Germany semi-final match.   We had a little nervous energy all day, allowing ourselves to consider the possibility that if we win this game, we would be seeing the US Women play live on Sunday!!  But first, Mt. Rainier. 

We drove through the old growth forest up to the Visitor’s Center at Paradise.   Along the way the view is mostly of trees, rivers, valleys, and every now and then you turn a corner and the massive Mt. Rainier is suddenly in full view.  It really does take your breath away.  The movie at the Visitor’s Center talked about the planning that went in to making that effect a reality when they were building the road – so it isn’t just me. 



From the Visitor’s Center we hiked a pretty short trail to Myrtle Falls and just beyond the falls into the meadows of wildflowers.  I have been to several National Parks (Joshua Tree, Death Valley) during what was supposed to be prime wildflower season, but I've been disappointed.  Not so today.  The wildflowers at the base of Mt. Rainier are absolutely stunning.  Some might say (and have) that is looks like "Paradise".  We drove a little further up the road to see Reflection Lake and marveled at the view but by that time our attention shifted to getting some cell service and finding a place to watch the game in Seattle.

Our drive to Seattle was a little more than 2 hours.  We stopped for lunch around 1, picked up some road-side Rainier cherries (never made the connection before), arrived at our new airbnb (an artist’s studio in northeast Seattle) around 3:30, and got to a multi-tv restaurant around 4.  We barely touched the food we ordered (combination of nerves and excitement and just being totally full), but the game was so fun to watch in a public setting!  I didn’t even say anything mean to the woman who walked in wearing a German jersey… but I wasn’t sad when she left at half-time.   I can NOT believe this trip worked out to include seeing the US Women play in the World Cup Finals on Sunday.  We are such fans!  I think even Julia is looking forward to it now…she watched the full game with us today and was cheering just as loudly as everyone else.  She has caught the fever!

We came back to our studio to relax, start getting our mind around our next few days in Seattle, work on the blog (thanks for reading!), and watch hours of game recapping to keep reliving the joy.