I think I have been out to Washington (state) over a dozen times. I have acquired a list of my usual favorites that I have to hit up at least once per visit like shopping at Safeway (yeah...don't ask me why, I think it's just so super cool), fish and chips at Lowell's (along with perusing the rest of Pike's Place Market), early morning (like 10 a.m.-ish) Starbucks runs, seeing the Ocean in some shape or form (Puget Sound also covers this category), hanging out with my favorite West Coast family (and their so super stellar neighbors)...the list goes on and on. Looking back on the past weekend, I do now have to add camping at Bumping Lake to my mental list of favorites. Sure we didn't actually see the stars like the tee-shirts say we do (oh, yeah. We have tee-shirts.), perhaps we didn't use quite as much sunscreen as we should have and maybe we never actually ate smore's or half of all the food we brought along, but whoa baby, we had fun! Five days and four nights of the most non-roughing it camping I have ever experienced (yes, we had tacos with all the fixings, eggs/bacon/sausage for breakfast, steaks with TONS of 'shrooms, I slept on a mattress with running water and a commode readily available. Okay, I guess you could say we were in a camper. First time for everything...It was good.).
Saturday we made a convoy of five vehicles (there were 29 of us, after all...oh, and two dogs) and went to Boulder Cave to check out the beautiful scenery. After walking through the cave we grouped up again and wandered up the mountain to Raven's Roost. I was promised great scenery and knew it really was something to see from my cousins who have talked it up for years.
Ok. I'm not a super-over-emotional-OMG type of person, but words cannot accurately express the view from the top of the twisty, winding, dirty 16 mile drive up. So worth all the dust, nausea, ear-popping and blazing sun to see what awaited us. The photos barely do justice, but here are a few from the weekend anyway!
Baby girl really liked the Glo Sticks
Yeah. How often have you gone camping with a projected screen to play movies? Yep, that was a first for me, too! Sure kept the wee-ones occupied...
This was the view of the river that ran right by our 'campsite'. Very cool to fall asleep to the constant hum of the rushing water.
Zach and Kyle at the base of the cave. These two were so cute, I just want to fold them up and keep them in my pocket!
Dusty road leading up to Raven's Roost...
Mt. Rainer
Ahhhh....Washington. My home away from home.
1 comment:
FANtastic. I love it. I want to go back, like now. Only no dust this time, and extra suntan lotion. This trip definitely goes down in history as one of the best ever. Love the photos as usual, especially the first one! :-)
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