Mt. Rainier/Yakima/Spokane, 19–25 Sep 2022

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Melody’s sister Celeste was in town for about a week, and we took the opportunity to do a bit of travel. It was a whirlwind week, and we got a lot done. We started with a couple of nights in Packwood, WA so we could hike in Mt. Rainier National Park, then went to Yakima to visit Melody and Celeste’s mom, then to Spokane to visit their uncle.

Celeste arrived in Seattle on Saturday the 17th, and Keith (Melody and Celeste's brother) came over to spend the afternoon. He was playing in a show that night as well as two shows on Sunday. On Sunday night, his wife and kids came over for dinner, joined by my kids.

Monday 19-Sep, Seattle to Mt. Rainier

Since it would take a while to get down to Mt. Rainier, we tried to leave pretty early to try to get a parking spot not too far from the trailhead. And thus the trip began.

We were able to find a cabin to stay at in Packwood, so it seemed to make sense to do some hiking at Paradise on our way down. Because we had to drive down from Seattle, we tried to not leave too late for the 2½-hour drive. The parking lot was full when we arrived, so we parked in the overflow lot.

We Skyline Loop Trail in a clockwise direction so we could get good views of the south side of Mt. Rainier. Almost immediately, we saw a deer right by the trail. Not far from there, we started seeing chipmunks and marmots all around. We got pretty close to the mountain before we started turning east towards Panorama Point, which was a good place to have lunch.

Towards the end of the loop, we took a short detour to take a look at Myrtle Falls. There were a lot of people down there, probably because the overlook was positioned so Mt. Rainier was directly behind the falls.

After we got back to the car, we drove to Packwood (because of road closures, we needed to exit the park to the west, then drive around the south side). After we found the cabin, we dropped off our things and chatted a bit with the people in the cabin next to us. They were from the U.K. and had driven down from Vancouver, having quite the adventure trying to get through immigration.

Next up was finding groceries and dinner at the pub, then we settled in for the night.

Tuesday 20-Sep, Mt. Rainier

For our full day in Mt. Rainier, we went up to Sunrise, where we readily found a place to park. It didn't take us long to get on the Mount Fremont Lookout Trail. We had a great view of the east side of Mt. Rainier from the parking lot, and the view never went away. After passing Frozen Lake, we started climbing in earnest up Mt. Fremont. After turning the corner around to the east side of that mountain, we got our first glimpses of the lookout tower in the distance.

Having already done most of the elevation gain, we made quick work of getting to the tower. We couldn't go up to the platform since someone was there painting, but we could walk all the way around. On the far side, we had lunch, the second day in the row doing so with Mt. Rainier in full view. A chipmunk jumped onto Celeste's lap, probably wanting food, but she shooed it away.

On the way back, we took a detour down through the Sunrise Camp to look at Shadow Lake. We took the opportunity to walk all the way around before heading back to the car.

As we were driving back to the cabin, we were behind a car that was uneasy driving on a two-lane mountain road without a barrier on the downhill side. It was driving pretty slowly, about a quarter of the way over the center line. Even when cars were coming the other way, the car ahead of us still stayed on the line. We thought it would be more at ease when the switchbacks put us on the uphill side, but it still hugged the center line.

We made it back to the cabin and started a small load of laundry. While that was drying, we decided to try going to the Mexican restaurant. The reviews mentioned that the service was pretty slow, but we figured we had plenty of time, and perhaps the slow service was due to temporary staffing shortages. Apparently not; we were there an hour more than it would normally take us. The food was good, though.

After picking up a few more groceries, we called it a night.

Wednesday 21-Sep, Mt. Rainier to Yakima

Before moving on to the second leg of our trip, we did a couple of shorter hikes to try to get the most out of our week-long pass for Mt. Rainier National Park. First up was another loop, the Silver Falls Trail. The morning was on the cooler side and overcast, which was fine since we didn't expect views of Rainier on the trail. I don't remember seeing anyone on the trail, so we had the view of the falls all to ourselves.

The second hike was the Naches Peak Loop Trail, and we weren't by ourselves. There were plenty of spaces in the parking lot, but also a lot of people milling about. The trail started going by Tipsoo Lake, then we started climbing. After crossing the road, we started our way around, with more elevation gain. Once we got about halfway around, we came across a small lake where we sat down for lunch. After that, we made it further around the peak and started getting full views of Mt. Rainier, and in the other direction, Dewey Lake. On the way down, we came across several people who were asking if they were close (very) and how the views were (great). Once we made it all the way down, we re-crossed the road, hiked the short distance back to Tipsoo lake, and made it to the car.

Back at the car, we started driving to Yakima, ending up at the home of Melody and Celeste's mom, Jean. We had dinner, chatted quite a bit, then called it a night.

Thursday 22-Sep, Yakima

This was a relatively quiet day. After breakfast, we drove down to Toppenish to go to the Northern Pacific Railway Museum. It’s housed at the old Toppenish train station, which was completely restored. There are several tracks out in the yard with many locomotives and cars, with most of the tracks being installed by volunteers.

Unfortunately, we were unable to go on many of the tracks because there was a crew filming for some sort of show (we saw kids in period costumes and walked by the place where they set up craft services). One of the volunteers walked up to let us know, and he felt so bad that he wanted to be sure to let us know that our next visit would be free, and they even offered to return our admission fees, but we asked them to keep it as a donation. The volunteer then proceeded to take us to an engine that they were in the process of restoring. It was fun seeing the old steam locomotive among all of the modern machinery they were using.

After looking at the locomotive, the volunteer passed us along to another volunteer who happened to be one of the people who founded the museum. He took us to a caboose that he’s restoring, and walked us around the parts of the yard that weren’t being used for filming. He was filled with trivia and stories and was very generous with his time.

We returned to Jean’s house for lunch, then went out to run a few errands. She wanted to donate some things at Goodwill, get some books there, and take things to be recycled. We filled up the car and then headed out. After dropping everything off, Melody and Celeste helped Jean pick out several books, and we headed back.

Since Jean needed to go off to practice with one of her bell choirs (the groups you see playing handbells), Celeste stayed at the house while Melody and I went off to find a café to do work (her) and photos (me) on WiFi rather than cell data. The cafe was in the old Yakima train station, so it wasn’t too surprising that we saw a train speed by right next to the window. We then found some dinner and headed back, arriving at about the same time as Jean after her practice.

Friday 23-Sep, Yakima to Spokane

Another day on the road. Instead of taking the direct route from Yakima to Spokane (up to Ellensburg and then east on I-90), we decided to take a detour to Palouse Falls State Park since none of us had seen the falls. There weren’t many people there, which m are for good viewing. Of course, several people went past the warning signs and walked closer to the falls. After looking around from as many angles as we could, we had a quick lunch and then started driving to Spokane.

We were staying in an apartment in downtown Spokane, but we were a bit early for checking in. We stopped at a grocery store to grab a snack and ate it outside. The apartment was only a couple of blocks away, so it didn’t take us too long to find it (needing to navigate one-way streets and some closed roads). After unloading, I found a metered spot and then went back to settle into the room. We once again did laundry, which was conveniently in the room.

We headed over to see Melody and Celeste’s uncle, Neal, for dinner. He had invited a friend to dine with us, who happened to be from Whittier and spent summers in Long Beach. She and I compared CA vs. WA notes, such as the habit of freeway names always beginning with “The” (as in “The 5” vs. “I-5”) and distances always being measured in time, not miles.

After dinner, Melody and I played some duets in the lounge, then we returned to our apartment.

Saturday 24-Sep, Spokane

Overnight parking was free, so we didn't need to pay for street parking. Since we were going to leave after 8 am, however, I needed to add some time. Fortunately, I could do it from my phone, and I had noted the parking zone, so that was easy enough to do.

After breakfast, we headed over to Idaho to do some hiking around Lake Coeur d'Alene. The trail we chose, the Mineral Ridge Trail, was near Wolf Lodge Bay in the far northwest part of the lake. Once we got up to the ridge, we took a short spur along the Wilson Trail and were greeted with great views of the bay. Returning to the main trail, we kept seeing the bay, but also saw the main lake just before heading down several switchbacks.

We then drove back to Coeur d'Alene for lunch at a BBQ food truck, then gelato at a shop near downtown. After that, it was time to head back to the apartment in Spokane.

For the afternoon, Melody and I once again went searching for a café. The first one we went to doesn't enable their WiFi on weekends (the café is part of a gift shop, so presumably they want to maximize how quickly the tables can get turned). We then found another café that didn't offer WiFi, but we were able to get it from nearby stores

When we were done, the amount of time I had put on the parking meter was almost out, so we moved the car to the loading zone. After a quick trip upstairs to drop off our things and let Celeste know we were ready, we were back down to the car and headed over to meet Neal for dinner. We were also going to see Melody and Celeste's stepmother, Barbara, and we happened to be parking at the same time as she was. We had a great time chatting at dinner, and once again Melody and I played some duets afterward before heading back to the apartment.

Sunday 25-Sep, Spokane to Seattle

It had been a whirlwind trip. It was time to head back to Seattle, but not until we had breakfast with Neal. It was great to spend just a little more time with him before we started driving west

No side trips on this leg of the trip other than finding lunch in Ellensburg. The usual places we would go to were closed, but we did find a taco truck (which is now a full-blown restaurant). We were happily chatting away when the server came up and apologized for the wait (it had only been a few minutes since we ordered) and they sent over a complimentary Brussels sprouts appetizer, which was great. The tacos were great, too.

After we got back into the car, it was a straight shot back to Seattle, where we recovered and had a quiet night before Celeste flew back on Monday.