I've decided to break our trip to

the Great North West down into sections - 

because we were going non-stop, y'all.

 

Mount Rainier

[Oops, I really meant to send this to the oldest to shop that little man out before I posted it...]

First, let me say that Craig had a business trip out that way and I was fortunate to be able to take some leave and tag along [I've saved leave all year for this...] 

Also - our best traveling tip? Find a hotel chain with a great points /reward system. Y'all know we both travel a bit for work, so again, we save up our points to use for fun. 

Honestly, I think we only paid for one or two nights of hotels in Washington and Oregon. 

Let's start with the mountains - err, 

VOLCANOES.

There was one point in the high desert where if we looked REAL HARD we might have seen all four at one place... but due to overcast skies, and , well, MILES... some were hard to see, even with our super-zoom cameras [that we had a BLAST playing with during this trip, BTW.]

We did a little tour in Seattle, and out guide pointed us in the direction of Mt. Rainer and said, if the clouds were gone, we'd be able to see it... and lo, and behold, as we were driving out of town - THERE IT WAS. It looked like a dream, just kind of appearing there in the distant sky / clouds / haziness of Washington... 

This picture is REALLY enhanced that it can be seen - 

We knew from the beginning that we would not have time to get up close and personal with any of them, so we were very happy to just get good views. 

[There was so much to do and not enough time to do it all!]

 

Mt. Hood

One day while Craig was in his conference I spent some time with a wonderful dear friend [we'd not seen each other in over 40 years {{FORTY!}} - more on our visit later] and she drove me out to a great place to see Mt. Hood. Later on while Craig and were shopping he had a great view too. Just magnificent.

Mt. St. Helens

Another day, while we were driving through the Columbia Gorge [again - I'll share that day soon!] we were able to see Mt. St. Helens - 

 

She was SO FAR AWAY, but thanks to the super zoom, we got her!

And I hear that smoke can be seen rising from her... still. [Side note: I still have some volcanic ash from her eruption in the 80s when another sweet friend lived there.]

The Gorge is beautiful, by the way -

After we drove through the Columbia Gorge [again - another day -] we headed through the High Desert towards Mt. Rainier National Park [but honestly, we drove through so many National Parks that day, it's hard to keep track of them all.]

At one rest area we saw this sign --

And we could easily see both of these mountains at the same time - 

 

  Mt. Adams

It was just a little odd [and kind of neat] to have basically flat land all around us and then just two separate, very distinct mountains [well, volcanoes] in the distance...

 We kept driving through some beautiful curving mountain roads, stopping  at a rest area where the Pacific Crest Trail crossed the road -  [Think: Wild, the book and movie - cool!]
I'm not the best passenger on a good day, so with these crazy roads we were ready for a break. And the view was gorgeous!

AND THERE WERE REAL HIKERS ON THE TRAIL. ha -
And, some day hikers, as well. This was the middle of August and it was COLD.
And so beautiful. [And I'm wearing the best purchase I made during the trip: this pull over sweater / sweatshirt that I picked up at Meyers outside of Seattle.]

So, we're driving these mountain curvy roads with beautiful mountain peaks and valleys all around us when we round a curve and THERE WAS MT. RAINER again - 
So we joined the crowd and got some more photos too!
[It'll be a great one once the little man is removed - ha!]

I'll share more soon -