in the clouds

Yesterday we checked out the Museum of Glass here in Tacoma which had some pretty cool artwork and a hot shop where we could sit and watch people blowing glass. The evening cleared up nicely and we actually got a good glimpse of Rainier off on the horizon for the first time. Since the weather was nice when we went to bed last night we were excited to have a clear day for our drive up Mt. Rainier. However, when we woke up we were greeted by rain once again. So we drove up the mountain anyway, all the time figuring we would drive out of it, and got rained on the whole way. The Mt. Rainier visitor's center at the end of the road was smack dab in the middle of the clouds. So we had a great view of a big white fog bank.

south of the border again

We're back in Washington again, in Tacoma this time. We spent a couple days in Vancouver seeing the sights, Stanley Park, Granville Island, Gastown and spent a lot of time wandering around the city. Yesterday we left Vancouver and drove back into the US. It was a long driving day because we drove up into the Cascade mountains to the North Cascades National Park. We left Vancouver around 10:30 in the morning and got to our hotel in La Conner around 7:00 in the evening. Anyway, our intent was to take in the mountain views of the Cascades, but we got rained on most of the day. Everything was clouded over and to add to it, after driving all day to get to the best possible lookout point, we found that the road was closed, bummer. So unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us yesterday. Things were better today and we drove to Tacoma where hopefully the clouds will clear for our trip to Rainier tomorrow.

welcome to Canada eh.

We've just arrived in Vancouver after spending two days in in Victoria. The weather has held out OK for us so far. It rained a bunch the morning we took the ferry to Victoria, but let up later in the afternoon. Since then it has been occasional sprinkles but not bad. Went to Butchart Gardens and the sun actually came out for us.

We thought about doing "tea" at the Empress, but found out it was $40 per person, yikes! I can't think of any reason why tea and tiny sandwiches could cost so much. Caught the ferry to Vancouver today and then spent the afternoon wandering around downtown checking stuff out.

Island Living...Orcas Island

Our next stop on our "babymoon" was Orcas Island...one of the San Juan Islands. The population of the island is 4,500 people, so life here is very mellow. We stayed near the town of Eastsound where everything is so cute and quaint.

The view from the top of Mount Constitution with a few of the San Juan Islands beyond

Olympic National Park

We spent the past day exploring Olympic National Park. The west side of the park contains the only rainforest in the continental US. Luckily, yesterday we got beautiful weather. We stayed at a beautiful lodge on Lake Quinault.

Our luck ran out today when we hiked through the Hoh rainforest...it got wetter and wetter as we hiked! Oh well, what did we expect going through a rainforest that gets 12 feet of rain a year!

The baby travels well, he/she just requires us to have a bag full of snacks and water in the car. Tomorrow we will finish our travel through Olympic National Park and then we're off to the San Juan Islands.

jet city adventures

laurie's just past the 24th week now and we are on our third day into our pacific northwest adventures. our first stop is seattle where we have done all the usual things, space needle, pike's place market, experience music project, etc. the weather has been great the past couple of days. today, however, the clouds started moving in in the typical northwest fashion with a few sprinkles here and there. right now i am watching a bunch of clouds rolling in outside the hotel window. forecast is for more rain, but that has never really slowed us down. tomorrow we go to the olympic peninsula to get away from the likes of the city and soak up some of the outdoors. -k