Peak Show

Life in Portland is as hectic as ever, and I find it increasingly difficult to keep some time aside for myself and get any real work done, but I suppose that was always part of the plan. Sam and Ian are now both inviting CouchSurfers to come stay on our couches, so it is always a full house...if you leave for too long, you might just come back to someone sleeping in your bed. Maybe once I feel organized enough I will change my CS profile to allow CouchSurfers to fill up any extra nooks or crannies left in the house, but for now I am doing a good enough job squeezing visiting friends and family in!

My sister, Mari, drove up from San Francisco to come hang with the family for a couple of weeks before she departs for Zambia, interning with UCSF for 2 1/2 months. Within those couple of weeks, meaning this last week and the present, Mari, Ian, and I hiked the Northern Loop of Mt Rainier over 4 days, and we are now relaxing in beautiful Port Townsend, WA with The Grandpa.

Here are some photos from Mt. Rainier:

Ian was such a good sport for hiking the whole trail and hardly complaining. It is pretty impressive that a bearded 6 year old could even lift that backpack.

Did we pack the chute?

Our first glimpse of a glacier through the mist

a majestic marmot basking in the afternoon mist

The hike is being erased and created as we walked

You could hear the glacier melting with each rock slide, and with each rock slide you could hear my giddy laughter melt the inane giggling ramblings of a contented 5 year old

Looks like subduction in action, you will have to ask our web admin Matt about that.

I've never seen this flower before, if I get any extra time, I will try to key it out...stay tuned...well, I probably wouldn't hold your breath.

yet another waterfall

Ian and I were challenged by his mom to do 100 push ups and sit ups every day for a month...we didn't quite follow through on the backpacking trip.

The grossest pimple in the world, for more information, ask Ian.

From afar it looks like some pretty sweet columnar granite, I am going to go ahead and assume that's what it is.

"Where do we go?!"

"Follow me, I know the way"
"Gee thanks Lemmywinks"

The atmospheric perspective gives you an idea of how long this glacier is.

I haven't noticed this flower before either, but the leaves remind me of my favorite NW flower, the bleeding heart.

...see all the people!

Crazy eyes

Taken probably after climbing about 1500 ft

And yet again I am at a loss for the name of this flower, but it reminds me of the "Indian Peace Pipe" flower.

Sweet Clouds

What's up Tiger Lilly

The Yellow Cliffs

FROG!

An incredible land bridge we walked an extra mile to go see. What we didn't know is that the land bridge would be looking back, and with a scowl too.

mutated-Chester-the-Cheetoes-hand Fungus

yo

It is hard to believe that moving the handle on some little piece of plastic will make that water okay to drink.


so I creep...yeah

One day you will be king

woooo

Salmon Berries

make you do strange things

The meeting of the waters: fresh water meets glacial runoff

Tall Trees

I will let you come up with your own caption.

When a tree falls in the forest and there isn't anyone around to hear it, they do scream.

This is where things started getting weird

FOOOD

Playing cards in the tent

You can see why the trail that circumnavigates the mountain is called the Wonderland Trail.

I am a giant among ants

ANTS!

One of the rare flat sections on our hike on an alpine meadow.

Some sort of ground fowl

We finished our trek in high spirits, drove back to Portland in order to get high on spirits, woke up at 6:30 am the next day, helped Ian and Gabe set up for the Saturday Market, and then jetted back up to Washington to visit The Grandpa, where I now sit delirious from exhaustion. Tomorrow on the agenda are the Sol Duc hot springs for a couple of hours, and then the cooking and eating of Thai food hopefully for the rest of the day. Sorry if my captions got kind of weird towards the middle there, I was in the middle of playing the longest game of "Mexican Train" ever played while half awake.

I will report back soon.

Sincerely,
Eric