Geoff suggested we drive to see Mount Ranier. I have seen the mountain from a distance and been impressed by its massive size. There is a great view from Highland Drive which sometimes shows Mt Ranier on a clear day. When in view the mountain dominates the skyline overwhelming the nearby skyscrapers.
As we set off we say a family of elks crossing a side road. We stopped to try and capture them on camera, but without much success.
The journey to the mount took almost 3 hours and when we arrived we queued in line in order to enter the National Park. Fortunately Geoff had a senior members pass which saved the party $30. A windy road led upto the main visitors centre where we grabbed a bite to eat. I had a salad while the rest excluding Helen had a chilli hotdog. It looked disgusting and Maggi confirmed the inevitable.
After our lunch we decided to take a walk. It didn’t take long before Maggi and I turned back. I had the wrong shoes as the path still had snow. Maggi wanted to turn back she was nervous of slipping over.
We walked back to the visitor’s centre where we looked at the various exhibits. 40 minutes later we saw the rest coming down the hill and we headed straight to the car. We set off home and descended the mountain retracing our steps from the morning. Matt looked up a place to stop for a drink on our route back and choose an establishment in Puyallup.
The Puyallup community is named after the local tribe who have lived in the area for thousands of years and lived from fishing the rivers that descended from Mt Ranier and the waters of Puget Sound. In this town we stopped at a local bar. This establishment called Rainer Growlers discovered by Matt we found a warm welcome both from the staff and the other customers. Matt and I both had 2 drinks while everyone else modestly only had one.
When we arrived back at North Bend Debbie and son Ben we already back home and had made no effort to make dinner. Geoff immediately set about cooking and rustled up a dish consisting of roasted vegetables, sausages, and rice. He managed to create a reasonable tasty meal while we all looked on and chatted.
Just before we called it a night we looked out and saw a black-tailed deer in the garden.
At around ten Debbie and Ben retired because they needed to get up and go to Seattle airport for a 7:50 flight.