It is BLACKBERRY season!

Most of the year, people that live in Washington State curse the blackberry bushes.  They are literally EVERYWHERE, they are thorny, and they are basically a weed that is impossible to control.  However, at the end of August and into September, there is a short period of time where you see people stopped along the road (in the most peculiar places) in search of the perfect blackberries and trying not to get injured (did we mention the thorns?).  It is now that time of year, and we are getting our fill of them whenever we can.

About once a week, we take along our little basket (see green basket below) when we go for our daily walk.  In order to pick blackberries, we have to walk UP the Tolt Pipeline Trail, but it is well worth it.  Because in the end we end up with about a quart of these "jewels".  They are perfectly ripe and just waiting to be picked and eaten.  Indy has even come to love them.  While we are picking the berries that are what we call "above pee height", she has all of the blackberries she can eat below that area (she is non-discriminate when it comes to things like that).  :)  It is quite interesting to watch her because she sniffs the berry and apparently can tell if it is ripe or not.  If it is not ripe, she leaves it on the bush -- if it is ripe, she gently pulls it off the bush and has herself a snack.

YUM...

Downtown Seattle on a Segway

Today we took a tour of downtown on a Segway.  It was a lot of fun and a great way to see downtown and get the highlights.  A guy Jared works with, Dan, and his girlfriend, Sara, arranged the tour and we were just along for the ride.

After a quick refresher course at the piers (we had taken a Segway Tour of Tucson a few years back), we were on our way.  First, we hit the waterfront and then headed up towards Pike's Market.  From there we went to Westlake, through Belltown, and eventually we hit the Seattle Center (where the Space Needle is).

There was a lot to see and take in, but a great tour.  Once we arrived at the Seattle Center we got to "play" around on the Segways while we waited for the fountain to start (see picture below).  Remember that we have been riding our Segways for an hour with helmets on, so it isn't the best picture in the world.  :)

Once we were done at the Seattle Center, we made our way back to where we started.  All was good until we hit all of the people attending HempFest (that's a whole other story).  Anyway, we made it back, had some lunch, and then headed back home.  They also have a tour for West Seattle -- we'll have to try that one next.  Oh, by the way, our tour guide was great...here's the company we went through for the tour.

Snoqualmie River Duvall, WA

Since Indy took the hit yesterday and stayed at home while we explored Friday Harbor, we decided to make it up to her a little bit by taking her to the river today.  Indy just loves the water and we figured that this would be a good way to wear her out a little bit.  Check out the video of her playing fetch...

We didn't spend too much time there, but enough for her to get soaked.  We followed up the playing fetch in the river with a walk (to dry her off a bit).  Doesn't she look happy?

Here we are on our walk (drying her off)...

And look, before you know it, it will be blackberry season...

Friday Harbor

As our summer starts to dwindle, we want to enjoy it as much as possible.  The weather forecast for the weekend was 80-85 degrees in Seattle, so we thought it would be a great opportunity to go visit Friday Harbor.  Friday Harbor is located on the island of San Juan.  San Juan Island is part of the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound.  Some of the other islands included in the San Juan Islands are Lopez Island, Shaw Island, and Orcas Island. 

To get to San Juan Island, we decided to "walk-on" the ferry at Anacortes, WA.  We wanted to "drive-on"  to the ferry so that we could take Indy.  However, after doing some research we found out that we might have to wait more than an hour to "drive-on", whereas if you "walk-on", you can always get on when you want.  Additionally, driving around Friday Harbor can be quite hectic since there are so many tourists walking around and riding bikes.  So, Indy had to take one for the team and stay home today (she was not happy about that).

The ride over on the ferry was approximately an 1 hr, so there was a lot of time for sightseeing on our way over to Friday Harbor.

Here's a shot of the sound with Mount Baker in the background (i.e., the snow covered object in the background). 

On our way over to Friday Harbor there was a weird bank of fog over the water. 

There was also a ton of sailboats out on the water (looking as if they were racing).  We had no idea what was going on, but enjoyed the colorful sails.

We did find out on our way back that there was indeed a sailboat race around Shaw Island today.  Look at all of those sailboats.

An interesting land mass in the sound.

After we arrived in Friday Harbor, we headed to have lunch first.  It was close to 1pm and we were both starving.  We chose Cask and Schooner.  It was a great local place that uses the "bounty" of the island for most of the items on the menu.  After a great lunch we shopped the downtown area.  There were tons of shops, art galleries, restaurants, and much more.  It was fun to have no agenda and just to wander around the town.  When we finished wandering downtown we headed down the marina to check it out.

There were tons of boats at the marina, every type, shape, and size.  Some were really enormous.

Here's a shot of a sea plane taking off.  Yes, you can get to Friday Harbor via sea plane too.

Time went quickly and before we knew it we were back on the ferry and headed back to the mainland.

It was a great day!

Mount Rainier

Friday was our last day of fun before the McPherson Edmonsons had to head back to Kansas.  We had been watching the weather all week to make sure we timed our trip to Mt. Rainier for the most perfect day possible, and boy, did we nail it!

We left the house Friday morning after breakfast.  It is approximately a 3 hour drive from our house to the Paradise Lodge.  We were going to head to the Lodge, have some lunch, and then follow Jared where ever he wanted to take us up the mountain.

Kristina was only mildly excited to go to Mt. Rainier, she thought that it was just going to be okay after a decently long drive.  However, she was happily proven wrong.  Everyone was super impressed with Rainier and the sights that go along with it.

It was a beautiful day at Rainier.  We believe the temperature was in the mid to upper 70's.  It was clear and sunny with an occasional breeze.  We couldn't have asked for a better day.  However, since it was a Friday, it was decently busy, but not too busy that we couldn't find a place to park.  Here are some pictures of the valley near where we parked.

After parking we headed up towards the Lodge.  Along with the Lodge, there is a visitors' center and a ranger station.  

As we mentioned we had lunch at the Lodge.  It wasn't the best lunch in the world, but it was okay.  The Lodge was beautiful though; a typical Northwest Lodge with all of the niceties.

Once we finished lunch, we hit a gift shop in the Lodge and then headed back down to our cars to drop off our goods.  There is no way we wanted to hike up the mountain with extra baggage.  On our way back to the car, Maisie and Rhett had to seize their first opportunity to get in the snow.  It is hard to believe that there is still snow so readily around in August.  However, with all of the snow that we have been getting due to the La Nina weather pattern, the snow doesn't even completely melt before the next season hits.

Here we are at the base of the mountain getting ready to go UP.  Jared wanted to hike to Glacier Vista; it was only 1.7 miles, but it was definitely up and we were going to work off our lunch we had just eaten.

The wildflowers were definitely in bloom on the mountain.  There were so many of them that you could smell their sweet aroma as you hiked up.  Here are some of the first ones we saw on the trail up.

Honestly, we are all catching our breath in this picture.  We had all underestimated the amount of up, but we adjusted quickly.

A scenic group shot with Mt. Rainier in the background.

More wildflowers at the base of the mountain...

And look more snow.  We didn't expect there to be so much snow on the trail, but we all made it without getting our bottoms wet (i.e., falling).

Another breather...

Da-Da and Rhett looking scenic on our way up.

Behind us as we were hiking up, you could clearly see Mount Adams and Mount Saint Helens.  Mount Saint Helens is quite a ways in the distance, but you could definitely make it out.

A good view of Mt Rainier on the way up.

Da-Da and Stephanie posing for a portrait on the trail.

Kristina and Da-Da posing for a portrait.  A little known fact is that Da-Da was always trying to get his sister to fall.  Can you imagine?  Kristina told him that we aren't kids anymore and that he could hurt her.  He just laughed.  Brothers and sisters...

Here's a picture of an avalanche off in the distance on our way up.  We saw three of these, and the first one we heard it before we saw it.  All of us thought it was a plane going overhead and then we saw the snow.

And here we are at our destination...

You could get a lot of really nice shots of the snow on the mountain.

   

This is a great picture of the river meandering through the valley.

And of course there are always waterfalls associated with melting snow.

A valley of wildflowers...you could smell them.

More pictures with Mt. Rainier.

On the way down, we saw this cute little guy.  It was a marmot.  Check out this page for more information on marmots.  He/She was pretty cute and just looked at everyone as they snapped their photos.

Maisie posing on a big, flat rock.  Kristina loves rocks like this!

After we got into the car, we were circling around the meadow (earlier pictures in the blog post), when Kristina spotted a black bear and two of cubs.  It was a pretty cool sight to see.

We decided to drive through the park and exit out a different way that we came into the park.  Here we are sitting along side the road goofing off and taking in the surroundings.

And then there's this picture...it pretty much sums up the trip!  AWESOME!