Mount Rainier

The weather was supposed to be the best on Monday and Tuesday, so we took full advantage of it and headed to the Mountain -- Mt Rainier that is!  Jared and Kristina had never been to Mt. Rainier in October and were anxious to see it during a different time of year.  George and Louise had not seen Mt. Rainier yet, so it was to be able to show them such a spectacular site!

Here's the mountain from the parking lot.  It is obvious that we didn't get much snow last winter, but even after a long, warm summer, there is still snow at the top. Amazing!

Zooming in on the mountain...

We drove up to Paradise and decided to hike the Skyline Trail.  We have been on it many times, but for people that have never been there before, it is the best place to get to "know" Mt. Rainier.  The wildflowers had come and gone, but you can see in the following pictures how the fall colors were just beginning to peak out in the landscape.

Here's a motley crew -- Louise, Kristina, and George hiking up the trail on a sunny day!

Posing for another shot...background is simply amazing!

Kristina often darted ahead on the trail.  Jared was busy taking pictures, and George and Louise were getting used to the altitude and the incline of the trail.  Kristina has been trained by Jared after all of these years.  Her weekly cardio tennis class helps too!

Kristina waiting for the rest of crew to arrive!

Lost of waterfalls still coming off the mountain...

Closer shots of the mountain...

George falling behind on the trail...

This is a cool shot, you can see all of the icicles hanging off the ledges of the mountain.

George and Louise posing for some shots on the trail...they look like they are having fun!

Magnificent views opposite of the mountain...

Here you can see Mt. Adams in the background...

And here you can see Mt. St. Helens in the background...

Stopping for a water break and some chit-chat.

There isn't a bad view in any direction.

Closer shots of the other mountains...

Beautiful hillside on our way down...look at those colors!

Always amazing to see where flowers decide to grow...

One chubby little chipmunk on the trail...

Closer shots of that hillside...

Had to get a photo of Jared in there since he was kind enough to take all of the wonderful photos all day long!

More fall colors!

Until next time...

Korean Fried Chicken

One of the fun things about having visitors is taking them to try new food.  Jared and Kristina have really enjoyed the Korean food at Stone Korean Restaurant in Redmond.  Jared and Kristina took David and Nayon to Stone when they visited and they said it was legit -- especially the Korean Fried Chicken, so it was a must on the agenda for George and Louise.  George loves fried chicken and Louise loves everything, so it was a huge success.

A tempura platter was ordered as an appetizer.  For our main courses, we ordered an entire Korean Fried Chicken, Bulgoggi, and Kalbi.  All of these comes will all kinds of yummy sides (you'll just have to go to experience it).  And let's just say, we did some serious damage!  Look at allo of the empty plates.

And George was happiest of all -- he pounded the KFC!

Tolt and Snoqualmie Rivers

George and Louise arrived in the late evening on Saturday, so on Sunday we took it easy.  Indy had been abused a bit because she didn't get a walk on Friday or Saturday since Jared and Kristina were so busy preparing for George and Louise's visit, so we decided to take Indy to one of her favorite spots...Carnation.  In Carnation, the Tolt and Snoqualmie Rivers merge.  So in addition to great hiking, there is great swimming for a dog!  However, much to our surprise when we arrived, the pinks (and other Salmon too) were swimming up river to spawn.  This put a bit of a damper on Indy's swimming, but she still got to hike quite a bit.

Here a shot of the salmon swimming up river...

Here's a video...

George had seen this sort of thing when he lived in Alaska, but Louise had never seen it.  It was quite interesting to both of them.

Not sure if you can see it, but this is a shot of a fairly good sized Salmon...

Of course we had to cross the suspension bridge, and have a seat on the bench!  It was an awesome day!  Lots of sun and no wind!  Are we in Seattle?

Edmonson Parental Units Arrive!

Woohoo!  After 4 long years, the George and Louise decided to come back for a visit to the Seattle area!  Now that they are BOTH retired, they didn't have many excuses left.  :)  So, they took Riley to McPherson to stay with the McPherson Edmonsons for the week.  The other three dogs were kenneled for the week at the vet.  The cats that reside on Hudson Drive were being cared for by Donna, and the cats that reside on Witt Ave were being cared for by Mary.  Wow!  That is a lot of organizing just to leave town.  But, they successfully did it!  And thanks to everyone that made it possible!

George and Louise arrived via Alaska Airlines on Saturday evening!  The flight was slightly delayed, but that wasn't a problem at all!  It gave Jared, Kristina, and Indy more time to prepare!  Jared and Kristina arrived at the airport and picked them up!

Let the fun begin -- of course after George has some supper!

September Rain

Well, September is already gone and October has arrived!  Where does time go these days?  That being said, it looks like we logged 2.20" of rain in Woodinville.  Not too bad for a monthly total. Much of Western Washington is still in a drought, but every little bit of rain definitely helps...that's for sure!  The yard has come back from the brown ugliness it was in August and Jared has been busy mowing because it is growing so fast.  All it needed was a little rain and it was good to go!  Happy October!

August Rain

August came and went in a flash!  While it started out dry, we ended up with 3" of rain for the month...which is higher than normal.  Good thing because everything was dry and we could use any rain that we could get (Crazy for living in the Seattle area, huh?).  We'll see how September treats us...will the "normal" weather return or will we continue the "dry" weather pattern??  Stay tuned...