Vacay Part C: Camping at Mt. Rainier

One of the things we wanted our boys to experience while we were in Washington State was Mt. Rainier National Park and it's Grove of the Patriarchs...a stand of virgin timber that was never reached by the logging industry.

These trees are Washington's answer to the Giant Redwoods of Northern California.

To get there, we had to wend our way from the Puget Sound up through the foothills to Mt. Rainier.

Along the way, we stop at this quaint roadside Inn.



They are known for their delectable blackberry pies and "Blackberry Pie in a Bottle" syrups. Mmmmm.

Blackberries play a central role in many recollections of my childhood summers.

That first burst of a sweet and tangy berry in my mouth instantly transport me back to the countless hours spent picking blackberries...of playing in the woods and happening upon a patch of berries and staining our fingers with their juice (and probably our clothing) as we ate our fill...and then eating blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream...putting up preserves nearly every summer for the year's supply of toast, pancakes and waffles and last but not least, making tarts and pies with mom.

Did I already say MMmmmmm?

Another thing kind of special about this particular Inn is that my grandma used to work there back in the early 1930's. Back then it was called Kings.

She was just a young girl of about 16 then and had moved quite far from home for this job which was quite adventuresome for her day.

I like to look up at those windows above the restaurant and imagine that maybe she changed bedding in those rooms, or perhaps even stayed in one herself, writing her letters home by the morning light.

Here, we finally arrived at the trail head leading to the Grove of the Patriarchs. Judah is looking longingly at the river, wishing he could go wading because it was uncharacteristically hot for Western Washington. In fact, they were in the midst of heatwave with record-breaking temperatures for that part of the country.



The boys pointed out that this tree looked like an elephant.



Here was the cool suspension bridge that we got to cross one or two at a time to get over the river.



The glacial water is amazingly clear and you can see all the way to the bottom of the riverbed.





Jericho and Judah again look longingly at the cool water, wishing we'd relent and allow them to dip their feet in.



But we were mean parents and said they must wait until after our hike. Something about not wanting complaints about wet, squishy shoes or chafing feet.

This was also a great bridge for big brother to rock and sway as much as possible to scare thrill his younger brother who was running along behind him.



All through the woods around Mt. Rainier we spotted this plant with leaves larger than a dinner plate...more like a Turkey platter, really. Frumpgram, perhaps you can help me out with the proper name?



Here is one of the fallen trees in the grove. It had hundreds of rings, indicating that it was hundreds of years old when it toppled.



It would take about 8 of my mom, arms spread wide to encircle this particular tree. Here she is purposefully posing as my grandma would have done...as she did in nearly every picture.





Here is a fallen tree whose girth was higher than our heads. My great grandfather was a logger in the Pacific Northwest, and we have photographs floating around in the family of he and his entire family dressed in their Sunday best picnicking atop such logs.



Oh, and check out these gnarly roots! (Not mine...the trees!)



It was like the mouth of a cave in there.



Here was another fallen tree along the path.



This is the burled pattern of the wood where a branch broke free somewhere along the line.

It's kind of like clouds in that there are all kinds of interesting images that can be seen in the design.

I see a Rhino. And a Picasso-esque cow with a dark panther on it's head



This particular set of trees were gargantuan, looking like the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk had fallen and landed headfirst into the ground, his legs sticking up in the air.



Judah, who had seen us reading signs along the trail, stopped and told us what he thought this one said, "...And da guy taked his doggie on da bike and shooted his pisto at da bears..."



Finally, after our scorching hot hike we headed to Ohannapecosh campground and scouted out a site. After setting up camp, my mom took a nap to rest her sore arm while we went to play in the nearby river.

Jericho and Judah, moving adeptly as little mountain goats, managed to get to the water before dad and I made it down with the camera gear and towels.



We told them they couldn't touch the water until Judah had his life vest on.

That water was ICE COLD...coming straight off the the mountain top where there are both glaciers and snow.

Judah was first to plunge in and did remarkably well.



It had been so hot, I couldn't resist wading in fully clothed. Ahhhh...refreshing.



I think this was about the time that Judah began complaining about the top latch of his life vest "chokeen" him, and tiring of the water took on the challenge of climbing the nearby rock face.



We hiked a little further down the banks of the river and came across this beautiful scene.

This photo doesn't do it justice, as the evening sun was filtering down through the branches, making the place look...enchanted.



It was there that the hair on the back of my neck stood up...and I experienced that creeped out feeling like something was watching us from across the river.

And that was when I spotted it.

There, on a rock in the middle of the swirling glacial waters was this...creature.

"My preeeeecious..."



Climbing up the hillside to get back to camp, we ran into this little chipmunk, who chattered and waved at us as we were leaving. Or perhaps he was communicating his disgust that someone before us had left an empty water bottle near the entrance to his home. "You people coming along and cluttering up the place!"



Later, back and camp, Chef Jeff cooks up some of his famous steaks...some of the best ever. But then everything always tastes wonderful when you've been enjoying the great outdoors all day.



We visited Washington State during a record-temperature heatwave. However, our altitude on the mountain was such that the temperatures dropped significantly at night.

The boys all but put themselves to bed that night, nestling into their cozy bedding and falling off to sleep the moment they closed their eyes.



All that wonderful evergreen scented mountain air and being snuggled into down comforters made for positively blissful slumber...and another fabulous end to a fabulous day.

First Day of Middle School

We take a break from our Frump Family Vacation Pics to report on a family milestone.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, especially since the kid is almost as tall as me now...but Jericho started the 7th grade today. **sniffs**

Not sure what little brother was doing in this photo, but I do know that he was none too happy to learn that big brother got to go to daddy's school and not him.

Jericho wasn't thrilled to be going back to school already. The last week of summer following our vacation went by waaay too fast for his liking.



While he may be getting tall and teenagerish, he's still happy to be at the same school where his dad teaches.

He's not, like, embarrassed or anything.



And the cool thing about this arrangement is...not only does his dad drive him back and forth each day, but he can pop by any old time he wants to say "hi".

Plus there is the 'stash' of snacks which dad keeps in his desk that they think I don't know about. (Yeah, I find those cookie and cracker wrappers in the laundry...).

Here is our annual first-day-of-school family photo.



On a side note, Jeff's mom has always joined our first day of school festivities since Jericho started Kindergarten, but wasn't able to join us this morning due to a bout with gout.

So, in an effort to keep up the tradition, I've taken the liberty of trying to photo-shop her in.



Okay...so maybe we'll just go over to her house after school to get a first-day-of-school picture with her in it. Something about this isn't quite right.

Happy First Day of School, Jeff and Jericho!

Frump Style Vacation (Part Deux)

A couple of days into our stay in Washington, we again met up with my dad...this time for a fishing trip.

Our destination was this great fishing spot out on Fox Island, WA where you used to be able to catch dogfish.

Dogfish are small sharks, and it's been a longtime dream of Jericho's to catch one of these.

Bragging rights like those don't happen every day, after all.

We got there and set up 'camp' on the end of the pier.

Here my dad poses with Jericho in what has come to be known in our family as the 'Hawaiians' pose.



My dad's favorite Gospel singing duo of the 1970's were known as The Hawaiians.

In fact, they used to visit our church when I was a very young child. We also had all of their LP's.

Very often while singing, Mr. Hawaiian would rest his hand on his wife's shoulder in this exact same way...which my dad would repeat in numerous family pictures for years to come (though it was usually reserved for photos taken while singing Christmas Carols around the old family piano).

Or, maybe he was trying to hold Jericho down in the chair, I'm not entirely sure.

That beef jerky was a hot commodity.

Here is part of our little rag-tag band of fishermen.





My dad still has the same aluminum tackle box I remember him taking along on countless fishing trips when I was a kid.



I think Judah remembered it and it's many curious treasures from the last time he went fishing with grandpa.

Of course it could have been that he was enthralled by the bullhead that was breathing it's last beneath the bench, too.



A neighboring fisherman gave it to us to use for bait.

Yes, I'm ashamed to say that after sojourning in the desert for all these years, for our Western Washington fishing trip we'd forgotten to pack something as basic as bait, and frankly the beef jerky just wasn't cutting it.

Here, grandpa takes care of baiting Judah's hook with a hunk of cut up bullhead.

Which was good, because I couldn't bring myself to do the poor thing in, let alone hack it into pieces for bait. Plus they're kind of spiny and will sting you if you touch them. My dad did all of this with pliers and a cookie in his mouth. He's quite the experienced fisherman.



Judah continued to climb the railings, in spite of our warnings about sharks living in the waters beneath the pier, hence the ever-present life jacket.



We figured that even if he did fall in, a life jacket (doing what they were intended to do) would keep him afloat long enough for us to get to him, and he'd likely never repeat that stunt again.

Not that I didn't still lunge towards him with that same feet-stuck-in-buckets-of-cement feeling from nightmares whenever he got too close to the top of the railings, mind you, but for one accustomed to such sensations the feeling was somewhat lessened.

I could actually turn my back for a few minutes and fish.



In spite of the fact that fish just weren't taking OUR bait biting, the day proved to be an adventure in many other ways.

Jeff took the boys down to the nearby beach to teach them to skip rocks.



There was also the beautiful scenery...things we don't see very often way out in the desert.



And the wildlife.

We Frumps are particularly partial to pinnipeds.



And just like the infamous fishing trip of '82 when great uncle Carol pulled up one of these to the delight of all the children present, a neighboring crabber pulled up his 'pots' and found this sunflower starfish inside.



Judah wasn't the least bit afraid to touch it.



Even the underside which had a gross, jelly-like substance in the center where it's mouth is.



Not being what they were really after, the crabbers scared all the fish in the vicinity away tossed it back in the water, and threw their pots in to try again.



Later, they did finally pulled up crabs.

The chicken legs they had cable-tied to the inside of their crab pot as bait drew in all kinds of bottom-feeders.



Judah enjoyed holding the crabs. Or maybe it was just turning towards me with them to hear me shriek.



Finally, after a long afternoon in the hot sun (though carefully covered in sunscreen), my dad was the first to get a bite.



And it was a whopper!

The stuff of legends.

We will be talking about his catch for years to come.



The teensy-tiny little bullhead that ate it's own kind! Ewwww.

Lastly, we drove through my old hometown on our way home.

This is a new structure built since my last visit. It caught my eye when, as the sun was just beginning to go down, I caught majestic Mt. Rainier illuminated in the background just behind the marina.



A beautiful way to end a memorable day.