Our Scenic Railroad Ride Around Mt. Rainier

While in Eastern Washington, we learned that my sister (newly returned from deployment in the Middle East) had been horribly sick prior to our arrival, and was still coughing and had congestion that didn't seem to be getting any better.

Having heard of all the illnesses that one can get in that part of the world, not to mention the sand storm she'd experienced while there, we promptly carted her off to the ER to get to the bottom of things.

Turns out she had pneumonia.

When our visit drew to a close, we happily took her girls with us so that she could have a few days to recover and rest and so that the our kids could continue to spend 'cousin time' together.

We headed back to Mt. Rainier to take that train ride we'd missed on the trip over.

My efforts to get a good photo of the lovely mountain peak were thwarted by heavy cloud cover.



Pardon the bug splattered windshield, but this was a cool mountain tunnel which Judah was absolutely delighted to get to ride through.



In a little speck on the map called Naches, Washington, we stopped at a place called The Whistlin' Jack.

It was an Inn renowned for good food, and which boasted a beautiful view of the nearby river.

If we'd known about the place sooner, we might have planned our trip to include staying in the darling little cabins that you could rent which were situated along the river. Perhaps next time.

In the restaurant, I couldn't resist taking a photo of this window treatment idea, which I'm totally stealing for my dining room and kitchen.



In the gift shop, we spotted this poor mountain goat stuck in the wall. He seemed to be saying, "Could somebody give me a hand here?"



The kids, all squirrelly from the long ride across the State, entertained us with funny faces while we waited for our lunch to be served.



Things took a bit longer than we expected at the restaurant, and we found ourselves a bit short on time to make it to Mineral, Washington for our train ride aboard the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad.

We literally squealed into the gravel parking lot, dust billowing up behind, moments before the last departure time for the weekend and jumped out of the cars yelling "Go, go, go!" to the kids as we ran for the ticket booth.

We made it, and heard the "All aboard!" and began chugging across the tracks.

Judah was especially excited to get to ride on "Thomas".

During our excursion we risked life and limb to take these photos of the kids hanging their heads out the antique train's windows.



Of course we had to do the same for my cute nieces.



Even Jeff and I attempted it.



I didn't realize until uploading my 1,000 vacation photos that we'd neglected to get a matching shot of FrumpGram, so I've taken the liberty of photo-shopping into a photo so she wouldn't feel left out.



Almost looks like it was meant to be, heh heh.

At one point during our train ride, we had to stop briefly while the engine moved from the front of the train to the back along a side track.

Seeing that Jeff and I were trying to take a photo of ourselves together with our camera stuck out the window, one of the Conductors got out down and kindly offered to take our photo for us.





I think they are some of my favorite photos of the entire vacation. Thanks, Conductor!

Here is the antique steam engine that was responsible for our ride...Old No. 17.



Here is FrumpGram with four of her grandchildren.



It truly was a scenic and beautiful trip.







Loved passing the mountain streams and this beautiful mountain meadow.



The ride lasted about 2 hours and we agreed that it was beautiful, even if Jericho found it a bit long.



On the way home, we stopped off at a family gathering at my Uncle Jon's lake place, and not far from there was where we finally caught sight of lovely Mt. Rainier.



I just can't seem to get enough of the trees. The look, the smell...sheer bliss.

I suppose that living in the desert makes me 'pine' for trees a bit more than most folks.

Upon arriving at my uncle's place, he offered to take the kids out on a boat ride on the lake. They hadn't been gone for long when we heard shouts coming from across the lake, "Help!"

Turns out my uncle's son-in-law and his buddy, who had been out canoeing, had begun taking on water. The canoe was sinking when they arrived, and they'd lost an oar. A classic up-a-crick-without-a-paddle scenario.

I don't believe their lives were actually in any danger, they just didn't want the canoe sinking to the bottom of the lake.

Naturally, those guys suffered some good-natured ribbing as they returned to the back deck where everyone was gathered and had witnessed the entire scene, grown men having had to be rescued by 'dad' and a bunch of young cousins.



As Ma Ingalls used to say, "All's well that ends well."

Frump Vacay Part 5: Lovely Eastern Washington

My sister lives in Eastern Washington with her family.

It's generally warmer and drier there, but with the heatwave that was going on at the time just about anywhere we went in the State was hot.

This was a picturesque little farm we passed somewhere near Ellensburg. The farm house was tucked back in a valley between that stand of trees amongst all the wheat.



I hadn't realized so much wheat was grown in the State of Washington. I'd always thought that the vast majority was grown in the Dakotas, which are known for growing the Durum wheat that gets made into pasta.

I love my sister's little farmhouse and the community where they live.



Here is a little guest house/hunting lodge on her property.



The barn.



The acres of lawn.

A picture of Jericho sleeping at dawn. (Yes, twisted halfway off the sofa.)

He and his cousins had stayed up late playing video games and just crashed wherever they fell in sheer exhaustion.



Judah and I rose early, and he tagged along as I went to take farm photos.

This one reminded me of the familiar lyrics, "Oh beautiful for spacious skies..."



We saw lots and lots of this every which way we turned. Truly the "fruited plain".





The sounds of the country were wonderful...kind of a muffled silence, broken only by the sudden hopping of grasshoppers as we approached a nearby field of wheat.

One of my nieces kittens had followed us on our walk, and Judah picked it up just in time for this photo.



The kitten, when released from Judah's clutches, ran up a nearby telephone pole.



This was a velvety meadow we saw on our walk



Here was Judah, running down the road to meet daddy, who was returning from an early morning run.



After we'd been there for a day or two in heat so bad that nobody could even sleep upstairs in the house, we all decided to go to a water park my sister has heard of in Idaho to try and beat the heat.

We arrived before the place opened, and so we had a picnic lunch in a nearby park. Here the boys and my two nieces climb an gigantic old apple tree.



When we finally got to the water park, my niece dropped her towel to run for the water and I noticed she'd drawn on herself.

"What is that", I asked curiously, not quite making out what it was.

In her sweet, shy way she replied with a giggle, "A six-pack".



Because I'd suffered a recent sunburn, I spent most of the day beneath these ginormous umbrellas.

Daddy and Cousin E took turns taking Judah out in the water to play.



And play they did. There was so much to do there!



Jericho and his "six pack" cousin spent most of the day on these waterslides.



My other niece spent a considerable amount of time entertaining Judah in the kiddie pools.



In spite of the heat, the kids still came back from time to time to dry off in the sun.



Jericho was eager to try out this large, floating obstacle course...which, as the children were permitted to cross it one at a time, was made kind of tricky because lifeguards stood there with a what looked like a small firehose spraying down the course.

It made things a lot more challenging as the inflated vinyl was super-slippery and many slid into the large pool.



This is one of the many pools the park had to offer.



Judah made several friends during the course of the day.



The kids played until they were exhausted, and we headed back to my sister's place.

Later that evening, I captured this image of Goat Girl.



My niece's little goats follow her around like a couple of loyal puppies.

This is their older cat, who has taken refuge in the barn since the arrival of the kittens.

Judging by the offerings she left on the porch, there was no shortage of prey for her to hunt down in there.



Here, Piggy and Oats, those cute litle goats, creep curiously up to my camera.



"Maaa-aa-aah-ma" they plead, nudging the can of grain.





The girls dogs are curious about the goats, but have learned to keep their distance. Goats put up a pretty good fight!



Here was an image I captured just before dark one night.



Another I'd captured just before dusk another night. A 7 point buck.

There were many deer in the area, and we finally had to cap off Judah's 1 buck-per-deer game. He'd racked up some serious doe dough.





The last morning we were there, Piggy and Oats once again escaped their pen. They were wily goats. Goats that wanted to romp freely with the dogs. Which they probably could do if it weren't for the packs of coyotes wandering the farm by night.



We tried to reinforce it as best we could.



In the process, it was discovered that there were a couple of dead field mice in the goats watering trough.

Naturally Judah caught wind of this and begged to go see them.



Apparently we've deprived him of this aspect of life, because he kept going back again and again to see them.

Jericho loved that his cousins had so many pets.



I loved that the kids had so much fun cousin-time together out there in beautiful, serene farm country.

Vacation Part 4: Heading for Eastern Washington

After breaking camp at Ohannapecosh, we headed for a place called Elbe, the place from which we once took a scenic train ride around Mt. Rainier.

However, during the early part of the spring, some of the snowmelt washed out both a road and a section of track at the edge of the park where the train used to run.

We arrived in Elbe to learn that the train now boarded 10 miles away in a little town called Mineral, and that it wasn't running at all that particular day, so we opted to go ahead and head to my sister's house in Eastern Washington and take the train ride on our way back in a few days.

While doubling back on the road we'd taken to get to the camp, we came across this kitchy chainsaw-carved scene:

Of Jesus holding a fawn.



Or maybe it's a small Llama.



Awww, and look at that cute little bear cub at His feet.

It was done in a woodland theme and appeared to have been carved from a tree that was at one time standing there, another tree having fallen behind the statue of Jesus and left there...until some well-intentioned chainsaw artist came along and worked his artistry on it.



From the front, it seemed a quaint and even medatative place, with rustic split log benches scattered around the area for folks to sit on.

While I can't think of a single scriptural reference about Jesus that includes a fawn and a bear...I know there are independant references about deer and bear to be found in the Bible.

Given that this was a mountain area, I figured the artist probably made a living for himself carving bears and other rustic woodland critters out of large logs on folks property...and it was thoughtful of the artist to create a scene involving Jesus for this country church.

However, it wasn't until I saw things from this angle that I noticed that things seemed somehow amiss.



I'm so confused...what is the meaning of all this?



As FrumpGram put it, "Get thee behind me...mating bears!"

Only in Packwood, Washington!