North Cascades Highway Drive

On yet another beautiful pacific northwest day (seriously! This weather is unbelievable) Tim and I decided to go on another drive which we haven't done yet- the North Cascades Highway Drive. Obviously, this drive is north of Seattle in the north cascades, hence the name. It's actually a loop that goes from the Seattle area, through the north cascades, around the Lake Chelan area east of the mountains, back through the central cascades and then finally back to the point where it started in the Seattle area. That was exhausting just typing that! The total loop is about 450 miles (not kidding) and we've seen all of it except for the North Cascades highway waaay up north so we decided just to drive up to that segment and spare the hours doing the entire loop. It's a pretty steep segment with serious inclines/altitudes so it's closed November through May. But, we've heard from countless people about how gorgeous this drive is, especially in the fall, so we decided to just check it out for ourselves before it closes in the winter. See pictures, below, for full detail:

Driving north on 1-5... at this point we are just north of Seattle in Everett (not the most attractive part of the greater Seattle area, as you can tell). But those mountains sure are pretty and that's where we're headed!

Mmmm hmm, puppy went too! Here she is, sniffing away. This was BEFORE she was a bad, bad puppy and AFTER I warned Tim about how she would be a bad puppy. More on that later.

Tim drove again...

The GPS shot of our trek through the North Cascades Highway.

Pretty mountains- they look so close but wow, it was a long drive to get to them! It took about an hour and a half just to get to the point where the North Cascades mountain drive actually started (even though we were already on the North Cascades loop and were seeing mountains all over).

Cool view of a snowy mountain straight ahead of us.

And in that hour and a half time period to get deep into the mountains, I was getting a wee bit bored. So I got camera happy. Here I was trying to capture those cool clouds.

Gorgeous fall colors... I love the fall! It was the one part of Arizona I never would have gotten used to.

Once we were deep into the mountains, we drove through several mountain tunnels. Gorgeous! I should note that right before we got to this point, we had drive through several small towns (again, resembling Iowa like on our drive down to Rainier). We then stopped at a Ranger station at about 500feet (altitude) to pee and get maps of the mountains/hikes, etc. I could continue on about this 5 minute stop for the next 2,000 words which would then define how Bella was a bad, bad, horrible puppy and then how we discovered that we should never have kids BUT I am just going to make everyone die of anticipation and WAIT. The story deserves it's own post. Anyway, the point is that I took the picture of this tunnel when I was in tears. Meaning, I could not really see through the blur. But it still turned out great, eh?

Several miles down the road when the tears stopped and I just started laughing about everything that had just happened thanks to my nice husband who knows exactly how to make things better, we discovered our first of many waterfalls. Awesome!

We got out at a point called the Gorge Dam... which is a dam on a pretty little alpine lake. There was a 1/2 mile trail that we walked to get some great pictures.

Us in front of the beautiful gorge lake.

A shot of Diablo lake, another alpine lake just up the road from the Gorge lake.

What the North Cascades Highway looks like when driving.... so pretty.

And another shot- everyone was right. This drive was amazing! I would recommend for anyone in the area or if anyone has the time when visiting.

Our stopping/turnaround point on the drive was Washington Pass. It was at an altitude of about 6000 feet and from this point (if we we were to keep going east), we'd go farther down in altitude until reaching the Lake Chelan area of Eastern Washington (which is the more seasonal part of Washington- and looks much more like a desert).

A shot of the Liberty Bell peak from our viewpoint at Washington Pass. There was a hike we really wanted to go on to get to Liberty Bell (as well as another alpine lake) but at this point it was already mid-afternoon and we knew we had a 3-4 hour drive in front of us to get back home. Bummer.

Another shot of the gorgeous mountains.

Timmy and Bella on top of Washington pass- aren't those mountains awesome?! It was so cool to be so deep into the mountains and see the whole range before us. I know, I am always raving about mountains lately but I swear, it never gets old to be in them, to see the different vantage points. It's all so different and uniquely beautiful.

A shot of the road below- where we came from.

Aww... perfect picture in front of amazing scenery.

And a picture of the puppy and I.

Another shot of the road that captures how truly high we were.

And, after we turned around at Washington pass, we saw many different views than we saw going up. This was one of them. We were amazed coming down from Rainier at how unseemingly steep it was going up and that we didn't notice. This happened again here. As we were going down, we noticed the incline and were blown away. It was quite the haul to wind through this highway in the mountains and it makes total sense why they would close the North Cascades Highway in the winter months. All in all, it was another successful day of seeing and exploring a part of our state that we hadn't seen before, and once again, it makes me all the more grateful that we live in such a beautiful place.

The many curious sleeping positions of a puppy.

In case anyone has forgotten, we have a puppy. Oh, wait, it's impossible to forget because I ALWAYS post about her. Guess everyone is in for another post full of puppy!

I realized that I have a ton of pictures of her sleeping- probably because that is the ONLY time that she is not moving at full speed (aka: insane bursts of energy that should not be possible for anything living). It's also a time when she is 100% adorable...unlike when she decides that she has selective listening skills TWICE in the last week that compel her to decide that she is queen of the world, doesn't have to listen to anyone, and will run off when it is her "play time" at the park. This then, makes for two very unhappy parents when the puppy (aka: Princess Bella) runs into the middle of the street at full speed. THE STREET. AT FULL SPEED. (Insert picture of Tim and I having a heart attack). She is not afraid of cars. She is not too bright in this respect.

But OHMYGOD, Mom and Dad, did you SEE that other puppy across the street? You and that ball are NOTHING compared to that. And that person running? I HAVE TO CHASE HER. GOOOOOOOO! And then us stupid parents? Duh, princess Bella doesn't have to listen so we just sit there and all hundreds of dollars in training classes, all commands, all shouts of "Bella, no!", all nice persuasion to try to get her to come (even with treats and toys), go out the window. Because she is the princess. DUH. This has happened TWICE in the past week. She has basically lost all free play privileges that she had. It's too bad because she had been so good about this up until she hit this 9 month rebellious stage where she has to test her boundaries. And she's still awesome at listening at the dog park with a million other dogs around so it's really weird.

Sigh.

We'll get there with her, she is still a puppy. In the meantime, all ranting aside, below are the sleeping pictures of the cute side of our pup...moments in which she often makes us laugh because of the way she chooses to sleep. Even though she has had her bad moments, generally she has been a great dog. She is super smart and she (usually) listens. She does have massive amounts of energy, but that is a boxer trait and it keeps us entertained.

She LOVES to sleep on top of or beside her toys. Toy cuddles, I guess.

This position is quite common and funny... especially if she starts to dream... and then slides off the step. We hear, THUUUUUMP. Oh, it's just Bella who fell off the step again.

Bella trying to do yoga with me... BUT, she can't stay awake. Does a paw on the mat count?

After returning from the dog park, trying to pretend like she still has energy and is playing with her toy. But nope, out cold.

And for a little mix up.....

She's awake!!

And again....

And my two loves. Bella looks absolutely thrilled at getting a big bear hug.

Day trip to Mount Rainier

August 31st this year fell on a Monday. Nothing special about August 31st other than Tim had the day off work and since I hadn't seen him much lately, August 31st became a Monday in which I decided to take off work to spend time with Tim (it helped also that the forecast was awesome for that day and I was pretty convinced that we did not have too many more nice days ahead). We got up fairly early that morning around 6am and at around 8, we were sipping tea and trying to plan our day. We talked about doing one of the hikes we love in the mountains right by us, or perhaps going to the beach. And then, out of the blue, it occurred to us that we should make the trip down to Rainier. I have never been to Rainier and Tim hasn't been since he was a kid. We tried to go last September, but some of the passes down there were already closed due to snow. A day that is supposed to be clear and warm and we are free? Let's go!

The west side of Mt. Rainier is about an hour drive south of us. However, we opted to go to the EAST side of Rainier on the day we went for a couple of reasons: a) Sunrise (a point where you go in the park) is the highest elevation you can get on the mountain at 6500 feet. This point is usually closed except for a couple months out of the year b) we wanted to hike and obviously can't hike to the 14,000 ft + summit of Rainier without extensive training and a myriad of passes to do it and we also wanting to take Bella hiking with us. The ONLY hike within Mt. Rainier national park that dogs can go on happens to be on the east side of the park. Of course, we could have done a hike in the national forests surrounding the park, but that wouldn't have been as fun.

So we started off our 2hour drive around 9am. It was rainy and foggy leaving Seattle so we were a bit worried that we were going to drive for two hours and not be able to see the mountain. After about an hour in, it began to burn off and a perfectly clear day opened up. Awesome.

Below are the pictures- we were a little bit camera happy which doesn't happen very often, so enjoy:

The GPS marking our trek up through the mountains. In the middle of nowhere. We went through several small towns before getting to this point. I could have sworn that someone transported me right back to Iowa when we were going through these towns. The similarities were uncanny.

Tim driving away (he drove the whole time!) We had made chocolate chip cookies over the weekend so we had those in the car with us...yum!

Bella enjoying the ride... she was transfixed by the rain outside at this point.

And finally- we see blue skies and the mountain range. Beautiful!

A view of how the roads looked for about the last hour of the drive. Dense forest- so pretty.

And we made it!

A view of the mountains shortly after getting into the park.

On our way up to Sunrise, our first view of Rainier down here was behind us. This is going to sound pretty stupid, but I was amazed by how much bigger it looked down here as compared to how it looks from Seattle (see pretty obvious statement, huh?) But seriously, that mountain/volcano is HUGE.

A view of a little alpine lake on top of Sunrise. We saw a lot of alpine lakes that day.

Gorgeous mountain. Our next feat: hike it! Why not?

Bella mesmerized by the mountain (ok, probably not- she probably just had to pee and was excited at all of the people around us). She was going nuts once we were up there.

My not so little puppy and I.

Bell Bells and I with a backdrop of Rainier.

Another shot of the gorgeous Rainier. We had the perfect day to be there.

Self portrait of Timmy and I.

Tim and Bella with a backdrop of Rainier at Sunrise.

Our attempt at a family photo. Bella did not love the idea.

Sexy husband sitting on a wall in front of the cascade range. Love it.

And more of the mountain range (and yet another alpine lake- in the left of the photo).

Shot that captures the meadows that surround Rainier. At this time of year there are tons of berries and wildflowers in these meadows. It's pretty awesome.

Pretty cool picture of the vast mountain range.

By this point, we had begun our hike (and the above is a picture from it). We did about 5-6 miles of the Pacific Rim trail which is the trail that goes all the way from Canada-California (yep, we'd like to hike that whole thing one of these days too). It intersects with Rainier national park and coincidentally is the only trail in the park that allows dogs so we hopped on it and went north for several miles. It was gorgeous (but wow, we were surprised by the altitude)! We found out after the fact that we were still hiking at about 5500 feet... and we were moving fast too. We couldn't figure out why we felt so tired afterwards when we usually hike much longer than that (and at greater inclines). The altitude would explain it- it's pretty significant for us Seattle-ites that live at sea level.

The halfway point in our hike- we came to yet another alpine lake. It was gorgeous! Bella LOVED jumping in. It was so clear and cool and there were lots of fish swimming around. There was also a great place to camp right by it... so you'd just hike in, camp, and have a lake right next to your campsite. We are seriously considering this spot for camping next summer once the snow melts from this spot. It's so peaceful and serene.

A shot of the lake with the mountains surrounding it.

The view of the road intersecting the mountains. To begin the hike, you basically hike along the road (but not right next to it- obviously, we are well above it). At this point we are about a mile in... the parking lot is in the very right hand corner of the picture (kind of down from the peak up there).

Looking down from the point where we were hiking.

Hugs for awesome dogs who hiked around in Rainier national park with us! She was a little trooper (and boy, was she tired afterwards....)

It was such a fabulous day! I love our little day trip adventures. We live in the most beautiful and diverse state and each time we do something like this and explore something new, I am even more in awe of the beauty in this state that we call home. It sounds sappy but it's so true.

Nostalgia.

8 years ago.

Wow, has it really been 8 years already?

8 years ago I woke up in Lamoni, Iowa to a gorgeous fall day. It was my second year at Graceland and I was still living in the dorms with my roommate, Wish. I hopped out of bed, probably fairly tired, because I had an 8am class and who in college ever goes to bed before 1am? I certainly did not.

After getting out of bed, I started my morning routine which began with logging in to my computer. On my home page, all I saw were the headlines "Plane hits World Trade Center" and the pictures that told the story that words couldn't.

My first thought was, "Who would be so stupid to fly into a building?" Thinking- it must be an accident. It HAS to be an accident.

I walked to class across campus- a personal finance class- and the TVs in the building there showed nothing but the second plane hitting the second tower. Professors were everywhere telling us that classes were cancelled for the day.

I remember the school that day came together. We all were bound together as we tried to make sense of what was happening, as some of us tried to get into contact with loved ones in New York City. We had a prayer circle in the middle of campus multiple times that day as well as events that night to pray and send as much good as possible to everyone in New York- and the entire country- who were all grappling with the heartache, the confusion, the grief, the contemplation of the question we were all trying to figure out and understand: "What happened and WHY?"

We know a whole lot more now than 8 years ago about that day and while the pain of that day is much bigger for people in this country who lost someone personal that day, 9/11 is still a day that holds many memories, many feelings of pain, and many feelings of sadness each and every year it rolls around. It will never be forgotten.

Lately in the political news, I have tried to keep an open mind and try to determine how I feel about where this country is headed on several major issues. To me, it seems like the country is divided severely on some of these issues and not just because people truly believe one way or another but because they have their labels, "republican", "democrat", that they have to adhere to, regardless of how they may really think or feel. And it seem to me from people that I have talked to, sometimes people just believe what they believe because it is a "republican" ideal or a "democratic" ideal instead of just thinking for themselves in more of a bipartisan way and saying, "Hey, this isn't my 'party's' view (or maybe it is) but here is why I feel and how I think it is RIGHT for our country." I'm not saying this applies to everyone and that no one thinks for themselves, I'm just saying that I see this more often than not and I wish that we could get to a place where it isn't about party lines or attacks on people because they are liberal or conservative- it's just about differences of opinion but trying to still reach common goals for the good of everyone.

Thinking back on 9/11, I remember initially how the Graceland community came together that day. As the days went on, we saw how New York City bonded together and then the entire country bonded together...regardless of social class, political party, race, or age. It is unfortunate that as a result of such a tragic event, we all became one and were operating solely as one but it does make me hopeful that as we have many big decisions to be made in the coming year that will affect the future of our country, we can all come together as one once again in an effort to achieve one common goal- to do what is truly right for this great nation and the extraordinary people living in it.