Rainier Review: 8/24/08

We had a beautiful Saturday full of gorgeous sunshine and new adventures for us. Jon had a company picnic over on Bainbridge Island. After buying an enormous amount of food for everyone at Costco Friday night we adventured onto Jon's first Ferry ride Saturday morning to the island. The house was only about a 10 minute walk from the ferry, we could hear the ferry's horn throughout the afternoon while we ate. It was wonderful to meet everyone Jon works with and the rest of their families. They are a very interesting mix of British, Midwest and East coast natives. Only a handful of people were actually born and raised in the Seattle area. It was a nice time playing employee trivia and watching a highly entertaining with a baby's crawling race. (Cody - Lily START YOUR ENGINES) As the afternoon carried on we took the ferry back to Seattle but didn't want to leave the gorgeous weather. We decided to park the car and walk around Pike Place Market and then carried on around downtown Seattle into the night enjoying the warm weather and cool breezes off the water. We ended up stopping for some Italian to top the evening off. Overall it turned out to be a wonderful relaxing Saturday.

Full set of pictures here

B&W of the market sign

Fish goes away...

Fish comes back!

Pikes Place Market

Lookin' pretty

Who stole my comb and razor?

Some pretty houses on the Bainbridge shoreline

Seattle from afar

Crazy seagulls following the ferry

Big cranes...bigger mountain

Stadiums and Mt. Rainier

Qwest and SafeCo stadiums from the ferry

Looking back on the Seattle skyline

Enjoying the ferry ride

What are you looking at??

Oh yeah the baby race!!

Jenny was in town for some business in Vancouver this past weekend and we got to spend a lot of time hanging out and having fun. We met for lunch on Wednesday when she flew in and the she had to trek up to Canada for meetings on Thursday. She made it home late Thursday night and we sat around a little bit and then crashed. Friday she had more meetings downtown Seattle and I had to work. We met up again in the afternoon and headed back to Auburn to pickup Courtney's mom and head to the cabin in Plain, WA.

It's a pretty drive to the cabin, over Steven's Pass and down the other side towards the cabin. Lots of pretty scenery and cool things to see. We got to the cabin just before dusk and had time to set-up our tent and get ready for the evening. There is a small cabin on the property, but not big enough for everyone to sleep in. Courtney's brother Scott and his wife Jill and son Cody came as well as Courtney uncle Steve and his wife and 2 kids. SO it was definitely a full house!!

Saturday morning was breakfast and then we took the 30 minutes drive over to Leavenworth, WA. It's a cute little German town tucked into the mountains with all German style buildings and the whole works. We bummed around the shops for awhile looking around.

When we got back it was time to get in the river. It was only about 90* then but the high was somewhere over 100+. We drove for a while and then put in the tubes and kayaks we had. The water was a bit chilly when we got in but it felt great after a bit. We had a good distance to go before we got out. There was some ups and down, slow parts and little rapids, but a general good time was had by all of us and nobody got too sunburned! When we all got back it was time for dinner. We finally got to eat the brisket that Dave had been smoking for the last 24 hours. It was really good. AFterwards we went back down to the river, waded out a little, and just "sat". The temp of the air was so hot, it felt awesome just letting the cool mountain water run past you!! We had some beers and all sat around, enjoying the evening and the fire.

Sunday morning came fast and it was time for us to pack-up and say goodbye. We did have time to enjoy some delicious cinnamon rolls that their neighbor made for us. They run a little bed&breakfast and the guy's wife is a real chef. They were amazing! Jenny and I had to leave right after breakfast to make it back to the airport on time. We went a different way home since there was some construction so Jenny got to see a different pass over the mountain, Snoqualmie Pass. It was another pretty drive and we enjoyed the trip back. After dropping her off safe and sound I went home to chill out a little bit. Courtney didn't get home until much later. She stayed with her parents at the cabin waiting for a guy to show up to talk to them about building them a real cabin on the property. Well, that's about it for the story, onto the pictures....

Full set of pictures available here