Washington adventures

Mark and I are now in Washington visiting my parents and having a blast. We started out the trip on the boat for a couple days with Carter. A mobile kid really keeps you on your toes when your in 300 feet of water.

You'll notice Carter has a tether attached to his life jacket so he doesn't fall overboard, and the life jacket's a little snug around his cheeks!

Sometimes he'd tolerate it, and other times, the whole apparatus was just a little too much for him.

Carter still thinks he's pretty cool, though. Especially in sunglasses. He put these on himself.

Carter and "Papa" (Carter's name for grandpa) keep up their oral hygiene, even on the boat. Don't want to have bad kissing breath!

Mark and I got some good snuggle time while "mimi" and "papa" took care of Carter.

After our boating adventure (and Carter going green for a short time during some rough water), Mark and I set out for our own trip. We planned a backpack/climbing/mountaineering expedition in the North Cascades National Park while my parents watched Carter. After we got to the ranger station, however, it turned out the road to our trail had washed out, so with 50lb packs we had to hike an additional 2.5 miles each way. The trail was also quite challenging, often having to climb hand over foot because it was so steep. Here's Mark climbing through a tunnel of trees.

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, though. We saw a black bear, avalanches, and evidence of why it's called the cascades. There are these beautiful waterfalls everywhere. You can see them here in the background.

We got to Boston Basin, sort of the base of our rock climb, to set up camp. I've never slept in such a beautiful setting. It was so pristine and untouched. I felt as if I had found the top of the world where no one else had ever been.

We camped that night pretty near where I'm standing, and woke up to beautiful blue skies and warm weather. But I just couldn't do it. I was so physically worn out, I knew I'd never make it up a jagged peak and then make it all the way down to the car. I'm definitely not in the great shape I used to be in. So we enjoyed our view and then hiked back down. Two days later, I'm still in pain. Meanwhile, Mark's gearing up to climb Mt. Rainier with a friend tomorrow. I'm still working on climbing the stairs.


Anyway, we're having a great trip so far, and I'm looking forward to some quiet time around town with my parents and Carter while Mark's gone. We've talked about going to a lavender farm and an earth sanctuary (some sort of meditative, relaxing place). I think those plans are more my speed considering my aching quads. Hopefully, I'll be up for the long walk through the airport by the time we leave on Monday!