"For the last 20 years, we have vacationed mostly in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). In that time, we have explored much of the coastal areas of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia but, no matter how much time we spend there, we'll never be able to experience all of its many wonders; the people, towns, farms, forests, fields, mountains, the freshwater streams and lakes, the saltwater straits, bays, tidelands, islands and shoreline.
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Our 2009 vacation posts appear below in chronological order. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Locals simply call it “The Mountain”. It’s a 14,000 foot active volcano that provides a dramatic backdrop for the sea level city of Seattle that is only 40 miles away. Fortunately, there hasn’t been an eruption in the last thousand years but they say that the two craters at the top are hot with escaping volcanic gas.
We drove to the Sunrise recreational area of on the northeast side of the Mountain and hiked the trail to Dege Peak, a great walk filled with wildflowers in bloom and fabulous views.
Mt. Rainier from Sunrise Point in Mt. Rainier National Park
August 7, 2009
Today we hiked the most beautiful trail we have ever seen. 3.5 miles of beautiful mountain views combined with a continuous show of wildflowers. The wildflowers we identified were Broadleaf Lupine – blue, Pasqueflower Seedhead – white, Magenta Paintbrush and Rosy Spirea – red, Arrowleaf Groundsel and Smooth Mtn Dandelion – yellow. “This trail is [...]
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August 8, 2009
As we left our hotel at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort, the fog was right down to the ground and as we drove around “The Mountain”, from Sunrise on the north side to Paradise on the south side, we could only imagine the sights we were missing. The last time we were here, conditions were better [...]
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