Summer in Seattleland

We were planning on a trip to Seattle this summer for a while as a little family reunion since both my brothers and family's were able to come at the same time. Chris was able to talk to his contacts at the University of Washington and give his talk there as well which is a good thing. We spent a lot of time with family, picked blackberries (I was so excited to be there for blackberries season, and they were huge and plentiful!), went to the cabin, did some paddle boarding, and went to downtown Seattle.

Some of us had the chance to go hike Mt. St. Helens. It was pretty amazing and quite the experience. I am extremely grateful that our kids were taken care of so Chris and I could  both go. It was about a three hour drive to get there, a four hour hike up, three hours down. It wasn't quite as hard as I was expecting so that was nice, but still exhausting and I was definitely sore. It is an unusual hike because so much of the mountain is rocks. You are literally climbing up boulders most of the time. There generally isn't at trail, just these posts that you aim for however way you want. Near the top, you walking up loose gravel and ash so it is difficult to make any progress as your stepping up and sliding down. It is definitely an accomplishment to make it to the top. The weather was nice and sunny on our way up, and coming down it start to rain, then fog rolls in, it starts to rain more, and then thunder and lightening. Our visibility was so bad you couldn't see the posts and so we weren’t sure if we were even going in the right direction. It was always a relief when we were able to see another pole. We made it back and were soaked through and freezing. It's experiences like those that help you remember them.    

And that was our summer.

 Two four-generation pictures

 Buckets and buckets of blackberries

 At the gum wall. To quote Celia- "The gum wall is really gross."

 We made it to the top!