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!
