We were at Marymoor park and saw this rain squall just before sunset.

Humming bird

The Hummingbird really likes the fuschia hanging basket we have.

Louis

Louis is glad the deck is on hold.  He wants me to leave it this way forever!

Rubarb

We had a hot snap this summer, and the rubarb was quite happy about it. 

That leaf is over 2ft wide!

Turkey Vulture

My buddy came by to say hi today.  I let him/her know I'm not ready...  yet... ;)

Beckler River off road daytrip.

It was too hot to do anything, so we decided to hop in the truck with some a/c and head for the hills thinking it would be cooler at a higher elevation... 

We decided to explore a single track road near Beckler River campground just East of the town Skykomish WA.

The road was rough, and twisted and curved up to an elevation of just over 2000ft.  We were wrong, it was significantly hotter here than at home.oops...

The end of the road did have a  beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. 

We stopped on the way back down.  This is the road we traveled.

We noticed this huge cedar tree.  Suzi went over to be scale for the tree.  She makes good scale...

Camping Mt Ranier overlook trip

After that trip to Prosser we were craving a road trip.  So we decided to head over Stampede Pass and see if we could find a spot we camped at almost 10 years ago that had a view of Mt Rainier

We started out at our spot on Keechelus Lake on Snoqualmie Pass.  The lake was high, but we found a dry spot off the pavement.

Gator and Bailey had a blast taking a quick swim.

We headed out over Stampede Pass, admiring the views along the way. 

Talked to a construction worker near Lester Airport who told us if we have a cb radio the loggers use channel 2. 

We headed up over another pass, I think it was Tacoma Pass.  There were great views all along the way.

I noticed the wild flowers in my side mirror. 

We stopped often, the dogs enjoyed this a ton.  As we drove on the clouds moved in.  At one point we could see the fog/ clouds wisping thru the trees.  It was actually beautiful.

Gator found a hole and made her little white nose brown...  The photo below does not do it justice... 

We found the site that we camped at almost 10 years previous, but since the clouds were in, and the trees were significantly larger, we were not sure. 

We were at an elevation of over 4700ft and the temp was 59F at about 5pm.  So we baked a cornish game hen in the oven and played some kickball with the dogs.

At sunrise we woke up looked out the window.  At first we did not see Mt Rainier due to the trees in our way.  But sure enough it was the same spot! 

It did not take long for the clouds/fog below us to burn off. 

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We passed numerous spots we recognized along the way, including a spot near Greewater where we tent camped with Suzi's parents back in the day.  It was fun seeing familiar sights.

Cat Trap

Check it out, the Cat Trap works!

I guess Natasha cat can't read...

Prosser WA

Suzi's mom had an episode in which she got to go visit the ER in Prosser, WA shortly after leaving our house.  By the way she is doing great and taking good care. 

anyhow, Suzi wanted to go hug her folks, so we slipped the camper on the back of the truck and took off. 

The moon was bright which helped entertain us on the evening drive in the dark.  (We arrived at their RV Park around midnight)

We had a great visit with them and the heat did not start back up until almost noon. 
See everyone looks great!

Since Bailey was not impressed with a busy RV Park we stopped at the overlook above Yakima WA which Bailey thought was acceptable for a potty spot.

Stimson Bullitt Climbing Reserve, Forks of the Sky State Park in Index WA

We took a day trip to Stimson Bullitt Climbing Reserve, Forks of the Sky State Park in Index WA.

Gator and Bailey were troopers, there were some people with packs and climbing gear, which was a bit scary for Bailey, but she survived... 

Gator had a blast

Gator did have alot of fun climbing on the rocks. 

She actually started up this, see below, and we had to tell her no.  We are party poopers.  I had visions of sitting on a ledge with my dog waiting for rescuers... eek... 

We had fun and are planning on coming back durning Peregrine Falcon nesting season.  We did see what we thought was a Peregrine Falcon fly over, but was way too fast in the woods to get a shot.

Look close below, there is a climber on the wall.