Trip to Washington State – part 3

Posted on April 8, 2012

This will be the third and final post about my west coast trip.  I’ll start with the rest of the family pictures and end with our trip to Mt Rainier.

My brother, Donald, took this photo.  This is four generations of women in my family.  My grand mother, my mother, me and my daughter.  The photo below is still four generations, including one of my sisters.  My other sis Debbie must have been in the house!

Annabelle does not get her height from her grand mothers!

Surrounded by her aunties!  The photo below was taken by brother Donald, which I think is such a great moment captured!

Surround by uncles.

Mom and Jeffery.

This is my nephew, Ben, who had to work all day so arrived late.  Ben is my sister, Ayla’s, son.  He is an extremely talented artist and musician.  Below you will see him with a pair of violins he is making.

Ben, I can’t wait to see these when you are finished!!

Okay, now we will get to the landscape that defines the Pacific Northwest.  The photos in part two gave you a distant glimpse of why I adamantly say NO, Washington does not remind me of Maine, or visa versa.   When I first moved to the east coast I lived in the white mountains of New Hampshire.  When I was asked if I would like to hike up Stinson Mountain I said sure, where is it?  The person pointed to this hill and I said “where?”  They pointed again and I said “I don’t see a mountain.”  Finally, they said “you’re looking at it.  That is Stinson Mountain.”  I informed them that that was not a mountain.  It was barely a foothill by Cascade mountain range standards!

As we drove closer to Paradise Lodge, which was as far as you can go by vehicle, there were lots of places to pull over so “we tourists” could get a view.  I was so very happy that we had beautiful weather, with mostly clear skies.  I wanted Annabelle to see the beautiful landscape I grew up with.  She has never seen anything like this before.  She told me our day trip to Mt Rainier was definitely a highlight of our visit.

This was the last time we saw a full view of Mt Rainier that day.  I took this while we were driving.  Once we got to the lodge to park the car, the clouds rolled in.

There was 30+ feet of snow so we had no choice but to snowshoe in.  My first time doing that!

I had forgotten about the “camp robbers.”  When I was a kid my parents often took us on hikes in the Cascades.  Whenever we stopped to eat, we would be visited by these very friendly birds, who wanted a free meal.

These last two images were photographed by Donald, edited by me.

It started snowing on our hike back.

So there you have it!  Our fabulous trip back in time.  I simply will not go that long between visits, ever again!  Hope you all enjoyed the tour!

Trip to Washington State – Part 2

Posted on April 5, 2012

It looks like it will take 3 posts in order for me to edit all the photos I want to share from my trip.  So many!!  So this one will include most of my family.  The final post will have the rest from the reunion, plus our trip to Mt Rainier.  So, without further ado, here is another glimpse of my home state and my family.

When I tell people I’m from Washington State most everyone comments “isn’t Maine like Washington?”  My immediate response is “no!”  The west coast is majestic, with a skyline featuring the Cascade and Olympic ranges.  On a clear day you can see Mt Rainier, being the closest big mountain to where I grew up.  On a cloudless day you can see several other mountains as well.  Hopefully these photos will help you see why there is no comparison between Maine and Washington.

My Brother Daryl and sister Ayla.

Our youngest sibling, Debbie, and below is another brother, Donald.

We were very silly growing up, and I see we haven’t changed much in that department!

“Uncle Donald” giving Annabelle an early birthday present.

She got a Troll bead!

My brother-in-law, Gary, drying dishes with drying mitts!  See Ayla, he uses them!  Oh, and Gary makes the BEST bread, ever!

Me and my grandmother, who is going to turn 98 this month!  Oh, how I loved seeing her, so bright and cheerful!  More photos of her in Part 3.

The cool thing about being on vacation with my daughter, is I saw more of her in that week than I do at home!

Cousins – Jack, Annabelle and Ryan.

My brother Dan and his son Jack.

Brother Daryl, sister-in-law, Lori and nephew Ryan.

I think my brother Donald and I drove everyone crazy with our cameras!

Brother David.

Donald and my step father, Jeff, in what seems to be a deep discussion about who knows what!

So here we are, all seven of us!  Because of me, who lives on the opposite coast, we haven’t had a complete group shot in 22 years!  Or longer!

The photo my mother is holding is all of us when we were VERY young!  We are all in the same spot, except my sister Debbie is not sitting on my lap!

Phew, there’s a lot of pictures, and there’s still more to come!!  Hopefully by early next week I can finish them.  Stay tuned!

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