Now I will stand in the rain on the corner
Led Zeppelin
…
Oh, my heart it sinks to the ground
And the storm that I thought would blow over
Clouds the light…
You’ll likely notice the conspicuous lack of pictures from our visit to Mt. Ranier. We woke up early this morning – 5:30 – so that we could get a jump on hiking the Skyline Trail. We even slept with the curtains open so that the sunlight streaming into the room would help wake us up. When Molly’s alarm went off we both looked outside, looked at each other, laughed a bit, and closed our eyes again. It was so foggy out that we could barely see the bushes outside our window, much less the more distant outcroppings of rock that indicated we were on a mountain.
After a few minutes we quietly debated our options and decided that it probably wasn’t a great idea to hike right now. We’ve always said that being safe is the number one priority and hiking in a stormcloud on a mountain didn’t seem very safe. We’d actually fallen asleep to flashes of lightnight and didn’t know how likely it was that would start up again. The second priority is having fun and it also looked really cold and rainy. We quickly decided that the most prudent way to stay safe and have fun would be to return to the Great Room of the lodge to drink coffee.
The girls were still sound asleep so we slipped out and bought our bottomless cups from the cafe and then settled into some comfy leather armchairs to sip and read. Eventually 7:00 came around. We stepped outside to check the weather. We still couldn’t see the cars parked feet away, it was still raining, and it was still cold. We decided to round up the girls and head on to Seattle. However, when we returned to the room they were both still sound asleep, so we returned to the Great Room for another cup or two.
Eventually the girls woke up, we got the room packed up and we headed out. After decending the mountain for a few miles we did eventually pop out the bottom of the cloud we’d been in, but it stayed overcast all day. It’d been a week since we’d done laundry, so we hung out at a laundomat for an hour and a half to get a load done on our way to Seattle, and pulldd into the Kimpton Vintage Seattle by 12:30, much earlier than planned. Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we put together a walking tour of the city.
We made a cursory tour of Pike Place Market (we’ll be returning for a more detailed look), snapped a picture of the Space Needle, and when the rain started up again ducked into Top Pot for afternoon donuts and lattes. The rain didn’t let up all afternoon so we eventually made the 3/4 mile dash back to the Vintage.
We had another great wine hour playing cards and sipping on Syrah. None of us were really in the mood to go anywhere for dinner so Molly and I ran to a local Greek spot to pick up dinner: chicken, gyros, spanikopita, and two salads. Our fingers are all crossed that the Washington rain is done for the next few days.
