Thursday, 30 June Lewis to McChord.

Its moving day, you know what that means!  Cleaning and Laundry.
OK, we got the laundry done, but the cleaning will have to wait.  
In between laundry loads we packed and stowed everything in preparation for the move.  
At 10:40 we grabbed the last of the laundry, threw it in my car (actually we placed it nicely all folded and in the basket) and drove over to McChord, all of 5 miles to the other side of the freeway.  
This was the easiest placement we have had so far.  Many years ago a man at the Elks in Fresno showed me a trick for backing into a spot.  He laid a white rope on the ground leading into the spot and asked if I could see it.  I said yes.  He said great.  Place your trailer's wheels on the rope and follow it in.  It works really well.  We had forgotten about it until just recently.  We decided ahead of time that we were going to use it for today's move.  When we got to the spot; however, we discovered we didn't need the rope because we could do the same with the asphalt.  It worked perfectly.  two adjustments and we were parked.  
We hooked everything up, popped everything out and hit the road.  Today's destination?! Mt. Rainier.  

So Elbe is 37 miles south of where we are.  It was a nice drive.  On the way to it we encountered Alder Dam and the Nisqually River Project

If you click on these pictures you can enlarge them enough to read.  

Elbe has a cute little white church and is home base for the Mt.Rainier Scenic Railroad which is a steam-powered train with open cars and restored coaches that chugs through forests on a 14-mile round-trip to Mineral Lake.  We didn't ride the train.

We drove on through the Nisqually Entrance to the park and saw the Cougar Rock.  Sorry, I didn't get a pic of it, but did get another lovely view.

Next we stopped in at Narada Falls.  Here the Paradise River hurtles off an old eroded lava flow, plunging 168 feet to the valley floor.  

We did take the short hike down to the base of the falls where the air was suffused with spray and were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow.

We continued up the road to Paradise and were rewarded with some awesome views of the mountain along the way.

Paradise is the launching point for people who want to climb Mt. Rainier.  It has a really nice Visitor Center and beautiful meadows and tons of hiking trails.

We did hike and were rewarded with wonder views of waterfalls, meadows and even a marmot who decided to get close enough while eating to let us take its picture.  Bella was quite fascinated by it.



There were also beautiful views of the mountain and Muir Falls.

Also up there at Paradise is the rustic Paradise Inn.  It is lovely

One year they got so much snow it was up to those top dormer windows.  I'm not sure how they got in.

We had originally intended to go on to Stevens Canyon Road, Ohanapecosh, and Sunrise, but it was getting late so we'll have to save it foranother time.

On the way back we continued to be rewarded with lovely sights.

They were doing a lot of work on the roads in the park and we often had to wait for the flagmen.  On one such occasion we captured this beauty.

Continuing on out of the park we were rewarded with other awesome views of the mountain and the paths of the glaciers.

 The lower we got, away from the mountain the more overcast it became.

In 2002, while based up here in Seattle, Rob decided to get involved with Big Brothers of America.  He hooked up with a little 11 year old named DeAndre.  They spent a lot of time together while he was based here and have continued to get together at least once a year ever since.  Rob was there when he graduated from High School, he administered his oath to him when he joined the Air Force and he was there when he graduated from Basic Training.  He gets together with DeAndre every year when he comes to Seattle for his annual Alaska training.  Now is that time.

So, we left the park to meet DeAndre and his girlfriend for dinner.  Stupidly, and unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.  DeAndre has grown up to be a very nice, and very big, young man.  He works for ADT security systems and will be 25 on the 4th of July.  We had a very nice visit.

We left the restaurant and I was shocked to see it was 9:40 pm.

Needless to say, when we got home I went straight to bed.  It was a wonderful day.