Are We REALLY In the Mountains???

This past weekend, Mark and I took Maggie up to the mountains to do some camping. We have been once this year with our church group, but that was at a park near a lake. We had a great time, and looked forward to some camping in the woods. Mark had Friday off, so we left on Thursday night, hoping to get a walk-in site at the mythical Ohanapecosh campground. Unfortunately, due to some fallen trees, a lot of the sites were off limits and people who had actually reserved their sites were moved to the walk-in sites. Alas, we were looking for a campground to set up our monster tent at 8:00 on Thursday evening.

We didn't have to go far to find La Wis Wis, a campground Mark and I had been to with his brother and sister-in-law years ago. We were familiar with it, and were excited that they had quite a few spots still available. So, as the sun began to fade and darkness set in, Mark was setting up our tent.

Let's go back a bit, though. Back home in Yakima, we were facing the hottest weekend of the summer (our house registered at 106.9!!) and Mark and I were really looking forward to getting up to the cool air in the mountains. However, as we got further and further up the pass, the thermometer numbers in our car did not seem to be getting lower. In fact it was still about 90 when we got to the campground at 8:30pm! Add the moisture in the air to the temperature, and we're looking at a whole lotta' fun!!!!!!!! NOT! Wow! It was so stinkin' hot.

Anyways, Mark set up the tent, we got Maggie to bed and we sat and relaxed in front of the glow of our lantern. No way were we going to start a campfire in that heat!! The next morning, Maggie was anxious to ride her bicycle around the campground, so she and I went for a little walk. We didn't get far, when we noticed a campsite about 3 down from ours that was quite a bit bigger and a little more secluded. It happened to be open, so Maggie and I went back and told Mark about it. After hemming and hawing, we figured since Matt and Camden would be joining us, we should move to the larger site. Mark and I threw all our stuff into the Yukon, tossed our air mattress on top and carefully drove to the new site. We walked back to the old site, unstaked the THREE ROOM TENT and carried it, YES, CARRIED it to the new site. Needless to say, we got a few glances from our camping neighbors.

Once our move was completed, the heat started to set in again, we found our way down to the river. Whew! What a difference some passing ice water makes in the temperature! It was a good 10 degrees different down by the river! We stayed for awhile and Mark taught Maggie how to throw rocks into the water. We spent most of the day down at the river, we even brought down our chairs and set them in the water just to keep cool.

That night, we did light a small fire to roast some hot dogs and cook some s'mores. Maggie really likes all the components of "the s'more," but for some reason, when you put it all together, she won't have anything to do with it. Go Figure.

On Saturday, Mark's brother, Matt came up with our nephew, Camden. It was Camden's first camping experience, and we were very excited to be a part of it! We thought it would be fun to pile in the car and go up to Mount Rainier for the afternoon. Of course, we all thought it would be quite a bit cooler, but again, we were wrong. From what I understand, it was one of the hottest days on record up at the visitor center. So, we had some ice cream, looked around for a bit and then headed back to camp. When we got back, we took Matt and Camden down to the river to throw rocks and cool off. Aside from Maggie nailing Camden in the back of the head with a rock, I think we all had a great time!. ;)

Again, that night we lit a fire and roasted some hot dogs and made s'mores. Here is a picture of two very tired Lee's, ready for bed.

The next morning, it was much cooler.

Of course, because we were on our way home!