Grove of the Patriarchs
After our unexpected adventure on Saturday we took it a lot easier on Sunday morning.
We hiked the Grove of the Patriarchs Loop in the Mount Rainier National Park. It’s less than 1.5 miles and has about 50 feet of elevation gain. And the trail is wide and flat:
The trees, while no match for Sequoias or Redwoods, were pretty cool. Some were 1000+ years old.
As is usual in much of Western Washington there was a lot of moss:
There was a cute little bridge to cross:
And much of the trail was what we considered “just about our level” after the previous day of exertion:
This was kind of interesting. A bunch of little trees growing out of a an old fallen tree:
I’m 6’ 3” so this gives you a little bit of scale for some of the trees:
This is Barb pretending to be a starfish in the same tree:
It was a pleasant hike with nothing particularly dramatic to see and a low probability of another “unexpected adventure”.
Barb and Joe’s unexpected adventure
It started out with a mistake on my part. I got a call from Bloodworks Northwest on Tuesday asking me to donate blood. I made an appointment for the following evening and a couple minutes after I got off the phone I remembered Barb and I were going to go hiking on Mount Rainer over the weekend. Rats! I’m going to be hiking up mountains at high altitudes while a pint low on blood. It figures. I did the same thing when we went to Yosemite a couple years ago.
Rattlesnake Ridge
Barb, Maddy, and I went on a hike up to Rattlesnake Ridge yesterday. It was cloudy and there was some precipitation but not bad. It was about two miles each way with quite bit of elevation gain. Because of the dreary weather I hadn’t anticipated there being any great photo opportunities so I didn’t bring my SLR with me.
The view was nicer than I expected and we took a few photos with our phones:
Parents weekend
Near Venice beach:
I should have worn a hat
Today Barb started work on the ceiling in the spare bedroom.
She told me, “In hindsight I should have worn a hat.”
Picard
I have had numerous people tell me I look like Patrick Stewart when he played Captain Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Barb strongly suggested I get a Picard costume for the Halloween party last Saturday night. She dressed as “a generic alien woman”. She was correct to make the suggestion:
Photo by “Bettie Page”.
The number of complements and favorable comments I got were uncountable. They ranged from numerous guys merely saying, “Captain” as they walked past and multiple requests to beam us to some other location to, “I just wanted to say you totally rock in the Picard costume.” I even had “Bettie Page” sit on my lap for a while (she also sat on Barb’s lap so it might not have been entirely the costume).
Overheard
Barb: I’m going down to the kitchen. Would you like some grapes?
Joe: Maybe. I’m kind of hungry but I’m not sure what I want.
Barb: Would you like some cake? That’s a food group.
That’s my kind of woman.
Capturing the changes
Last month I made some substantial changes in the landscape around the Boomershoot explosives production facility (Mecca). I took pictures but I was frustrated they just didn’t seem to capture the changes. Barb and I were there again this weekend and in addition to some minor additional changes, such as spreading grass seed around and raking the seed into the dirt:
I took some more pictures. I think this one captures things much better:
I also was able to take a picture that better captures what the new tent site looks like:
Quote of the day—Barb L.
Why is it so much fun?
Barb L.
October 11, 2014
[It’s not on video but she said this after shooting steel with a suppressed .22 pistol with no ear protection for the first time. The video above was probably about her fourth magazine on the steel.
The answer to her question? “It just is.”—Joe]