This last weekend was the last hurrah of summer--Labor Day Weekend. And being the tree hugging, green loving, super active, totally hip Seattleites that we are, we decided to go hiking AND biking. Just kidding about tree hugging, green loving, super active and totally hip, btw. True Seattleites would scoff if we labeled ourselves any of the above.
But seriously, we did hike and bike. Saturday we pulled out our Northwest Forest Pass (because nothing is free this close to the city) and headed over Highway 2 to Bridal Veil Falls.
Thankfully, Nora likes to get out of the pack and walk/run for a decent portion of our hikes these days. And she actually goes fast enough for a while that she doesn't hold us back that much. Most of us, anyhow--as you can see "number 4" is always running ahead of the pack.
He gets a good ways ahead and then stops when he finds a nice rock to wait for us on. The problem is that Caroline thinks that she needs to sit and rest on the same rock as soon as Ezra gets off of it. So then Ezra runs ahead and the girls and I fall behind and the problem starts all over again...
The hike was 2 miles up--that's about the max that we can do without too much whining at this point. At the top, we were rewarded with a beautiful up close view of the falls. They are minus a LOT of water right now. Because the last time there was measurable rain in Seattle was a month and a half ago! We are nearing a record.
A nice man took a family shot of us. And I learned from last year's Labor Day half squat pose with the back pack on. This time I sat down and tried a little harder at looking normal.
The view below.
My favorite view : )
Try to ignore the unhappy looking lady in the photo below. I really was having a lot of fun--my back just didn't agree with my pack at the moment. Nora crashed out hard on the way down.
Sunday we took a much needed day of rest and worship. And Monday we resumed activity and drove out to our old stomping grounds for a bike ride on the Iron Horse Trail (this time using a Discovery Pass--because remember, even a trip into nature will cost ya). We started at the parking lot by Rattlesnake Lake with no particular destination in mind. We didn't want to tire the kids too much the day before school started or listen to any whining about how hard it was. Ezra never wants to turn around and head for home, but certain others do.
Nora was happy by this point-but the first 20 minutes we rode along listening to her scream that she wanted to be on "MY BIKE" instead of in the trailer. This is always a hard point in life when the little one knows how to ride but just doesn't have the endurance built up yet.
A certain girl might have been bribed to ride a little bit more with the promise of a new pair of tennis shoes from the outlet mall. Whatever works, huh?
All in all we had a great time with all that activity. And I might have even worked off one or two bites of the elephant ear I had at the Evergreen State Fair last Friday.
4 comments:
Looks like so much fun! It's great you're getting your kids out doing that stuff.
What fun!! A friend of mine had me set up the site for his proposal there years ago--I couldn't hike down before they got there for fear of running into them, so I had to hide in the bushes nearby--I also wanted to keep an eye on the lit candle on the cloth-covered cardboard "table". When they finally showed up, I didn't want to hang around and listen, but didn't want to be seen, so I walked through a gully bent at the hips and came out onto the trail right into a group of people, who looked at me like I was Bigfoot. LOL
What a perfect PNW weekend! Lucky!
WE too are in that hard stage of big enough to ride, but too little to go anywhere. I was wondering about your pack. I think we have the same one--a Kelty? John doesn't think that JouhDouglas will fit in it anymore and we loaned it to Craig and Amy. Will a 40 lb. kid still fit, and if he fits how far could I actually walk? I just want to know because we are thinking of hiking at Christmas and I want to see if it is an option for our family right now.
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