Rachael (who always knows best and is the mother of our foursome) let us sleep in late today, which was a special treat for us all. When we finally left Tacoma, we headed toward Mt. Rainier, a special mountain to say the least. We began the ascent in fair weather, ran into a little bit of rain toward the middle, and by the time we’d reached the top we were in the middle of a blizzard. We finally found the welcome center (we say finally because we were driving VERY slowly and VERY carefully, of course) and watched a somewhat unsettling movie on the special ecosystems found within the mountain. The name was somewhere along the lines of “The Majestic Beast.” As we’d noticed, many weather systems could occur at once within this mountain, and oftentimes these systems were anything but calm. At some point during the mountain’s past, huge chunks of the road had fallen off into the river valley. It’s also an active volcano, but it hasn’t erupted in over 5000 years. This new knowledge along with the facts that the snow was presently about 5 feet thick and increasing by the minute and avalanche risk was set at high, allowed us to make an educated decision to throw out our initial plans to go on a few short hikes at the top. We had to travel back down the mountain the way we’d come because the other side was closed. This was disappointing, but at least Rachael and Greer emerged with a lifetime goal – to get to the top of Mt. Rainier someday. Only half of the people who set out to do so actually accomplish their goal, and these girls will be right there with them.
We crept on into Oregan where we visited the famous VooDoo Donut shop in Portland which sold donuts in rather risqué shapes. The woman who worked there was quite an interesting character (purple hair, several piercings and tattoos, you know, the works). She informed us that their most popular donut was the bacon covered donut. She said it tasted just like a pancake with syrup and bacon, but the idea made us gag. Speaking of gagging, Rachael decided to enter the Tex-ASS challenge – if she could eat a Tex-ASS donut (a donut the size of Texas) in less than a minute and 20 seconds, she would get the donut for free!) She put up a fight, but didn’t quite get the whole thing down in the allotted amount of time. We had to pay the 3.50 for the donut, but Racho is still a champion in our hearts (we have a video of this that we will try to post later) We also visited the largest used bookstore in the world – Powell’s – which we easily could have spent a week in had we not had another half of the country to explore.
Soon after we stopped for a moment at Newport beach, Oregon (where Greer and Casey got their first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean and a real-life lighthouse), Rachael got pulled over for the first time in her life. We explained sweetly that we were on a road trip, and that we were on our way to California. Racho must have batted her eyelashes just right though, because after instructing us to drive safely, the policeman left her with only a warning.
Fun fact: Did you know that it is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon? It must be pumped for you by a gas station attendant! This has been a good thing for Oregon because it’s provided more jobs during this economic crisis.
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