Mighty Mount Rainier

Decided to take a little road trip with the boys and my niece this past Memorial Day and head up to Mt Rainier.  Its been years since I was last there - high school maybe?  That was a LONG time ago.  Anyway, it was between going to the mountain or to the ocean and Max seemed a little more excited about the mountain, so that's where we went.  Unfortunately, the weather was not ideal....cloudy with a chance of rain.  But I know if we wait for a clear day, we may never go.  Thus, here's what the mountain looks like on a clear day from the Paradise Visitors Center at 5400 ft elev:

And here's what we saw yesterday:

So, we definitely went to the mountain, we just never actually saw the mountain.  Kind of a bummer, but we had fun anyway.  Still managed to escape rain and have an actual picnic lunch outside at one of the rest stops.  And we did get to see some interesting things along the way.  The Paradise Visitor Center was especially educational....and warm.  And now at least Max can finally say she's been to the mountain.  

Picnic at Kautz Creek rest stop

This fox was in the middle of the road and when we stopped to take a picture of him, he just sat down as if to pose...then he started heading toward us! EEK!

This sign made me giggle....and a little frighened too

These berms remind me of our driveway in Juneau...

Ah, good times

This was one of the exhibits in the visitors center.....

as my niece pointed out, obviously captured moments before the fox killed the poor bunny

Cousins

Lovin' the snow 

Prepping to be an Alaska Baby...who needs snow pants?

Found it disturbing that I had to keep reminding Zac not to eat the dirty snow

A helping hand

Names in the snow wall