Seattle – Trail of Shadows and Home Base

Saturday, July 19th Joe & Margaret's flight was due in at Sea-Tac Airport at 11:00 am. John & Sue left Mount Rainier early to pick them up and have lunch with them somewhere in the metropolitan Seattle area. The house we had rented for the six of us would not be available for occupying until 4:00 pm.

Meanwhile, Frank & I stayed in the foothills of Mt. Rainier to explore a bit of the area in the National Park itself. We drove east from our cabin at Ashford and entered Mt. Rainier National Park at the west Nisqually Historic District Entrance (A). From there it was twisty, forested 6.5 mile drive to Longmire (B).

This park entrance was a pretty six mile, ten minute drive along the National Park Highway
from the cabin where we'd stayed.

We only made a small dent in exploration of the park, venturing only 6.5 miles inside.
The entire national park (green on the map) is 370 square miles of area.

At Longmire were some adminstrative buildings. Between the buildings peeked views of the cloud and snow covered summit of Mt. Rainier. The weather could not have been more perfect. It reminded me of opening song of the television western Here Come the Brides, which aired 1968-1970. It had been based on the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers where marriageable women were imported from the east coast.

The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle

And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle

Like a beautiful child, growing up, free an' wild

Full of hope an' full of fears, full of laughter, full of tears

Full of dreams to last the years... in Seattle.

What clear skies and vivid colors!
Later in our trip, Margaret and I would be singing the above song in the car while sightseeing.

Frank, against a backdrop of the peak of Mount Rainier.

There was also a museum and historic car display. The Longmire family had developed this area as a health resort for the wealthy.

The log and boulder construction of the museum at Longmire made the building itself a sight worth seeing.

On display was a touring car typical of the days when the Longmire hotels and spas were operational.

Looking at the map below, the large loop around the central meadow is called the Trail of Shadows. We checked in at the museum building and learned that the Trail of Shadows is a short 0.7 mile fairly level beginners level hike. Frank and I thought we could handle this small a dose of nature on foot so we "hit the trail". It was actually quite interesting to see forest, bog, meadow, and hot springs all existing in such close proximity to each other.

The trail loops around a meadow and central mineral springs. We walked it in a counter-clockwise direction.
At the upper northeast sector, just before rounding the bend, is a small cabin typical of what the
less wealthy visitors to the Longmire spa might have experienced during their stay.

Along the trail we walked over foot bridges, gazed across the central meadow, saw a bit of bubbling hot springs, smelled a bog, glimpsed some wildflowers, witnessed the cycle of nature springing forth from fallen trees, and passed a cabin representative of the ones guest would stay in to use the nearby mineral therapeutic hot springs.

The shady trail was quite pleasant. In some places footbridges had been built to navigate over wet bog areas.

I would imagine that under a cloak of darkness this snarled mass of roots from an upturned tree
could well be mistaken for some hideous multi-armed or multi-headed monster.
It is kind of Medusa-like, is it not? 

After we'd completed the loop of the Trail of Shadows, Frank and I shared a sandwich and chips we'd bought at the gift shop and ate lunch at a picnic bench not far from the museum. I looked at the clear plastic container the sandwich had come in and noticed it was accumulating teey-tiny mini-droplets of moisture. It was raining or misting of sorts but the sun still shone brightly and the weather was pleasantly that just-right-do-not-even-need-a-sweater temperature. It was a glorious day!

We decided that if we continued to drive on up to Paradise it would have been a four hour round trip on twisty, narrow roads and afterwards we still would have needed to drive a couple hours to get to the rented house in the University District of Seattle. We were also warned that parking at Paradise was very limited and it was already mid-day. So we skipped Paradise. After all, with our guest house we had been "almost" there. :•) As it turns out, Mt. Rainier National Park has five main areas to explore: Longmire (homestead and mineral springs resort), Paradise (known for views and wildflower meadows), Ohanapecosh (old growth forest), Sunrise (highest point reachable by vehicle), Carbon and Mowich (coal deposits and glacial basin). We'd barely scratched the surface, but we'd enjoyed what we'd experienced. I suspect for the more outdoorsy type, this is hiker's heaven.

We drove the 85 miles back up north to the University District neighborhood of Seattle where our five-befroom craftsman style rental house was on NE 55th Street.

 The houses in this older neighborhood were all different and made for interesting walks
to church, dinner, or just out and about. It was convenient to the freeway and grocery stores, too.

Our rental house in the University District of Seattle had a very homey feel to it.

We explored the house. The large living room and large kitchen and five large bedrooms gave plenty of space to spread out and be together or quietly alone.

There was plenty of seating in the living room to just sit and read, or reminisce,
or converse about solving all the world's problems while forgetting about our own.

The bright roomy kitchen and long dining table were great for eating and game playing
or individual surfing on our person electronic devices. We were all geeks, remember?

This was Frank's and my roomy first floor bedroom during our stay.

With two large bedrooms off the the left,
this staircase led to three additional bedrooms upstairs.
It really showcases all the phenomenal woodworking through the house.

The long driveway on the side gave plenty of room for our two rental cars. The neighborhood was very quiet.

Just a short block up NE 8th Avenue we attended Saturday evening mass with John & Sue and Joe & Margaret at Blessed Sacrament Church, a lovely brick cathedral like structure.

I have no pictures from inside the church but the stained glass windows were lovely, too.

After mass, just a few blocks away, we shared a great Italian dinner at Ristorante Doria.

Home base (A&D) church (B) and restaurant (C) were all within walking distance.
The freeway was easily accessible but it was inaudible from the house.

This restaurant was walking distance after church and back to the house
and the food was really good and plentiful.

We walked home after dinner, all of us content, but tired, after a day of travel and relocating. We turned on the TV and laughed because ironically, what was airing, but none other than Sleepless in Seattle! We talked a bit with the volume off and the scenes of the movie running in the background before turning in early. Joe & Margaret were on east coast time so it was three hours later for them and not "early" at all. I was still a bit wired so I stayed up and watched most of the follow on movie Blind Side but, yawning repeatedly, I eventually went to bed before it finished. I'd seen the best scenes out of it anyway and I already knew how it ended. Tomorrow would be another day.

Being with old friends and watching old movies ... a winning combination!