Vacation Part 1

VACATION!!!! YAY!

So our vacation starts with Jessica furiously trying to make sure everything is together and ready to go the night before we leave. In the end, I scrapped all my hopes and dreams and stuck with packing. No homemade granola bars for our hike, no...other stuff I wanted to do. Oh yeah, make dinner. I didn't do that. We went to Cafe Rio.

Where was Andrew this whole time you ask? Furiously trying to finish all the homework for the remaining part of the course since he was going to miss the last 2 days of classes. Long story short, his efforts went pretty much the same as mine. He finished about as much as his brain could handle.

When everything was packed and ready to go, we went to bed. It wasn't TERRIBLY late, but since we had wanted to get up at 4, it was still too late, whatever time it was. We DID get up at 4 and we managed to get out of town by 5. We picked up some ice at Wal-Mart, grabbed Krispy Kremes for breakfast, filled up the tank and got on our way. Of course we only made it past the Idaho border before deciding to pull out at a rest stop and take a nap. I think we slept for about an hour and that kept us for the rest of the drive.

The drive up was uneventful. There was the time that I pulled the cherries out of the cooler, noticed that the label said "Yakima, WA" on it and exclaimed, "You're going home little guys!" After which, I was hit with a wave of guilt for eating them and became a temporary Meat-itarian and Andrew had to eat them instead. I got over it eventually. =P

We switched drivers around the Blue Mountain Pass. I drove and Andrew slept. Lucky him because there was annoying road construction. I passed the time playing Oregon Trail in my head. Andrew got bitten by many a rattle snake while changing tires because there was no one to trade with.

We continued on through Yakima and stopped at a fruit stand in Fruitvale (an aptly named town given the number of fruit stands). We picked up some fresh Washington cherries (and I didn't call them "little guys" this time) and headed out on the last leg of our trip to Rainier. The canyon we went through outside Fruitvale was gorgeous with column like volcanic formations everywhere and a clear river running alongside the car. Andrew and I both agreed that we really wouldn't mind just stopping there.

We finally arrived in Rainier National Park at about 6pm Pacific time. That means there was still plenty of sunlight left. We came in the Ohanapecosh entrance though and apparently, they close that booth at like 5...so we just entered the park without paying. I felt guilty the whole time but we paid on the way out so it's ok. That was just the beginning of the guilt trip though.

Inside the park! In the distance, you can see part of the road we'd already been on. 

We had about another hour drive through the park and around the mountain (which was hiding in the clouds so we couldn't see it) before we got to the campground. This is where I learned that Yosemite is not a standard for all National Parks.

Originally, my plan was to plan dinner and breakfast and pack them in the cooler before we left. Andrew said he wouldn't mind just eating out for dinner, and we could just have instant oatmeal for breakfast. Remember how I told you I ended up just sticking to packing? That means I figured we'd grab dinner in the park.

Well as it turns out, the Longmire lodge, which had the gift shop and I wanted a magnet so we went there instead of to Paradise, only has the hotel restaurant. I didn't want to pay 10-15 dollars a plate for dinner. We bought the magnet, and decided to go to the deli at Paradise. Luckily, before we drove there, we asked the ranger at the campground where to eat. Turns out the deli was already closed. Why did everything close so early!?! I swear Yosemite general stores and stuff are open later than 6!

We went to the campsite and tried to figure out where to go from there. This is where the guilt tripping got REALLY bad. I was having a bit of a panic since I didn't know what to do. And what about the general store! In Yosemite you can buy practically anything you want! There hadn't been much in the general store at all! We could eat the sandwiches I had packed for our hike the next day...but then what would we eat on the hike? We could have oatmeal, we did have 12 packages of it...

Finally we decided to try the general store one more time.With 15 minutes to spare before closing, we went back to the general store and discovered all the food that we had skipped before because I was focused on magnets. It was still a VERY small section of the store compared to Yosemite but we managed to procure hot dogs, buns, condiments, and firewood. (Another lesson learned, always carry cash, because at the campground, firewood was cash only).

Speedy Andrew builds a fire!

Remember how I said plenty of sun left? Umm...it was twilight when we were done with all this. We still had plenty of light to set up the tent, but we ate in the dark. Oh well. Andrew built a fire while I made myself not helpful at all because I was playing with my camera, we ate, we went to bed. Everyone was happy. Oh, that was after my OTHER panic moment...

"WHERE'S THE BEAR BOX!?!" After asking Andrew several times "Bears must not be a problem here...because in Yosemite they have boxes everywhere. If they were a problem we'd have a bear box, right?", I was finally content with the answer...kind of. I'm surprised the park didn't yell "I'M NOT YOSEMITE!!!" at me. I didn't end up asking Andrew to use our 100 feet of paracord to hang our food from a tree but it really didn't stop me from packing EVERYTHING smelly into the cooler which we kept in the car. For about an hour afterwards I had horrible visions of bears tearing the roof off our car to get our beef jerky.

No bear box

I have issues. But I slept well and we had a wonderful day the next day in Rainier National Park! (which is not Yosemite).