Mom and I left a Philadelphia around 8 AM and arrived in Seattle around 11:30 AM PT. It took two hours to get off the plane, get baggage, take shuttle to rental car center, and get on the road. We had a 2 hour drive to the Paradise Lodge and Restaurant in Ashford, Washington near the base of Mount Rainier on the western side.

When we hit the right road, we could see Mount Rainier in the distance. We went from highways to industrial parks, fast food row, small towns, and two lane roads with tall evergreen forests on both sides. We passed a number of Marijuana distributors; here they don’t disguise what it is like Beyond Hello or Social Leaf. We didn’t stop, this go around, but will one day.

One of beautiful sites along the drive was Adler Lake, where a number of people were kayaking, boating, swimming, and having fun. Alder Lake is a 7 mi long reservoir on the Nisqually River in Eatonville, Washington. It was created by the construction of Alder Dam by Tacoma Power in September 1944, which we saw at the very eastern end of the lake is the town of Elbe. The cut down trees on the edge of the lake looked beautiful against the contrasting water and bright green grass.

We checked in at the hotel, unloaded the car, and quickly hit the road again for Mount Rainier National Park. The cool part is it’s on the same road as the hotel, but lots of windy streets, which made a 22 mile drive an hour. It wasn’t our day, that 22 mile drive took us two hours because there was a multi car accident in the park. We saw five ambulances and heard one helicopter had to medivac a person out. We made it to the Longmire lodge and turned around when we learned the road ahead was closed. We kind of wish they turned us around or not let us in the park a lot earlier than this.

When we got back to the lodge, we were hungry. We hadn’t eaten anything all day, except for Pringles and a couple cookies on the plane. Mom brought peanut butter crackers. We took one bite and realize they were rancid. Nasty. Our lodge is owned by Ukrainians with a Ukrainian restaurant on site, and a cannibal, hot tub. We saw it on the advertisement, but never actually saw it in person. I think we’re OK with that. Even those are some interesting or unusual restaurants. On our way to the lodge, we decided to eat dinner there. I’m not positive that the food we ate was actually Ukrainian, but we took a shot and had a decent but expensive dinner. Things are more expensive here. Gas runs around $4.69. And that’s the cheap one. After filling up, we ended up bringing little mini chicken pierogies back to the room with us. Maybe breakfast for tomorrow?

Tomorrow’s plan is to head back to Mount Rainier in the morning to see Reflection Lake, and then will head to Mount Saint Helens..