Traffic jam, in Paradise, and a snowball fight, to make things right!

Isn't it ironic?!

The weekend trip to Seattle for 4th of July was interesting. Flew out Friday and came back Monday and we managed to visit Mount Rainier on Saturday and Snoqualmie falls on Sunday. 

We had a single goal. Get to Paradise point and let kids play in the snow. I was also dreaming of having a hot cocoa there after some snow play after our previous experience there. 

The trip was supposed to be 3 hours but it took us an extra hour because all of Seattle citizenry decided to visit Mount Rainier on that day. There were 50 cars stuck at the entrance to the park and by the time our turn came to pay and enter, we had spent an hour at the park entrance. Once in, we made a mad dash to Paradise point. My instinct is to stop at every pretty vista point to take pictures. But given the delay, it was going to be touch and go, so we drove straight to Paradise.

That is where my inner Morisette was awakened. There was a traffic jam, in Paradise! There was no parking for a good mile. Dropped everyone outside the point and parked 1.2 miles away and hiked back. 

Then we made it to the snow and all was forgotten! 

There were smiling faces all around. Given there were 2 males and 8 females in the group, the decision making on how far we hiked at what rate was decided by the ladies. Given the tension in the vehicles prior to the hike, we were all happy to play in snow. There were points where the snow had caved in and water was flowing underneath.. fortunately we did not have any fall in's! Here is a life saving tip for my fellow travellers who are driving the vehicle. Never come between a womans bladder and the nearest restroom.  

There were a lot of pictures and picturesque scenery. We made it back out after playing in the snow with a 10 minute stop at Narada falls and drove back towards Seattle. Given the 1.2 mile hike back to the car, there was no time for anything else. We are getting used to these rush trips on Seattle visits!

Here are some pictures in HDR. 

 

You can see Jr. and her grandma on the bridge. I was already in "let's go" mode as we had to get back in time for dinner. Here is another life saving tip for male drivers.. Never come between a woman who is perceiving her children to be starving and the proposed dining location!

We did have other little things that entertained us, like this baby squirrel which seemed to be comfy around people. That was a surprise given our backyard squirrels run away!

Or me amusing the family by doing Triangle pose barefoot on the snow. I am getting better at this as time goes by. All that pulling in your inner thighs towards each other to avoid slipping, works.  

On a side note, I did get pictures from the plane on the way back from above the cloud line. The camera was right under the seat and the zoom was put to good use. 

Don't think we can ever tire of Mount Rainier or Paradise. Even if we spend a couple of hours there, we always have a great time! 

The national parks should let us buy the pass ahead of time online or with our phones and let us keep moving if we show the pass on our phone. They should seriously try to go the app way, especially on long weekends.