NW Trip '12 - Day 9

6/10/12 - Day 9: Jon and Megan got up and left early today (4:30 a.m...yuck), and since Mt. Rainier National Park (our next destination) was only a couple hours away, we decided to sleep in a little. I still woke up a little earlier than Cari to try and do a little laundry, but had a couple unsuccessful attempts (either all the machines were taken or broken). So, with dirty clothes bag still in hand, we left the hotel by about noon and ate brunch (yes, brunch. I know I said noon. Hush.) at IHOP and hit the road. 

We made it Mt. Rainier National Park around 3 and drove through the park and up the mountain to the visitor center (right at the base of the mountain itself). The park was beautiful and fascinatingly underdeveloped, which made it feel much more like I would expect a national park to feel. There were trees everywhere, waterfalls, and mountain vista views on the drive up. Once we arrived, we bundled up (40 degrees out) and took a few pictures outside before watching a video in and walking around the visitor center. We decided to try and hike one of the nearby trail (the "Skyline Trail") but we didn't have our snow boots and crampons and couldn't make it through the feet of snow that was still on the ground (yes, multiple feet). So, instead of hiking, we drove back down the mountain a little ways and slowly made our way back up, stopping at some of the main sights. 

We stopped and took pictures at Christine Falls, a random bridge and viewpoint, and Narada Falls. The latter was an adventure, since there was still a foot of snow on the hiking trail to get to the falls viewpoint. I went it alone because Cari wasn't feeling well, but it was our first larger waterfall of the trip and well worth the treacherous hike. Back to parking lot safely, we continued the drive back up the mountain to our hotel, the Paradise Inn, and checked in/unloaded. The Inn was very old and rustic, but still classy... but old. And rustic. Given the lack of food options, we defaulted to the restaurant at the Inn -- I had chicken parmesan and Cari had a venison shepherd's pie. We finished up dinner, took a few sunset pictures of the mountain peak, and turned in EARLY (9:15!).