Day 7 - out of the city and into the national park

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Up early this morning as we wanted to visit Mt Rainier National Park.

It is around a 2 hour drive out of Seattle with plenty of stunning scenery along the drive. On the way we checked out crystal mountain resort. Of course no snow there at the moment but it is a picturesque drive and I imagine its is very busy during the ski season.

Stopped by at the Silver Creek Guard Station and had a chat with the park ranger. I love chatting to the rangers their lives are so interesting and very basic. I think they know the secret to a happy life - get out of the city and spend your life with nature!!

We drove along Mather memorial Parkway looking for spots to get photos of her majesty - Mt Rainier. There were numerous pull overs along the roadside and the sun was shining so we managed to get photos of the mountain peak. Wish we could have stayed longer but we needed to get back into the city to return the rental car.

Tomorrow we start the next leg of our adventure. We will be catching the Amtrak to Vancouver early in the morning and staying in Coal Harbour overnight ready to board our cruise ship on Friday morning.

We take with us fond memories of Seattle. It is a lovely city and well worth visiting.

The only aspect we find difficult to cope with is the homeless people begging in the streets and those folks with obvious mental illness wandering aimlessly around. Seattle is not on it's own in this department - the majority of the USA is like this. We are lucky in Australia that we don't have this problem to the same degree as the USA. Travel certainly opens your eyes to the world and that can only be a good thing.

Not sure how much Internet access we will have after we arrive in Vancouver but I will keep the blog going when access allows me to.

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Photos

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White river

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Ranger station

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With the rangers kittens

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Park ranger with one of her cute babies

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Geoff and Judy with Mt Rainer in the background

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Her majesty Mt Rainer

Comments

[judith chaffer]

Safe trip guys!! Alaska should blow you away!!