So we left Friday night and stayed in Yakima, what is in Yakima? Well it is the gateway to wine country...and we stayed in the Oxford Suites http://www.oxfordsuitesyakima.com/ ...very nice and affordable. And we were told to eat at Santiagos http://www.santiagos.org/ which was really REALLY good.
So, after a great night's sleep and a nice breakfast buffet (included in the price of the room) we headed to Mt Rainier National Park. We went in via the Chinook Pass and it was breathtaking! We stopped for a few pictures of the mountain and then headed to Sunrise http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/sunrise.htm
We decided to do the Mt Fremont Lookout Hike, a little more strenous but not too bad. We left with daypacks. It was a steep climb to both of our way points, but finally once we hit Frozen Lake, we kind of broke away from the other hikers and headed even further up. We had almost a 1,000 ft gain in elevation...ended up at 7,181 (or something close to it). Three months ago I could have NEVER done this hike. It reminded me of some hikes I did in Colorado in August 1998 (and I was in MUCH better shape then). The view was spectacular! You could see for miles, lots of mountains. The pictures don't do it justice. Once we got back down we had a little snack in the truckbed overlooking Mt Rainier. Then, we headed to our hotel. We stayed at Crystal Mountain, normally a ski destination http://www.crystalmtlodging-wa.com/index.htm so there was quite a deal on the stay...nearly half price or more. We stayed in one of the hotels there. It was quite pleasant...my husband's only complaint was that they had removed their hot tubs, and he said "what kind of ski resort doesn't have hot tubs?". The rest of the stay was great. We ate at Alpine Inn that evening and dinner was great. We turned in early as we had a long day ahead of us on Sunday!
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