Rainier day.

Mom leaves us tomorrow.

Booo.

Can I get everyone out there to say, "Move up here with us mom!"?

Not today anyway. 

We have subjected her to enough construction and destruction. It was high time for a little pretty.  We woke up early, for us, and set our sights on Mt. Rainier. 

It started off as a beautiful day.

Kautz Creek viewpoint.

The mountain was out and everybody was happy.

The boys got to romp around on some rocks and we all enjoyed the pretty views.  It was a little crowded and one young-ish guy was throwing rocks down into the creek a little closer than I would have liked, but it was okay.

Yes, there were mushrooms.

Ah, zoom lens, I've missed you.

Then we drove on hoping to reach Paradise.

And we did.  Eventually.

First, traffic.

Lots of traffic.

They were working on the road and guiding groups of cars through with a pilot car. We sat for a little over half an hour.  But, hey... Rainier is snowed in during the winter. They have to work on the road sometime.  We finished the drive up to Paradise.  The first parking lot was full, so we drove on to the short term parking lot and it was full, so we drove past that and tried to find a spot alongside the road, but there weren't any for the first half mile or so.  But, we passed this pretty little waterfall, so we got out and took pictures.

Cute little road-side waterfall.

Yeah, this is happening.  BAM.  Long exposure.

Michael and Max found a snow field for some mid July play in the snow.

Then we rotated through the loop and tried again to find a parking spot within the same area code as the visitor's center.

Nope.

After a full circle, we ended up two car-lengths farther away. I dropped everyone else off at the visitor's center and started the hike back up.

Cars

More cars and people who sometimes slow down passing pedestrians

Rainier was going into hiding

And there were more cars. 

I rejoined the family for a meal of low quality, high priced food and then shouldered our way past everyone else in the Pacific Northwest. This is Thursday. Yeah, it wasn't what I was hoping for.

Humanity was all over the place.

People and cars and... this isn't what I want when I go to the mountains.

Screw traffic, I want to go backpacking again.

If you look close, you can see the line of cars along the road.

If this had been my primary experience in mountain environments, I wouldn't want to go back. By the time we left Paradise, I was done. Just done. 

Sarah decided to drive.  She provided one more stop at Narada Falls because, waterfalls.

It was worth the trip.

Hey, wait! Is that water falling over a precipice? I love that!

Nana and the boys all smiles.

Oh yeah, you can feel it can't you?

Long exposure. Stone bridge, waterfall, rainbow.  I'm killing it over here!

It's amazing the difference a beautiful waterfall makes.  The sound alone will change my whole mood.

Happier, we made our way back to the car. The boys needed some hijinks to finish it off. 

Maxie hobbit.

Found some cauliflower fungus.

It was a great day. Tomorrow, we let mom escape home. We miss her already.

Hurry back mom, we'll have your house ready soon.