Chapter 8: Let Me Explain. No, There Is Too Much. Let Me Sum Up.
When we are leaving Disney Parks, we often suffer from
DDP, or Disney Departure Procrastination. Here, we suffered a similar condition, known as GDP.
No, not Gross Domestic Product, wiseguy. Glacier Departure Procrastination. We knew it was coming. Part of the reason was that we could wake up early, sip our coffee in our cabin, and wander the lakeside in the cool morning, skipping stones again on the glassy surface of the lake.
And part of the reason was that I knew I’d be on the road for at least 10 hours, and wasn’t looking forward to that drive.
Let’s go back to the wandering and skipping stones, because that sounds better.
We lingered as long as we could, but with a 10-hour drive coming, we had to hit the road early. We did successfully postpone our departure by stopping at the hotel gift shop for souvenirs/Christmas gifts, but eventually we left the park behind.
I have nothing much to report for most of the day. We drove. We re-traced our steps from 2 days prior all the way back to Spokane, Washington. We stopped at an Arby’s for lunch there as a special treat and a break from PB&J.
You know the PB&J is getting old when Arby’s counts as a special treat. But they do have a decent chicken, bacon & Swiss sandwich. I voted for stopping at Frank's Diner again to have peach cobbler for lunch, but I was told that this was "unhealthy" and "gluttonous" and, worst of all, "You have to share". So that was sadly ruled out.
We also stopped in a Duluth Trading Company store, mostly because they have funny commercials and we’d never been inside one before. Also, it turns out we’ll do most anything to put off long drives. Anyway, it looked like they have nice stuff but it’s really overpriced from what I can tell.
The afternoon portion of the drive was worse, because it was through the plains of eastern Washington. On the plus side, we were on the interstate, so we could at least blast through it as fast as possible.
We each have our own ways of dealing with the long drives on these trips. Most of the kids are content to get sucked into their portable electronics for hours on end. Drew will ask for the iPad, and we try and download a few episodes of his favorite cartoons so he can watch them. He’s content to sit and stare at the screen for hours on end, and we solidify our standing for Parents of the Year by doing nothing to discourage that whatsoever. The older kids will play games, watch shows they’ve downloaded, or listen to music.
Julie likes to bring along a thick paperback book and start a new story on day 1 of the trip. That will usually keep her occupied when she’s not sleeping in the van. I am thoroughly jealous of her ability to sleep in any position at any time of day. She has the ability to fall asleep almost instantaneously, where I usually need to be lying down in total darkness and total silence and it still takes at least 20 minutes for me to fall asleep and if my feet are cold then I’m not going to even get 5 minutes’ worth.
On the other hand, sometimes her sleeping superpower is a liability. She has not seen the end of any movie we’ve rented since 2004.
Anyway, she spends the drive reading and sleeping and plugging various devices into the various charging cords based on requests from the back seat. That leaves me to do the driving and somehow keep my mind occupied the whole time. This usually involves calling our unusual sights, such as wildlife or goofy road signs, and making dad jokes about the various destinations we pass. This is why all of the kids wear earbuds.
Over the course of the afternoon, we took I-90 west to I-82 South and then got on US Rt. 12 West in the city of Yakima. Rt. 12 was a nice drive through a mountain pass that eventually took us down towards a valley were we could get our first view of Mount Rainier.
In my opinion, Mount Rainier has one of the most impressive profiles of any mountain in the world. I think this is helped by the fact that it’s basically alone, with no other mountains relatively close by to clutter the view. That also makes it more accessible than most 14,000-ft. mountains, since the roads in the area can encroach on the slopes. The isolation and the close-up look make the mountain dominate the skyline.
We were planning on spending most of the following day at
Mount Rainier National Park, but we’d been driving for a long time and needed to stretch our legs, so we entered the park at the Stevens Canyon entrance near the southeast corner of the park and pulled into the parking lot for the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail.
This is a very easy, 1.5-mile round trip hike through an old-growth forest that you might think resembles a place from the Lord of the Rings movies. Or, if you’re more of a Star Wars fan like me, you might think of the Forest Moon of Endor.
Thankfully we had our own little adventure guide with us to handle any obstacles in our path.
The grove in question is a cluster of giant red cedar trees, several of which are over 1,000 years old. But if you asked my family, the best part of the hike is the swinging suspension bridge over the Ohanapecosh River. The sign posted said people should cross the bridge one at a time. But it’s perfectly safe, trust us!
Continued Next Post