Beautiful Seattle

I fluked visiting Eric & Nicole on the Memorial Day weekend, which is the equivalent of Anzac Day, so they both had Monday off to spend together. We went to one of northwest Washington's natural landmarks, Mt Rainier, one of the highest & most prominent mountains in the US. It's still a potentially active volcano, near enough to Mt St Helens that schools have evacuation drills for what to do in an eruption. We drove up, with the mountain looming ever larger at each at each turn in the road. It's a serious challenge to climb, but we contented ourselves with one of the midway points as a lunch stop, and a walk through magnificent pine trees on the way home.

On Tuesday Eric had appointments at church, and being the one day the girls are both in pre-school Nicole and I took a walk up a closer mountain, Rattlesnake Ridge with a spectacular lookout over a turquoise lake. On the way back we visited Snoqualmie Falls and the hydro-electric plant.

As I write this afternoon we've played catch with the girls in the backyard and Eric is now cooking dinner while the girls watch Dora during their tightly controlled one hour of TV allowed each day.

Tomorrow I'll be off to Omaha which is why I've come to the US, but time with Eric and Nicole has been a delightful start to my time here.


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