Yurt to Posh Mountain Escape

We enjoyed a leisurely last morning in our yurt with coffee and reading material, then began the relay of public transit connections from shuttle to water taxi to train to airport car rental place and picked out a funky little red Ford Focus. As freaked as I was to drive in Seattle traffic, I insisted that John navigate because he is the master navigator. It seemed the journey took forever as we were delayed a few times due to re-paving of double-lane highways, making them single lane, and thus, a massive pain in the ass. We just rolled with it, however, and rather then get uppity about it, we just shut off the engine and enjoyed the silence.

Fabrizio's AirBnB is a bit out in the sticks, but we finally made it only 30 minutes later than we expected. Fabrizio has several rentals on his property, one or two within his home, the one we are in that is attached to it and a separate, private apartment, and then the most charming little Hobbit Hole, that apparently he lived in for 20 years before he built the larger home. I think I had checked the Hobbit Hole for availability but it was booked, and this place is rather awesome. The Hobbit Hole, while perfect for my size, might have been a bit annoying for tall John. It's been very nice to have solid walls again, and his property is gorgeous. We picked fresh blackberries for snacks! They were amazingly sweet, I'be never had blackberries that sweet before! He's got two Siamese kitties, and a sweet pup called Amaryllis. The kitties will have nothing to do with us, snubbing us every time we try to coax them for a pet, and they are very interesting in something that seems to be living in the blackberry bush.

Fabrizio, a friendly, chatty Aussie guy, recommended we check out this place called Crystal Mountain where you can take a gondola way up to the top and view Mt. Rainier's peak from there, plus grab lunch at a restaurant up there, so we got up early and made the 2 hour drive. It was so incredible, I can't even believe it! It was so beautiful up there, and we got loads of photos. The gondola was a bit scary at first, but really only taking off and landing were the worst, and when the winds got stronger at the top YIKES. And it was freezing up there! It was in the 80s down at the base, it was probably in the 60s and with the winds felt truly icy. There was also this huge Ragnar running event going on, so we were surprised when we arrived to find thousands of sweaty runners and their tents everywhere and loads of other activities going on. We didn't see any mountain goats or any of the other reported big animals in the park (bears, elk, cougars, mule & black tail deer) but we did see a number of very friendly and FAT little chipmunks that went from lawn chair to lawn chair begging for nuts! So cute! We did have a couple of deer or elk run across the road as we left, though, but we were well away from the park and in a little town when they went racing across the highway.

I'll have John post photos now because you just have to see these photos!!!!
Love & hugs to all at home,
R&J