Let's remind Sarah why she wants to live here

Where else do you get views like this virtualy in your backyard? I'm a little tardy on updating but we had a nice camping trip over the weekend. Five of us total (Brian and Melissa, and Alex, all fromMS) ventured out on Saturday afternoon to N Cascades National Park. It wasn't bad, about 2.5 hours away. We didn't have a camp site and I was certain we'd be back in Seattle before sun down but I was so totaly wrong and thankfully so! We found a great campsite and actualy had one of the top spots at the campground. I cannot express how fablous it was to have absolutely no plans, no schedules, nothing to tie us to anything. Neither one of us thought about work, or worried about any of the things that we've been worrying about for months the entire weekend. It was just us and our thoughts. Surprising we also didn't feel too cramped by the others. With so much room to roam, we could do what ever we wanted! Saturday we got camp set up and all situated just in time for a quick walk around the park to check things out. We made dinner (walking tacos which Evan admitted turned out much better than he imagined they would) and hung around the fire until it was too late to keep our eyes open anymore. It gets dark so late here after about 2 hours of camp fire I was ready to pass out. Saturday we woke up to a busy day of.....doing nothing. No plans, no schedule. We did wake up to rain but no worries because we had rain gear. We had breakfast and read a bit, chatted a bit, and cleaned up the dishes. The plan was a hike "sometime" and dinner "Sometime". We just hung out till about lunch time, and then ventured off on a hike "until we felt like coming back". It was actualy a great hike, Thunder Creek, but we didn't get as far as i woudl have liked, about 4 miles round trip, but I wanted to make it to the peak. Dinner was great again, chicken and veggies and pasta, and we had a great time gathering fire wood when we returned from our hike. Much to my surprise over half the campground had cleared out by the time we got back from our hike. It only rained half the day! So we scavaged for wood from others and then chopped what else we couldn't find. The forrest was still pretty destroyed from flooding and from the windstorms last fall so there were plenty of fallen trees but our saw and hatchet were sub-par so it took longer than intended to chop all of the wood, but fun! We played games and cards all night on Sunday. Monday we woke up to beautiful weather. After breakfast we broke camp and headed off again to hike the other side of the mountain. I liked this side much more. We actualy got hot this time, with the sun out and on the south facing side of the mountian, there wasn't as much shade. To see all of the vegitation out here still blows my mind. We don't get things like this in the mid west and it's right here! Even the drive home on Monday was amazing on the winding road through the mountian towns, that follow the river. I did not want to come home on Monday night. So here are the pictures. For future reference, when I say "Evan do you think 2 bars of battery will be enough for the whole weekend" the answer should be no because I ran out of batter before we got to the peak on the 2nd day which is such a shame. It was so beautiful up there, I wish I could have captured some of the beauty. http://picasaweb.google.com/slkeebs/ColonialCreek I love short weeks but this week has already been crazy, working late last night, in by 6:30 am today, and more meetings tomorrow means that I only have 1 full day to get all caught up before I'm out again in a week! Happy memorial day (belated) and happy summer!