Happy Fathers Day...to Me!

Dwayne and I like to celebrate with  adventures—and with all the Hallmark holidays out there, we have lots of opportunities to play.  For Mother’s Day, I had a pedi & gossip with a girlfriend and later a family dinner, so I put myself in charge of Father’s Day to do something a little wilder.

I had originally looked at going to Paradise Inn on Mount Rainier, not terribly far from the lot my grandparents had in our childhood.  But when I googled, Alta Vista Crystal Resort came up first and distracted me.  (Squirrel!)

It was a minimum two-nighter, which meant we had to figure out how to leave after the craziest day in the work week for both  Dwayne and I, but it was nice to be forced to leave Friday evening.  With the late sunset, we had a beautiful drive out of Eatonville and still arrived with enough time to jump into the saline pool and hot tub before a late night movie and bedtime.

So worth waking up where you want to be on a Saturday morning!  This is a resort under new management working it’s Sasquatch off to appeal.  It’s certainly in the mountains, just a 15 minute drive to Chrystal Mountain base.   

To begin, they have a scavenger hunt, which guides through all sorts of trails I wouldn’t have noticed on my own.  And since we were “looking for clues” and not “hiking” it was totally fun for the kids.  

We loved the spring-fed, slightly above freezing creek through the area.  It was exactly the sort of scenery that comes to mind when I think “Washington Beautiful.”

Don't fall, Babe!! (He didn't.)

I had planned our trip up Chrystal’s gondola to give us plenty of time to get on the wait list for the restaurant with the “Best View of Mount Rainier”.  Unfortunately, arriving 90 minutes before the last seating doesn’t work when there is already a 2 hour wait list.  Well, it was a day with perfect summer weather, and we were not the only ones on the mountain.  It was actually a little bit like the Grand Canyon—English was a first language for only about half of us mountain gawkers. 

Going up...

...and up...

...and finally, we near the top....

 

Ta-da!

 

Mt. St. Helens adds to the perfect panorama.

Part of adventuring is being adaptable.  Well, to be honest, the result of not planning is needing to be flexible.  I could have brought groceries to make dinner—we had a tiny kitchen in our suite, but the nearest grocery store was about the same distance as the nearest tavern, so outdoor seating and outside BBQ for us. 

And we were back in time for smores and yard games back a the resort. 

We won Father's Day!