4th of july and mount rainier camping trip

i mentioned in my last post that we didn't have any plans for the 4th. we hung out at home all day, made pizza for dinner, and prepped for our camping trip. the kids begged us all day to let them stay up for fireworks. of course the official city ones were cancelled, but we've been in seattle for the 4th a couple times since moving here and i remembered that people shoot off some pretty legit ones at the community center field. so we let them stay up and we walked 1/2 block at 9:45 to see if anything was happening. sure enough there were people putting on a show in the parking lot. we watched with some neighbors for about 30 minutes, then it was off to bed. :) 

on sunday we hit the road for mount rainier. it was a 2.5 hours drive to our first hike of the trip. we hiked the glacier basin trail. 3 miles round trip. it was spectacular. the lake was the most amazing blue color. 

the we drove to our campground, la wis wis. it was so beautiful. it had the tallest, most majestic pine trees everywhere, and was right next to a river.  the only "facilities" were outhouses (they are moving over to all vault toilets), but everyone survived :) the first night we cooked chicken, salmon, and potatoes over the campfire. and smores of course! we also hung out by the river. sleeping on the ground is pretty terrible, but i love everything else about camping. 

monday morning we cooked pancakes and bacon on the camping stove. the mornings were chilly, below 50 degrees! 

 

then we set out for a hike about 30 minutes away. the trail was to sheep lake. it was at 5,000 ft elevation and there was some snow to cross. we did about 3 miles round trip again. there was a fair amount of whining, but we enjoyed ourselves for the most part. ;) the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful once again. 

 

 

after our hike, we drove up another 1,000 ft to the sunrise lookout.  

we spent the rest of the day at the campsite, playing by the river and relaxing. we made hotdogs and corn on the cob over the campfire and more smores. the next morning we made egg and toast on the camping stove and hung out there before leaving for home. it was such a great trip and i can't wait to go camping again. i'm not even sure who i am, because it's typically not my favorite thing in the world, but covid has changed that :)