Day 55 - Last Leg

I've been on this last leg since Wednesday, but it feels rather at the end, now that I've reached Seattle. I have a few days here to explore the city and enjoy my friends, and then I head home again. Hmmm, 55 days, pretty crazy!

I woke up again in the heavenly place called Ohanapecosh. After a 2am walk to the bathroom in pitch black darkness (minus my small circle of light created by the flashlight), the sunlit 7am call to the morning was much more agreeable. When I walked the 20 feet to the river to be reminded of what I listened to all night long, I saw a brave soul who had worked his way down the embankment, over the logs and onto the large bolder. He was simply lounging there, as if in a hammock, enjoying the atmosphere. I was jealous! ; )

I eventually made it down there myself. I wasn't brave (or stupid) enough to climb up on the bolder. But I enjoyed it all close up and soaked in the memories for future use!

Breakfast was wonderful, egg burritos with fruit, yogurt and hot tea to cut through the damp cool morning of the Northeast. Beatrice and I found a corner by the river (of course) to spend some time in devotion and Evelyn was playing with her new friend already. Then we learned of the excitement of the previous night... Mice had gotten into the bear box of our new friends. All the food they had secured from the bears was eaten by the mice. We felt lucky that we were spared such a disaster. But, we were too quick to assume. When we started to re-arrange the car's contents, Jonathan found evidence that the mice (or a mouse) had found some treats in our van as well. Thankfully there was little damage done; a cookie, a bag of crackers, and a roll of paper towels. They tried to get at some other things, but either ran out of energy, time or patience, and left them alone.

That discovery gave us the energy to sort, clean and pack quickly and move on to the next things. The Grove of the Patriarchs. This is billed as the oldest part of the national park and has some pretty spectacular tree specimens to observe. (It also has many visitors on any given day.) The trail was crowded with tourists and travelers alike.

We met:

- a family of 6 (kids ages 9 down to 1) who hike or bike or explore on a weekly basis. They are heading to Jamaica in a few weeks and one of the things they get to do is jump off a cliff into a river. The kids seemed pretty excited about that.

- a woman from Ohio whose adult children live in New York, San Francisco and Seattle. She was simply excited about the "majestic sights" she got to see here and the "other places" she gets to experience because of it

- two men, taking a side trip from their 4 day hike along the Wonderland Trail. They planned 10 miles a day with 2 to 4 thousand foot climbs included

- some grandparents raising their 6-year-old granddaughter; they had planned this 2 week vacation and grandma broke her leg within the first few days. She worked her way through the trail on one of those scooter things where you rest your knee and push with your good foot. They enjoyed it thoroughly, though.

The ride back to Seattle was smooth and filled with good conversation. Lucky for me, Beatrice needed some laundry done before bedtime, so mine is now done, too. : ) Being back in a T-mobile territory allows me to have my phone photos ready in an instant. But for my brain power at this point in my vacation, I will wait to post them until tomorrow. Look for the spectacular views and fun experiences then.

In the meantime, it's good to feel at home again, even though I'm not home, but I will be soon, and that will be good, too. G'nite all!

#PeopleMet #wildlifenature