Mountains, Beach, and Blackberry Pie

Where in the world can you go from snowy mountain peaks to a sandy beach…in the same day?

Washington State. 

My parents live in a beautiful place (at least during the summer months), and we were fortunate to get to visit them for a week in July.

The kids and I hiked near Rattlesnake lake, had a snowball fight on the slopes of Mt.Rainier near Paradise lodge, built a sand castle at Pacific Beach, all while spending time with Grandma and Poppy.

Some of my favorite moments were:

*Playing Fox Tail at Soos Creek.

*Panera Bread and a movie with my sister Jen (she was such a trooper – agreeing to see “Despicable Me 2” even though she hadn’t seen the first one.) 

*Lunch at Paradise lodge.

*The epic bowling game (grandma did not win.)
*The even more epic croquet game (grandma did not win! inconceivable!)
*Pounce (grandma won...more than once and the balance of the universe was restored.)

*Rootbeer taste-testing with Poppy:

  

There was also the incident of Madi chasing after Poppy and Grandma's car on the entrance ramp to the highway because they had forgotten to give us the car keys. We were stranded! Madi sprinted in her flipflops, the strings of her monkey hat trailing behind her.

And then there was Sand Soaking. 

The beaches in the Pacific North-West are not known for warmth. (Remember the scenes in "Twilight" of Bella shivering on the beach?) The beach at Pacific Beach was no different. We wore multiple layers, and our fingers grew numb from digging in the chilly, wet sand. After Poppy and Elise searched for sand dollars and Grandma helped collect shells and sticks to decorate our sand castle, they returned to the rental house because it was super cold. The kids and I lingered…CJ wanted to finish her sand castle and Amelia was wet to her knees from a rogue wave.

We sought shelter from the wind near the grassy dunes. Here, the sand rose and fell in little rippled hills. They almost looked like ocean waves. Amelia, who was barefoot (her shoes were soaked), stepped near the edge of one of these small sand hills and stopped. “Mom, it’s soooo warm!” she announced.

I put my hand on the sand. It was indeed warm. Deliciously warm.

We took our shoes off and let our feet sink into the warm sand. As soon as the warmth dissipated, we moved on to the next spot.

I’m not sure who thought of it first, but soon we moved from sand soaking our feet to sitting on the warm hills. Soakin' our bums. The heat from the sand was like sitting on a heated car seat. Soon we lay down in the warm sand, letting the heat warm our arms, back, neck. A natural heat massage.

We didn’t want to leave.

Here's the only picture we have of the beach: Truman must have been doing more than sand-soaking; this was sand-immersion!

On our last morning, we awoke to the smell of blackberry pie. This was the second pie in a week! It was Grandma's sendoff gift of love in the form flaky crust and sweet-sour blackberries.

  

As I was growing up, my parents taught me to enjoy adventures. So it was true to the legacy that Grandma and Grandpa packed our week full of grand adventures.