Hop in the car with us and check out Rimrock Lake as we drive by, listening to mele from home.

It was a beautiful day even though it was pretty warm outside. But it felt good to be outside and to stretch.

I wish I knew what kind of flowers these are. I should’ve asked Google Lens. Sheesh. I bet I could still do it.

Rimrock Lake must’ve been pretty low, because that’s grass sticking up out of the water.

And here we are at White Pass!

The views here were beautiful; definitely worth a stop.

We got back on the road again and were really enjoying this part of the drive in the forest.

I saw a sign for a viewpoint ahead, so naturally I wanted to stop. But we had absolutely no idea what we’d be seeing. And oh my gosh, look what we saw!! It took our breaths away.

I had no idea that we’d be able to see it from the highway, didn’t even know we’d see it at all. It was a complete surprise!!

For instance, I learned that falling snow has created glaciers that feed five major rivers. And that Tahoma rises nearly three miles into the atmosphere. I love learning stuff like this!

There were a few other people there, marveling at the view. I asked a really nice man if he’d be willing to take a photo of Nolemana and me, and told him that I’d be happy to take his camera and take a photo of him and his daughter, to which he readily agreed. Now, ordinarily, I don’t like posting photos of myself, but I made an exception for this occasion because… well, because I thought the photo turned out pretty well.

You know, there’s an awful lot of anger and rage going on in our world right now. There are terrible things happening everywhere. And I guess I also wanted to post this photo because nowhere in our trip did we see any of that. People everywhere were friendly and helpful, and this man and his daughter, who were from Toronto, I think, were no exception. There we were, all four of us marveling in that amazing view on a beautiful day, helping each other to save memories. I don’t know their names, and know I’ll probably never see them again…yet in those few minutes, we were friends. This stop was one of the best on our whole trip.

Another thing I’d like to add here: my beloved friend, Carol, loved Tahoma. Every year, she and her husband would drive up this way in the Fall to see all the lovely colors. And there’s a story about that, too:

I bought a Mt. Rainier knitted hat kit for her from Nancy Bates, who designs hats depicting all the national parks. Carol was so excited to knit the hat, and she asked me to start it for her because she was having chemo and was having trouble with getting the hat started. I finished the ribbing for her, but by that time, just a month or so later, she was in hospice care and didn’t live long enough to finish or even wear the hat.  So I finished it and will wear it in memory of my beloved friend.

The downgrade was pretty steep, and pretty soon we saw this up ahead:

So, lest this post runaway with me, I’ll quit here for now. We get to Packwood in the next chapter. And food!