decidedlyodd

On Friday night, I went to party at some guys’ place that Larry knew. It was a fun party where I tried a tasty drink I’d never had before (pomegranite juice + vodka + soda water). I left fairly early since I had to get up at 5:30am the next day to prepare for my camping trip to Mt. Rainier National Park. Fortunately, I got up at the scheduled time and got picked up by Robert just before 6:30. After several stops to pick up other passengers, get coffee, get an air matress, get groceries, etc. we arrived at the campground to meet up with Don, John and some others who had spent Friday night there.

We ended up taking the free shuttle up to Paradise where the trailhead for the Skyline Loop trail started. It was a decent hike with some elevation gain, distance and great views of the mountain.

After the hike, we returned to the campground to set up camp and start dinner. We a great potluck dinner with way too much food, which soon stretched into an evening of drinking beer around the campfire. This morning, I got up a bit later than the rest of the gang but still joined in on the breakfast. Some people went to hike Pinnacle Peak, but a few of us stayed at the campground just kicking back for a while. Eventually, we drove up past Paradise to see the “Grove of the Patriarchs”, which is a section of the park with some large, old trees. It was an easy walk around and was a nice ending to a busy weekend.

From there, all of us headed our separate ways back to Seattle. All in all, a nice little weekend camping trip.

More pictures here.