Saturday morning we loaded up and headed to the Tacoma Farmer’s Market, about 30 minutes away. Sadly, it was a disappointment! The town was cute – very preppy with manicured houses and little cottages (that probably cost a half a million dollars). But the Farmer’s Market required masks (including for ALL of the kids!), limited the number of people, and then only sold a small assortment of VERY highly priced goods. And, you weren’t allowed to sample or eat anything in the market! Hardly the typical Farmer’s market experience! We needed to find a bathroom, so we ducked into Top Pot Hand-Forged Donuts and bought two apple fritters. They were delicious! As good as the apple fritters on the East Coast, and something we never find in Denver!
Since we weren’t taking to Tacoma, we headed out to Mt Rainier instead. (It was an overcast day and the actual volcano was shrouded in a cloud. Today was not our day!) But we enjoyed a really nice drive, even though we ended up at the wrong spot to enter Mt Rainier National Park. My brother called while we drove, and reception was spotty, so we stopped in a little town to buy some cherries, chat with him and explore a little historic church. Sadly, we’re not going to get to see Dan next week. Boo! Then we drove some MORE, and finally found the park. We drove through the forest, and then stopped for a while to play in the snow and water at the end of the road.
It was very pretty (and chilly!) at the top of the park, but there were some great views. We saw another black bear, this one seemed very young. On our way back to Seattle, we were treated to a very PNW panorama of the skyline with some gray skies above. Very moody!
We took the kids to the neighborhood park once we got back, because they are bottomless pits of energy these days. And after spending all day in the car, they had plenty left over to burn! We learned how to make mac n cheese in the microwave, and ate it at the park in between running around like crazy people (them not us). 🙂