Quite a few of our family members stayed at the same hotel in Seattle. The hotel has a "free" breakfast each morning that is actually very good. It is not just a Continental breakfast with Danish, toast, sweet rolls and coffee,tea and milk. It had scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausages, oatmeal, a variety of dry cereals, make-your-own waffle or pancake equipment, bagels, muffins and juices...but by Sunday most of us were rather tired of the selections and the tables only accommodated four people and there were about 26 of us. We decided to walk to a resturant a few blocks away that Pete Lowry, Paul's nephew, suggested. The weather was perfect and outdoor seating was available and could easily seat all of us together and comfortably. We sat under magnolia trees that had hanging baskets of georgeous yellow flowers hanging between each tree. There was an elaborate iron fence between us and the street. It was brunch time. The food was excellent! I had Eggs Benedict with crab meat and the others ordered various brunch offerings that looked as good as mine. A couple of the guys had Bloody Marys. The kids enjoyed it as well as the adults.We ate and then walked back to the hotel so that part of the group could check out and move on.
The rest of us, that were not planning to leave until Monday, chose to drive to Mt. Rainier National Park. There were enough of us to need two cars. Mt. Rainier is 54 miles south east of Seattle. It is visible from almost anyplace you are in Seattle, when the clouds are not hiding it. It is exciting to drive along and look up ahead to see the snowy peaks rising above the clouds sometimes, at other times the whole mountain is visible, not just the peaks.
After we left I-5 behind us and got away from the city traffic it was a very pleasant ride. Needless to say it was uphill all the way, as we got further and further up the mountain the view out any window was beautiful. The trees almost met overhead and it was like driving in a two lane tunnel. Looking out the left hand window you could see that it was a long way down! The road signs warned of the curving roads ahead. The bright yellow signs with double s's as an example of what we were facing. Rowan had fallen asleep in the back of the car and Kristin was reading books to Maureen.
after a short time Kris said reading and riding the curvy road was making her feel a little queezy so she discontinued her reading. Suddenly, Maureen started crying and as we turned to see what was was wrong, the great breakfast was making a recurrence! Kris had only a book to try to catch it. It was just at that time that a small area on the right side of the road appeared. Fortunately, Tim could pull off the road and we had a major clean-up task. There was an extra change of clothes, even another pair of shoes and sox so that worked out well. Kris and Tim did a yeoman's job of parenting. Kris took care of Maureen and Tim was the clean-up man for the car. Poor Maureen was so sick and kept saying as she cried, I don't feel well! Rowan slept through the whole ordeal. There was a news paper in the car and it became the cleaning tool, when we got back on the road the whole mess was cleaned up. Whew!
By the time we caught up with Scott,Kathy, Paul and the kids it was too late to take a short hike on one of the trails so we just got out and enjoyed the scenery and took some pictures. With binoculars we could see climbers up on the mountain, they looked like little ants crawling along. We saw a deer run across the road and off into the wooded area. We started our trip back down the road. After traveling for a few miles traffic suddenly stopped moving. We could see emergency vehicles ahead and could actually see someone lying on the road. One of the medics ran over to the ambulance and came back with the defibrilator which indicated to me that it was not good. Finally we saw them doing chest compressions. We could hear sirens of more emergency units coming and the people in authority started to let us move on. We were third in line back from the accident on the right lane the action was in the left lane. We were the last to be let pass. As we passed by the scene we could see one motorcycle off on the side of our lane. We headed back to Seattle to meet with Carrie and Gabe so we could go to dinner. It was getting late and we needed to be up at 3:30 AM to get to the airport for our flight home Monday morning. As it was, we had a minor problem finding a resturant that could seat 13 of us but we finally made it. We arrived back at the hotel about 10 PM and had to pack and be ready to go before going to bed. We had to sleep fast! 3:30 AM rolled around very quickly. When Kristen awakened Rowan to get him dressed and ready for the trip home he was quite snarky! She said, "Rowan, don't you want to go home?", he said,"Not now!" He would have preferred to get a little more sleep before going.
Karen checked the internet to see if there was a report on the incident on the Mt. Rainier road and found the account of the accident. Two women were on their motorcycles going up the mountain road and a deer ran out in front of one of them, she swerved to avoid the deer and hit the other motorcycle. The biker died of the impact and the swerver was injured and taken to the hospital. The internet article said that after letting three or four cars get through the rest of the traffic was stopped for three hours before being allowed to go. We were obviously the last car to make it through.
How tragic, instant death on a blacktop mountain road. It can happen so fast! May she rest in peace.
We headed out the next morning and had a smooth trip home. Karen and Paul arrived home on Tuesday evening, Carrie and Gabe are in Hawaii and we will always remember their wedding week!!! Ciao
No comments:
Post a Comment