Guest post by Em!

I hate to use the most overused word of the last few years, but the situation calls for it. Mt. Rainier is AMAZING. Fisher, our resident outdoorsman, and I went to go scout it out on Sunday. What we found was something we had never seen before. While Mt. Rainier is covered in glaciers, the base of the mountain is covered in green, green, green, and flowers, flowers, flowers. It was so perfect I felt like I was walking through a manicured garden: little rolling green hills and valleys, small pines, perfectly placed rocks, colorful flowers, and even a trickling creek. Here and there, were patches of snow, and in the near distance loomed the glacier covered Rainier. With the binocs that Fisher brought, you could even see the blueness in the crags. And up on top we could see a bunch of ice climbers.

On the way to Paradise trail head, we passed two awesome waterfalls. The first was Christine’s falls, and the second Narada falls. And along our hike of Deadhorse Creek Trail, we was two fat marmots, and a deer. We then took Glacier Vista and it started raining. We reached as far a little snow field, took the obligatory photos, and then turned around on Skyline trail. On the way back home, just outside the park, I bought a piece of homemade blackberry pie, which I shared with Jeanne at home. It wasn’t awesome, but hey, it had the novelty of being bought from a mom ‘n’ pop restaurant/souvenier store at Mt. Rainier, and probably better than a T-shirt with a bear on it that says “Mt. Rainier.”

Anyway if you’re ever in the area, you’ve GOT to make a point to hike the Mt. And the hike is really tame, so it’s good for young and old. In the future, we plan to check out Olympic national park, which is known for being super lush and green, and today in clinic I was told twice by patients that Mt. St. Helen is a must see. Stay tuned…

Let me preface this by saying that I know the post is sort of ugly. I’m re-learning html and I hate it. This is as good as it’s going to get tonight.

No, not Fremont, CA. I’m talking about the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.

I slept in today, and it was glorious. I woke up a few times but was able to roll over and snuggle into my pillows for a few more hours. I finally got up at eleven.

Today, Em, Campbell, and I went to visit the other Fremont. Mabel, Campbell’s girlfriend, used to live there, so he was the de facto tour guide today

We started off our tour with a visit to Lenin’s statue. I’m not sure why he’s there but he’s huge.

I didn’t get up close to the rocket but snapped a few shots as we wandered through the neighborhood.

This is the signpost at the center of the universe…or so they say.

I saw a bakery sign and took off up the block to visit it. As soon as I stepped in I knew it was a mistake. They are a vegan bakery that uses alternative sweeteners. I…couldn’t do it. Not even for the sake of experimentation. Luckily across the street there was another bakery, Simply Desserts.

I bought a chocolate chip cookie, a chocolate swirl brownie (really just a chocolate chip cookie bar), and a slice of chocolate caramel cake. The cookies were really good and I haven’t tried the cake yet. I think the cookies are better than mine. Flat, nice chocolate to cookie ratio, and buttery, chewy texture. Of course, I’d have to try them again to make sure. =)

The Fremont Troll lives under the Aurora Bridge. He’s a lot bigger than I expected! There were people climbing all over him. I think I thought it would be one of those weird plastic trolls that were popular in the 90’s.

This is a piece of public art near the Fremont Bridge. Apparently people dress the statues. We didn’t bring any clothes but maybe once I weed out my closet…

The bridge has a small neon light fixture of Rapunzel. There was no explanation board there so I have to conclude that someone really likes fairy tales there.

We had dinner at a kaiten sushi place (conveyor belt) in Fremont, Blue C Sushi. I’ve never actually eaten off a conveyor belt before, and I thought this was pretty good. It probably helped that we were there during the dinner rush so they were bringing out fresh items pretty often. When we walked outside, I saw my new mantra on a sign: Skip Work, Eat Sushi. MMM!

We tried to find a good vantage point for a view of the sunset, but we were about 90 minutes early so we ended up in Wallingford for some dessert. We went to Maggie Moon’s for ice cream. This place is almost identical to Bi-rite in terms of appearance. The menu is less innovative and they have fewer sundaes than Bi-rite. Having tried the salted caramel at both, Bi-rite’s ice cream is much better. Campbell said his maple walnut had ice crystals in it too. Tsk tsk. I didn’t like my cherry chunk much either, and didn’t finish. (I KNOW I ALWAYS FINISH SWEETS.) There wasn’t enough cherry flavor and wayyyy too many little grainy bits of chocolate to chew.

All in all, it was a fun afternoon.