Snoqualmie Falls
Woke up this morning with a cold, for sure. I always seem to catch one when I’m traveling, though I’ve always blamed it on planes before. Oh well! Acquired some cold medicine this evening and I’m sure everything will be fine.
We spent most of the day hanging around the Snoqualmie Falls, which I haven’t been to in ages. It’s even better than I remembered! We got there fairly early, so it wasn’t as crowded as I was worried it would be for a gloriously sunny Sunday. We went and saw the falls from the observation deck, and had a very nice snuggle looking at the beautiful water and thinking about how this was my choice of location for a Seattle-area wedding. From the deck you could also see some folks down on the river bed, so we decided to grab lunch and then head down the path to the lower viewing deck and river walk.
Lunch was outstanding. We splurged and ate at the falls-adjacent Salish Lodge where we got a window seat at their bistro. I had salmon chowder, and Lewis had a mighty feast of local fruits, cheese, honey, berries, and nuts. I took a few pictures of that gourmet plate which I hopefully can put up later. Feeling full of nutritious goodies, we took the all-downhill trail to the riverbed and admired all the lovely forest plants and smells and sounds along the way. At the bottom there was a very silly crowd of college kids getting into two very unseaworthy-looking flotation devices which everyone sort of stared at for a bit. We did go down to the other observation deck, but it was a bit silly since it was so crowded and mostly people were just jumping the railing and heading out to the rocks we could see from above.
I wasn’t much feeling like clandestine rock jumping, so we headed back to the first beach spot and stuck our toes in the water for a bit. My goodness those mountain rivers are cold! After that was the all-up-hill climb back up, but it certainly seemed shorter than the other direction. Got to see lots more nice plants and forest things, and get ourselves the requisite silly magnet souvenirs at the gift shop before heading home via Snoqualmie proper and North Bend. Our route took us past a really gorgeous view of Mt. Si (I think) which I now have the itch to go visit again. I recall climbing up part of that mountain as a kid to visit a lookout deck (actually a fire tower) the forest service lets you climb up on. Maybe next trip. There’s also a great looking diner in North Bend we should hit up.
Came back to Lisa’s just in time for some delicious navy bean soup and salad and a really tasty home made carrot cake. My sister is an excellent cook, and all that smooth creaminess is just what my sore nose and throat wanted at the end of the day. As if that weren’t enough, Zen gave me a shoulder massage as part of his massage school practice hours and loosened up some of the massive knots I’ve been unable to get rid of since working at Ask. Feeling much better, and much relaxed after that!
Tomorrow, health depending, I’m headed down to Orting with Cerise to visit an old teacher of ours, and then we’re having dinner with Steeny. Should be another wonderful day! I’ve never had a Seattle trip so successful as this one. Yay!