{"id":899,"date":"2016-06-30T10:49:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T14:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/?p=899"},"modified":"2017-04-19T13:21:43","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T17:21:43","slug":"june-2016-family-time-and-mt-rainier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skiprd.com\/?p=899","title":{"rendered":"June 2016: Family Time and Mt. Rainier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having successfully done our part to assure the successful incorporation\u00a0of Baby Michael<\/a> into the household (which is to say, having done nothing but hang around for a few weeks), we had a chance to take a day for a visit\u00a0to Mt. Rainier.<\/p>\n

\"20160626<\/a>
June 26: A perfectly crystal clear and warm day, great for seeing Mt. Ranier, which probably explains why the visitor center had approximately 36,000 people present. Still, the day could not have been better.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most people probably know this, but Mt. Rainier is a “dormant,” not “extinct,” volcano. Which means that, at any moment, it could erupt, unleashing “pyroclastic flows” consisting of\u00a0volcanic ash, lava, hot rock, and volcanic gases. All of that would be accompanied by mud flows, hundreds of feet high, traveling at 50 miles per hour, that would travel outward for dozens of miles. Most of the Seattle environs, all heavily populated, would be asphyxiated or buried in volcanic mud (take your pick). USGS says that Mt. Rainier is one of the most dangerous volcanoes<\/a> in the entire world. Not to worry, though. Seattle and the surrounding area will probably\u00a0be destroyed\u00a0by a slip in the Cascadia Fault, causing earthquakes and huge tsunamis, long before it’s buried in mud from Mt. Rainier. I think I’m taking this place off my “lets go live there and see what happens” list.<\/p>\n

It’s probably just as well, though. When we lived in Portland, the standard joke was that the Northwest has two seasons: winter and the Fourth of July. It’s a bit of an overstatement, but not much. The weather\u00a0here has been mostly cold, wet, windy, and generally unpleasant. Plus, annual surveys always list the Seattle-Tacoma area as among the worst three traffic cities in the U.S., and that is not<\/span> an overstatement. I hate to sound like Yogi Berra, but this can’t be a very popular place, mostly because of all of the people here. And, on top of all of that, the politics here, well, do not comport very well with our values. The whole place seems to have a degree of leftist lunacy\u00a0and oppressive government intrusion that would give California a run for its money. Georgia looks pretty good right now.<\/p>\n

\"20160626<\/a>
Yes, most of the pathways are still covered in snow, which meant that walking around in tennies was an adventure in slip, slidin’ away. Not a problem, though, for children properly attired as Junior Rangers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"20160626<\/a>
Warm enough to run just down the hill from the Paradise Visitor Center for a picnic lunch. As is so often true, this area, only slightly removed from the main thoroughfare, was largely empty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of our time in the Dupont area, though, was spent just hanging around family, taking the boys off of Laura’s hands so she could try (not always with great success) to get at least a little sleep and tend to the household. Hopefully it was helpful to her, and it certainly was wonderful for us. Boys in the 5- and 3-year-old categories present a challenging combination of energy, determination, charm, and spontaneous combustion\u00a0that\u00a0defies description. One might rightly wonder whether old geezers like us could withstand several weeks of engagement with preschool boys, but my completely impartial, unbiased, and verifiable opinion is that we did a pretty good job.<\/p>\n

So, we had time to see the local sights, play at the post playgrounds, go to the Children’s Hands-On Museum in Olympia, and just generally goof off, including a stop to\u00a0see Dad’s office…<\/p>\n

\"20160612<\/a><\/p>\n

Some pictures from our three-week stay can be found here: Dupont Album.<\/p>\n

These past few weeks\u00a0also gave us time to reflect on lessons learned during the trip so far.<\/p>\n