Real hiking! On Saturday, "the interns" had an outing to the beautiful Mount Rainier! After extensive research (read: 20 minutes of intense google searching), we made our way to the mountain. We went all the way to the top, only to find the most recommended trail was covered in snow. Even in our limited gear of tennis shoes, shorts, and 5 pb&j sandwiches between the three of us, we held our egos high and started the climb. After a grueling 8 minutes of vertical climbing on the crisp white snow, my badass roommate and I both threw a bit of a tantrum and threatened to march back down to the bottom. Intern #3 continued the hike to the top solo. 

After 5 minutes of talking about how much the snow sucked and this was a bad idea, my badass roommate and I tried to climb once more, making it to the top where Intern #3 was enjoying the view. Truly, it was beautiful up there. However, I wouldn't say it was worth the wet shoes. After snapping a few pictures, we started back down the hill. It should be stated: I was the only one that didn't fall. Intern #3 would say he fell on purpose, but that's a lie. Don't believe a word he says.

After purchasing a fresh pair of socks, we made our way down the mountain to a less snowy location. We asked the nice man in the visitors center to point us in the direction of a hike worthy of the title "nice, afternoon stroll type hike". He raved about a 5 mile loop that was perfect for our needs, walked us out the door to the visitors center and pointed us in the right direction. Part of me wondered if he was hoping for an invitation to come along.

I'm not sure I would call the hike he recommended a nice afternoon stroll, being that we ended up climbing 1300 feet in the first two miles, then enjoyed a moderate climb for mile three, then saw a direct drop for the last two miles that resulted in running down the path hurting far less than walking it. But, it was fun to say we did it. and the view was AMAZING! The second to last picture in the stream of pictures at the top of this post shows the ridge we climbed. We had the perfect view of Mount Rainier and were surrounded by forest almost the whole time. Such a great hike.

Anyway, that was our Saturday! We left the park, ate at a cool little family owned restaurant in a train car, then went back to the manor to shower. We did leave the manor once more that night in search of milkshakes. A worthy and successful mission.

Sunday was full of sleeping, House, and laundry. And more sleeping.