Today the kids and I (and Redmond) went for a hike to Twin Falls. Amber had planned to join us, but wasn’t feeling very well. We went despite the rain.  After all, if you let a little drizzle stop you around here, you won’t be doing much of anything outside the 3rd through 4th weeks of July.  The start of the trail is pretty flat and Jillian was a hiking machine.

Wesley was running to catch up when he took a fall. So we made it six whole minutes before we had tears and blood.  Just a small scrape on the hand, but it sure must have hurt.

Because of the recent rains the river (South Fork of the Snoqualmie) was really flowing. There were a half dozen or so kayakers taking advantage of the extra volume.  The kids were really intrigued.

Once the trail started heading up hill Jillian ran out of steam. She ground to a halt. Apparently she doesn’t have a low gear. From this point on there are no pictures of her on the trail because she is riding on my back.  Despite the fall, Wesley was a trooper and wanted to keep going on. Even when he said he was tired, when given the choice, he wanted to keep going over returning to the car.  Here he is next to a big moss covered rock. He spent a lot of time on top as well.

Jillian woke up when we got to the overlook for the lower falls. She didn’t actually want to get out and walk, but she did make me turn sideways so she could see.  Here is Wesley getting a little wet from the spray of the falls. At this point the kids got fruit leathers. Food is a good motivator.

Even after climbing up the many and rather steep steps from the lookout Wesley agreed to keep going to the bridge over the river between the falls. We agreed granola bars would be had there.  We also agreed that on the way back I would carry him on all the uphill stretches as I’d done on a few of the harder sections on the way to the bridge. On the way we came across this log. Wesley was really taken with the stumps and fallen logs. Especially the nurse logs. He pointed out all of them.  You can see he is holding his hand a bit gingerly.

At the bridge Redmond was a little freaked out. He wouldn’t sit near the edge of the bridge and he wouldn’t put his back to the edge of the bridge. I’m not sure he thought it was all that safe. Here he is exactly in the middle, the only place he would sit for a picture.

After the granola bars we headed back to the car. Despite being mostly downhill, there were plenty of uphills for my taste. I was huffing and puffing and we were garnering a fair bit of attention. Especially from people who saw me carrying Wesley and then couldn’t help but say “Oh, two of them” when they passed and could finally see J on my back.  Wesley saved a native snail from sure destruction by moving him off the path to a safer location.

To keep Wesley motivated on the way back to the car (I was at this point out of snacks) I told him I had a surprise for him. I gave him clue after clue. We got all the way to “It has ice cream, is some type of drink, it is fizzy, brown, and called some kind of ‘float’”. I think he must of been exhausted because he could not for the life of him come up with the answer. I finally gave in a few hundred yards from the end and told him. He and J who was awake again by this point were very excited.

We stopped in Issaquah and went to the XXX Rootbeer Drive-in.  An awesome place on every level. Highly recommended. The people were so friendly. First the kids climbed up into a coin operated wagon train and the waitress came over and dropped fifty cents in from her apron to fire it up. Then, when we ordered, she gave the kids two bouncy balls by tossing them against the window and letting the kids chase them down in the restaurant.

The kids loved the stools at the walk-up window. Because of the weather the place was much less busy than usual. We could have had a booth, but the kids loved those stools. So we got our drinks to go. Drinks by the way, which came with a plastic camel on top of the ice cream for Wesley, and a giraffe for Jillian.

Jillian’s float is the small one. Wesley is drinking his. Mine, only 40 cents more than theirs, was immense. Redmond got to help me finish it in the car. Such a friendly place and very family oriented (We were shown to the bathroom by a very polite 9 or 10 year old girl in waitress uniform and related to somebody working there). I think we will have to make at least one more trip out there this summer.  And yes, by the way, the whole restaurant is that packed with stuff.

 

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