Day 8

Leaving Fruitland on the morning of Day 8 was bittersweet. We are headed to Alaska, which is more exciting than I can express, so driving away put us closer to that goal. But I wished we could have stayed longer with the extended Foss family. We really all just need to live in the same place again.

The drive was gorgeous on Day 8. Well, gorgeous in between the parts that were utterly brown and unremarkable. The streams in Oregon reminded me of the streams and rivers in Alaska, with shallow, clear water glittering over the rocks. I could definitely live in Oregon.

 

We stopped for coffee in Ellensberg, Washington. Are you sensing a theme with our stops yet? It was good, although nothing has compared to Laramie, Wyoming yet as far as coffee. The coffee here was good…It was a fairly light espresso roast, it tasted like, with a hint of nuttiness. Maybe more than a hint since John is allergic to nuts and showed some signs of a possible small allergic reaction after drinking it.

We saw Mt. Rainier in the distance from far away. There was another big mountain in the middle of nowhere, so it took us a little while to figure out for sure which one was Mt. Rainier. It was huge, still snowcovered, and kind of….loomed in the distance. It’s hard to describe how it looked…but it almost looked like it knew it was a big deal. Like it demanded respect in a quiet, seemingly-peaceful way.

Clearly I need more coffee this morning…

 We stopped on the summit of Snoqualmie Pass and it was adorable. I could live here too. The mountain views, the coffee shops everywhere…I’m pretty sure God designed me for the Pac Northwest.

 We stopped for the night past our original goal. We’d meant to stop in Snoqualmie, but couldn’t find an RV park. So we got a hotel in Marysville instead.