Chapter 148: On Top of Old Smokey....

We had a fun week doing not much of anything important but all of it fun.

We started out Tuesday at the Puyallup Fair. We haven't been to The Fair for at least 6 years.  It wasn't too crowded but it was really warm. I envied this dapple gray Percheron his bath until I remembered he had to perform a show for all us corn dog-eating spectators in this heat and I only wandered around eating my snack and looking for the next one.

In general, we figured nothing much had changed and we hadn't missed anything by not going to the fair for the past several years.

Carissa loves herself a good alpaca so I took this picture for her. 

Now this is an alpaca! 

After the frogs, Axel and Deezel, got settled at home, I took them to school. In order to put their aquarium on my desk and have minimal cord exposure for adolescent male fiddling fingers, I had to drill in my desk top. Apparently drilling one hole in my desk is a complicated process and requires lots of supervisors. There were so many "supervisors" I could not get them all in one picture. It reminds me of the old joke "How many guys does it take to change a lightbulb?"

Assuming we are coming to the end of convertible weather, today we hopped in the convertible and cruised up to Crystal Mountain Resort. It was kind of cool in the woods, but a beautiful drive. You could smell the smoke from the fires in Eastern Washington and when we got to Crystal we could really see it. Other than that, Crystal has really changed from the days I rode the school ski bus to Crystal for ski lessons. I always hated the smell of wet brown paper and wool after a full day of skiing then being crammed into a steamy bus at the end of the day. Here we look from the ticket plaza toward the lifts...

...and down to the parking lots from the ticket plaza. Plaza, there weren't no stinkin' plaza when I used to ski there, but then I didn't pay $65 per day for the privilege of breaking a limb sliding on the side of an overpriced mountain.

As we continued our way through  Mt. Rainier National Park and evidence of the Eastern Washington fires became really obvious. We could really smell the smoke in the air.

We stopped at Lake Tipsoo for a bit of close-to-the-highway hiking. Since it was so smokey, we really didn't want to go too far and breathe the smoke.

Lake Tipsoo was really pretty, but with the smokey haze, we couldn't see the sky.

I didn't get enough animals for my "wildlife trifecta" this week. This butterfly moth was the only wildlife I saw the entire trip. I think all the good stuff is hunkered down trying to avoid the smoke. 

Lake Tipsoo with some sort of cool-looking peak nearby. 

 I guess once the highway was put through the park, all kinds of lookie-loos came from everywhere and literally trampled the life out of these beautiful alpine meadows.

With the Parks Department's help, the meadows have made a great recovery. I guess the Parks Department has a nursery tucked away somewhere where they grow native stuff to replant areas that are damaged by man, nature, or construction. 

As we walked back to the car we could really see the smoke. Normally I can see for miles from here. 

More smoke. 

And even more smoke. I found it fascinating. By now our eyes are starting to burn from being in the open air and having the smoke driven into our eyes at 60 miles an hour.

This is the peak of Chinook Pass before you start to head down the other side. This is where we turned around, but not before I hopped out to take another picture. The smoke is coming through the low areas in the mountains and is headed our direction to create some beautiful sunsets.

I think the only bonus to all the fires in Eastern Washington is the beautiful sunset that it creates for us from our front porch.

Here is the sun going down over Federal Way hill as seen from our dining room. The orange colors are really intense right now.

Have a good week Everyone!!!