Having accomplished most all of my maintenance goals, we prepare to move on to Dash Point State Park tomorrow. Skies are clouding up and there is a promise of rain tomorrow. That's OK, we had a week of terrific weather while here at Puyallup. With our move to Dash Point we return to the traveling way. And will be making a somewhat hasty track back towards Texas and my Mom's house.

The payoff to the small output of time taken on this hike is to come upon these little falls. Not awesome falls, but serenely beautiful. Crystal clear water falling intoa sparkling pool with dappled sunlight dancing about. You can feel the Lord's hand in these moments.

My survival skills have served me well again. Being able to read nature signs enabled me to hike straight to the falls without getting lost.

Instead, equipped with my new diamond willow walking stick (that I made while in the Yukon), I hiked back along this well travelled path to find some falls alluded to on the State Park map. This is a little bridge fashioned from timbers to cross this part of the Carbon River.

Look closely. You can just make out the white peaks of Mt Rainier in the center of the pic. From this angle you might think the surrounding mountains are just as tall, but let me assure you that is an illusion. Mt. Rainier is easily twice as tall as the surrounding mounts. This picture was taken from the Carbon River glacial wash down from Carbon Glacier. We did not make it to this glacier, the lowest in the North America, because we did not come prepared for the hike to get to the glacial foot.

8/25/06. Headed out to Mt Rainier National Forest for a walk-about. A nice taste of things to come when we head down to the Redwoods of Oregon and N. California.

8/24/05. Found a real cool place to camp - a fairground. Of course there are no events so the park is open to all business. We're here at the Puyallup City Fairgrounds. At $15 a night with full hook ups and 50 amps of juice we're sitting pretty. On a clear day you can see the top of Mt Rainier. Nice. The best thing about the park is that it is rated for industrial activity, so we can wash our rig and do necessary repairs following the Alaska journey.

One of the aerial shots from the Cesna. The day was almost perfect. A bit of haze in the air prevented a view of Mt Rainier, all we could see was the faintest of shadows. After this we would return to camp, get rested and prepare for our move tomorrow. We will be heading a little south to the town of Puyallup. We'll be parked at the county fair grounds, another first for us. Now wecan join up with the rest of the clowns.

Christa seemed pretty at ease as she took in the Seattle scenery. Being the shortest, she had to sit all the way in the back, but it turned out she had the best windows.

... and this is the plane we were going to fly in, a Cesna 26 I think the pilot said.

8/23/05. Christa and I just before climbing into the plane. With Christa's fright of hieghts I am really surprised she wanted to do this.

After the Aquarium, Christa and I head for a treat that we meant to do on the caravan, but never could squeeze it in with all the other stuff we wanted to do. That treat of course is to fly in a float plane. This is the company we selected...

A quick shot of Christa on the top floor of the Aquarium overlooking the harbor.

The Seattle Aquarium is in construction mode so there was alot of that going on. Add that to the timing of our visit, also selected by 2 or 3 elementary schools for a field trip, and you have a rahter noisy aquarium. Still, they had some unique features, such as this viewing dome which juts out into Puget Sound (supposedly) for a pretty neat look at the local waterway. As you can see, we were joined by many of our new friends, seen here clamoring on the rails, banging on the glass, and testing the vibration affect of a good yell on the nearby fish population.

8/23/05. Mom took a light day on us, so Christa and I head back downtown for the Aquarium. Another one of my favorite subjects.

How fitting that you are greeted by Gort the robot from "The Day the Earth Stood Still." The rest was "Facinating."

After lunch, we went back to ground level to check out some of the other stuff. There are rides and plenty of stuff to do (if you look real hard you might even find a souveneir stand or two). What caught my eye right away was the Science Fiction Museum on the corner next to the tower. Anybody who knows me also knows I'm going in there.

While we were having lunch this kid at the table next to us got this wild looking dessert. I think they called it a Lunar Sundae. A trademark sweet of the tower. We had to have one as well. Here, Mom and Christa are preparing to dig in, you can bet your last nickel that I was there before they got the first spoonful to their mouths.

Me and a couple hundred of my friends check out the Needle view, pretty good.

8/22/05. Next we were out early wanting to see some of Seattle while we were here. So what do we do - of course - head for the tourist magnet. The Space Needle. Actually, it's pretty much the same as the Hemisphere Tower in San Antonio, but with one heck of a view. We of course had lunch (mucho denero).