july 4th weekend = more photos (and vid) than you can shake a stick at (even if you had a really big stick)

i honestly didn't think this weekend was going to be as jam packed and action filled as it ended up being. in fact, those adjectives made me feel kinda' like a super hero.

kapow.

speaking of kapow or, rather, kaboom, leff and i caught the jul-iver's fireworks from the lqa overlook on friday night.



they were ok but i enjoyed the chicago and chili dogs that we'd eaten earlier in the day a bit more.



contrary to the introductory paragraph, friday was rather laid back. we watched hitchcock movies. a *lot* of hitchcock movies. which, to me, is the perfect way to spend a patriotic holiday. you know, by watching the films of a british director and skipping all that apple pie nonsense.

saturday was all about the id. we had lunch at a great little place that leff is sure to write about on his food blog. after lunch, we dropped by uwajimaya in search of mangosteens but found geoducks (pronounced goo-e-ducks for those of you not in the pnw) instead.



that was the first time i had ever seen geoducks in person. my response? "fuck! what the...fuck! *camera sounds*".

i honestly hope that it will be the last time that i see one of them as well. i can't get my head around eating one of them (a KNIFE? i have to CUT them?!) but i should quickly add that i'm not a seafood eating person in general (aside from tuna in a can, crabcakes, prawns, tuna steaks and the odd scallop) because of a terrible case of food poisoning that i had when i was little that came from eating a sea beast.

that being said, please don't hate me because i hate geoducks. hate me because i have lychees ripening on top of my microwave.



i'll also allow you to hate me for getting this sushi platter for around $4.



and now we come to sunday, sunday, sunday. you'll never guess where we went!



yes, mt. rainier! sadly, the need for an arrow marker would turn out to be a theme for the day (it was so foggy that we couldn't see the mountain even when we were at its base in paradise.) but it was still a lot of fun.

well, except for puyalllup and its strip malls. but i digress. the mt. rainier park was beautiful!



and fucking snowy! in july! (yes, altitude plus record snowfall year. i get it. still, it's JULY!)



one nice thing about the trails is that there are no weapons allowed.



no, international readers, not all americans carry guns. in fact, i have never opened a ketchup bottle with a pistol at a picnic in my entire life! fact!

one big reason for our hightailing it out of seattle (other than the need to get. out. of. the. city.) was the fact that the old 60's information center will be closed this fall.



it's kinda' sad. i really like bizarre u.s. architecture from the 50's and 60's. it's got a lot to do with that sense of hope for the future. (this is that same reason that i adore the monorail.)

there's another picture of the interior in a moment (consider yourself lucky that i'm only posting one. i took almost 75 photos of it.) but let us consider the view.



like i mentioned earlier, the view was nonexistent on sunday. ergo, i had no need for distant viewing. in fact,this is how we saw rainier.



good thing i like plastic models.

k, here's the visitor's center again.



cool, huh? now let's get to the snow.

leff and i took this trail. did i mention that it was july? oh yes, i did.



just so you can see that i'm not kidding about poor visibility, here we are at the base of the mountain.



and, for the hell of it, a video.




do you hear that? the sound of nothing?

but, like i said, there was still plenty to do even though my favorite volcano decided to sleep in. things like the paradise inn lobby!



and blurry wildlife!



animal viewing tally: 10 deer, 2 marmots, 3 chipmunks, too many tourists to count

oh! and a bear!



at longmire, we took the trail of shadows



which was not only hobbity



but also had a geothermal spring!



i promised myself that i would limit the wordage regarding my love of tavertine mound so, i'll just say this: "fuck! what the...fuck! *camera noises*"

and throw in a video of the bubbling for good measure.




one last bit about rainier and i'll move on. there is water. oh yes, lots and lots of water. see for yourself!







the only other thing that i did this weekend was beat "professor layton and the curious village".



i'm telling you, drop what you're doing and get your hands on this game. it's simply wonderful! (and wonderfully difficult until you get your head back into logic problem mode.)

can i stop writing now? good. leff has another day off today and we need to go do something.