Snow in August!

Way's friend hiked Mt Rainier last week, and the pictures she took looked beautiful! All of the wildflowers are in bloom right now so we decided we wanted to check it out as well. We woke up early Sunday morning to head over since it is about a 2 hour drive from Seattle. On our way, we stopped by Herkimer's for some coffee and Top Pot Donuts for some breakfast. There was a huge line waiting for donuts, and even though the varieties are interesting, we all agreed that there was nothing special about these pieces of fried dough. Good, but not great.

With our tummies full, we headed towards Mt Rainier. The clouds were covering the mountaintop, but we didn't think much of this since it's more common that it is covered than it is not! Our destination was an area called Paradise, located on the southern side of the mountain. Cute name for supposedly the most popular and one of the most scenic areas of Mt Rainier.
Since it was a holiday weekend, we assumed the parking situation would be a nightmare and decided to park near the entrance of the park and then take the free shuttle to Paradise. On the shuttle, I was ogling the other passengers, who were decked out in winter coats, ski hats and gloves. It seemed cold, sure, but silly that they were THAT bundled up. Once we got to Paradise though, we were suddenly envious of all that cold weather gear. Paradise was cold and drizzly and slightly miserable!

We hurried inside to the new Paradise Inn for some brunch (they only do buffet brunch on Sundays) and while we were eating, the rain outside turned into SNOW! It didn't stick to the ground, but there were certainly big snow flurries everywhere. We decided we still wanted to check out the wildflower hike anyway, so braved the snow and headed out. It was really beautiful to see these colors everywhere despite the snow falling. It felt so surreal, especially to a California girl who is so used to sun 365 days a year. As Scott pointed out, after this hike, we'll have memories to last a lifetime!