Mt. Rainier National Park

When we went camping last week, we stayed at 

Alder Lake State Park,

but spent Saturday afternoon at 

Mt. Rainier National Park.

We used to live near there when the Big Kids were little,

so we had camped at Alder Lake many times in the 1990's,

and had visited Mt. Rainier with them.

But, the Young Ones hadn't ever visited Alder Lake or The Mountain.

The Wildflowers were Beautiful.

(photos by Hosanna)

This deer walked right out in front of us when we were walking down the trail.

Elijah took this shot with my cell phone.

This was a Mt. Rainier Shuttle Bus from 1934.

We rode a Shuttle Bus up the mountain and back,

but it wasn't nearly as cool as this one.  (smile)

When we entered the park at noon, 

there were signs saying that the parking lots up top were already full.

So, we decided to park at a lower lot and ride the Shuttle Bus.

We got seats, but there were 25 people standing in the aisles

after we stopped for a 2nd stop to pick people up,

for the 20 minute ride up the mountain.

(the 3 young ones shared a seat, and Hosanna had a little guy on her lap)

We hoped we wouldn't have to stand on the way back down the mountain.

When we boarded the bus, there were only a couple of seats left, in the very back of the bus, 

with 2 young ladies and their 2 little girls (ages 10 & 11 months).

We climbed over their big stroller, assuring them that we like babies,

and we all squeezed into the remaining seats.

In the most random of questions/conversation,

we quickly discovered that . . .

. . .  1 of the ladies had grown up in the very small town that Papa had taught in for 9 years.

(she was actually homeschooled, but her sister went to the school when Papa was there)

. . .  1 of the ladies had married a young man with 8 siblings, and was home schooled.

(so she thought our large family was awesome)

then we found out that . . .

. . .  both of the young ladies were really good friends with some loooong time friends of ours.

. . .  one of our mutual friends had actually lived with us 10 years ago,

and she had told these young ladies about our family.

Crazy!

. . .  another of our mutual friends is on staff at their church.

It was sooo... much fun visiting with these ladies,

and we were all sad when it was time to get off of the Shuttle Bus.

As Elijah said, right after finding out that they knew our close friends,

"I think we picked the right bus, Mom."

It was totally a "God Thing".