Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad Trip

A view from the train platform of the charming little 1906
Lutheran church in Elbe. Come early, seating is limited.

The first weekend of October did not find me lazily snoozing under my down blanket. No, I was up bright and early with my lunch packed, my layers of clothing and my camera heaped on my arms, all ready to go on the Shipley Senior Center's trip to the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad in Elbe, Washington.

Our group started from the Center just before 8 a.m. because the sunlight, and thus the photo opportunities, fade significantly after mid-day at this time of year. The low-lying fog was burned off by the time we crossed Puget Sound and moved inland.

We had reservations on the 12:45 p.m. trip and we were required to be on the platform by 12:30. The trip from Sequim was estimated to take just under three hours.

Fortunately this trip was not dependent on the U.S. Government being operational, which it still is not at present.

The waitstaff in the restaurant were not happy to be sitting
around with nothing to do since the national park is not
open at present. Some of us decided to eat here to help out.

Although all the national parks are closed because employees have been furloughed by the government's closure, the scenic railroad is a private operation started in 1981 and is run largely by devoted volunteers with some equally committed paid staff.

Our drive took us past Mineral Lake, a milky-grey-green colored body of water. The color is caused by the waters coming down from the Mt. Rainier glacier with bits and pieces called "glacier flour"being moved downstream by the  rivers into the lake.

As we arrived, on the right side of the road are a number of brightly colored cars and a couple of cabooses, which are part of a motel offering sleeping accommodations. Other cars provide an innovative place for pizza as well as a more structured dining option.

I wonder if the sleeping accommodations are improved over
what the railroads might have offered in 1890?

On the left, the post office, a mini store, and the General Store, recreated from the old I.O.O.F. hall, offers fishing tackle, beverages and other essentials.

Just below you can click on the raw video of the train arriving in the station, complete with steam whistles and bells. (Perhaps that is where the expression "all the bells and whistles" came from"...)

Winding through evergreen and deciduous
woods, the train travels slowly past farms
and now-empty fields that once had homes
for the pioneer loggers.

The train leaves from a reconstructed train depot in Elbe, which welcomed the first train for the Tacoma & Eastern Railway in April of 1904.

Looking out from the back of the train.

This town was once a bustling and prosperous lumber center, but is now dependent more on tourism than logs with the 2010 Census showing only 10 households listed for a total of 29 people in the town.

The 40-minute ride to Mineral through the foothills of the majestic sleeping volcano of Mt. Rainier ends with an approximately 45-minute tour of antique logging locomotives in what will one day be a very extensive museum of early railroading.

Old equipment on a spur waiting for a benefactor to restore  it.

The locomotive must be turned around at each end of the line, so I asked if I could get up in the engine area for a photo of the boiler. I was invited up and given some wonderful history of steam engines and a chance to ride up there while they backed up to the cars.

Peeking into the inferno...

The fireman opened the door where, in older coal-fired
engines the stokers would have shoveled in coal.

Although the fall breezes outside were registering about 65 degrees in the sun, the engine area was more like a summer scorcher. I was shown how the water pressure is maintained with the crude oil being burned. Both the engineer and the fireman are volunteers and the engineer said he was inspired by his first trip to go to the University of Washington and get a degree in Forestry.

The engineer works for Weyerhauser for his regular job.

The fireman explained in simple terms how water and oil
are used to create the necessary steam to drive this engine.

There are open cars and cars with windows that open. Seating is not geared for comfort, and since I was hopping up and down to get photos, I don't think I spent much time in my seat. There is an old car with large doors which reminds me of the mail cars of yesteryear where riders can get popcorn, candy, drinks and souvenirs. And two rest rooms.

I imagine the staff would do all they could to make it possible for someone in a wheelchair to be included, but it would definitely be something to call ahead about. I found everyone to be most helpful, although there was a sort of casualness about the train's time schedule, after hearing we had to be on the platform on time.
Watering the train between runs took more time than usual, probably because the volunteers are only to willing to spend a few minutes talking about trains. But if you want to ride up with the engineer and fireman when they are backing up, all you have to do is ask.

During the spring and fall, I would recommend the late morning or early afternoon run because as we were heading back, the lowering sun and cooler breezes made for a cooler return trip. This is very important for children and elderly riders as the cars are not heated.

Mt. Rainier appears to have a fresh suit of snow and the Nesqually River
was running clear on this lovely bright fall day.

As the sun shone down on my face and I listened to the train's whistle as we approached the crossings, I was easily able to recall being about 4 years old, riding with Pat on the narrow gauge train we had in our back yard.

Me, on my first train ride - a long time ago. I think the
photo credit should go to my father,  but finding it for the
blog the credit goes to my younger brother.

The clackety-clack of the steel wheels on the rails beat a staccato melody of memories... riding the Cranberry Express in Carver, Massachusetts on our way to have a vacation on Cape Cod... taking the Long Island Express out to Orient to visit my uncle and aunt... catching the Amtrak from Jacksonville, FL, to visit a friend in Tampa... I still have one ride on my Bucket List: to go through the Canadian Rockies by rail.

Maybe I really am a Hobo at heart...

Healing and Low Ceilings

Part of my retreat to Washington from Colombia has been to find some solutions for my persistent back ache and I am happy to report that the various activities, one of which includes regular trips to the local whirlpool, seem to be doing some good.

Looking toward the upper end of the Olympic Peninsula under grey skies.

It has been a bit of an adjustment to wake up day after day in the dark, and sometimes grey, skies. That also seems to be making a turn as the days get a little longer and the low clouds occasionally rise up above 1000 feet. Today, while coming back from attending to some things in town, I could see Mt. Rainier very very clearly. The skies surrounding this massive ancient volcano were the palest of blues and the top two-thirds of the mountain are white with accumulated snow. Truly impressive.

There are signs of spring coming here with medium green shoots of narcissus and daffodils trying to push up through the earth, the lilacs and rhododendrons are filling up in preparation for their colorful displays and on my table, as a valentine gift to myself, is a lovely blue hyacinth - a reminder of the ones that used to pop up long ago in our NH garden, sometimes still with snow around their little roots! (The scent of it is just divine!)

Blue Hyacinth on kitchen table offers up hope of spring.

Due to sightings of cougars in the woods nearby, and the movement of male elk with their spring-time desires overriding their good sense about staying away from humans, I have not been able to do much walking out and about. The malls are too small for any really good striding, but I am making friends with people who have some safe trails so gradually I am increasing my outdoor activities.

My watercolor art classes are intriguing and I really enjoy the teacher's methods, even if she does go on a bit about things unrelated to art. Tonight I went to the Museum of Art & History in Sequim and heard a presentation by a quilt artist on how to incorporate photographs into a quilt... it is totally amazing what people are doing with fabric and thread and other things here! The local Episcopal church, St. Luke's, has created over 50 quilts this past year and had them blessed and delivered to people in the community who needed a prayer quilt. An astounding amount of work, in my opinion. So there are vast groups of artistic people here on this 'spit' of land in western Washington, motivating me to be even more creative.

The ancient volcano called Mt. Rainier loomed out on the horizon as
some of the grey clouds lifted for awhile from the Olympic Peninsula.

The biggest challenge has been that I am not doing much photography as the greyness makes the images less than sharp, more often than not, and I never seem to have my tripod ready for those days when I see something worth photographing. But the Sequim-ites (??) assure me that sunnier days - or at least brighter ones - are just around the corner. So come back and see if they were right and if I have indeed started finding some interesting things to photograph.

Ohhhhh, and lest I forget... my sister is celebrating a big "0" birthday today. In order to protect the innocent, I am not going to reveal which number precedes the zero, but I am intending it is a day filled with happy surprises... hugs to you, dear little sister!

Settling in in Sequim

A rainbow, the harbinger of 'riches' to come... over Discovery Bay.

By the way, Sequim is pronounced "Sqwim" and those of you who have been reading the blog for awhile will recall my visit here this last summer. For a lot of reasons, I made a decision to find a place to begin settling in for my 'elder years'. It needed to be a place with minimal snow and minimal humidity. I wanted to have access to an artistic colony of folks and older people, like me, who were still interested in traveling, being active, but not all in one place like these 'active communities' which have become so popular throughout the U.S.

Sequim Community Chorus in the first of three nights of
performances at Trinity United Methodist Church.

This is meant to be my U.S. retreat, like my Colombian one, but after living in Colombia for several years it is clear to me that my language skills are not improving well enough for me to think about getting really old there. As long as I can still make the trip there, I will be there for awhile. And I still have a lot of South America to see. But the idea of being old, ill and unable to communicate well is a combination that doesn't appeal to me.

I was lucky to find a woman who wanted a roommate and since we will both be traveling in different directions and at different times, we are more roommates in terminology than actual fact. I have a nice clean room with a view of the tall evergreens and am about a mile from the water. The house is in a quiet neighborhood with watchful neighbors about 10 miles from Sequim center. It turned out that "K" is singing in the Community Chorus so I went last night to their first performance and was delighted at the music and had happy reminders of my days singing in Lake City with our dear director, Alphonso Levy. When the group did the Hallelujah Chorus, my tears of joy and sadness mixed in with a prayer for him as I sang along with everyone else.

As I explore my new surroundings, I am sleeping on a new bed as well. It is supposed to be comfortable, but the 'cells' warm up from body temperature and when I get into bed, my own cells are already cold from the chilly nights we are having here... perhaps it will be some kind of new weight loss process because I will be expending calories warming up the bed so I can go to sleep... LOL!

Mt. Rainier as seen from the ferry on the morning I caught it for Sequim.

Baby K and Miss Pretty

Miss Pretty

Baby K in his dozing burghermeister pose.

Thanks to one of my more devoted readers and commentors, (I'm talking about you, Karen!) the twins have received nicknames that really seem to suit them right now. They also have other nicknames used en famille which are hopefully not going to stay with them forever so I won't use them here.

Holding Baby K's hands for a bottle feeding.

Baby K is a strong fellow. He is way ahead of the norms for strength and so giving him a bottle is like trying to wrestle with a small python... "No, I'm the granny, I'll give you the bottle." His forceful, unworded reply, "No, I'm the baby and I'm starving here, so I'll just take the bottle!" Sometimes he looks like a burghermeister about to give his ruling on the taste test for some rather nasty beer, and other times he smiles with such a winning and dimply smile my heart simply flips over and I know he is going to have that same effect on some vulnerable young lady years from now.

Miss Pretty's big smile.

Baby K trying to hold his own bottle with his papa.

Miss Pretty could easily be on all those baby commercials with her delicate pursed up mouth and an amazing smile that is truly given in recognition, not from gas. She was the leader in weight when she arrived, but her brother has out-distanced her by several pounds now. Not too surprising as once he started really eating, he is taking in 1/3 more at each feeding than she is. But it is her delicacy that has earned her this blog moniker, and when you hold her, (for all you doll people) she is reminder of those days when you played with a friend's life-size doll-baby and wished you'd get one of your own for Christmas.

Is there a Girl Scout badge for this?

Big Sis & huge cookie!

We took the children to a Girl Scout picnic where everyone got a chance to hold them, and two of the little girls in Big Sis E's troop took quite a bit of time away from the water sports to practice their holding skills. By my calculations, in eight years these two young ladies may be good candidates for baby-sitting and by then Big Sis may need all the help she can get!

Now comes the sad part, friends. I have to head back to Colombia for awhile and while Big Sis E has her moments of being frustrated with all the crying, shrieking, babbling, and flatulent noises that babies make, it has been made clear to me that I will be fully checked before leaving the house to make sure I haven't tried to hide one or both of them in my luggage.

So tiny those little feet...

Baby K on his daddy's arm.

I don't want to go, and this time with the family has been an awesome one. It was approached with trepidation, not knowing how much any of us could stand of the other being around ALL the time, but we have proved that we could manage the stress, the fatigue - and the joys - for the singular objective of giving these twins the best start they could have in life.

Baby K is growing exponentially daily...

Amazingly these two months have flown by and like so many life experiences, there will never be any like this again. I am glad I made the offer to be here and as it turned out, there were several times when it was clear it was Divine Planning for me to do so. And it also means this is the end of twin-shots until I see them again.

No tears... no wailing or gnashing of teeth. No long, drawn-out goodbyes, no special promises... just going. I will miss these two little rascals desperately and hope I am given the chance to return and to re-acquaint myself with them... it is up to the Higher Authority as to when that might be.

Mt. Rainier in the dusky light of sunset in September.

Just a quick update

   Our drive from Yakima was on one of the sunniest spring days so far and we enjoyed some beautiful views along the way. In particular we stopped at a pullout and got this shot of Rainier from the eastern side.
   Then it was on to meet Jey-hu's sisters and mother and we had a delightful time in Tukwila - all these native names are tongue-twisters for me!
  

 We arrived in Everett on Monday afternoon as the sun was setting and in spite of the threat that Jey-hu had left his keys inside the house, we were able to get in and get the car unpacked.
   Today the sun is shining (for a little while anyhow) and I took a shot of the porch to try and see if I could get a shot of the mountains hidden behind all those glorious tall fir trees, but as you can see, it wasn't about to happen. I think if I can convince the neighbors to trim a few branches we might have a better view... well, that's a project for another day.
    Meanwhile, I'm getting ready for another photo adventure - to take shots of the heart-shaped lake nearby and perhaps a few of the wildlife. Yesterday I saw an eagle soaring overhead, but I didn't have my camera with me.

The adventure isn't over yet....