Today is Mt. Rainier, another national park. We have read this one will be busy too (all of them will be apparently) and that it is just an OK park. But again, the whole family decides, nope...this is another favorite. Mt. Rainier is gorgeous and the surrounding forests and areas are similar to North Cascades, filled with moss and evergreen and beautiful smells. We read that the visitor centers are closed here but that there are some gift shops we can stop at. We find one of the gift shop areas and use the restroom. Still walking good but slow. After we finish shopping and Gideon collects the 90th stuffed animal, Abby gets her 43rd sweatshirt and I get my 100th coaster, we head out and there is just this gorgeous view of Mt. Rainier in this quaint little village. This might sound stupid, but did you know that people actually live in the national parks? Like these parks are so large that there are little towns inside the parks. I can't imagine living here in the winter. Just miles of snow and signs on the roads that say "CHAIN UP YOUR TIRES". But the summer does seem nice, except the damn tourists.
We get a ton of great shots from all sides of the mountain after our ears popping while we go up and down the mountain. There are not a lot of hiking options here that are easy or smaller hikes so we skip hiking here. We still stop at most overlooks and sit and enjoy the peace for a bit. The park was busy but not unbearable and we were able to find parking throughout. Gideon feels like this might be his favorite park now. A nice, calm, peaceful setting. Lots of lakes, waterfalls and reflections of snow from the mountain top. It was 33 degrees at the top of the mountain and 75 degrees where we are. Just shows you how tall the mountain is.
After we finish up the park, we head to our hotel for the night. We are not looking forward to this hotel but these parks are in the middle of nowhere so there aren't a lot of options. We are staying at a Quality Inn MOTEL. We had to explain the difference between Motel and Hotel to the kids. When they saw the MOTEL they understood. I went to check in and the woman who helped was very nice. She was sitting behind the desk with a set of 18-day old roses in a vase which were wilting and throwing their petals all over the floor. There was a TV in the room playing a Quality Inn add over and over and over again. On the back awall behind her seat are "best motel in Goldendale, WA" plaques for the years 2008 through 2017. I look desperately for 2018 onward...none to be found. I wonder what motel overtook this lovely motel. We are next to an RV park so maybe them? We get the keys and get to our room. A woman comes up the stairs and is in the room right next to ours. I put the key in our door and it blinks red. I try key #2, same thing. I sigh. The women in the next door says "you have to keep putting it in and taking it out and stand on one foot". I try her technique and it works. We open the door in celebration which is immediately shutdown by a strong odor. How do I know it was strong? After all, Gideon and I are super-smellers so it probably wasn't bad. No, it was bad and I know that because ADAM said "wow, that's a weird smell". The smell is a mixture of mold, mildew and desperation. We tell ourselves we'll get used to it and sit down for a bit. There are two sinks in the room: one in the bathroom and one right outside the bathroom in a kitchen area. Abby uses the restroom and then loudly pronounces that she cannot get any of the sinks to work. Adam sighs and goes to teach her how to use old school faucets (the kind where you have to lift the knob). I hear him futzing around with the knob. No sound of water. He makes a "huh" sound. Next he goes to the bathroom faucet and tries again. No sound of water...but wait, there it is! You just have to pull REALLY HARD and then you can wash your hands. We hang out for another hour and realize the smell is still very strong.
We decide to go to dinner at a place I found called "the Dirty Cowgirl" (see Adam's blog). Yes, I thought it was a Hooters too, but it's not. The parking was interesting and just like the Marriot. Unmarked secret parking a few streets over. Everyone is excited for BBQ except me (not a huge fan). We sit down and I order a drink. The waitress says "we are out of XXX ingredient". This was the beginning of hearing that sentence over, and over, and over and over. Abby and I decide on the pulled pork. "We are out of pulled pork". Yeah ok. Abby decides on a mushroom swiss burger. "We are out of mushrooms". We finally find some ingredients they have and order. We are surrounded by flies. Flies everywhere. Its like Oklahoma all over again. If you don't recall from our last road trip, Oklahoma is covered in flies. They are everywhere all the time. (I didn't like it). A mother and her 4 children walks into the fly ridde restaurant. The children included a baby who was only 4 weeks old, a toddler around 3 and two older girls in the 6 - 11 range. They order before us and get their food before us. They are sharing a bunch of meals. Our food comes and we each got a separate meal. We also got another side to all share and try. The mother bows her head and tells her children it is time to say grace. During her prayer, not that I was listening, was a comment about not being wasteful with food. They finish their meal and the mother very loudly exclaims "See, we had NO food waste, great job!". I look at our table and realize she is probably chastising us. Before I can think anymore about it, one of the older girls pipes up and says "well, I'm still hungry can we get some snacks somewhere?". The mother notes they can go to the dollar store to find food. They then pack it in and leave after realizing they cannot afford to buy the glass the mother's drink came in. They were definitely traveling through the area and were not from the area so we wonder where they are staying tonight. Probably in the best motel in Goldendale from 2018 onward.
We head back to the room and I am now an expert at using the room key and we get right in to be assaulted by the smell. We all decide we are not showering here and head to bed. Before bed I come up with a great new business plan - human sized condoms. This would be especially useful for a night like tonight. I'd love to zip the kids up in safe little condoms and roll them into bed. The pillows smelled about the same as the rest of the room and I hold myself back from announcing I don't like the smell. All the lights are turned out and I look towards the window with the closed curtains. And there it is: The curtains are filled with moth-eaten holes. I say a quick prayer that the moths also eat all communicable diseases too and get to bed.
Summary: Mt. Rainier is peaceful and soul-warming, Hips are no longer screaming, Moths like mold and we waste food. Gluttons. Ended the day at Quality Inn, Goldendale, WA.