ICMA stands for International City Management Association. Every year ICMA has a big conference for City Managers and other related careers. This year Josh applied for the scholarship to go for free, and got it. The conference was held it Seattle this year, so the kids and I tagged along. We made a trip out of it and went to Mt. Rainer, North Cascades, and Glacier National Parks, as well.
Mt. Rainer- 1st stop
Since the conference didn’t start until Sunday, we spent our Saturday at Mt. Rainer.
Mt. Rainer was neat with the dried lava bed, beautiful fall plants and colors, and the beautiful green plants and trees.
We went on a little hike.
Dried (kind of) Lava Bed
Small Water Fall
Beautiful Colors and cute kids near the visitors center:
We went on another awesome hike, and saw a sweet mini skinny gorge.
Seattle
During Josh’s conference we went to the Seattle Zoo. We actually met a high school friend of mine who lives in Seattle. She brought her cute daughter, and Payson had fun with another little- as always! Plus, it was great to see Beth, and “catch up!” We haven’t seen each other since high school.
Avi- Girl loved loved the animals, even though she was scared to pet the goats in the petting zoo.
Payson loved loved the playgrounds at the zoo.
A couple years ago when we went to ICMA in Boston, we met another couple who was there. We became friends with them, and they actually ended up at ICMA this year, too. While the husbands were at classes, the wives got together for a couple hours. It was great seeing Diana, and again “catch up” with her.
At one point Josh had a long break, so he joined the kids and I to see some Seattle staples like the Space Needle and big dancing fountain.
After Josh went back to the conference center for his last class, we had fun taking random pictures with the Space Needle behind or above us.
North Cascades National Park
Josh really liked North Cascades. I liked it, too, but he seemed to REALLY like it. I do admit, the lakes were just beautiful.
We found a couple hikes for our family. The first hike was a perfect hike for Payson to wildly push the stroller around while Avenly walked or we carried her. ha ha
The second hike was beautiful with fall colors, small waterfalls and streams, and a perfect lake destination. Avenly walked a good chunk of the time. She is a little hiker.
That night we stayed at the cutest hotel of our whole trip. It was more like a lodge hotel with a back deck going out to the grass and river. The grounds had hammocks, picnic tables, and swings. The small town, Winthrop, was super cute. We stopped at the bakery/coffee shop for breakfast in the morning, and they had delightful hot chocolate.
Glacier National Park
We traveled from Washington to Montana via free rental car. (We had a free rental that came with our purchase of our Mazda 5 since we bought it through Hertz Car Sales).
Glacier was my favorite of the three National Parks. Our main day in Glacier happened to be my birthday. The weather was perfect, and it was simply gorgeous with the fall leaves changing colors.
The first hike we went on was short, and quite enjoyable. I tried to get cute pictures of the kiddoes, but you know how it goes…
I know I already mentioned the colors of the leaves, but I was truly amazed at the mountain side. The camera could not capture the beauty of the earth as we saw it. Everyone should take an early fall trip to Glacier sometime in their life.
Our longest hike of the whole trip was about 4 miles to a lake called, Hidden Lake. We left the carrier wrap at the hotel, so all we had was the red stroller which was not ideal for this somewhat rocky hike with a lot of stairs during the board walk section. We made it work, though. Actually, Avenly walked a good distance- at least a third of the way. Payson was so cute to hold her hand, and when he would let go she would yell at him to hold her hand again.
In the picture below there are mountain sheep. We saw them on our long hike.
Avenly fell asleep on my back, so we used my sweater as a makeshift carrier. It wasn’t ideal, and I had to hold her still, but it sure helped with some of the dead weight.
Later that day we saw a black bear. He literally walked right by our car on the side of the road. I unbuckled Payson, so he could look out the window to see the bear, and he said, “Hi, little fellow!”
We also saw a mountain goat on the rocky side of the mountain.
Our second day in Glacier was much much colder. In fact, it snowed, but that did not stop us from seeing more of the park. We bundled up and went on a hike to a water fall. The water falls in Glacier are much smaller in the Fall than the Spring or early summer, but it was still cool to see this one. We were the only ones around, so we were slightly afraid of running into a bear. Luckily, the only thing we an into was bear poop! I didn’t actually see it, but Josh was pushing the stroller around an easier bend and saw some.
Ticket to Ride!
Our transportation home was the train. We were able to get two different types of “bed”rooms on the two different trains we were on. (We had a layover in Portland, where we changed trains). The bedrooms were the way to go. We were able to travel over (two) nights and actually attempt to sleep. The second night Avenly was so overly tired from everything, that she was hysterical. I felt bad for the people around us in other sleeper rooms, but eventually I was able to get her to calm down.
We went to some Japanese Gardens in Portland during our layover. They were cool, and Josh liked them a lot. I just thought our kids were a bit crazy for “the gardens.”
Our second train was unique because it had an old car on it. It had an old movie theater, with really bad speakers, and a nice dining/lounge compartment on top. When you ride in sleeper cars on the train, your ticket is considered first class, therefore, we got our meals for free on the train.
It was a good trip with a mix of plane, car, train, city, and nature. I was ready to come home and get ready for my guests to come in a week in a half. Little did I know that we would be leaving again that week on another trip. Blog post to come about it soon!
