Mt. Rainier (Finally!)

Marek's been giving me a hard time lately about the lack of posts on this blog, so instead of trying to catch up on everything missing for the past however many years (we will get to them at some point), I figured I'd start with a recent one. The past year or so has been pretty crazy - I've basically been living in London and Marek's been holding down the fort in Seattle, but that's almost over, so things should be getting back to normal.

A few weeks ago Marek and a group (that included our BFF Nigel and my cousin Eddie) headed to Mt. Rainier again for another summit attempt.  They tried last year but didn't make it - happy to say that this year was much more successful, with almost the entire team summitting!

Mt. Rainier

On Wednesday morning I was up REALLY early baking some treats for the guys - that's one way to be productive when you have jetlag! I drove Marek down on Wednesday night and had dinner with the guys before I drove back to Seattle.  I left after dinner and had some amazing views of Rainier on the way back.  Last time I drove down to Rainier to pick Marek up from a summit attempt (back in 2012), I saw a fox in the road!  Not so lucky this time.  I managed to get lost on the way back (surprise, surprise), and was seriously worried at one point because there are a lot of areas down there with no signal so I had no idea if I was going the right way!

On Thursday in early morning the guys headed up and stayed at Camp Muir.  Very late Thursday night they headed for the summit and made it there around 7 AM Friday morning I think.  Here's a picture of the group from the summit (stolen from FB).

This is Marek and Nigel enjoying a Rainier beer at the top!

On Saturday we spent some time together as a group just doing some sightseeing in Seattle which of course meant a trip to Pike Place.  We did get to see a fish get thrown around, and tried to stop by the first Starbucks (but the line was crazy long).  Then we just relaxed for the rest of the day before getting some dinner.

We went to Brave Horse Tavern for dinner which was where we went last year after they got back from the mountain. I could have eaten about 10 of these pretzels with cheese dip - so delicious.  I'm still dreaming out them.  Too bad Marek doesn't work in Seattle proper any more or I'd probably be scheming to go there once a week to have some!

Managed to get a group shot of almost everyone at the bar in between some games of darts!  The guys were biding their time with darts until the shuffleboard tables opened up.

Marek, me, and cousin Eddie

The night ended with some cigars and beers on our apartment balcony before most of the guys headed back to their hotel.  Overall a great weekend catching up with friends and family and a massive accomplishment in summitting Rainier!  Perhaps someday Marek will write about it on this blog even! :)