Big Four Ice Caves

In August, we went on a day trip northeast to the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, which covers part of the Cascade Ranges. We drove ninety minutes from Seattle for an easy hike with the kids, and to see the Big Four Ice Caves.

The hike itself is a super-kids friendly one. It's only a mile each way (from the car park to the ice caves), and not much in the way of incline. There is a path - and at one point, a boardwalk - to follow the entire way, with the only obstructions being tree roots here and there to step over. In fact, the hike is listed as wheelchair/stroller accessible, but I think that's slightly optimistic. I saw enough families lifting their strollers up and over the tree roots to think that it looked like a pain. In terms of ease for young kids though, they can walk it. Miss Pie managed fine on the way to the ice caves, only wanting to be picked up for part of the hike back to the car park - and that was mostly due to the fact that she'd run around like a lunatic at the base of the ice caves, and worn herself out.

The scenery was incredible and varied along such a brief trail. At the start, we could see patches of snow still at the top of Big Four Mountain. From my understanding, it's that snow which melts and trickles down a nearby glacier and creates hollowed out channels underneath, resulting in the ice caves at the base of the mountain. The trail continues across a marshy wetland area, over a river, through cedar-filled woods, gradually replaced by wildflowers, then out to an open gravel area in front of the ice caves.

Despite the number of people walking in and out of the ice caves, and letting their kids climb on the ice, there were numerous signs which pointed out the possible danger of falling boulders and chunks of ice (a young girl was killed by a falling boulder only a few years ago). I'll be honest though: my curiosity was pretty strong, and if we didn't have the girls with us, I probably would have gone inside for a wander. I blame Instagram.

Walking around the entrances was surreal, even from a few hundred metres away. You know when you're in the ocean, and you hit pockets of warm water, compared with the rest? The air around the ice caves was like that - for the most part chilly and refreshing on a warm day, with unexpected patches of warmer air.

It's a given that I took far too many photos. I brought the DSLR along, as well as my phone, and the images below are a mix from the two. With the exception of the first photo (Instagrammed), none of these have been edited or filtered. The clouds passed over and changed the light a fair bit, which accounts for the difference in brightness.

Beautiful, n'est-ce pas? Something about this landscape gave me flashbacks to being in the Swiss Alps - as in, so beautiful it brought a lump to my throat.

Vancouver

Over the Easter weekend - I wish I could say holiday or break, but America doesn't do that [insert eye roll] - we took a little road trip to Vancouver. Finally. It's something we've wanted to do since moving to Seattle, but had to wait until our updated US visas were sorted... and then we were in the throes of winter. I've already been to Vancouver a number of times, but it was always winter so I was hoping to see some spring glory there for a change.

As it happens, spring in Vancouver involves a lot of rain. Weather-wise, nothing different to Seattle. Grey skies, rain, and a total of about ten-minutes diluted sunshine over the two days we were in town. Oh well! Lucky for that city, it's such a stunning beauty that we didn't really mind.

The trip itself was straightforward, without too long a wait at the US/Canada border crossing. We giggled at the sign to remind American visitors of the change to metric on the roadsigns, but our giggles turned to face-palming when our phones buzzed with a welcome message, notifying us of changes to the data roaming charges. Faaaark. We'd packed our passports but we'd completely overlooked the fact that - being in a different country, of course our usual phone plan rates wouldn't apply. Something about driving into foreign territory, as opposed to flying, made it feel, well, not so foreign. And having been here in the Pacific Northwest for almost a year, nothing stuck out as that different. So, having been stung (badly!) by data roaming charges on our first trip back to Australia, we decided we'd just have to switch that option off on our phones, and limit our online time to the free wi-fi in our hotel.

We had no road maps on us - taking Siri and Google Maps for granted when we left home - but fortunately I'd looked at the route online before we set off, and the road we were on at the US/Canada border crossing took us directly to the city. Handy, right? As for finding our hotel, we had to wing it but we had two things going in our favour. Firstly, even though it was more than ten years since we were last there, we'd been a few times and spent significant chunks of time in downtown Vancouver - where our hotel was - because J's sister lived there for seven years. How much could it have changed? Secondly, I have an excellent sense of direction. I was confident we'd find the hotel - a distinct building we'd walked past many times on prior visits - without drama, and we did.

We chose the Fairmont Hotel because the old building alone is a-freaking-mazing. We used to walk past it and admire everything about it. When I called to potentially book a room, and learned we could use J's Microsoft very generous employee discount, the deal was sealed. When I showed pictures to the girls, there were gasps because they thought it looked like a palace. Win.

Anyhow, Vancouver was every bit as wonderful as I remembered it to be. Smaller than Seattle, shinier, cleaner, with a mountainous backdrop (pending those rain clouds) that is BAM-in-your-face. The mix of old and new architecture is very similar to Sydney's, and despite the cold climate, it feels more like home to me than any other foreign city has. We knew exactly which spots we wanted to take the girls to, and Vancouver Aquarium was one of them. Located in Stanley Park (the equivalent of Central Park in NYC but much more untamed and on the edge of wilderness), J and I first went in 2000, and we were so impressed that we vowed then and there that we'd return with our future, hypothetical kids one day. Lucky for us, the girls were equally enamoured, and it felt sweet to fulfil that particular little dream of ours.

We spent the two days on foot only, revisiting old hangouts. We got pretty soaked at one point, but the fancy hotel digs and indoor pool compensated for that. The Easter Bunny paid a visit to our hotel room and that cemented how awesome Vancouver is to the girls. Our beds were possibly the plushest, most comfortable ever, and when it was time to leave and head back to Seattle, the girls were very much in a state of end-of-holiday blues. A week later, they're both hatching plans to return and I have to admit, it'd be great to see even more of Canada. Hopefully we will some day. With the metric system, the British Royal Family gracing their magazine covers, and Queen Elizabeth on their money, it's like J said - being in Canada is a little like being in America, but the familiar Commonwealth elements soften the American edges.

I did pack the good camera, but with all the rain we were walking in, it never left our hotel room. I'm still happy with the photos I was able to get, though:

Mementos from visits to Vancouver over the years. Douglas Coupland is one of my favourite writers (to the point where I've gone to several book signings and met him), so I snapped this book up after my first trip to Vancouver.

The older building with the green roof was our hotel.

Gargoyle from our room.

This 'Digital Orca' creation was by none other than Douglas Coupland.
Do you know how much I geeked out when I discovered that?

This city - swoon! But may I see you again with blue skies some day...

What cherry blossoms?

Cherry blossoms are so yesterday.

Over the weekend, I fulfilled one of my other bucket list items - to be surrounded by fields of tulips.

Along with who knows how many other thousands, we drove an hour north of Seattle to the Skagit Vally Tulip Festival. Thankfully, we arrived early enough to beat the nightmarish traffic, and any time we did spend sitting in the car en route was totally worth it. It was the warmest, most cloudless day yet this year, and by the end of our visit I had several hundred photos under my belt, one bunch of  the lovely-sounding chameur tulips, and a catalogue for tulip-bulb ordering. I may have a black thumb, dammit, but seeing how effortlessly tulips seem to flourish here in Seattle, I am determined to grow some of my own for next spring.

Funnily enough - given the T-shirt and flip-flops weather - we capped the day by stopping off at a popular outlet mall on the way home, and successfully found North Face and Columbia waterproof snow gear for both the girls at almost half their normal retail price. They won't be needing them for some time, but come next winter there'll be no more need for raincoats layered over puffy jackets - they'll finally have the proper attire for some serious snow adventures. Now just to get myself kitted out...

Disclaimer: If tulips bore you, look away now.