Week #2 – National Holiday
On the 4th July national holiday came. Moritz had a day off on Thursday. This not only meant celebration to us but we also performed moving act #3 -> we have moved to a different room in the same hotel as we could hardly sleep from the ventilation noise in our first room.
The center of the celebrations in the city is the Gas Works park. Here the street festival is on the whole day. From noon people are reserving their sweet spot to see the evening firework from the best location.
We paid our due visit to the street festival in the afternoon but then we choose to see the fireworks from a less jammed location = right in front of our hotel.
Friday was moving act #4 as we have chosen to relocate to the outskirts of the city hoping not only to sleep better but to be also closer to hiking trails. The rest of the day we spent with setting up permits to the national parks.
The sweet treasure of the day was when we have found an abandoned box of mochis while having lunch in the The Wholefoods Market in Bellevue. There were at least 16 mochi inside each costing 2dollar. Big loss for the stupid guy caused great joy and satisfaction to us. Coffee taste mochi is the best!
Saturday finally hitting the road to hike again. We selected the Alpine Lake Wilderness section of the Mt. Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest. We have visited 5 lakes during our tour - Lake Rainbow, Island, Pratt and Olialli. We loved all of them especially the Pratt lake. Unfortunately sun was not shining and Moritz had a headache - no worries : next time!
We had some snacks while sitting at the rainbow lake. In like 5 minutes this bird attached us. This little thing was not afraid from us, it came very close and did not want to leave. I really have this thing with the birds…
On the way to the parking it was getting late people have already left the forest. While walking determined to reach the car asap I was confronted with this friendly animal. He was silently standing in front of me not being scared at all!
Yeah it could have been worse - we did not see a bear, yet…
Sunday I felt tired from walking 28 km the previous day. Moritz on the other hand wished to attack the nearby Bandera mountain. So there we went. Weather was grey and half if the peak was covered by clouds.
Too bad we missed the stunning view of Mt Ranier from the peak.
On our way walking up the mountain we saw a lady falling on a small stone. Having spent the last couple of years in The Netherlands we were well educated by the dutch manners and so we pretended we did not see the fall. The lady stood up and continued walking. When she has approached us she loudly stated ‘ Guys it is amazing that you did not ask how am I doing! Just amazing.”
Well people are different here.
Actually surprise #1 for me in the US is that people actually care about your answer to their greeting question. I heard many times how impersonal Americans are when they always ask how are you when they meet you. With this in mind whenever this happened to me I smiled and did not answer their ‘hello how are you doin’’?’ Firstly I noticed their weird look on me not answering. Secondly when I greeted people asking how they are doing I always got extensive answer like not so good, it’s okay, i am very tired - definitely not always ‘GREAT’! The funniest so far was the guy helped us renting the car. He extensively explained how busy he is today and he pointed us to his unfinished cup of coffee ‘I did not even have time to drink my coffee.’ It was noon.
