Day 33: 160 miles and not a single photo

We packed up the car (with the new cartop carrier) and 3 adults and 2 kids. It was quite literally packed.

We picked up breakfast from a bakery that should have been touristy and disappointing but was so very very delicious.

We drove from Wenatchee to Seattle.

We learned that hotels feel like they can be unattentive to your needs if you book through Hotwire and that Holiday Inn Express Seatac is the smokiest, stinkiest non-smoking hotel ever.

We were overwhelmed by the things we could do with an evening in Seattle and ended up walking around Pike Place Market as it was closing down. 

We ate an amazing dinner of tomatoes (flown here from our own garden) and bread.

And now we sleep.

Day 32: Hiking, boating, car rides and packing it all up

We were worried about timing.

We had to hike down the mountain (6 miles or so) to catch the shuttle at 11:30am (or hike 2.5 more miles back to town) to get to Stehekin by 12:15pm to catch the last boat back to civilization so that we could get back to our kids and our hotel in time to pack up all of our stuff so that we could get it all loaded in the car before check out time tomorrow.

How do you calculate hiking times?

If we missed the boat, we were screwed. We would have to camp somewhere near the docks. If we caught the first boat leaving Stehekin, we still wouldn't get back to civilization until 4pm tomorrow. We would have to use the satelite phone in Stehekin (because this is a remote place with a one room schoolhouse) to call mom, break the news and work out a plan for her to pack and load up all of the stuff, with kids in tow, by herself. An impossible feat.

So we broke down our campsite early. 

Very early.

And then we hiked down the mountain very quickly.

We were so sick of mosquitos that we hardly stopped for photo taking.

And we made our shuttle bus! And we got some food from the bakery!

And just as I was about to go into the water to clean up and cool off, the boat arrived.

And, as if things were not going perfectly enough, we managed to catch the quicker of the 2 boats.

So our reunion happened early and the kids were happy and we were dizzy and hungry and overwhelmed. When that happens, showers help.

As does a quick stop by an impromptu concert at a winery.

I started counting my mosquito bites and quit after 150. I look like I have chicken pox. Paul's mosquito bite count? 0.