From a recent week end in Philadelphia: typical American road on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge 

Best Of - last week end in Montreal and Parc du Mont Orford with David. For more details, see Elise's blog at http://elisedrouyer.blogspot.com 

Preparing next trip

Next trip will be Montreal this week end, I have to work more hours than usual so that we can leave on Friday afternoon.
That doesnt leave much time for the blog ;-)
It's been the usual week in New York, with the terrorist alert, random backpack searches in the subway (first time I see it at 96th st although I think I travel to the 3 busiest subway stations every morning at rush hour), severe weather (it seems summer is definitely over since last week end) etc...

We went visiting an interesting exhibition with Elise, Katia and Arnaud on Sunday, about slavery in New York, and also to another landmark that I didn't know: the incredibly huge Toys R us store right in the middle of Times Square. Still have plenty of tourists things to do :-)

Seattle Spirit!!

Seattle spirit! In Seattle, they just call it "the mountain". I'll refer to it by its usual name: Mount Rainier. We saw it from the plane just before landing, towering 4400m above the city and dwarfing Mount Baker, on the other side of the plane. Hugh was so kind to take us to his favorite scenic hike at Burroughs mountain for our first day in the NorthWest.

The following serie of photos is from this hike, in Mount Baker National Park. That was the first highlight of our trip.

Thanks again to Hugh and Ina for treating us like kings at their house, to Hugh for his kindness assisting us in finessing our planning, he was a great advisor and knows the region incredibly well. Thanks also to Ina for the visit on saturday, and to her little monster daughter for "entertaining us" :-) We had a fantastic stay!!

Mount Rainier on an exceptionnally bright day, from second Burroughs mountain 

on the moon, between second and third burroughs mountain 

Elise and Jn again 

Mount Rainier from First Burroughs mountain 

The mighy glaciers of (one face) of Mount Rainier (around 4460m). Looks a bit like Mont Blanc, and a bit like Nanga Parbat 

Elise and Emmons glacier 

Hugh, my grand grand uncle-in law fan of hiking, our great host in Seattle!!

Elise on the moon :-) 

Milky emerald lake. There used to be a glacier down there a few decades ago 

Pond on the way back 

This serie of pictures is from our first day in the Olympics National Park. From Seattle, we took a ferry accross Puget Sound to the Olympic peninsula, and then drove to Sol Doc where we hiked to Mink Lake and had a relaxing end of afternoon in the natural hot springs. We even camped in a semi-rainforest at Sol Duc campground 

The Olympics from the ferry 

Crescent Lake 

Mink lake: hey I saw something moving in the bushes!! 

Mink lake 

Elise is trying the classic method to protect food from the bears 

This serie of pictures was shot in the Bogachiel rainforest, at the border of the Olympic National Park. It's the only temperate rainforest in the US, and one of the few in the world. It bears a striking ressemblance of the cloud forests of Costa Rica. Everything is soo green and mosses and lichens are everywhere. The only difference: this rainforest is spookily silent despite all the animals that stay there (racoons, bears, cougars). We couldn't see animals but definitely recognized bear's footprints in the mud... 

The greeeeny mossy Bogachiel rain forest 

Jn is not yet tree-sized... Eat more soup, Jn! 

The following pictures were taken on the coastal part of Olympic National Park, on Rialto and Second beaches, near the Indian reservation of "La Push" (which has nothing folkloric, it's a sad place). It's a very unusual beach, with tall coniferous, brown sand pebbles, and beautiful rocky islets. We were still lucky to be accompanied by terrific weather 

Elise 

Sunset on second beach...