Carl Hutzler’s Blog

The kids were out of school for fall break so the whole family went off to Seattle to visit my brother, Paul.

We got in around noon and rented our car which took a while as I was cheap and went with an off-site rental location which I always swear I won’t do again but do anyway :-) Once we got into town, we decided to grab some lunch in Ballard which is a neighborhood just north of downtown. We ate a a great mexican place. Then we went over to Archie McPhee’s and scouted the random stuff they have which is always fun to look through - odds and ends of toys and motors and magic 8 balls, and nun chuckers with real flying nuns. You get the idea.

While we were looking around, my brother emailed my mom back in Baltimore telling her he had no phone as he had just moved to a new place. So I would have no way to call him. But he did say he was a coffee house in Ballard (great, that narrows it down). My mom called me and gave me the address. I told her to look up the directions on the web and she did and provided some reasonable instructions. She emailed Paul back and conveyed that we would be there in 15 minutes. I think there is a need for an Email to Phone to Web to Phone to Email gateway. Someone should create something :-)

Anyway, we drove over to “Q Cafe” on 15th Street and after missing the exit and driving backwards up the on-ramp, we arrived. Paul was inside finishing up a café olé. We talked for a while and caught up. He had not seen the kids in a year or so.

First Sighting: Paul drives a Bio Diesel VW GTI.

It was late in the afternoon and we decided to all head back to the hotel and check-in. The kids wanted to swim and Paul wanted some help with some computer stuff as he had just bought a new laptop. The day wrapped up with me giving Paul a ride back to his place and having a little dinner at the Irish bar around the corner.

The next day (Friday) we walked from the hotel towards downtown to see the Science Center. We were up fairly early so we decided to take our time and visit the Center for Wooden Boats which is located on Lake Union in Seattle. They make and restore boats made from, you guessed it, wood! Some beautiful boats at that. We got a personal tour from one of the guys who was surprised to see tourists so early and in October. Usually the place has most of its visitors during the summer.

We moved on to the Science Center. Seattle has a good Science Center with fun things to do outside even before you get in in their “water park”. Jake and Anna had fun with the bubble making machine and the Nitrogen is Cold show.

Next we went to the top of the space needle. We were really lucky with the weather on this trip. Usually Oct through Jan are the greyest and wettest months for the Northwest, but somehow we got lucky for our 4 day stay and it was beautiful!

After the space needle we walked back to the hotel via the EMP and enjoyed some of the sculpture they had outside.

After we got back to the hotel we joined up with my brother again for lunch at the Totem House and walked across the street to the park where you can watch boats navigate through the locks from Puget Sound up into Lake Union (and Lake Washington). Its a lot of fun to watch the locks in action and all the big (and small) boats moving up and down. They also have a fish ladder to allow salmon and other species to navigate up though the locks/dam into the lake and streams above.

After the park, we dropped Paul back at his place and went back to the hotel. We had a big day on Saturday as we were going to do some Volcano Touring.

Saturday morning started as a foggy day but we could quickly see that the sky was blue and clear above. By 10am or so there was not a cloud in the sky as we drove 70mph down I-5 towards Mt. Saint Helens.

We turned off the highway and started heading east towards the national park and grabbed lunch and a milkshake at a little place along the way. About 45 minutes later we could see the mountain all encrusted with snow and ice.

As we drove closer we ascended to about 4000 feet and the Johnston Ridge Observatory which is about 5 miles from the crater/mountain itself. I had never been to the volcano myself and was impressed by how desolate the entire area still is. There are no trees except for a few stumps that look like they have been sheered right off and even fewer tree trunks. After hearing the range talk, we understood why.

When the mountain erupted, it was actually a sequence of events. The mountain was weakened over the years by acidic rain water eating into its support structure. An earthquake back on the day in 1980 (May 18th) was enough to jar the mountain and cause a massive collapse of the northern slope. This collapse allowed millions of tons of material to fly at 300 to 500 miles/hour away from the mountain and towards the spot where I was standing! Along the way it blasted trees and picked them up like tooth picks in the massive wind. Nothing was sparred. As the tempest moved across the valley it slammed into the side of Johnston Ridge and then up and over. It kept going up the side of the next mountain range which was steep enough to contain it and push it down the Toutle River valley.

The mountain then erupted! Once it was torn apart by the mudslide, the hot gases allowed pyroclastic “stuff” to shoot from deep inside the mountain, and well, the rest is history. But maybe not?? The mountain is still very active. On the day we were there a steady plume of smoke and gases could be seen billowing from the lava dome. Evidently it is still growing domes of rock and the mountain is growing once again.

(Click image to enlarge Mt. Saint Helens lava dome)

We left Mount Saint Helens around 2pm and drove North (well, West and then North and then East - this is the Cascades) to Mount Rainier. What the heck, if you are going to see a volcano, why not do a couple?

We got to Rainier around sunset and drove up to Paradise. Jake wanted to see snow so we decided to embark on a steep and quick power hike up the side of Rainier to see if we could find snow. We quickly found a few small patches left over from the last storm. But that was not sufficient. So we kept going. 1100 vertical feet later we found what we had come for!

As the sun set, I shared some of my memories of climbing Rainier when I was a kid (15 years old?) with Jake. He said he wanted to climb up to Camp Muir (10,000 feet) and I told him I would be happy to do it next year with him. This was the first time I remember Jake being able to keep up with me on a serious hike. He is obviously getting bigger and is in terrific shape. He could make it to Muir…perhaps even to the summit.

We watched the alpine glow hit Mt. Adams and the lower Cascade range below us as we walked down the mountain to the car. We stopped briefly in the Rainier Mountaineering guide hut and I showed Jake a few pictures they had on the wall of what its like to climb Rainier. Tough to believe I am 25 years older now. But I could do it again! :-)

On our last full day in Seattle (Sunday) we went down to Pike Market and Paul met up with us. He arrived in the infamous Moped that he traveled on from Seattle to Skagway (AK). The kids enjoyed some time on the bikeas well.

After the market, we went to Discovery Park in Magnolia. Anna collected leaves and we walked along the shore of Puget Sound. It was a beautiful afternoon to just throw rocks into the water.

On Monday morning it was raining once again and time to leave. We got some coffee and bought a gift for our neighbors who were watching Mandy dog. We then made our way back to the airport for our trip home. It was a great way to spend fall break with the family.