Gina's Wedding

Scott & I attended my niece Gina's wedding last night at the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie.  The service was beautiful & the reception was lovely.  It was so nice to be able to share in her special day. 

With my dashing husband.

Her flowers were gorgeous!  Snoqualmie Falls in the background.

Gina and Larry with her Mom (my sister Kim) and Dad.

Ronnie w/baby Thomas, Angie, Ron, Gina, Kim, Toni and Julie.

Surprise Visit to Pullman to see the Pentalum

In her role as the Arts Programmer for the Student Entertainment Board, Corey was responsible for bringing the Pentalum luminarium to campus this weekend.  It was a huge undertaking, and she pulled it off with flying colors.  We wanted to come see what she put so much work into, so we drove over Friday morning to surprise her.  It was great to see her and to tour the Pentalum.  It was really cool, but hard to describe, so I will use the description from the flyer they handed out. 

"Pentalum luminarium is a sculpture people enter to be immersed in radiant light & color. Since 1992 Architects of Air's luminaria have enchanted over 3 million visitors in 41 countries around the world. Pentalum is inspired by the beauty of natural geometry and by Islamic architecture.  It features winding passages of small domes inspired by repetitious forms found in the bazaars of Iran. The luminosity of light and color inside Pentalum is created purely by the light shining through the colored plastic. All the individual pieces have been cut & glued together by hand in the workshop in Nottingham, England."

We found out that it takes approximately 6 months to make one of these luminaria.  This specific one is headed to Texas after the weekend at WSU.  Corey was in charge of 30 volunteers who helped inflate, deflate & work at the Pentalum.   She worked tirelessly and everything came together seamlessly.  We are so proud of her!

She was working inside when we showed up.

It was fun to explore all the tunnels.  It was so HOT inside.  The red/yellow areas were hotter than the blue/green areas.

The ceiling in one of the areas.

Taking a break.

What it looks like from the outside.

Yoh! Hike to Windy Ridge

This morning Scott & I joined Teresa & Stacey on a Yoh! hike at Windy Ridge on Mt. St. Helens.  It was really foggy when we started out.  The drive there took forever because we could barely see 20 feet ahead of us, and the road was very narrow & windy.  We left Tumwater at 7:00 am and started hiking around 9:40.  The hike was 4.5 miles roundtrip, but we walked for about an extra half mile past the turn around point, so in all we hiked approximately 5.5 miles.

The trail was on a closed road.  We didn't get any views until the way back because the fog was quite relentless.  There were parts where you could barely see 10 feet ahead of you.  The sun did its best to come out, and by the time we returned to the trailhead at around noon, we were able to view some of the surrounding hills.   After a quick potty break we decided to climb the 439 (yes! we counted!) stairs to the view point.  It was definitely worth the effort.  We had amazing views of the mountain & Spirit Lake.  It was a lot of fun.  I would definitely love to come back next summer and hike some of the other trails in this area. 

Our first view of Spirit Lake.  Very gray with the cloud cover.



Me & Stacey

Teresa

Our trail was Windy 216E 2.25 miles one way.

Selfie at the start of the hike.  What was behind all that fog?

Much better view from that same spot on the way back. 

This is where we were supposed to turn around, but we decided to push on.  The landscape was all pumice stones.  Very eerie landscape in the fog.

We built these cairns in case we got lost in the fog.

This is where we turned around.

Looking backwards on the trail.  The fog was finally starting to lift.

Lots of pretty Paintbrush were blooming.

 

The water looked more blue with the sun.

Here is Scott about to climb to the viewpoint. 

Looking down at Teresa coming up.

The view point!

Scott & I with a partial view of Mt. St. Helens in the background.

One last selfie on the way home.