Was I In Another Country?!

Yes, I do believe I was.....

Uncle Chad loves to do active things such as bike riding and hiking, so I have been doing those things with him while here. I always like the idea of doing all that and in the summer time do it somewhat, but I am really not in shape. I re-decide that every time I am huffing and puffing up a hill that really isn't that big : /
Yesterday we took our bikes and drove out to the capital forest where there are some lovely trails that are used for mountain bikes, hiking, and horseback riding. Uncle Chad had me drive the truck (it's a big Ford thing that is fun to drive 'cause it makes me feel grown up!) because he said then I would know how and be able to take it anywhere I pleased this week =)
Anyway, it was a lovely day for such a thing as biking - I even got a sun burn!
I seriously felt like we were going through the red woods or something. Of course the trees weren't nearly as large, but since I have never actually seen the "real" ones, these seemed awfully close =)

             

      There was a whole stand of trees this big (!) all around one place we were biking through.

You think maybe this is a rain forest?!....I'm thinking so....

Especially with all this moss on everything - Uncle Chad said this tree looked like a super scary ghost =)

We left our helmets on because, like he said, who would want to see our messed up hair?! 

 Vermont just doesn't have trees this tall....

And then we came out of the rain forest into what Washington is really looks like.....and then we realized we were lost =) 

We were on this road hoping it would curve around to the main road we started from, but it ended up curving around the other way bringing us back to another section of the paths we'd passed. 

It was fine and fun, especially since my uncle is pretty hilarious. Of course he blamed us not knowing where we were on me. It was SO not my "fault". 

We were flying down this steep and long road, me hoping we wouldn't have to turn around and go back UP it, when he yells back to me, "If we don't find out where we are by Thursday we'll turn around!"

Well, that's good to know!

He'd brought two snacks for the trip, so when we ate the first one, he put the other one back explaining that that one was for Wednesday night. At least he was prepared....

Oh, and he was wearing a camel back so we'd have water and he would squirt it in my mouth instead of me sucking on it. Well, he'd aim it way back in my throat so it'd choke me nearly every time. I would feel it coming and then start laughing so then would start gagging =) 

A beautiful birch wood that reminded me of the first scene in the Anne of Green Gables

 This reminded me of walking down to the beach in Maine or something - these yellow flowers are everywhere here right now.

When we were finally on our way back, we realized how much up hill it really was on the way, because we went super fast back down, winding in between these trees.

That bit of white across the field is Mt. Rainier (covered in snow, hence the white :)). This field was also covered with naturally made little humps called Mima Mounds. It's protected from being smoothed out because there are only two places like that in the United States. I guess they study it too or something since it's been like that since the Flood.

It was a fabulous time of it and I was so tired afterwards. Don't really know how far we went but I feel like it was about 15 miles.
I slept well last night =)