Emily and Mitchell in the USA

 We finished up our four hour drive from Anacortes and the San Juan Islands at the lodge in Mt Rainier National Park. We had to drive for a while through the park itself and saw amazing views of the mountains, covered in trees with big valleys and rivers, and snowy caps in the distance.  We made a stop at reflection lakes which was beautiful in the late afternoon light. The mountains and trees were reflected in the pools and the water was so clear and still.  We kept driving for another 20 minutes or so and finally reached the lodge. We checked in to our little room, which had a lovely view of the trees, and then went to explore. There was a hiking trail which started from outside the lodge so we went to see the short trail connected to that.  It took us to myrtle falls, and because it was late in the day, there weren't so many people around and I managed to get some great shots with no-one in the background. It was a smallish wate...

This was probably the biggest stretch of our journey, as this park is so vast and diverse.  Our first stop was for lunch on the way from Mt Rainier. It was a small cafe/diner called the Lake Quinault Internet Cafe. They did indeed have Wi-Fi which was good for us as there hadn't been any at the lodge. We got some food and then went down to explore the lake. We had to drive through a campsite (which was very lovely and rainforesty) but found the day use parking and went for a paddle. The water was a nice temperature and if we'd been staying at the campsite we would definitely have gone for a swim.  But we got back in the car and kept driving to our next destination. We reached the coast in the afternoon and drove past a few beach spots, all which were part of Olympic National Park (as was the lake). We stopped at Ruby Beach which has the iconic rock formations and driftwood of Washington beaches. The sand is very dark, almost black, and while very stony at the fores...