11 miles and 2,700 feet later...
We went camping/hiking this weekend up near Snoqualmie Pass.
At Tinkham Campground, our camp host, Bert, was a jovial (albeit forgetful) man who drove around a golf-cart with cleaning supplies and cracked jokes about digging holes for our bums when we slept. We jokingly suggested that we get our picture taken with him, and he pulled out a camera to oblige us and emailed us a few photos.
Our reserved campsite was by the river, but I-90 happened to be on the other side, so we moved across camp.
Friday afternoon, we hiked up to Talapus Lake. Dad's pack has this nifty sack of water with a hose attached so you can drink while hiking. Here, Dad is filling one bladder while emptying the other.
As we ate lunch on logs in the lake, chipmunks came over to see if we'd feed them. Dad gave one a date pit to see if it'd eat it, and it was so tasty it bit Dad's finger looking for more! Diana started to wolf down more dates as it became apparent that the chipmunks loved them. (More chipmunk photos: 1, 2)
On Saturday, we hiked up to Snow Lake on a rocky, exposed trail that provided little shade to combat the unbearable heat.
On the way up, Diana and I had remarked that we wished the lake was on the floo network (as she couldn't apparate, being an underage wizard), but we thought there wouldn't be a fireplace. To our surprise, at the lake was the site for an abandoned stone cabin, so Diana pretended she'd arrived via floo powder.
Regular marshmallows have gelatin in them, so Diana and I opted to make our s'mores with marshmallow cream and heat them in a pan over the stove. This was a great idea, except that graham crackers burn quickly. In my panic from charring the crackers, I set the frying pan on the tarp-table cloth, thus burning a large whole in the top that took all three of us half an hour to peel off. Yay for cooking skills!
That evening, we made hemp anklets and played a round of Pinochle. I won by a landslide, and many of my plays angered Diana, as shown above.
Despite having slept in a bit this morning, Diana was still not keen to see the light of day and therefore leave our campsite behind. However, there was nothing for Diana to complain about, as she took her half of the air matress up the middle, causing me to roll off multiple times in my sleep.