Dusty Dust Devil and Cle Elum Lake

Good Morning Richland! You know, it doesn't have the same effect as, say, Robin Williams. It's 8:30 am on this bright and sunny dMonday in Richland, WA. It is predicted to hit 95 today, with highs in the mid-to-upper 90s and lows around 60 all week. If only it would pass 100. We get ice cream when it gets over 100. When, not if.

So, it being Monday, I'm quite ahead of myself with the weekend update. This weekend's goal was to have a quiet and relaxing weekend. We went to the local minor league baseball game. The Tri-City Dust Devils. It was free bobblehead night, but we got there after they stopped giving them out. The nice man whose seat we stole (they scooted over one seat so we could sit with the people we had moved to sit with, some fellow interns) got me one though, because those with season tickets got a free one after the initial set was given out. It's a bobblehead of the mascot, Dusty, and is quite funny. I put a picture of him up. I think he's going to become our Flat Stanley on the way home. Take a picure of him everywhere we go.

Saturday morning, Ben and I packed up and headed out to go camping. We went to Kachess Lake, but couldn't find the campground, so we went over to Cle Elum Lake. There are three lakes right in a row, so we had lots of choices. We finally settled on the Red Mountain Campground and parked our car. We went to get our tent out of the trunk and realized that it was still safely nestled in the corner of our hall closet. Oops! Luckily there was a general store back down the road, so we bought a cheap tarp (more like an oversized garbage bag) and put our sleeping bags (yay for PNNL people with camping equipment) and mats on that. There was no threat of rain, so we weren't worried. We were right on the Cle Elum River (like just across the way). It was a pretty river, looked clear and clean (and COLD!). It had probably come off of a glacier in the North Cascades. Ben hopped right in. I stuck to the stand knee deep, then get the heck out of it. It was very very cold. We chilled by the river and read. We also hiked around at the lake for a while. Dinner was delicious (chili. yum. again, mad props to PNNL people with camping equipment). We could see the stars from our tarp, so we watched the satellites go over for a while. It was so clear that you could see just about everythying.

We got up and had breakfast and cleaned up camp at our own speed. We headed back to Richland and go there in time to nap/go to the pool/buy toilet paper. We could see both Mount Adams and Mount Rainier on the way home. The skies were nice and clear. It's so strange that you can see the lone tall mountains for miles and miles. There simply isn't anything here to block the view.