Woke up to some nice views from the motel balcony. Happily surprised to find out that the motel offered a small continental breakfast, so we headed downstairs for some muffins and bagels. Ran into another STP rider on the way and talked for a bit.
The big disappointment was discovering that our restaurant is apparently no longer open on Mondays or Tuesdays, so instead of eating at the Columbian Cafe (the main reason for coming to Astoria), we found a coffee shop nearby.
After a stop for gas, we figured out our plans for the day and started driving towards Mt. Rainier. We stopped along the way once at a park area to let Simeon swing, run around, and eat a little bit for lunch. Nobody was overly hungry, but we did nibble on carrots and grapes.
Last November, flooding caused a huge amount of damage to Mt. Rainier so we headed up to Paradise. We didn’t stop again until we reached Rainier, but then we stopped at a number of turnoffs for pictures and stretching. It was a little cloudy most of the day, but it wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t take a lot of pictures. As we were heading back to the car after our Paradise stop, it actually completely cleared up. Sun shining. Mt. Rainier in all its splendor. We made a couple of stops at some turnoffs on the way down and then headed for home.
We made it home around 9pm. Simeon was still awake so we did the bedtime routine before we all crashed.
All-in-all a wonderful trip. Simeon behaved wonderfully – especially during the long car rides – so I’m not too nervous about other long car trips in the future. As long as we stop once or twice along the way, he’s just fine so long as he has a book in his lap and music playing.
Piya's Perspective 
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