On our last stop before entering the Mount Rainier National Park, we pulled over for lunch outdoors at a lovely roadside cafe called Wildberry. It offers "authentic Sherpa-Himalayan Cuisine of Nepal" and has a big outdoor seating area. I most enjoyed the sunlit prayer flags fluttering in summer breeze. Our morning fog was finally burning off.

Between Ashford and Elbe, Washington, there is an outdoor gallery for an artist named Dan Klennert who builds animals, people, machines, you name it, out of old iron parts or driftwood. Some of it is truly astonishing to see. He calls his park Ex-Nihilo, meaning "something from nothing." And exploring Ex-Nihilo was a real treat.