What We Did This Friday. . .

James was wanting to go to hiking this week. So on Friday we got in the car and drove up to Rainbow Falls State Park, which is 16 miles west of I-5 between Chehalis and Centralia. We've been there before. After we pulled off the freeway we were passed by a Ferrari. I didn't think much of it until we got to the park and went to use the restroom. As we came around a curve in the road we saw this:

TWENTY-TWO FERRARIS, out in the middle of rural Washington, at 2:00 on a Friday afternoon. It's not what we were expecting, and seemed a little surreal. They started up and left just as we arrived. I wish I had a picture of the look on James' face when they started their engines--it was sort of a look of Christmas morning wonderment, and he said "They PURR."

We started with a little hiking. It was sun-dappled shade on the trail, with occasional strong wiffs of evergreen.

We heard birds calling, but the only wildlife we spotted on the trail were a few of these:

That would be one of the famous Washington State slugs.

I think James looks good in the forest among the ferns:

Audrey had stayed up ALL NIGHT the night before, so she wasn't at her best, but she doesn't look too bad either:

After the hike we spent some time down by the falls themselves:

It was a lovely afternoon, but we almost didn't make it back to town for this:

John's band ("Keep Your Day Job") had their first truly public "gig" at Common Ground ("The Coffeehouse Formerly Known as Luigi's",) and it went very, very well. The place was packed, the staff was having to go up to the attic to bring down more chairs to seat everyone, there was a line to order and a wait for drinks and food. The band played for almost 3 hours, and for the record:

There was dancing. I was impressed. It seemed like there were still a lot of people when the band stopped playing at 10:00, so I took a quick head count and there were still over 50 people left in the crowd. The greatest proof of their success? The owner of the coffeehouse has asked them to play again. . .soon. . . on a SATURDAY night. (I wish I had more pictures of the band, but my battery died out on me. . .pooh.)