Mima Mounds

Tom and I have had a weekend of following where the wind blows. We had originally planned to visit Montana this weekend but decided to do that the weekend after mother's day. So, we didn't have any plans and any time we got a phone call/email invitation to do something, we just went with it--what a luxury to have the time to just do that! 

So, Saturday I checked out the REI garage sale while Tom helped Dave move into his new place (they didn't need my muscles anyway right?). Then we joined Diana and Katie to go visit Grammy Jean in Seattle, and spontaneously decided to stop by Mae Phim for lunch. So delicious and so cheap!

Then, we got a call from Geoff and Jess about a Cinco de Mayo BBQ. We enjoyed a lovely BBQ dinner (none of which was Mexican themed) and a night of board games and laughs. As we closed off the evening they mentioned they were going on a hike on Sunday, so we agreed to meet back at 9 AM to start our adventure. 

We drove in a duo of Prius's (Pri'i?, how do you make Pruis plural?)

We visited a place I had never even heard of before, the Mima Mounds. It's a park about 45 minutes south of Tacoma. It's basically an open field with all of these mounds that no one is really sure where they came from.There are several hypotheses (glaciers, sediment layers and even gophers). There is about a 2 mile walking trail through the mounds, (we were promised a "hike" by Geoff's sister, Merideth, but we soon learned that was not the case). Each mound was covered with beautiful wild flowers. The pictures most certainly do not do them justice!

 We enjoyed the walk with the company of 5 other people-- Geoff and Jessica, Merideth and John (Geoff's sister and her husband) and Merideth's college friend, Stacy. It was a gorgeous day in the pacific northwest and we thoroughly enjoyed our leisurely stroll through the mounds.

 Jessica and Merideth really didn't want to use an outhouse and I kept telling them that they should just "pull up a mound" but they didn't like that idea either...

 After the mounds, we headed off to Millersylvania State Park (who came up with that name anyway?). It was a cute little park by Scott Lake.

  The boys took time throwing baseballs and rocks, while us girls sat on the picnic tables and soaked in the sun rays.

 To end our glorious day, we stopped off in Olympia on our way home. We walked through the farmer's market which had always been closed each time that I had ever been in Olympia. It was much bigger than I had imagined and it was such a cool atmosphere. Jessica and Merideth had never been to Olympia, but both said "I could live here!" they liked it so much.

 And, after our "strenuous" hike, we obviously had to re-fuel ourselves, so we stopped in at a local diner that is famous for their milkshakes, fried and burgers. The food was great and the company was too! Yay for spontaneous weekend activities with friends!