Random review - Mt. Rainier getaway

Hello! I hope you guys had a fun Easter weekend, we definitely did! I love a weekend getaway..LOVE. It's one of my favorite things. We stayed in a cabin just outside Mt. Rainier National Park and went on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad Easter Bunny train.

First, the cabin. We really like Three Bears Lodge. They have four properties in the Mt. Rainier area. Their cabins are clean, comfy, and well stocked. We've stayed at the Lazy Creekside cabin before, it is so charming and cozy. I'll absolutely rent that again...off season. It's expensive. :) It's one of the nicest vacation rentals I've ever stayed it, maybe even my favorite. They really went over the top on the cabin theme, everything has a fish or a bear on it, but it's done in a good way. This time around, it was just our family, so we opted for the Little Bear cabin. It was very clean and well stocked, just as I had expected. It doesn't have the cabin feel of the creekside property, but it had everything you need. They have a nice hot tub, and a good selection of books and movies. I didn't take a lot of pictures of the cabin, but it's comfortable. We did a lot of lounging:

Our big "event" for this trip was the Easter Bunny train offered by the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad. The kids had never been on a train, nor had I, so this sounded fun. I think this was their first event of the year, they were running a bit behind, close to an hour. That got rough with a line full of antsy children, but we got through it. Everyone was very nice and took lots of pics, including this one:

We started off in a closed car and it was a lot like riding the bus, to be honest. It's an old train, the windows don't stay up, it's dingy, you know. It was an absolutely beautiful day, amazing weather, and we were shocked to find empty seats outside! You know, right behind the thing that spews the billows of black smoke and makes you feel guilty because the day before was earth day and your kids are breathing known carcinogens:

Choo! Choo! *cough-cough*

The top speed is only like 15mph, so you're not being whipped in the wind when you're outside, it's really lovely and the only way to experience the train, imo. This ride included a stop with an egg hunt and Easter Bunny visit. It was cute, but not that memorable. One thing that was curious was a large pile of wooden stakes in the little kid egg hunt area. They were covered in splinters and had screws sticking out. Maybe they have a vampire problem there. *shrug* Obviously, that's what every toddler boy wanted to play with, and Tuffy nearly got clobbered with one, so we peaced out and got back on the train.

Choo! Choo!

Our rental had a nice kitchen, so we opted to cook all of our meals except for one. We stopped for lunch at a nearby restaurant. We didn't let the tumbleweeds rolling through the parking lot deter us. Outside the front door, there was a man struggling with and swearing at a large, inflatable bunny. When we went in, I discovered that he would also be our server and chef. I got the feeling this wasn't the kind of place that went in for high-falutin' stuff like safe food handling practices and hand warshin', so we opted for fried food all around!

This is a 100% candid photo I took of Jesse at lunch, it sums it up nicely:

My fish sticks had extra stinky fish flavor, and what appeared to be a long, white cat hair garnish. I didn't mind so much, because I had just finished this thing:

*hiccup!*

On our way home, I swear to you, there was a pug outside the restaurant who did his best to hoist his fat body into our car. I thought I heard him yelp "Heelllp meeee".

So, that was our trip!