The Casita!! (Day 15)

Nostalgia's for suckers - we have forgotten that last place as it's been replaced by the best place on the planet - The Casita! We may not return from here. 

When I first started looking into places to stay, The Casita was one of the first places I found. I knew we had to stay here and pretty much planned our itinerary based off of when we were able to get a few nights here. Here is the link to the place on vrbo:

http://www.vrbo.com/618155

But, really, the pictures here don't even do it justice. The flower garden and fish pond, as well as the gorgeous vegetable garden, help make this place amazing. Oh, and we are nestled in the mountains. And there's a hot tub. Tonight, sitting in the hot tub with the kids, looking up at the mountains, I thought, I am so glad we saved this place for last. 

I'll back up a bit and tell you about our journey, which was very easy. We left the A-frame at 7:45 this morning, wanting to make our drive by early afternoon. We had 4.5 hours ahead of us. For the first time this trip, we had to double back, going south down 101 until Aberdeen, where we then went east on highway 12. We made just one stop, in Aberdeen, and then made it to The Casita around 1pm. The second half of the drive was very, very pretty, and reminiscent of our drive through Vermont - mountains all around but not closing in on you. On the way, we could have stopped and taken a trip to Mt. St. Helens as we went past where we needed to turn. But, to get to it, we knew it would take an hour, which meant adding 2 hours of driving time to the day. Plus, it was pretty cloudy at the time and we worried we would drive an hour and not see much. We will do it either tomorrow or the next day when we can pack a lunch and plan to be gone for the day. 

When we got to The Casita, we were greeted by Glenda and John the owners and people who live in the main house. They are, quite possibly, the nicest people on the planet. Glenda is an artist and makes jewelry and beautiful stained glass windows, among other things. John is a jack of all trades and worked as a firefighter and worked for the state fire marshall's office. His parents owned the main house and John and Glenda inherited it and then added on. They built The Casita a few years ago, originally intended to be an office, but they have rented it out for about a year. They said it has kept them very busy as it's rented most of the time. Glenda, wanting to set it apart from the many other rentals in the area, offers breakfast with the rental and also will cook other meals for a fee. She does all the cleaning herself, and it is clear that they have thought of every single detail to make their guests so comfortable. I even noticed extra bathing suits in the closet, presumably for those who may have forgotten one. 

The Casita has a small bedroom with two twins that is separated from the master with a pocket door. Then the master has a nice, four post bed, a large closet, a big vanity and a bathroom. There is also a washer/dryer (cursing ourselves for doing laundry yesterday!) in the master, set off with a curtain. The kitchen is small but has everything you might need, and then some. There is a walk in pantry with things like a crock pot, a vitamix, calphalon pans, etc. There is even a salad spinner. Never have we been in a rental with such nice kitchen stock. Next to the kitchen is a living area with a nice desk area and cool set up for television and music. There is a Bose sound system in the house and it's all rigged up to play cds or music from your phone even. I mean, we went from flushing our toilet with a foot pedal to this - no contest! 

Really, the best part of this place is the outside. Will and I were both saying it looks like someplace you would see in Home and Garden magazine or something. They do all the work themselves and make us feel like quite the lazy homeowners. I mean, we just leave all summer and make 0 improvements! We were joking with them, but you could tell they appreciate the adventures we take with our kids. The kids, by the way, are in heaven again because we get to share their black lab, Malley, for the next few days as well. Malley is 11, very well trained, and sweet as can be. She follows the kids around and lets them pet her. John brought out treats for the kids to feed her, too. Maybe this will satisfy their urge for a dog for a while. More likely, it will strengthen their resolve to fight for one! 

When we picked our jaws off the ground from admiration of this place, we asked for advice on what to do with the rest of the afternoon. They suggested this hike just in the Mt. Rainier National Park called the Grove of Patriarchs trail.  It was only a 25 minute drive or so, and really a great hike. The big trees reminded us of the redwoods, though the trunks aren't quite as big. These trees are different spruce trees and Douglas Firs. Some of the trees in this forest are 1,000 years old. It is crazy to think what they have seen. Another neat part of the hike was a long suspension bridge to cross a river. A sign suggested one person at a time, but both kids went with me. I was a bit nervous, but I am hoping the bridge would just think there was a 200 plus person on it and be ok. It held. 

From that hike, we went back into the town of Packwood to load up on some groceries for the next few days. We parked in the IGA and had an amazing view of Rainier right from the lot! Back at our new home, we made pizza and picked fresh lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and snap peas from the garden (also part of the deal...we can pick whatever) for a salad. We ate, then the kids and I went in the hot tub while John showed Will a trail close to the house. Then, the kids had ice cream before heading to bed. 

We cannot tell you how comfortable we are here. There were many redeeming qualities about our Bogachiel solar powered A-frame, but this suburban girl likes her kitchen sinks in the kitchen and her power from a 120 volt outlet.