Part I
Thursday 9/8/2022
At 8:45 we were getting into the limo on our way to O’Hare. It was a push to get everything squared away with the real estate ladies and leave the house ready for showing. We had Rachel and Matt lined up to check on the house after showings (a commitment made after a nice dinner at Sushi Kushi). We were ready to roll.
The experience of getting from our front door to the SeaTac Rental Car Center went smoothly, with front row seats on the plane and beautiful views of the mountains. At the car rental center they pointed us to a Honda SUV and said “Have a nice time”. We were out of the facility and around the corner before realizing that the smell in the car was not something we could tolerate for three days. Back we went to the rental facility to trade it in for a different car. This was a Kia SUV. Not as nice but not smelly either. Off we went with the rest of the traffic, east and south toward Mt. Rainer National Park and Packwood WA. We got off the interstate and things thinned out considerably. We realized we needed to stop for groceries while there was still a supermarket available. We stopped at the Fred Meyer in Maple Valley. It was a giant store that included everything from groceries to clothing and garden supplies. We got our groceries and planned to go the the B&B for supper. “Do you have the key? Where’s the key?” “There it is, on the front seat!” Oh, boy, we were locked out! Our Toyota doesn’t allow that sort of thing to happen. We assumed all modern cars were so smart. So we called the Avis Road service. In the meantime we sat at a table outside the store and ate grocery store sushi. Finally a guy came and unlocked the car. Back in business. We drove another hour and a half and managed to find our “Cozy Cabin” near the Cowlitz River, in a neighborhood where every other house had a similar A-frame on the property. It was on a very quiet cul-du-sac and we really looked forward to three quiet nights of listening for owls.
Cozy Cabin was named for its tiny space and efficiency. It had everything you needed but nothing extraneous. Everything was condensed into a small space without being overly crowded. There was a queen size bed and we had a very quiet night’s rest. There was no stove top but in the morning Dad made perfect soft boiled eggs in a countertop electric kettle. He planned to repeat the menu for the next morning.
Friday, 9 9 2022
After breakfast we headed back north into Mount Rainier National Park. It was cool and sunny; a perfect day for sightseeing. We stopped at a trailhead parking area and grabbed the last spot. “Wonderland Trail” took us up and over a beautiful slot canyon.
We continued on to the Paradise Visitor’s Center. The trail from the visitor’s center was Dead Horse Creek Trail. It was a popular trail and we saw many hikers geared up for back-country hiking and camping. We took a paved trail that wound through scattered evergreen trees. We gained elevation and found ourselves in an alpine meadow full of flowers. Another hiker approached us, pointing excitedly and crying “Bird!”. It took us a moment to find a grouse foraging in the dense ground cover.
The bird was oblivious to our presence and allowed us to take a lot of photos. We finally realized that it was a Sooty Grouse, a target lifer for the trip!!
We had a picnic lunch at the visitor’s Center and decided to head back to the cabin. It was a long ride and we were ready for a little relaxation after we got there. The Kia we were driving seemed to have an alarm for everything, the most frequent one was the lane monitor. At one point there was a much louder alarm and I couldn’t figure out what it was. Then I looked at my phone. 
We hurried to our B&B through the curvy roads. As we passed the turn-off to go east the road was closed and there were six large army vehicles waiting there. As we got closer to the B&B we could see, and smell, clouds of smoke. 
We got to the cabin and packed up as fast as we could. We could smell the smoke coming through the neighborhood. There weren’t many people on the roads so we made good time. But where do we go now?
The fire was east of us so we went west to the base of Puget Sound. There was a national wildlife refuge there that could have a lot of shorebirds. We ended up right off Interstate 5 in Lacey, WA, minutes from the refuge. Lacey is the home of Joint Base Lewis-McChord. From the website: “Joint Base Lewis-McChord provides state-of-the-art training and infrastructure, responsive quality of life programs, and fully-capable mobilization and deployment operations for Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.” It occupies a huge area in Lacey.
We had a nice room and looked forward to birding the preserve in the morning.
Saturday, September 10, 2022
We started at the parking lot and walked past some shallow ponds on a boardwalk. The climate here is temperate rain forest. All of the trees had lichens growing on them and there were ferns everywhere. We didn’t find any interesting birds in the water. Further north in the refuge a boardwalk juts out a mile over a vast mudflat. We walked about three quarters of the way. There was not much variety but we did see a lot of Bald Eagles.
We were hoping that this mud would have a lot of shorebirds but all we found were six Greater Yellowlegs. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge was not very productive so we went into town a little ways to Farrell Marsh Park. There was only a tiny place on the side of the road in a neighborhood so we parked the car there and went in. There was a network of narrow trails through dense vegetation. We got a good look at Chestnut-sided Chickadees and I saw a Bewick’s Wren.
This was our last chance to bird alone. Tomorrow we were to join the Wildside Bird Tours group.