Lake Annette used to be one of Super Mom's regular trips. She's hiked it a dozen times easily, and knew where we were every step of the way. And this hike has had the most steps yet.

We were supposed to meet our friends Kim and Tom at the trailhead, sometime around 10:00. But Hazel decided it was time to grow her first tooth, and she kept us up -- we were barely moving by 9:00 and no breakfast yet. It ended up being 2:00 before we were on the trail, and we finally passed Kim and Tom half way in as they were hiking back out.

After last week's slog, we decided to keep our 4th of July hike a simple stroll. We've now identified several hikes so easy we had never bothered to actually do them. First up: Franklin Falls.

The wild thing about Franklin Falls is its location: in the middle of Interstate 90. Quite literally, Franklin Falls is between the eastbound and the westbound lanes of I-90, just west of Snoqualmie Pass. I have driven through the pass dozens of times, and not known it was there!

Long overdue for another real hike. Thanks to the WTA site, we found this hidden, quiet trail right next door to the over-crowded Rattlesnake Ledge.

A 3 1/2 mile round trip, it was Hazel's first hike facing forward, and she was transfixed most of the way up but a bit overwhelmed by the top. So Jill sat down and gave her a snack, right in the midst of a really nice view... It was a cloudy, overcast, coolish day but not a drop of rain and quite the pleasant outing!