First we went to the Old Steel car show in Union Gap on Sunday. These were my favorite cars.

Then we headed to my mother’s family cabin. We immediately took Steve and Ryeleigh for a walk and started noticing the burnt trees from the Schneider Springs Fire last summer.

My attention then went to make cocktails for us. I perused the cabin’s cookbooks for ideas. The Joy of Cooking actually had recipes, but so did You Can’t Eat Mount Rainier. I chose the Glacier Worm cocktail but didn’t have vermouth. My mother walked to the nearby lodge and got some from the bar in a kiddy cup. The recipe called for macaroni to look like the worms. I did not add the eyes and tongues suggested and even failed to cook them. But nonetheless the cocktails looked cool and were tasty, although strong. So that was fun.

We continued to walk to dogs and noticed more of the fire damage. It came so close to our cabin. It it didn’t cross the river, but barely.

On Saturday morning we drove Old River Road from upriver to the cabin traveling down river. I took photos of all of the fire damage on the right side of the road and how insanely close it got to all of those cabins.

We then drove to Nile noting how close the fire was to the buildings there.

Then we drove FS road 1500 to Devil’s Table, one of my favorite places. I wanted to see if it survived. The fire came right up to the road in many places but only crossed it in one small spot.

We then drove to check Meek’s table, and it was only partly burned. We drove back down the Rattlesnake Creek drainage noting spotty fire damage. Overall the damage was not as bad as I had thought. We couldn’t go to Bumping Lake as it is still snowed in. But this drive was somewhat of a relief for me.

I did some reading in the afternoon and started a NYT Simplest Roast Chicken (a 7# one!). I had made rhubarb cordial as well. Then cocktail hour came around, and I made four rhubarb spritzes for us. The chicken was ready, and Tom used my grandfathers carving knife and fork.

Mom and Al had gone to the book signing for the Tanum book. I look forward to reading it. But I was reading Green Mansions, a book that our cabin was named after. And I found the applicable phrase in the book, so that was revealing for me. More dog walks among the early spring flowers. Then we headed home, and I admired the orchards in bloom en route.

I had a great short trip to the cabin. The weather was decent, hanging with family is always good, and there was eating, drinking, reading, relaxing and exploring. What could be better?