Given John's proclivity toward hiking it's no wonder his choice for Father's Day activities was hiking with the family. Hold on, though, it's not so simple.
The day started with a trip into Bellevue for Clara's three-month photo shoot. She was just slightly out of sorts toward the end, but some good shots were taken. BTW: If you're looking for a photographer at Bellevue Square stay the heck away from Photazz. They've had Clara's very early photos for almost her entire life and still can't manage to get them just right. Heck, they even want to keep the reproduction rights so they can sell her image. ARGH.
In addition to getting her pictures taken Clara helped pick out John's Father's Day gifts at Home Depot (woo hoo!) and even got to swing through Starbucks. Mmmm, tasty.
Ah, but on to the hiking! Franklin Falls is a short two-mile out-and-back along the South Fork. The trail is well-maintained by WTA and the parking lot was packed. Most of the hikers were heading to Denny Creek's Slippery Slab or Melakwa Lake, though, so the trail wasn't a terror.
There's virtually no elevation gain so there's no reason to cheat and park half way up. The trees are nice, but not terribly large. The waterfall, however, is very nice. It's quite high and a straight plunge ending in a heavy spray area making pictures difficult, but not impossible. I-90 rushes several hundred feet overhead, but you can't hear it for the water pounding into the rocks.
After cleaning up (both bodies and the yard) the family headed to Gordy's for "classy BBQ" which, if not classy, was certainly tasty. (How can it be "classy" when there is a roll of paper towels on the table next to the "bone bucket?")
