Vacation Day 6 Rockaway Beach

Our path back home took us up the Oregon Coast which was a beautiful alternative to highways.  

We passed through a field of elk, through more natural rock formations, past huge sand dunes and finally to our destination at Rockaway Beach. 

After many hours in the car and a lot of sight seeing we were all excited to relax at the beach. 

Vacation, Day 5 Crater Lake

Overnight the winds picked up and sent a lot of the wild fire smoke in another direction. We had heard from other tourists that crater lake was filled with smoke and not worth s visit but we had reserved and paid for a boat tour and so we decided to try. 

We drove into the park and found the trail to the boat. 

We were in a rush and didn't have breakfast or lunch so we were hungry! 

The path to the boat was 1.1 miles straight down a steep decline. Noah with fresh stitches put a smile on and powered through it. 

We got to the boat dock with just a minute to spare and headed off. The tour guide was a national park ranger named Ashley. She was so informative and helpful. 

Crater Lake us the deepest lake in the U.S. and was formed from a volcano named Mt Mazama 7,000 years ago. The 

Volcano had been erupting every 10,000 years for the past 400,000 years. 

The water was the deepest shade of blue I've ever seen. We first took a ride to Wizard Island, a small island formed from an eruption.  

At Wizard island we got off the boat for three hours and had a choice to hike to an inlet or to a crater summit. Paul and Maeve chose the summit while Noah and I chose the lake. Ina sat by the dock and enjoyed the mountain views. 

The trail Noah and I were on was probably the hardest and most poorly marked trail I was ever on. We hiked through steep volcanic lava rocks. 

We fell and got lost and and at one point had to just slide down the mountain because there was no other way to go. 

When we finally got there the view was beautiful. The bluest water. The mountains and lake in view. Noah and I just hanging out and laughing.  We drank the water because it was clear and clean. The tour guide said it was the cleanest water you can drink.

We met back at the dock in a few hours. Paul and Maeve loved their hike to the summit. They got to stand in a crater on top of a volcano inside another volcano!

At the dock lots of people were jumping in but we were keeping Noah's foot sheltered so we just put in arms and toes and filled up our water bottles. 

After Wizard island the boat tour continued another hour pointing out amazing nuances in the rock and volcano basin. It was really breathtaking and fascinating. As a bonus it was completely clear. The tour guide said it was the clearest day she had seen in a long time. 

The only way to remotely grasp it is to look for people in the picture for size perspective. It was all huge!

After we finally got off the boat we had to make the trek back up the mountain to the car which was grueling!!!

The views up top were with it though!

We headed back to our cabin after a very long but amazing day and went to bed early!

Vacation, Day 2 Mt. St. Helens

We traveled early Monday morning to Mt.  St. Helens to learn about the 1980 eruption and to see the crater left from the eruptions. The Johnston Ridge observatory had great interactive exhibits

 about the volcano and a movie about the volcano and the rebirth of life in the area. The sad part about this leg of the trip was that the wild fires in Washington and Oregon caused the crater to be virtually unviewable. There was a dense haze in front of everything. We could see a little bit not very much. 

We left Mt. St. Helens and headed to our cabin in Oregon. 

Vacation week Day 1

We planned a week long road trip for this week around Paul's mom's visit. 

Day 1 was a trip to Mt. Ranier. We can see Ranier most days from

Seattle but it is off in the distance. We visited last summer and hiked a portion of the skyline trail but it was cloudy and the mountain wasn't visible even from the base. 

This year's trip was dramatically different and the views were amazing. 

We parked and had a picnic lunch. 

We didn't have a plan but we just wanted to stroll and see where we ended up. A short trail led us to a waterfall that had a wonderful view of Ranier in the back. 

The mountain is so big it's hard to understand. You can see people on the bridge over the falls. 

Ranier is a volcano that stands at 14,000 ft. high. People climb the mountain every year and usually train and spend an overnight or two to reach the top. It is truly a sight to see. 

After we left the falls we decided to keep hiking to see if we could make it to a look out point. The trail kept going and going and we kept trucking straight uphill. Ina was in charge of whether to keep going or not and as long as she said yes we kept going!

Along the way we saw a bunch of marmots which are similar to groundhogs  but furrier and a bunch of chipmunks. There is on here in the picture on the rock. 

We made it to a trail that was supposed to take us to Panorama point and it was closed due to ice!!

Noah and I were leading so we kept going to a different trail that took us much higher than we expected. Along this new trail we saw a spot that snow and a part of the glacier were accessible. We were really excited to touch it! 

At this point we studied our maps some more and figured out that we were at 7,500 ft--over half way up the mountain. There were teams around us practicing ice rescues and Noah was enthralled. He wanted to learn how to ice climb. 

We finally reached Panorama point and began the descent back down the mountain as the sun began to set. 

On the way back down we saw some black tailed deer sitting peacefully in the meadow.

The sunset continued to follow us down the mountain until we reached the visitor's center. At the base there were two black bear cubs along the trail climbing trees. We were far enough away that we weren't in danger. 

When I look at the mountain now I feel differently about it. I can't believe we were so high up there! Paul and I even talked about researching what it would be like to make it to the top!

After we left the park we drive two more hours to Kelso, WA and spent the night. 

Vacation Day 4 Lemolo Lake

We had planned to go to Crater lake several days but several roads to get there were closed and the drive around would take 3 hours. We made a great choice to stay at the lake for the day. 

Paul and Noah jumped in early into the freezing water while we hung out at the dock. 

We decided to rent a motor boat, buy some inner tubes and play in the water for the day. We packed a lunch and explored the lake. To be out in the sun on the water and not driving was good for all of us. 

We let the kids practice driving the boat, we stopped at several points and jumped in, and we pulled the kids on the tubes behind us. It was a fabulous time. We pulled over at a beach and the kids were digging and playing happily until we heard a scream around the world. Noah said he cut his foot on a rock in the water and he was hysterical. We loaded the boat back up and headed to the cabin. After some ice cream and band aids we thought all was well, but after hours of waiting the cut was still bleeding through the band aids and not clotting. At about 9 pm Paul and Noah headed to the nearest hospital--almost 2 hours away.  The cut was exactly where his big toe met the pads on his instep. They gave him 4 stitches and Paul said he scared everyone in the hospital with his screams while they gave him a novicaine shot. 

At about 2 AM Paul and Noah finally returned home. Poor Noah was such a trooper. 

Vacation, Day 3 Lemolo Lake

We scheduled 3 days at Lemolo Lake Resort because it was close to Crater Lake. As we were driving from Mt. St. Helens we were aware of how bad the fires were. There were many roads closed and fires in the woods alongside our path. 

We arrived at Lemolo Lake in the early evening and just settled in. We were all tired from several days of driving. 

Vacation, Day 2 Mt. St. Helens

We traveled early Monday morning to Mt.  St. Helens to learn about the 1980 eruption and to see the crater left from the eruptions. The Johnston Ridge observatory had great interactive exhibits

 about the volcano and a movie about the volcano and the rebirth of life in the area. The sad part about this leg of the trip was that the wild fires in Washington and Oregon caused the crater to be virtually unviewable. There was a dense haze in front of everything. We could see a little bit not very much. 

We left Mt. St. Helens and headed to our cabin in Oregon.