Mount St. Helens

After we left Astoria this morning we drove to Mount St. Helens.  This trip seems to be all about volcanoes!!!  It is breathtakingly beautiful and eerily sad at the same time.  We drove to the Johnston Observatory which is only five miles away from the mountain.  But it looks way closer than that when you are standing there looking at it!!  Like Mt. Rainier, Mount St. Helens is an active volcano.  The little boys went to a ranger program.  This one was interesting because this was all that you did to get your badge.  And it was cool because they were the only kids there.  

 

They have planted lots of new Douglas Fur trees but there is still evidence of the eruption that happened back in 1980.  Tree stumps that look ripped apart and some trees that look like they were impaled into the ground. 

 

We are all pretty tired but we have been ahead of schedule on a few things so we tomorrow we will have a little time to rest. 

 

 

Visiting the Goondocks!!!!

We got to Astoria Oregon last night.  I wanted to go to the beach and watch the sun set.  On our other trip something always got in the way of seeing the sun set over the ocean but not this time :)

 

 

This morning was spent in finding all things Goonie!!  I was excited that we could see the house from our hotel...it was far away, but you could see it.  We drove up there this morning, the owner doesn't mind people coming to take pictures as long as you park at the bottom of the hill and walk up the shared driveway.  We loved the sign at the bottom of the drive and David and the boys kind of copied it...picture below :)  The house next to Mikey's was Data's house.  While leaving the houses we drove by the convenient store where the maid almost gets hit several times.  And finally we went to the jail where one of the Fratelli brothers escapes "rooms" set up to make movie snippets.  Jacob directed us in the making of the movies and hopefully they will be e-mailed to us soon. 

 

 

We also spent a little time walking the river walk.  We walked down to a pier to see the sea lions.  I love the sound of their barking, but their smell is terrible!!  We all loved this little town.  We all voted to move there!!  We can wish I guess.

 

 The Goondocks

 Data's house

 DAvid got the boys "One Eyed Willie" tee shirts.

Mount Rainier day 2 and sunset on the beach...

Got up early this morning to try to get to the park early.  Somehow that never really works out.  We did get out of the hotel around 9am, but the sad thing is that it is noon our time.  The guy at the hotel counter said that the day was going to be beautiful!!  So I got my hopes up that the mountain would be clear.  And this is what greeted us as we turned a corner......

 

 

It was such a beautiful breath taking site!!!  We tried to get a family picture but it was difficult with the light.  We drove up to the visitor center again to get the Junior Ranger badges.  We also stopped at the reflection lakes again and I hiked around the rim to try to get a good picture.  I am pleased with what I got :) 

 

We drove out ot the park a different way to see another side of the park.  It was very pretty too but it didn't have many views of the mountain.  We stopped at a little picnic area for lunch.  Jacob and I hiked back behind the area because we heard water.  We found a wash coming off the mountain and on the way back we stopped to hug some trees ;) 

 

We got to Astoria in time to watch the sunset on the beach.  The boys played and David and I took pictures.  We will see the Goonies house tomorrow along with a few other things.  We can actually see the house from our hotel!!!