OTHER THINGS WE HAVE DONE IN WASHINGTON

 

We’ve been busy doing lots of things with Keri’s family.

WE WENT TO AMY’S TRACK MEET

WE HAD A PICNIC AT THE LEWISVILLE PARK

Emily swinging

Time to eat yet?

 

Playground

Scott flexing his muscles

Amy climbing on the web

Laura just being cute

WE WENT TO THE BEACH

We drove on to the beach until the tide started to come in

Scott and Andrew digging a hole in the sand

After playing in the surf and sand, we washed the sand from the toes and butt cracks and drove out before the tide caught us.

WE WENT SWIMMING AT KLINELINE POND

It was a hot day so lots of people wanted to cool off and it was crowded

 

 

We had a very fun day.  This was a good place to just relax and watch people go by.

Mount Rainier National Park

We took this drive last Monday and were rewarded with the beautiful views that follow:

Road as we drove through dense forest.  This is about the only sun we saw.

The road took us past some spectacular scenery.  This is a deep canyon with river.

And TA DA!!!!  Here's Mount Rainier!   Here he is!  Isn't he spectacular!

We took this picture at the Visitor Center located on the base of the mountain.  He sure wanted to show off for us.

Here he is again.  We were so happy we got to see him!

See him???   There he is!

And here we have him reflected in the lake!!

Sign in the Visitor Center -- best picture we got of him!

Visitor Center -- at least they had a good movie and restrooms.

We happened to see a fox crossing the road.  We caught this picture just as he was about to dissapear over the snow bank.

We saw some really pretty waterfalls when we were driving out.  We entered the park at the east enterance and went out the south entrance.

Waterfall by the side of the road.

So.....even though Mount Rainier didn't want to come out and play while we were there, we had a really fun day anyway.  Saw some spectacular vistas, waterfalls and lush forest.  Saw deer and two foxes and many, many different birds.  And...we only got rained on a little.

MOUNT ST. HELENS

We took a day trip up to see Mount St. Helens and all the trouble she caused.  It started out a cloudy day but we did manage to get a few pictures of the old girl. 

Visitor Center where we started our several hour drive

Beautiful rhododendrens all over the place.  This was in front of the lower visitor center.

We saw a very interesting movie here and then started driving to the viewpoints and the upper visitor center.  We were in the snow some of the time.

The clouds cleared enough that we could get some pictures of the mountain.  This showes the side of the crater that collapsed and the sparce vegitation in the forground shows the destruction.  She eruped on May 16, 1980.  This many years later the vegitation is still sparce except where it has been replanted.  It was amazing to look out over this valley and see the destruction.  It was a lush forest with lakes and rivers before she blew.

Another view.  Before the eruption, the mountain went on up to a well rounded dome, as you can see if you look close at the picture in the upper right hand part of the sign.  Destruction everywhere.

This is a huge log by the parking lot.  You can see how the bark was blown off the side of the tree when the blast hit it and knocked it down.

Same huge log where you can see how the it was charred by the blast.  Can't see it but the mountains in the background below the snow line have dead logs all over their sides.  All the logs are pointed in the same direction...away for Mount St. Helens.

Fallen logs.

Whole mountain side devastated.

Everywhere we looked logs were down.  We were standing at a point that would have received the full force of the blast.

Not a good picture but this is a huge stump showing how the tree us just broken off like a matchstick.  Many such large trees were ripped from the ground, roots and all.  This picture was taken at the Johnston Ridge Visitor Center.  A geologist was camped on this ridge before the blast to monitor the activity of the mountain.  When it erupted, he was hit just seconds afterwards and he didn't stand a chance of escape.  The ridge is named after him.

We had a very intersting day driving through this area.  We saw two very good movies and learned a lot about the events of the eruption.  Anyone who hasn't seen it, should take the time to see it if they ever have the chance.

Pictures of the RV Park in Woodland

Here are some pictures of our RV Park -- Woodland Shores, in Woodland, WA.

View of Lewis River

The Lewis River flows along the back of the RV Park so I'll just put all the pictures in at once

 

 

Steps down to the river bank

Our spot and other views around the park follow

We are enjoying it here.  There are several RV's we can see have been here for quite a while and one man told us that he was here permanently.  He has a spot on the riverside.  We're not here much and when we are, we are either sleeping or getting ready to go to Keri's.