August 1st we left the Mt Rainier area and headed to Mt St Helens. We drove into the main visitor center from the West side, where Rachel fell asleep as we learned about the eruption and the recovery of the land since 1980. We drove up to the mountain viewing area, walked around, and then drove back out and South. Along the way we saw signs everywhere for homeade blackberry pie and fresh cherries. We stopped for some cherries at a fruit stand and felt good about getting in this important part of any real summer.
Meggan picked the hotel for the night in Longmire, WA which was the cheapest one on our whole trip. The service wasn't the greatest but it was decent enough. We had excellent chicken pizza nearby and were glad that we'd made the extra trip to WalMart to purchase a $15 stroller. Susan watched Rachel that evening while Meggan and Jason went to watch Harry Potter, which we really enjoyed. Rachel woke at 4am and decided it was morning time, so Susan blessed us again by taking her out in our new stroller and walking with her until a more reasonable wake up time.
Longmire, WA has a cute little downtown area famous for the world's only squirrel bridge. Check it out with all our pictures on facebook:
click here for photos
We hit the playground for some swinging and sliding and then decided to drive out to the coast as we had an extra day to enjoy. We made our way through a wildlife sanctuary boardwalk and arrived at the beach. Rachel had fun trying to walk on the sand, and we enjoyed the scenery.
See Rachel trying to walk:
(note - the 'jump' at the end of this video is not a PT approved move and should not be done with other children, even though we do it with Rachel)
Since Susan loves lighthouses, we checked out a couple in the area. We crossed over the bridge from WA to Astoria, Oregon and Jason and Meggan climbed up the Astoria tower. Meggan didn't have the stomach to stay up there very long, and Astoria didn't suit us. We moved on to Seaside, Oregon and had a beautiful evening on the beach.
The next morning we went to search for the Tillamook lighthouse, which required a lengthier hike to a foggy
view. It was a beautiful forest walk with a picnic lunch near a surfing beach. Kids, dogs, and old people were out surfing away. We drove back East into and through Portland (and its traffic - ugh!) to stay in a less-than-excellent Travel Lodge in Troutdale, Oregon.
This brought us to the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. There are waterfalls all along the scenic drive so we took turns jumping out and taking pictures while another person stayed in the car with Rachel. Along the way we visited a fish hatchery where Rachel loved watching the fish swim by and we laughed at lazy old 'Herman', the 450 lbs resident sturgeon. Further along the road, we stopped at Hood River to watch the kite and surf boarding and enjoy the little surf town and its ice cream, and then turned South to our first sights of Mt. Hood.
We drove up to see Mt Hood and its old lodge, but there wasn't really anywhere to stay since most places were full of ski camp kids. We pushed on to Madras, Oregon and enjoyed a dinner at the Black Bear Diner, including blackberry pie which we were very excited about but it didn't live up to many days' worth of expectation.
From Madras, we continued South and detoured to Sisters to see the 3 Sisters mountains and the lava flow in the area. It was strange to move from river to lush forest to dessert to lava flow all within a few hours. We went back to Redmond for the county fair, thinking Rachel would like to see the animals. We had lunch, went to the petting zoo, and all seemed well at first. Rachel pet a bunny, and then a sheep, and even grabbed on to the sheep's horns until he suddenly pulled his head back. This terrified Rachel and she screamed and screamed. We spent the next hour trying to show her other friendly animals but she was not convinced.
Friday afternoon we arrived in Bend, Oregon to meet up with Karen and get organized for the upcoming Marathon.
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