Holy Mountains!

Hi everyone! Heading back to Minneapolis via Chicago now. As we were
leaving Portland, got this shot of four mountains out the plane
window: Hood (to the left and close - you can only see a bit of the
snowy base), St. Helen's (way out there), Rainier, and Adams. I
believe that is the order from left to right. You may need to zoom in
a bit to see them all. How cool is that! I love mountains!

Multnomah Falls

Here I am this morning at Multnomah Falls, another beautiful waterfall
east of Portland. Joe and Anne did a 5.6 mile trail run around the
falls and then we hung out for awhile, had a snack, and watched the
water for a bit before we left to drive around Portland. What a
beautiful place!

Sunset

Very beautiful sunset over the ocean. Pink like me:-)

Seaside

Last stop of the day - Ecola Beach on the Pacific Ocean near Seaside,
Oregon. Very neat rocks in the water with little waves crashing into
them and fog forming in the coastal valleys. The neat trees in the
foreground are also interesting. What a great day, from the mountains
to the ocean!

View from the North Head Lighthouse

Here we are in the tower that is the North Head Lighthouse, looking
north up the coast. This lighthouse is not as nice as the one in
Duluth construction-wise, and the glass lens has been replaced with a
plastic mirror...still interesting though. It was built because the
main lighthouse about a mile south, Cape Disappointment Lighthouse,
was hard to see from the north and many ships crashed. The area was
called the graveyard of the west. If you look closely, you can see the
reflection of the lighthouse window frames in the picture. I like
lighthouses.

Cape Disappointment

Here we are in Washington again...this time at the Cape Disappointment
State Park. We thought we might be disappointed after sitting in road
construction traffic for 15 minutes, but a neat lighthouse and beach
are cool:-)

Not even halfway across!

Here we are on the Astoria Megler bridge...we aren't even halfway
across! We are coming down the big hill that completes the portion of
the bridge with high clearance for the boats closer to the Astoria
side. If you zoom in, you can get a sense of just how long it is! It
is the last segment of the 101 highway to be completed, which happened
in the 1960's.

Astoria Megler Bridge

We made it to the ocean! Going over the Astoria Megler Bridge soon. It
goes VERY high, very quickly so that large boats can go underneath. It
is also extremely long! Good thing Joe is driving because Anne is
freaking out!

Best Model Ever!

So we are at the Visitor Center at the top/end of the road that is
closest to the mountain. Behind me is the best model ever! It is a
little bigger than the one in the Mt. St. Helen's Visitor Center and
it has cool lights! There are red, green, white, and orange lights
that represent where ash, sediment, lava, and pyro plastic flow
occurred. Very neat and twinkly!

Mt. St. Helen's

We made it! Here I am with the north slope of Mt. St. Helen's behind
me where the volcanic eruption in May 1980 blew out the north side and
totally changed the drainage below. The top of the mountain fell into
the crater, and then new magma pushed up and partially filled in the
crater later. All in all, the mountain lost 1,300 feet! Today is a
sunny, hazy, windy day, but not too hot yet.

Johnson Ridge Observation Point

Here we are at the Johnson Ridge Observation Point to check out Mt.
St. Helen's. It is so windy, my ears are blowing over and the picture
is even crooked!

Backlit bunny

Here I am on a neat forest trail on the way to see Mt. St. Helen's. We
stopped to look at the sediment dam and this was the trail leading to
it. The sun was shining through the trees and I really liked the way
it lit up the forest and me. It is like I am a tree, too, and Anne's
arm is my trunk!

3-D model of Mt. St. Helens

Here we are at the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center. The actual mountain
is located about 50 miles away and we are headed there next. Behind me
is another cool terrain model that we've seen at many other federal
parks lately. If you zoom in, you can see the north side of the mount
where the landslide/blast occurred and Spirit Lake below. There is
also a tiny lake that Joe and I noticed called Venus Lake in the ridge
just to my left, marked with a red light. It seems neat and maybe we
will go there someday!

Lamprey

Here is an up-close picture of a lamprey...they are a little scary!

Fish Viewing Area

In the visitor's center at the Bonneville Dam, they have built a fish viewing area under the fish ladder. Here I am with a salmon and a lamprey behind me...how cool is that! I think Papa T would watch the fish here for hours - it would be more fun for him than an auto auction!

Salmon ladder @ the Bonneville Dam

Here we are at the Bonneville Dam, on the Columbia River, about 40 miles east of Portland. Because the fish can't swim upstream to spawn, they have built a salmon ladder so the fish can swim upstream against the current. Pretty neat!

Bottom Plungepool of Horsetail Falls

Another shot of the Horsetail Falls...very nice little plungepool at the bottom!

Horsetail Falls

Here we are a little further up the Columbia River at Horsetail Falls. I can barely get the whole waterfall in the picture as it is 176 feet high! It is very beautiful and cool here in the trees on a hot summer day!

Vista House @ Crown Point

So we figured out that Crown Point was a nice spot to view the river valley and home to the Vista House. Inside the Vista House was a museum of sorts, giving us info on the building of the road. It was done between 1913 to 1920ish and has a maximum grade of five percent with several tunnels, bridges, and retaining walls to preserve the landscape. You can tell the architecture of the building shows the style around the 20's. Pretty neat!

Chanticleer Point

The view from Chanticleer Point, on the Scenic Columbia River Highway east of Portland. You can see Crown Point in the distance...we are heading that way now to see what that is all about!

Hello Washington!

On the bridge going over the Columbia River. Just drove around
Portland awhile and now taking a trip across to check out Washington.
I like bridges.

Gustav's Pub & Grill

Stepped off the airplane and what do I see? Gustav's Pub & Grill...neat!

Almost there! Mt. Adams & Mt. Rainier

As we approached the airport, we could see Mt. Adams (closer one) and
Mt. Rainier (more distant one) just off the wing on the north side of
the plane. It has been a pretty hazy ride since Denver, a little
better now that we are almost there. I wonder if there are some forest
fires down there...hope the bunnies are OK.

DEN

Hi everyone - at the Denver airport changing planes on our way to
Portland. I found a great place to ride in one of Joe's lens carriers.
Pretty cool shot of a pilot in the background, too! Good ride so far!

Plush Horse

Here we are on a cloudy Sunday night at the Plush Horse, an ice cream
place on the south side of Chicago. This place just opened, but there
is another one that has been open for many years in Palos. As a matter
of fact, Joe took Anne there back in 1998 after they first met and Joe
broke his neck. My how time flies! We had a good time here feeding
G-man peach ice cream with Papa E. I got the bubble gum - it tastes
great and matches my jacket!

Long lines!

Here I am at Midway Airport about to fly to Portland with a layover in
Denver. I've never seen a security line so long before! It moved
pretty fast, considering the people, but I'm sure someone missed their
flight! I love adventures and can't wait to experience our trip!

Two dogs on a tree platform

Here we are hanging out with the doggies on the island at Bear Lake.
Joe put them up on a piece of plywood that someone attached to a tree
about five feet in the air. They really like it up there! Nice morning
here with some filtered sunlight and light breezes - so perfect!

Sunset...

And now sunset on Bear Lake...very nice! Can't wait for the almost
full moon to come out!

The house on Bear Lake

Hi everyone! Here I am in Wisconsin at Joe's mom's family's place. It
is a super cool cabin on an island on Bear Lake. So nice out! The
doggies are having a blast running around with the other doggies here!
I like it here.