Mount St. Helens

At last we made it up to the mountain to our north. Then we realized, we probably should have dedicated more than a day to it. The eruption occurred on the north side and it takes upwards of 1.5-2 hours to get from one side to the other as the roads do not connect and its fairly remote in most areas.

Mount St. Helens from the south.

Ape Cave: We were all gung ho about going in there until our flashlight died 5 minutes into it and I realized that it was pitch black with bats. Ape Cave is a lava tunnel that you can explore for miles on end.

Yes, there is still snow up there.

We're not sure how much longer Jeepie will be around so we wanted to capture the moment.

A view off the offroading trail. We're not really sure if it was intended to be used for offroad vehicles and evidently neither did the rangers, they just 'worked there' as they said.

Steel Drum Band in the Savannah!

We headed out to take advantage of the 2 month long free concerts in the park. This one was at a Nature Preserve on the east side. A dinner picnic at sunset in the savannah grasses listening to the steel drum band! It was a lot of fun...and we watched the hippies dancing in the field. One slight miss was the 2 mile hike to the top of the extinct volcano where the band was playing in the valley. A drink was definitely in order by the time we got there.

Berries Galore!

There are a ton of berry farms on Sauvie Island so we took advantage of the upick prices and picked a ton of boysenberries, marionberries, blueberries, and 2 types of raspberries. It was our lesson in agriculture. And I've had to find a lot of creative ways to use berries.

Winter vs. Summer

This area just continues to amaze me in terms of seasonal changes. Mt. Hood that is. Not Portland, b/c it's still frickin cold and gray here. A balmy 68 degrees. Swimming anyone? But we took a ride on the roads that we went with MJ and Brian, and found the snow park trails that we snow shoed - it was amazing how different.





Summer - the road behind the mtn




Winter - the road behind the mtn - 25' of snow



Trillium Lake in the Summer




Trillium Lake in the Winter - when we snow shoed

Mt. Hood

Yes, we do the same things nearly every season....but hey, it's loads of fun. I picked (or Eric did b/c I'm terrified of the bees) a ton of lavender to dry and use in cooking and around the house.

Minnie's first Columbia River Gorge experience. Note the crazy kite boarders behind them. This is the kite boarding capital of the country I guess. Crazy people.

Pets!!

It was definitely no vacation for the furry animals. One was depressed and not eating, and the other wouldn't speak to us for days. But things are beginning to get back to normal. The chasing has resumed as well as the baiting, hissing, and all other fun things. Listen for the scream and the thump. Kitty's learned to scream BEFORE Minnie gets to her just to warn us of the impending attack. The other is a fairly normal event most mornings.

Kiawah 2008

A much needed vacation took us across the country on an odyssey to Kiawah Island, SC where we met up with my family in a vacation house near the beach. On the way back, we swung up north for Conor's 1st birthday party!


A sunset on the river.
The family. (minus dad who took most of the pictures)
I volunteered to take this one.
A beautiful view at the Santuary hotel - great view, great food, expensive drinks.

Yes, pretty much all we did was the beach, the pool, and eat. Very hard decisions.