Mt. St. Helen and Mt. Hood

This morning we left around 8:30 and drove toward Mt. St. Helen.  It was a 50+ miles out of our way but well worth the trip.  It was impressive watching the videos of the eruption and looking at the before and after pictures.  The personal comments from people who were in the area when the eruption started were very moving. There are remains of many trees still on the ground.  It was a reminder of how brutal nature can be. When we were stopped at an overlook. a man came to us and said "In Switzerland we have mountains like these  but we don't have cars like yours."

Close to the bottom of the mountain, we stopped at Patty's Place for a late lunch. This restaurant is known for its french fries & homemade cobbler. The fries are thin cut & dipped in a beer batter. Yum! After having a sandwich, Ray & I opted to have cobbler with ice cream, for dessert. I can personally vouch for how good the peach cobbler was. Ray said the apple was good too.  Rose and Jim did not have dessert. I decided that the cobbler was also my dinner. We continued down I-5 to Portland, Oregon.  We saw some great views of Mt. Hood as we got close to Portland. The skies have been clear allowing us to see both Mt. Ranier & Mt. Hood. Our mileage today was 284 miles.

Tomorrow we plan to drive along the Columbia River Gouge.  (We know that it will be windy.) Then cross over onto Washington state on Hwy. 14.We should be in Idaho tomorrow night. The "A's" are performing well.