Delusions of... Everything: Beautiful Mt. St. Helens

After we finished up at the Ape Caves we checked in to our hotel. We stayed at a nice little place called the Lewis River Inn. Our rooms had wonderful views of the river with nice little decks to sit on, too bad it was too hot to enjoy the little deck! Chris and Mark took pictures, but I didn't. I was really completely out of it. I got even more out of it when after having a nap and a couple beers we went to dinner at a very nice Mexican restaurant where I had a banana margarita. I wasn't going to have a drink at all, but I tasted Chris's and oh my gawd was it good so I ordered one too. YUM! No pictures of those either. Seriously I only took about 40 pictures the whole time they were visiting. So unlike me.

It was Chris and Mark's wedding anniversary. This is the second time we've spent our anniversaries together, first in NY in 2007 and this time in the PNW!! We had a very nice meal, even though I was sticking to the booth in the wicked heat. No pictures of that either!

In the morning we hit the road for the north side of the mountain. There are two main visitor centers, one at the very bottom and one at the top. In between there are a couple other places to stop and get good pictures. The forest service runs an education center that's very cool for kids, but we didn't stop there. Since it had hit 107 on the thermometer we decided to skip hanging out at the lake too.

We did stop here for some amazing views of the north fork of the Toutle River. (Sorry about the haze but that tends to happen in the Northwest when it gets really hot.) That valley was decimated in the 1980 eruption. It really is gorgeous now. We came back to this spot to eat before heading home.

Where you see the river running is the normal size of the river, down a little for summer but you get the idea. The rush of mud, water and debris cut that large area within minutes of the eruption.

In the upper left you can see Mt. St. Helens off in the distance.

Mark and Chris

Chris and me

Here we are walking to the Johnson Visitor Center at the end of the road. The view from up there is spectacular.

Even with all the heat our trip was a big success.

The next day was, yet again, very hot. We had planned to have a BBQ before we knew hot it was going to be. I wanted all my friends to meet Chris and Mark. We shopped in the morning before it got too hot, then got home and I prepared brine for the chicken. Around 3:00 we were all sitting in our downstairs family room, where it was only slightly cooler, watching tv when I commented, "What are we thinking having a BBQ on the hottest day of the year?"

It turned out to be a huge success.

Handy Man took these shots and I swear he took the first one out of my kitchen window that was in desperate need of a washing but look past the spots to all our lovely friends!

We had such a great time visiting with Chris and Mark. It was very sad putting them back on the plane to Massachusetts. Chris is coming back in September to see Pearl Jam, so that's definitely something to look forward to!