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We woke to another cool but sunny day. First order of business after checking out was a shopping trip. We gave away what was left of our perishables to Tanya before the cruise so needed to restock.
We set off heading south west towards the Oregon coast. We decided to check out Mt St Helens volcanic monument. We both remembered the mountain going off in 1980 so thought we'd take a look.
It was a very interesting day. There's still a clear scar from where the lava flowed and the hummocks left from some of the mountain that broke away. Nearby is Spirit Lake which copped a huge chunk of the mountain, enough to raise it 250 feet and double its area. We listened to a ranger's talk which was interesting. It's almost u believable how much area was affected by it.
On the way back down to the highway we stopped for lunch at Cold Water Lake. While on a walk afterwards around the lake we noticed something in the water, turned out to be an otter :-) we watched it frolic for some time before heading back on the road, super cool.
Most of Washington is lovely and green with lots of trees. The last town before we went up and over a huge bridge and into Oregon was the exception. It was heavily industrial and seemed to be full of trailer park trash.
Once in Oregon it was a different matter, much nicer. As we headed into Astoria which looked like a lovely town Pete noticed a cruise ship in the port & commented it looked like the Sun. I thought he was joking but as we got up to it he was right! It's following us lol
We got to Seaside, another lovely little beach town and checked into our hotel. It has some extras, home made cookies all day and popcorn from 6-8pm in the lobby, both very good :-)
We went down to the beach, it's gorgeous, white sand and goes on forever. We walked for an hour or so before sitting to watch and photograph a beautiful sunset.
Back to the hotel via the main shopping area, cooked dinner, had a couple of drinks and settled in for the night.
Deer, chipmunks, otter
- comments
ann we were at Mt St Helens in 1983, I imagine it's totally different now that all the trees have re grown
Sue Actually Ann regrowth has been slow, in the path of what was destroyed there's ground cover but not trees yet