6.27.2009

She was a Day Tripper








Packed up the kids and headed for the volcano. Mt. St. Helens has been on the list for two years. We drove to the Observation Station directly across from the crater and saw some amazing footage of the top blowing. I was amazed at the landscape for miles around. The blast sent hot ash and rock 12 miles into the air. The North side of the mountain slid off and went for miles like a river down into the towns surrounding the mountain. There was enough earth in the slide to make a 3 foot deep, 7-lane hi-way from Portland to NYC. Wow. It looked like we were on the moon. The picture of the dragon fly was at an information station about 40 miles away from the mountain. The rivers were all diverted and filled with mud and many miles of land turned into marshland. There were tons of dragonflies and tadpoles. The faraway lake is Spirit Lake which was filled with earth and trees after the explosion. Interesting stuff.

6.23.2009

Haystack Rock. Extremely Low Tides.

















The tide pools were absolutely amazing, although, the ones we saw with mom last year on July 4th were just as cool. There were sea stars EVERYWHERE. Orange, brown, and my favorite~ the purple ones. The anemone were bright green or brown and closed up if you touched them. There were odd looking creatures and plants everywhere you looked. Crabs, hermit crabs, funny sucker fish, and weird little crawling things. We saw quite a few different kinds of sea birds living on the rocks and you could see them nesting. One gull took a huge crap on my friend Meredith! Gulls have a lot of poop! The "guides" that were there answering questions said that the bigger sea stars were probably close to 30 years old. AMAZING. The tides will be just a little lower tomorrow, but we did have to come home. I couldn't believe how many people were there to take it all in. We ate some yummy seafood and visited another iconic candy store.

Sunset at the coast





Yes, this is our third trip in 2 weeks. Yes, I love the coast. Meredith and I took the kids to the beach for the night to make sure we could get to the 0700 low tide. This is the night before. All was good until.....Sam fell in the water and was soaked. He had to ride home naked wrapped in a towel. AND~ I got a 45$ parking ticket.

Violin camp


two weeks to try out the violin. No commitments. Not a bad deal.....