9/10 - 9/12 

9/10 Traveled from Mt Rainier to the Mt St. Helens area where in 1980 the mountain erupted. We took a side trip in the morning to Vancouver, Washington as the mountain was fogged in and rainy.

Ft Vancouver was a fur trading post in the late 1800's owned by the Hudson Bay Trading company. The fort was abandoned at the turn of the century and the US Army took possession of the area and still operates a military base in this area.

Flower and veggie garden n front of the fort.

  Hudson Bay HQ for the fort

Two families lived in opposite sides of the house with the center dining room for meetings

In the afternoon the weather cleared up enough to see Mt St Helens 

On May 18, 1980, a magnitude 5+ earthquake was accompanied by an avalanche. At the same time as the earthquake, the volcano's northern bulge and summit slid away as a huge landslide—the largest debris avalanche on Earth in recorded history, which in turn relieved the pressure at the top of the volcano. In short the Dome blew off! The debris avalanche swept around and up ridges to the north, but most of it turned westward as far as 14 miles down the valley of the North Fork Toutle River. The total avalanche volume is about 3.3 billion cubic yards, equivalent to 1 million Olympic swimming pools.

Our pics of Mt St Helen's are from the Johnston Lab Observatory at 4,300 ft. and about 16 miles away from the mountain. When the mortain blew it would have taken 6 seconds to hit the observatory and would have obliterated the building.

Vacation home 40 miles down hill from the mountain was buried 6 feet deep in a mud flow from the blast. The couple was rescued from the building which still remains 41 years later.

And of course only in America, someone made the A Frame house a tourist attraction complete with a Big Foot Statue

9/11- Travel day leaving Washington State and entering into Oregon at the town of Astoria right on the Pacific ocean. The Columbia River separates the two states. I didn't realize how large this river is with ocean going shipping using the river as a port of entry.

Pic of American Pride river cruise boat docked at the maritime museum. 

The Astoria Tower was constructed to commemorate the completion of the Lewis and Clark expedition  reaching the ocean on the Columbia river at Astoria, Oregon. The Tower is on top of the highest point around providing amazing views for 100+ miles 

Wendy and Janet climbed the 240 steps to the top of the Tower!

 

Pics down the coast of Oregon

Best Ice Cream!

9/12 - Over the last two days we have traveled down the Oregon coast which is truly as amazing as California's Big Sur area or Maine's Acadia NP coastline. Luckily, we met a nice couple in Olympic who convinced us to travel the slow past Rte101 coastline road, changing our trip plans to accommodate. Below are some of the pic's of the coastline.

And as a full Intro to the life of a Traveler to the Gardner's, we are camping tonight in Coos Bay RV park at the Mill Casino which is actual pretty nice as far as commercial parks go.