Alaska Cruise 2014! Day's 1-3

Late evening slog up to Mckinleyville.  Pretty routine up until we hit Laytonnville and we come upon a wildfire along with what seemed to be thousands of firefighters and equipment.  Helicopters included.  As it was dark, we also got a show with the fire working its way up the mountains.  It was intensely awesome!

After leaving our dog Max with my parents for a couple of weeks, we headed north once more to begin day two.  First stop was the Illinois river to meet up with our neighbor Tim and Roselle.  We spent a couple of hours in a super cool spot where we could swim in the water and jump from rocks.  All too quickly we were back on the road and on our way to Bend to meet my sister and her family.  We had a great visit despite it being so short, but we had to keep moving, but only after a killer breakfast at McCay's.  

Day three was all about Mount Saint Helen's.  We drove about four hours north until we came on the visitors center.  The Johnson Ridge observatory was still over an hour away
, but the person in the visitors center assured us the drive was worth it, so we went for it.  After over 30 years, the scars have healed quite a bit, that is until you get close to the volcano.  Holy crap!  Even in person it is difficult to get your head around the scale of this thing.  Years ago I was able to fly around the rim in my old Cessna 182 and I was pretty impressed, but it is different on the ground.  You can see the devastation and get a sense of just how big of an event this was.  In fact, the desk clerk at the hotel we are staying in tonight told us they were able to hear the explosion over 200 miles away.   We finished the night at the Red Lion in Olympia Washington and are pretty happy to just stop for a few hours.  We are scheduled to visit the Boeing factory tomorrow and then off to Orcas island the day after that. Pictures coming.  

From Mackenzie:  Today was awesome but exhausting. We traveled from Bend, Oregon to Olympia, Washington! During the drive up we stopped at Mt. St. Helens. It was beautiful, and we got a great view from the observatory, which was 4,200ft in  elevation. At the last minute we made reservations at the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia,  there food is pretty good, and the hotel is in a pretty wooded area. The rooms are great and reasonable. I am really glad we stopped at the volcano. I had done some research in 6th grade on Volcanos and Today I was excited to learn more. I can't wait to explore more !