Visiting Friends, Experiencing Mount St. Helen and Sightseeing in Tacoma
Our travel day across the Columbia River and North into Washington was broken up with a side trip to Lake Sacajawea Park in Longview, WA for a walk and picnic lunch. The homes which face onto this amazing park were quite impressive with their architecture and landscaping. Tree lined streets were shaded by the overhanging branches and the park was impeccably manicured, with lawns and bushes around the lake. Water Lilies dotted the shore line around the blue water of the very large lake.
Traveling further North into Washington a little detour through an RV Park brought us a first glimpse of Mount St. Helens! Breathtaking! But that wasn't our campground so we traveled on down the road...
Mount St. Helens National Monument
Camping at Kid Valley Campground for two nights, we spent our one full day that was scheduled for exploring Mount St. Helens with a scenic drive along North Fork Toutle River on SR 504, the 52 mile Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. This roadway was built along the mountain sides after the eruption destroyed roadways on the valley floor. We were headed to the scene of an epic eruption, which Steve and I both remember!
Mount St. Helens was 9677 ft. in elevation prior to the eruption of 1980; now it stands at 8364 ft, still towering over the other mountains in the area. Our first stop along the Memorial Highway was the informative Forestry Learning Center. Several lookouts here high over the Toutle River, gave glimpses of Mount St. Helens in the far distance.
Seeing this vast river valley gave a scope to the magnitude of the area impacted by the Mount St. Helens eruption. The mud flows which poured from the volcano had greatly destroyed and covered over the highway and river below.
The center has displays of the destructive eruption as well as information on the forestry industry in the area and gave us an understanding of how the forest and the area surrounding Mount St. Helens have been slowly recovering through the processes of human intervention and natural regeneration. The logging industry worked in the weeks and months following the devastation, reclaiming downed trees and planting seedlings. Closer to the mountain natural regeneration has slowly brought back life to the area.
Continuing our drive to the crater, we took a break along a high ridge to enjoy a picnic lunch with sweeping views from Elk Rock viewpoint. It was a partly cloudy day, but the top of the crater was visible as the clouds moved across the sky.
We contemplated what we had learned about the eruption, realizing that the very view point we were enjoying had been decimated by the events of the eruption. It was very sobering to think about.
At the end of the highway, Loowit Viewpoint and Johnson Ridge 
Observatory, only 5 miles directly across the valley from the crater awaited us. We were awed by unobstructed views of the crater.
The land before us still showed evidence of the catastrophic mudslides, the lateral blast, and ash which buried the valley. But we also saw signs of regeneration here.
The visitor center in the observatory has great displays, an interactive diorama, and a movie documenting the eruptions. At the end of the movie, the screen is taken up, revealing a multi-story bank of windows, the Crater dramatically revealed in the entire end of the theater!
Coldwater Lake
Heading back along the highway, which had ended at the Observatory we turned out to see Coldwater Lake, one of three lakes created by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. A paved trail with beautifully designed boardwalk areas provided us with access right out over the water, which giving us majestic views of the mountain over the tree tops.
We also took a hike along a more natural trail along the lake, which climbed up the hillside for even grander vistas of the snow covered crater, with the clear water stretched out below us.
Exploring Tacoma with our Friends, Pat and Sherry
Across the street from the bakery was an old train station that is now a courthouse. A bridge behind that leads over the freeway to the Museum of Glass, which had free displays of Dale Chihuly Venetian Glass on the bridge.
We have seen Chihuly's works in several places, but it is amazing to see this display in a public place where people cross over the freeway on bikes or by foot to shop or get to the University. Don't miss what is overhead!
The Museum of Glass building is a very modern contrast to the historic architecture of the area and is quite a landmark at the end of the bridge. We will have to plan another trip sometime so we can find out what was inside the museum!
Speaking of museums, we wanted to save time to take a tour of America’s Car Museum, an impressive collection of cars housed in another modern building, a multi-story glass, wood and steel structure near the Tacoma Dome. This fantastic museum provided a couple hours of viewing cars of all eras and makes.
Good friends, cupcakes, architecture, Venetian glass, and cars...we had such a great time in Tacoma!
While "camping" in Pat and Sherry‘s driveway, we had fun reconnecting and reminiscing, along with preparing meals together in the kitchen and on the grill. 
In addition to our day trip to Tacoma, we hiked along a trail to the Puget Sound and enjoyed watching their chocolate Lab, Porter swim out to retrieve a toy that Pat threw way far out for him.
On the road east again...
Crossing over the Columbia River Gorge we visited “Grandfather Cut Loose the Ponies”, a dramatic series of horse sculptures on a high bluff with sweeping views over the river below. A short steep trail over slippery gravel brought us up to the sculptures to enjoy the view.
As we finished our set up for the night, and started to take a short stroll to enjoy the sunset (that is at about 9:00 pm), a few Astrophotographers drove into the lot to set up their telescopes and computers for their night of photography. They were so polite and let us know that they would be there until about 2:30 am. After our short walk, we watched a movie in our trailer and came out at about 1:30 am to check out what the photographers were up to. They totally enjoyed sharing their amazing nebula photos with us.
The stars were awesome for viewing without a telescope as well, since we had a clear dark sky! A sweet wildflower trail in the morning before our drive to Spokane, gave us some of our 10,000 steps for our daily goal. Some days we reach our goal and some we don't. We keep trying!
Our final day in Washington we had plans to meet up with Ruth, 
another long time friend who relocated to Washington over a decade ago. She suggested meeting at Frank’s Diner in Spokane, not too far off the Highway. A very well renovated train car housed a grill, kitchen and dining room where we had a great breakfast.
This was such a great way to finish our whirlwind tour of Washington State!
From here we are heading into Idaho for more Adventures on the Road!
