Mount St. Helens (and Long Lake)

Brand new second hand!
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I woke up around 7:30am by the sound of someone talking on the phone, thinking can't they ever let me sleep? A couple of minutes later I heard dad was pretty excited about something... Ahh, I rubbed my eyes and remembered it's his birthday!

At 8am I decided it was time to get up, and headed straight for the shower after a very quick "mornin" with a moody face. I had to get more positive and set my thoughts on today's happening.. Mount St. Helens! This should be good, finally a good day with a bright blue sky. So I showered, dropped the soap a couple of times (while winking at the shower cam) with my sleepy head and got dressed after shaking my ass dry.

The sky was bright blue, no clouds except for the smoke that St. Helens was puffin'

Driving up to St. Helens
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While I was getting dressed Patti's parents drove up the drive-way. They wanted dad to come outside and admire their brand new second hand van! They were so proud of it and it looks just like the one dad and Patti have, hah (I guess they must've been jealous for a while lol).

I checked the computer and Nelske and Aziz (sis & co) were online! So I said hi and we talked a bit in front of the cam while I was having my breakfast. Always fun to hear something from the homefront. While I was getting dad's presents I let dad talk to them for a bit, and gave them to him so that Nelske and Aziz could see how happy he is with the bicycle tires *grins*. Of course he liked them, and I gave him another cd from Paul Oakley which he already has played a couple of times since.

View along the road. Old river is all grey which is the old lava from the mountain.
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At 9:30 we left for Mount St. Helens (yes only 30mins later than planned!!), and Patti's dad drove us over there. The car was fully packed with Patti and her dad in the front, her mum and niece Amy behind them, and dad and I all the way in the back. I thought it would be good to be in the back seat so that we could shut our eyes for a bit more til we got there, but the lovely scenery we were driving through kept us awake.

By 11am we were able to see the mountain from quite close. Beautiful views over the valley and on the mountain / vulcano kept on surprising us. We got out of the car a couple of times to enjoy the view and take a few pictures. The sky was bright blue, no clouds except for the smoke that St. Helens was puffin'.

Squirrel with binoculars
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At one of the viewpoints along the road there were a couple of squirrels that loved the attention (and possibly the food given by others) and weren't affraid of coming close at all. One of them was even looking through the binoculars Amy brought! Funny little creatures they are, and so cute.

Mount St. Helens is an (active) vulcano, which erupted vigorously in 1980; a third of the mountain blew away! This is also what is shown at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, when you go into the small theather. A nice 12 minute movie about the history of Mt St Helens, how it blew and the effects of it. Very nice as well is when it ends, the curtains and screen go up and you see the mountain right in front of you where the screen was. Good job!

Mount St. Helens
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While dad, Patti's mum, Amy and I went to see the little introduction movie and had a stroll around the observatory, Patti and her dad stayed in the car, enjoying the view of the parking lot. Dad and I of course, decided to get up to the higher viewing point, which wasn't too far away. We got there within 5 minutes, pretty nice view! From the Observatory (and up there) you can see right into the new dome, where the smoke from the hot lava down there comes up. Still quite some snow there around the sides of the mountains too, making it half white. When looking around and also when we drove up to Johnston Ridge, you can still see the impact of the eruptions of the vulcano. You can still see huge craters and loads of trees that were blown down by the force of the eruption. Stunning!

Me and her
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I went to see what was there at the end of the trail (only about 10 meters away), but there were seriously TOO many flies around!! Oh well, there wasn't that much to see anyways. Let's go hike a bit before we head back home! So dad and I went back to the car, while we were wanting to walk to the other viewpoint that we crossed before by car, which would be about a 30min walk. BUT ALAS, we couldn't go there because Amy had to be back home around 5pm! We were so looking out for it, and it really felt like we missed out on half the trip.

Dead trees blown over like matchsticks
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So we drove back home (Lacey) and we all napped on the way back home. After the guests left around 4pm, I didn't feel like I had done enough today. I was prepared for much more and I needed to get out again, get some more exercise, get the disappointment out (wasn't THAT much of a disappointment because it was all very nice up there). So I jumped on the mountainbike and cycled to Long Lake, which isn't really that far, about 20mins by bike.

I first went to the bridge towards Holmes Island, which lies on Long Lake. Nice view on the lake from there, where some kids were playing on peddle boats and a couple of other guys racing around in their boats. I could see a sort of a playing ground further up the shore, with people sitting and kids playing in the water, so I thought it might be nice to see if that's a nice spot!

Long Lake from Holmes Island bridge
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Couldn't find it on the map, but I thought it must be close to here. There was a fair going on around there, which was actually gonna start the next day. I couldn't find the right way to the playground, but eventually got to a road leading to the water. Just a shame it only lead to a boat ramp! BUT I could hear the kids playing now, so I thought can't be far away! I went back and turned back into the road which had a sign up there, which kinda looked like a sign which means don't go in there, but I had never seen it before so I ignored it anyways heheh. And yesssss it got me there eventually! Lovely little beach at the lake, with 3 coast guards watching the kids play in the water. Really nice place where everyone can relax on the grass and have a nice swim without having to be affraid to drown.

Nice view
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When I left the beachy place I noticed the sign saying Long Lake County Park, if anyone wanted to know. I cycled back home again, and they were waiting on me for dinner, yay food! (don't worry, no chili for me again this summer)