Eastward Ho! Part III (Actually Part II.) Confused Yet? Good, so am I. Onward!

Six years ago…

The first day journey was relatively uneventful (except for my love shipping ALL our shoes to upstate NY.)

Most aspects of the move were completely unplanned.  One of the few things we DID plan (besides mine sapphires in MT) was to visit as many national parks as we could.

This resulted the trip being longer than necessary but much more interesting than a straight line to a destination we really didn’t want to go in the first place.

Early the second morning we rounded a bend and Mt. St Helens came into view.

 I had no desire to stop and so we continued though a lovely town called Weed.

This is a real town.

In fact it reminded me a whole lot of Boulder only this little haven was founded in the shadow of Mt. Shasta.

We found the entrance to Crater Lake National Park and began to climb the 2000 plus feel to the top.  Along the way we encountered our first snow, it would not be our last.

We thought- “ok cool, snow.”  But the snow banks on either side kept growing and growing…

By the time we got to the top:

The lake itself was transcendent, perfectly reflecting the sky and everything around it.

We headed back down the crater and toward Portland.  On the way  we came across a super random dust devil. 

I think all of us were totally wiped and ready for some sleep.

We awoke to the city’s eturnal mandate to…

We decided that was just fine by us, and headed to a nutritious breakfast at the famous Voodoo Donut.

Since we had been instructed by the side of a building to “keep weird” we got a dozen amazing treats including a bacon maple bar (ok two.)

We absconded with our super healthy treats and made tracks for the top of the city.  We could not see Mt. Reiner because surprise surprise, it was overcast.  The girls still got a walk around the park though.

We were told by a statue of Sacagawea to “go over there.”

We did, and found the Saturday market under the Burnside bridge.  A must when in Portland on a Saturday.

Felling pretty good about the amount of things we had crammed into a half day -we continued North.

Still refusing to make the inevitable right turn we knew was coming soon.  We were rewarded for our truancy with more spring blooms.

And topped it off with a rainbow.   Not such a bad day after all.

But exhausting none the less.

Yes, Yellowstone.

Where Pele saw her first buffalo and went ahead and shit herself, true story.

Next- Part IV: Pele VS The Buffalo and things get messy.