Having a blast (May 26)

Breakfast...the most important meal of the day (or some would have you believe). And where do you find the best breakfasts? At truck stops. And the Truck 'n' Travel is the real thing complete with phones at the tables, a game room, short term hotel, and a parking lot full of big rigs. The plates are loaded with home style cooking with specials on the menu that are only served in the wee hours of the morning (we were either too early or too late for those).

We headed north and managed to make it through Portland with only a short delay for the drawbridge over the Columbia River. Jerry has bad memories of Portland from our last trip to California five years ago, so were happy to escape unscathed.

Since we had some extra time, we decided to take a side trip to Mount St Helen's. We drove 50 miles up to the Johnson Ridge visitor center, taking note of the tree planting blocks which are all marked with the dates (Noble Fir, planted 1983, future harvest 2028).

The higher up we drove, the colder and wetter the air. I was happy to have my hat and gloves. There is still a considerable amount of snow, and the mountain itself was covered in clouds, so our view was limited. We had a quick look around the displays, then headed back down, stopping along the way for a few photos. As we left the “gateway” town of Castle Rock, a sign said, “Thanks for coming...hope you had a blast.”

When we reached Olympia, the traffic slowed to a crawl. We were not looking forward to hitting Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle during rush hour, but in this case, the delay was caused by an accident, and once we passed it, the traffic flowed smoothly. Consulting the map, I redirected our route to bypass Tacoma and Seattle, and we had no difficulty at all zipping to Kirkland where we enjoyed dinner and visiting with Alan, Susan, and Heather.

Note: All photos are from Mt St Helen's. Apologies for the raindrops on the lens!