Into Portland for an early tour of the Rose Gardens – amazing! Before Unity Church Service. 
Then a tour around Portland, the Saturday (and Sunday) Market down by the river. Then on to Astoria, by the ocean, a beautiful Columbia River town with old Victorians and a lot of history as a port. 
We head down to our first glimpse of the Ocean and the Oregon Coast. The amazing Northwest scenery of rain forests and spectacular coastal scenery is mind blowing.
We wake up early with Gerrit’s breakfast on the lake and then up the hill still shrouded in mist.
These trees were blown down by the sideways eruption. They're all neatly lined up in the direction of the hot ash blast.
Head up the last Visitor Center. Here's a picture of what the mountain used to look like. We see a fabulous movie of the story of the eruption.
Finally get a view of the Mt. in all its blown out glory. This is interesting for myia as she was in Seattle at the time and Moved shortly after so has never been here before.
We take a hike with the Ranger and learn more geological and volcanology before heading down toward Portland thru the Columbia river where we sleep.
We saw the Motorcycle freestyle stunt show and the boys really enjoyed it including our host, Steve! 
Can you see the resemblance?
And we saw the Aussie show with some hard crusted folks with snakes and animals from down under. Also went to the historical museum and saw real old stagecoach! Then to winery for some great Oregon wines. We then left to drive 4 hours to Mt St. Helens to get there early before the crowds. We sleep in the woods by Silver lake close to the park.
Took time to get our administration in order and finally got the car registration done. Lunch with Ani and Steve at Indian restaurant. Hot 98 degree afternoon spent lounging in the river. Sunset by the rose garden and river park in Eugene town .
Spend the day at Crater Lake, hike with ranger, have a nice lunch at the restaurant with a view of the Crater Lake.
We drive to Eugene and stop for sunset on river on the way and overnighting with friends Ani and Steve in their lovely home in the hills above Eugene. 
We visit with Terry and Bruce in the morning, so nice to connect again. And we work on our blog again (you lucky devils!). After saying goodbyes we slowly leave Bend and head with Tara in our van toward Crater Lake. We stop at Lava Butte where we can see a line of volcanic mountains including Mt Bachelor, Three Sister and more. These are connected with the nearby Newberry Caldera’s system and we find out that what we suspected – that there is a line of volcanoes running in this area, different from the Cascades Mountains and more like the volcanoes of Hawaii!! The eruptions are much more recent also –within the last 6000 years. 
In our usual perfect timing we arrive at stunning Crater Lake at sunset. As we find the best spot on the lake and are admiring it a handsome young man on a motorcycle drives up. We find out, though he has a European Accent, he is from Utah! We have lots of fun talking with this deep thinking, beautiful young man, Sawyer. After fun photos he heads off to the campground and we find a quiet place right on the lake for the night!! Never thought we would be able to sleep on Crater Lake!! And the night is full of stars and the complete Milky Way!
