DAY-16 Mount St. Helen's and On To Oregon

Day-16: Friday, September 18, 2015

Starting Location: Silver Lake Resort & Camp, Silver Lake, WA

Interim Location: Mount St. Helens NVM, WA

Ending Location: Best Western, Wilsonville, OR

As predicted we returned to Parker's for breakfast but not before lighting another fire and exploiting opportunities to mingle with nature on the fishing pier and private room balconies.

Mount St. Helens From The Lodge

At Parker's we ordered many things, from eggs and bacon, sausage or ham, to pancakes (with Sheila's own private stash of "maple syrup") and any variety of omelets. The portions were "Sasquatch" size, nobody cleaned their plate and I didn't even finish my last slice, the sixth large slice of BACON. Another good meal had by all.



This morning I witnessed something in the restaurant that I've either ignored or never seen and that would be magnetic flatware. The knife can pull the fork and spoon around the placemat like a train and Pat even proved the power of the knife by lifting a spoon. Kind of weird I would say.

10" Cake - Not For Breakfast

On our way back to the lodge we stopped at the state run Mount St. Helens Visitor Center where we watched a short movie and viewed an number of displays, photos and relics of the blast.

We then returned to the lodge for check-out where we packed our bags into the cars and headed on our way to the mountain.

As we neared the Johnson Ridge Visitor Center a cry from the back seat went out "Is that a cat?"; well Pat had seen motion in the woods and after a second look identified a wayward coyote hunting in the scrub brush at one of the observation points. We stopped, ran to the hillside and sure enough there was a beautiful and healthy coyote. Good eye Pat.

By noon we arrived at the Johnson Ridge Visitor Center, the focal point for the USDA's forest services park. We listened to a park ranger's presentation and proceeded in to see the video describing the eruption of 1980 and the aftermath many years later.

Weather was pretty good today and the summit of Mount St. Helens was visible though somewhat cloud shrouded at a lower level. While there we walked one of the local trails and determined that the color yellow as worn by Sheila was an attractant for some stinging/biting type of flying insect.

On our ride back down the mountain we stopped at Patty's Place, a local eatery noted for its pies and cobbler. We all sampled cobbler, apple, apple-cherry, peach and berry and enjoyed them to the last bite.

Almond Avalanche

Thirsty Almond, "It's so close I can almost taste it."

By mid afternoon, well timed for Portland rush-hour traffic, we were on I-5 headed south toward Wilsonville, OR, our stop for the night and the next several days. We checked into the Best Western before heading cross the street for dinner at Rams, a local pub and sports bar. We had typical sports bar food, onion rings, burgers, mac & cheese, salads, fish tacos, rubens, etc. To wash it down how can you not have a beer with a name like "Buttface".

We settled in to our rooms around nine with visions of vineyards and wineries on our minds through the night.