A CELEBRATION. We were celebrating 14 years of marriage. We left for this vacation on the 25th of June which was the two year anniversary of my ruptured brain aneurysm. We were celebrating life too. I played It's Good To Be Alive as we got on the freeway. Tears of joy and gratitude filled my eyes. We are truly blessed that we have the means to celebrate our marriage and life this way.
I have wanted to go to Mt. Saint Helens ever since it erupted. It just never worked out. So as I was looking for vacation spots Mt. Saint Helens popped up. I am so in! I talked with Mike and so was he! Let the planning begin! We had to stop at this rest stop and get a picture of this getup. I am not sure what the story was because we didn't get a chance to ask. Really look at this. Mirrors everywhere, trinkets and more!
Even bras covering the front of this car! Where in the heck did she get all those bras? Seriously?
We thought she must be some sort of vendor! Candy.
We made it to the campsite and Grizzly Adams started the chore of putting up the tent. What a chore it is. We put up the whole tent and waited for the vestibule. We were tired. The tent itself took a couple of hours. Vestibule tomorrow. Love these pictures of Mike with his self made headbands on.
Caught a rainbow as we were unpacking. Reminded me of God's promise! This whole place brought to the forefront of my mind the power of God!
Thursday morning we splurged and went to this place which is about 1/2 a block from our campsite. When we saw the cook from Patty's Place wandering through our camp area he told us about it and said it had really great food. Mike said we have plenty of food we don't need to go to the restaurant! He changed his mind in the morning. It was really good! Nice people. We were blessed by God. He surrounded us with nice people everywhere we went. When your awareness of God is heightened by the beauty and recovery all around you, I think for me, it made me even more aware of the little blessings God gives us everyday.
This is the view from the deck at Patty's Place. That is the Toutle River behind my handsome husband.
Mike was totally impressed with the size of this tomato plant. Huge for this time of year.
As we talked with the locals we discovered places to visit that were not on the list of things to do. This is one of them. This is a man made dam that was built to deflect the flow of the the muddy Toutle River. Trying to get the river back on track.
We thought we were headed to the path you see in this picture but we were wrong.
We continued through the beautiful forest. Let me tell you that it rained off and on the whole time we were at Mt. Saint Helens. It didn't stop us at all. We did everything we wanted to do. Monday when we were leaving the sun came out.
The sediment dam.
The Toutle River behind the dam.
Still lots of mud and ash!
This is the actual dam! It is terraced!
The top of the dam. This is where we walked.
Heading back now though the forest in the rain! My shoes were so wet that it took days to dry them out and we needed to start the wood stove at night to help the process along. The heat was nice too. After this I decided boots were better than tennis shoes.
Giant clover!
Next stop the Hummocks Trail. Hummocks are large rocks.
The Hummocks Trail is now where the top of Mt. Saint Helens lies. I was so excited to be standing on this.
Now up the road to Mt. Saint Helens. Clouds covered it but even so, the enormity of what happened there showed!
This is what I knew. I had to see the whole thing before I left. Had to but the weather did not cooperate for sure.
These flowers are lupins. The hero of plant colonizers during the recovery. In 1983 the first lupine was discovered. Its special ability was to extract nitrogen from the air and put it in the soil which helped other plants grow and soon insects where hanging around.
Pocket gophers were called the heroes of animal surveyors. Many were burrowed under ground and under the snow. When they emerged they brought with them organic soil and fungi where seeds could grow. God! Our mighty God! His hand is everywhere!
Back to the campsite to put up the vestibule and eat something yummy that Chef Gleason cooked.
This is the tiny office at the campsite.
The vestibule is up! Now we can relax. I would like the magic genie to come and set up the tent and take it down. Especially take it down.
What does this look like? It is wooden and it sat and stared at us the whole time we were camping. Little know fact that Mike just shared with me... he used this guy to cut off the heads of the fish we caught. No wonder he kept staring at us! Good thing he couldn't talk.
Grizzly Adams again working hard!
This little rodent wanted food. Lots of it!
Day one in the books and a good one it was! Love you Mike Gleason! Happy Happy Anniversary!
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