2015 Summer Roadtrip: Day 24–Tuesday—7/8: Mount St. Helens (wow!), Seattle, Dinner at the Costinett’s home

We drove up to the Johnston Observatory at Mount St. Helens volcano—the closest point you can drive to see the jagged top of the volcano, as well as straight into the giant, gaping, side of the mountain where the eruption primarily blew. Wow, this inspires absolute awe and respect of nature’s power and fury. The eruption caused over 1300 feet of the top of the volcano to be blown off! It also was a lateral blast that leveled trees in 250 square MILES of area. Driving through the valleys and near ridgelines that still have dead trees that were toppled is incredible. It’s eerie to think there was a scientist named Johnston standing right here when the volcano erupted. After watching the movie and listening to a ranger talk about the eruption, it becomes clear this man didn’t stand a chance (the visitor center is named after him). Old lakes were destroyed, new ones were formed, and one lake where a man stayed behind rose 200 feet due to the melting snows that came pouring down due to the eruption. He was another of the 57 deaths that day. It’s humbling and incredible to be here—especially since the eruption was such a big news event in our early lives in 1980. This is still an active volcano (it erupted again in 2004 and/or 08). There is a new lava dome inside the crater about 800 feet tall. And the newest glacier in the world is also inside the crater—over 650 feet deep in places (taller than the space needle we saw later that day!) We strongly recommend visiting here!

We then drove north to Seattle. Ryan enjoyed seeing the Seahawks stadium to the left and the Washington Huskies stadium a few minutes later to the right from the freeway as we were driving. Sarah was the first to spot the Space Needle as we approached the city, winning another of our road trip games to pass the time. We made it to our campground in time to head over for dinner at the house of Andrea’s good friend from high school, Kelly. They made a nice salmon dinner and we spent a few hours catching up with Kelly, her husband Dan, and her kids Amanda and Dylan. It was great to relax and chat with good friends that we hadn’t seen in a while.

We are staying north of Seattle on a gorgeous pond with ducks, geese, heron, and these large frogs that make really loud noises all night. We slept with fans on and windows closed due to how loud they are. But they’re pretty cute.