Day 7

We woke up in Seattle! We worked on trying to plan the next few days, especially lodging, showered, and had an amazing breakfast. They had cereal, waffles, fruit, yogurt, pastries, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, bagels, coffee, juice, tea, and milk. We had a scrumptious breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and said goodbye to downtown Seattle.

Mt. Rainier here we come!

We made it to Mt. Rainier. It was awesome driving up to the visitors center, going through forests and getting to see the mountain in the distance…awesome. The visitor’s center was really nice and looked fairly new. There was still a significant amount of snow. People were sledding, skiing, and taking some trails that were open. On our way up and down the mountain, we saw lots of waterfalls because the snow was melting. It was incredible. We decided not to take a trail so we could get to Mount St. Helens.





Karla and Jon at Mt. Rainier



Jon with Mt. Rainier




Mt. Rainier

We took a state highway to Mount St. Helens so we got a view of something other than an interstate. We saw some gorgeous flowers, lakes, and the mountains as a backdrop.

Mount St. Helens was sweet! We walked around outside the Johnston Observatory a little and checked out the inside of the building. They had a cool display of what happened when the volcano erupted. We took some pictures outside while waiting for the next video showing. The video was about 15 minutes long and ended with the movie screen and a curtain going up and outside the big picture window was Mount St. Helens! It was definitely worth the couple hour drive from Mount Rainier.




Mt. St. Helens




Karla with Mt. St. Helens

We were not going to get to Lincoln City, Oregon until after dark so we decided to stay in Portland, Oregon for the night. We got a great deal on a room close to downtown. We took a short walk, got to see them raise the bridge for a ship, observe some of the Rose Festival happenings, and enjoy the calm of a Sunday evening stroll. We took advantage of the whirlpool at the hotel and had a relaxing evening.

We did notice a large amount of bicyclists in Portland. I don’t think we looked out the window at breakfast without seeing a handful of cyclists. We also got to see the Portland Street Car going around the city on the tracks.




Portland at night with a boat that has just gone under the raised bridge