Summer Road Trip - Part 1

Let me first apologize to those of you that kept checking in during our two week vacation for updates and pictures. We were enjoying the break, the sights and sounds, and most of all, family! Considering I'm looking at 11 days and about 400+ pictures, I'll break it down into pieces.

We left our house on Tuesday morning, July 27, at 8 a.m. and managed to make it to Crater Lake National Park by 7 p.m. Aside from a brief, but intense hail storm just west of the park, we had great weather and enjoyed the trip, listening to music, drawing in our journals, and listening to The Silver Chair on CD. Wednesday was spent exploring the park. We stopped in at the Information Center first to pick up a map of the Rim Drive, some Jr. Ranger booklets for the kids, and a checklist of birds and animals seen in the park for Randy to look out for! We drove the entire rim of the lake, stopping at multiple lookouts for pictures, small hikes, and lunch. We made it to Rim Village by 4 p.m. and the kids turned in their now-finished booklets to earn a Jr. Ranger badge. Then they completed an activity to earn a patch as well. We headed back to the campsite for dinner but then drove back to Cloudcap Lookout to watch the sun set over the lake. Randy brought our Coleman stove with us and we made s'mores while we watched the sun descend. Not quite as gooey, but still yummy! Here's a couple more pics from the day. The east side of the lake, overlooking Phantom Ship. North side of the lake, looking towards Wizard Island. Thursday morning we woke up, packed up, and hit the road again! We left the park from the north entrance and stopped for lunch at Susan Creek Recreation area to look at the gorgeous North Umpqua River, and even put in our feet for awhile! Next stop...Portland!