We left Springfield around 8:30 am and drove to Portland. We had planned to just drive through Portland, but a few friends gave us some recommendations of places we had to visit in Portland. So we thought we'd stop and see a few things. As we drove to our first destination, we drove by a nice park on the Willamette River. There were lots of people out walking and riding bikes.
Our first stop was Voodoo Doughnuts. Patrick ordered the Old Dirty, Emily ordered the Memphis Mafia, Brian ordered the Butterfinger, Andrew ordered the Diablos Rex, and Mia ordered the Voodoo Bubble. We've heard the wait can be 30-60 min. It was only 15 min. for us, which worked out well. One thing we weren't prepared for was the neighborhood. I wouldn't suggest going at night. The doughnuts were really good. Mia didn't feel well and didn't have an appetite for her doughnut or bubble gum so we knew she wasn't feeling her best (more on this later).
The other place we stopped at was Powell's City of Books. The bookstore is huge. It's about 4 stories, with every type of book imaginable. It has a great variety of new and used books. They had a lot of employees to help answer questions and had multiple cashiers. We were impressed. Everyone got to pick one book. Unfortunately we don't have a picture of us at the bookstore, but we have the books as mementos.
After our quick stop at Portland it was on to our next destination; Mount St. Helens. We could actually see it while driving from Portland, but we still had 2.5 hours of driving to get there. The view as you drive toward the mountain is a beautiful mountain without a top. As you arrive at the Johnston Ridge Observatory you see the open crater. Depth perception is very difficult when seeing things from a distance. We're about 5 miles from the crater, which is more than a mile wide and deep. Pretty impressive.
Eruption at Mount St. Helens
Andrew and Brian posing in front of the mountain. You'll notice Mia is missing. She still wasn't feeling well. The last activity at the observation point was a movie about Mount St. Helens. During the movie as Mount St. Helens was erupting, Mia, who was sitting on Patrick's lap, had her own little eruption and started throwing up. She did a great job trying to contain it while Patrick raced with her to the bathroom. Only a small amount ended up on the carpet, with Patrick's shirt and Emily's hands catching the rest. She's a tough little cookie and was a trooper. Fortunately, we were ready to leave for our next destination.
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