Last month we went to Mt. Saint Helens with my mom. It's a trip we'd been meaning to take for a long time, and we were all looking forward to it a lot. When I was maybe 5 or 6 (early 90's), I went with my cousins, and still have very clear memories from that trip. As such, my expectations for this 2nd time around were high. The entire trip up, I raved about the ash, dirt, bare open spaces, and overall eerie feeling of the place.
Turns out a lot changes in 17 years.
There were shrubs, trees, and a whole lot of green. It's silly, I know, but I was stunned. I hadn't stopped to consider that things could change so much.
I felt like a schmuck, but quickly got over my embarrassment and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.
We then took a walk around Spirit Lake. It was a short little hike, but Donald never passes up an opportunity for a good workout, so he strapped on his fully loaded pack and off we went!
We even saw some deer on the trail. If you enlarge the following picture and look smack dab in the middle of it, you can see them... kind of. If you look really closely, anyway.
This guy's a gem. I love it when he lets me take cheesy action shots.
To wrap the trip up, we stopped at a little diner for an early dinner, where I ate some of the most delicious Mountainberry Cobbler EVER (sadly, not pictured).
By this point, Donald had already posed for a few pictures during the hike. He had officially met his daily quota, and stopped cooperating.
He wouldn't be my husband if he enjoyed having his picture taken.
