Because I'm a fan of the 1985 movie "The Goonies" we took a drive to Astoria Oregon.  Unfortunately we didn't find any pirate treasure maps or ships.  Nice drive and place to visit though.

Mount St Helen's was an unbelievable place to visit.  You can hear and read about the eruption in 1980 but it is something to see in person.

Pictures provided by park service on an information board showing Mt St Helen's before and after the eruption.  The entire top and side of the mountain were blown away.

In the background you can see the lava dome in the creator of Mt St Helen's.  The shape of the dome is familiar to me. LOL

This picture is taken seven miles away at the observatory for Mt St Helen's.  Even at this distance we are still standing on parts of Mt St Helen.  You can also see gully's beginning to form in the  ash at the base of the mountain.  The ash can be up to several hundred feet deep.

All of the trees you can see in the picture are no older than 33 years old.  Everything you can see hear would have been destroyed or knocked down in 1980.  Most of what you see has returned because of hand planting that was done between 1983 - 1989.

Much of the wildlife has also now returned to the park.  If you squint you can see the elk in this picture.  LOL  

Last but not least, Bigfoot.  He is very much a part of the lore in the Mt St Helen's area.  This is all we saw of him though.

Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve is an interesting mystery.  No one seems to know how these mounds were created.  They are not burial mounds of any kind.  The most widely accepted theory is that these were created river currents from the melting during the Ice Age.

Walking through these is like being in a maze.  It is easy to disappear because many are several feet high.

There's thousands of these mounds as far as you can see.

We also visited Tacoma were we visited the glass museum.  Didn't know there was a museum dedicated to only glass art.

This is called the bridge of glass.  You can see the top of the museum on the right.  It is the cone shaped roof. 

As you walk across the glass bridge there are several ceilings with glass murals.  This is just one small square of a mural. 

Glass mural at the museum entrance.

While in the Seattle area we also visited the local botanical gardens.  There was also a display of bonsai trees from artists around the world.  Here are some of our favorites.

This is like a mini forest with several bonsai trees.

We visited the garden late in the season so many of the blooms had passed.  Below are a few we did see.

We did take time to visit Mount Rainier up close.

The drive in the park on 706 was interesting.  Lots of close trees, tight turns, and high bridges.

On the way to Paradise we stopped at this river bed to hike along the trails available. 

Mt Rainier up close

Paradise Falls

When we returned from Alaska we took some time to visit the Seattle area.  Because we weren't familiar with local public transportation we choose to just drive by downtown Seattle.

Seattle Skyline

Space Needle

Mt Rainier as seen from the Seattle area.  We were amazed at how often you could see Mt Rainier from many places around Seattle.