Dateline: Everett, WA - What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

Mount St. Helens 

We left Sacramento around noon on Wednesday, after spending the morning in Old Sacramento. As we made our way further north on Interstate 5, the scenery began to change from the flat, semi-arid farmland of the central valley to forested slopes as we started to gain in elevation. On a previous trip between Washington and California in the summer of 2018, I'd promised the girls we would have an enthralling view of Mount Shasta (elevation: 9772 feet/2979 meters), only to be foiled by thick smoke emanating from severe brushfires. This time the climate cooperated as we approached the potentially active volcano:

We pulled off the freeway at the promising-sounding Vista Road:

My wife got out for a better view. My daughter, looking up Mount Shasta on Google, was more entertained by some of the loony legends surrounding the mountain:

Crossing from California into Oregon:

The drive north continued on Thursday after spending the night in Medford. We took a break in Salem to see the state capitol building, an Art Deco design finished in 1938 that is certainly different from the usual domed government buildings:

Although we hadn't planned on doing so, we were making good time on the road, and so decided to stop in Portland, with Shu-E suggesting we first visit Washington Park. The high entry admission for the Japanese garden was a deterrent, however, so we instead spent some time in the free rose garden, where Mount Hood (elevation: 7706 feet/2349 meters), another potentially active volcano, lurked in the background:

There was a pair of Chinese women taking glamor shots of each other outside the entrance to the Japanese Garden, so I had my daughter take some of me striking the pose:

From the park it was a short drive to our favorite Portlandia institution, Powell's City of Books, where it took all my willpower, plus an acknowledgement of the lack of space in our bags, to resist spend, spend, spending on reading matter (though Amber managed to find a small volume to take with her):

Introducing my wife to two essential aspects of American culture, steak and eggs...:

…and the 24-hour donut shop:

After spending more time in the Portland area than we'd intended, we found a room for the night at a Motel 6 in nearby Troutdale. Though it smelled of pets (think cat litter box or wet dog) and breakfast wasn't provided (hence the stop at Heavenly Donuts), it was quiet. Better still, it was only a short drive on Friday morning to the hella scenic Multnomah Falls:

The upper section of the falls is 542 feet (165 meters)…:

…while the lower part falls a further 69 feet (21 meters):

The wife and I had visited the Columbia Gorge area back in 2005, but this was the first time for Amber:

Looking across the Columbia River to Washington state:

Next, we drove up to the 1918 Vista House for some more incredible views:

On the way back to the freeway we made a brief stop at a small lavender field:

Shu-E also wanted to introduce our daughter to Mount St. Helens (8363 feet/2549 meters), a volcano that certainly lived up to its potential in 1980, with devastating effects. First sighting of the mountain at the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center:

Then it was onward to get a close-up view at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, first perusing the exhibits on what took place 42 years ago...:

…and then going outside to take it all in:

The last time the wife and I were there, smoke was visible coming out of the crater. This time, however, what appeared to be smoke was just ash being blown about by winds:

I had first visited the mountain in the early 1990's, and at that time the landscape resembled a barren lunar scene, with many trees that had been blown down by the eruption still lying about. In the years since, nature has appeared to be making a strong comeback:

Mount Adams (12,281 feet/3743 meters) peeks out in the distance:

Mounts Adams and St. Helens:

It was just after 1900 hours on Friday evening that we rolled up to our accommodations in Everett, Washington, the end of a three-week journey by car that took across us eleven states and approximately 5000 miles (I forgot to note the odometer at the end). On this trek we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere in the southern California desert, followed by time spent in the center of the second-largest city in the U.S. It was fascinating to see how the landscape of this huge country changed going from Virginia to California, and then north to Washington. 

For our daughter, the highlight was visiting national parks like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. For my wife, it was the opportunity to see Mount St. Helens again. For myself, it was the ironic realization that being a Foreign Service Officer in the State Department has allowed me to see more of the United States that I probably would have had in any other potential line of work. We're going to spend a couple of weeks seeing family and taking care of business in the Seattle area before returning to Washington, D.C. next month, and then moving on to China. Until then, thanks for coming along...

I would translate this, except that over the course of our road trip I've forgotten much of the Mandarin I'd supposedly learned during the previous ten months