On to Crater Lake

Our first afternoon we made it to Crater Lake. It was a nice change after being in the museum for hours and then the car for a while.

The guys were quite excited to see SNOW! So excited, that they forgot to adjust their clothing. Of course, Da (my mom) would saying wearing flip flops in the snow is purely genetics.

We quickly made adjustments and we were ready to play.

Of course, I had to snap the official photos first. I appreciate that both guys were happy to pose. Even my almost teenager. He's looking pretty handsome here if you can get past those socks....I must explain those. Those are compression socks. About four weeks worth of allowance, but he swears by them. Maybe I should get a pair...nah, not for four weeks worth of allowance.

Did I mention they just loved the snow? It was kind of wet, but it wasn't that cold so they were really able to enjoy it.

I took a bunch of pictures in front of this bank and in almost every one of them one of the guys is jumping on, digging in or just generally unable to keep his hands off it. Kind of funny to me.

I think being able to climb on it was the best. It took a bit of cajoling to get them to come down....but come down they had to because the best was yet to come.

The big payoff was Wizard Island. This is a volcano that collapsed many years ago. It was huge...bigger than the surrounding ones, i.e., St. Helens, Hood, Ranier, etc, etc. When the crater fell in on itself a lake formed. Some of the purest water in the world is in Crater Lake. Very slowing, a new lava dome has formed which we know as Wizard Island. The is another dome beside it, but it is currently submerged.

The colors are so incredibly vivid. The greens of the trees against the white snow and the blue water...it's nearly breathtaking. I mean literally. It's beautiful. If you can see a sight like this and not believe there's a Creator, then I feel really sorry for you 'cause something is wrong.

We made our way down to an observation deck to get a little closer. Unbelievable.

The water is so blue and so clear. They stocked it with fish a few decades ago. I bet those are some mighty delicious fish.

One last snow visit before we left. They were trying to write their names in the snow. I didn't have the heart to tell them it would likely be gone to next day as fast as the snow seemed to be melting.

That night we made it to Roseburg, OR or about halfway to the coast. The Dunes were next. That was cool...stay tuned!