Mount Saint Helens

This weekend we took it easy since Mike was a little under the weather on friday and I somehow got conned into working a half day on Saturday. Mike picked me up from work at noon and we grabbed a quick lunch at Panera - which is the first and only Panera in the Seattle area - and always crowded. Then we drove 2 1/2 hours south to Mount St. Helen's.
A little history: Mount St. Helen's is a volcano which erupted on May 18th 1980. The mountain lost 1,314 ft of elevation, to a 150mph avalanch of the whole north side! Ash was blasted 12 miles into the air covering 22,000 square miles. 150 thousand acres of wooded areas were buried beneath the rock or blown down by the 300 mile per hour winds. It is pretty amazing that you can still see the extensive damage left by the eruption more than 25 years later. The ground on and around the mountain still looks brown and barren as it is being left to regrow naturally.
We didn't hike because naturally it was raining and cold, but we did order a pizza when we got home and watched a little TV. Sunday, we took it easy and then had Katie and Jim over for some grilled turkey burgers complete with fries, fruit salad, ice cream, beer and martini's : )
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