Hi Folks,

After crossing the boarder back into the US we spent one night on the Washington coast near Bellingham.  We had a beautiful evening and caught a great sunset.  Here is one of about 25 pictures I took.  But the rain returned and we woke up ready to go inland to get away from the seacoast.  We had planned on spending a day or two in Seattle but we missed a contact we had there and decided to visit Mount Rainier instead.  I am glad we did because it is a very impressive stand alone volcano.  They post "camp at your own risk" signs as you enter the campground with warnings to move quickly to higher ground in the event of an eruption.  The warning really sunk in two days later when we visited Mount St Helen which of course did blow up in 1980.  That was an extraordinary event and you can see the area that has been left alone is still a bit of a wasteland.  The stories of people who survived the blast are amazing.  One couple floated on logs down a mudslide and survived.

Now we are in Portland and headed to the Redwood forests in Northern California.  We still have been getting a lot of rain.  We shortened our trip to Mt Rainier when it started raining there.  It rained when we were at Mt St. Helen but it is clear now in Portland.

Blessings,

Brian and Ruth