Mt. St. Helens

I'm writing this blog from our laptop in a hotel room in the teeny tiny town of Kelso, Washington (which ironically has much more to offer than Oak Harbor). We came down here for 4th of July weekend to visit Mt. St. Helens.

I have always been fascinated by Mt. St. Helens, mainly because I had a pen-pal in elementary school who lived on the Oregon/Washington border and she used to tell me stories about visiting the mountain. I also always thought that it was the only active volcano in the continental United States, which I was promptly proved wrong about the moment we moved to Washington.

So for anyone who's been living under a rock for the past 30 years, Mt. St. Helens, in southern Washington state, erupted on May 18, 1980 in a massive explosion that literally blew off the entire top and side portion of the mountain, caused severe damage to the area and towns around it, and killed 57 people.

(On a side note, I had a horrifying moment when I realized how old I was a few days ago. We were planning the trip and Mr. V told me that the National Forest Service has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of the eruption. I knew that it erupted a little less than a year before I was born in 1981, but I guess I just wasn't thinking because I said "30th anniversary? There's no possible way that it has already been 30 years. It erupted less than a year before I was born.....ohhh...." That would be the moment when I think it really hit me that I am almost 30 years old. But anyway, back to the trip...)

This is what the mountain looked like before the 1980 eruption:
A few weeks before the eruption, a bulge began to form on the north side of the mountain (following several weeks of earthquakes and some very minor eruptions). I honestly can't even imagine seeing this, knowing full well that there would inevitably be a massive explosion when this bulge broke through the surface.
And on May 18th, around 8:30 in the morning, this happened:


All that was left, when the eruption was over, was this:
I think its safe to say that Mt. St. Helens is no longer a beautiful, majestic mountain (although there is a lava dome in the center of it, formed by the mountain slowly starting to rebuild itself, so maybe it will be big and beautiful again in the future).

So yesterday, Mr. V and I set off to visit Mt. St. Helens. It was definitely a very cool thing to see. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, which is nothing new to Washington, so we actually couldn't see the whole mountain, but we were able to see the crater, and since the mountain has lost thousands of feet off the top of it, we were told that the clouds really weren't covering too much of it. If they had just lifted a tiny bit, we would have been able to see the top.

I'm just happy that we got to see anything, because based on normal weather around here, and the live webcam set up at the mountain's viewing site this morning, many people come out here and see absolutely nothing because of the fog and clouds. I wanted to see the part of the mountain that had been blown off, and I did, so I was happy :-).

(park ranger at the visitor's center - if you look at the picture he's holding you can see the lava dome that has been growing in the crater for the past few years

(me at the visitor's center - before I gave in to the cold weather and changed into warmer clothes)

(driving to Mt. St. Helens)

(This place is a small visitor's center and an A-frame house that was destroyed during the eruption. The house is half buried in the ash from the explosion.)

(This is at the A-frame house...because you can't go anywhere in the mountains of Washington without finding a giant bigfoot statue somewhere.)

(front of the A-frame house buried in the ash)

(side of the A-frame house - it was really weird/cool to me to think that I'm standing on 6 feet of ash that has now just become the normal ground.)

(back of the A-frame house - I'm looking into the second floor because you can see into the bedroom and you can see just how quickly these people's lives were destroyed. The bedroom is still set up like people are living there...only now its covered in ash and rotting away.)

(Bigfoot drinking coffee because Bigfoot and coffee go hand in hand in Washington!)

(the edge of the blast zone...This is a new bridge built in place of the old bridge that was washed away from the mudslides caused by the eruption.)

(everything within the blast zone area was destroyed or drastically affected by the eruption)

(Me with Mt. St. Helens behind me to the right!)

(Mt. St. Helens -look closely and you'll see that everything around it is nothing but fields and fields of piles of ash)

(piles and piles of ash at the bottom of the mountain)

(looking into the crater of Mt. St. Helens...apparently the top of the mountain is right where the clouds are. It was amazing to me that almost the entire mountain was just literally blown away.)

(me and Mt. St. Helens)

(another one of Mt. St. Helens and the ash)

(this is a little hard to see but this is directly across from Mt. St. Helens...there is nothing but trees that were knocked down from the blast and ash. It looked like a nuclear wasteland.)

(It was hard to get a picture but this is a memorial to everyone who died during the eruption, with the mountain behind it.)

(another one of me and Mt. St. Helens)

(This is the reason why I am here spending one of our vacation days writing a blog post. This is Mr. V at the start of a really hard trail that goes up to the lowest point of the crater. He is hiking this as I type. I knew he'd want to do some crazy hike so I brought along stuff to entertain me for the day while he's off hiking. The park ranger told us that people who are afraid of heights and who don't have good balance aren't recommended to take this trail because it apparently gets pretty narrow and steep. Not exactly my cup of tea.)

(the reason why I am not hiking with Mr. V right now)

(total destruction)

(more fallen trees and ash)

(me sitting on a volcanic rock at Crystal Lake. The lake was formed during the eruption and all around it are piles of rock and ash. It was amazing to me to see the rocks because I can't even fathom the idea of the earth literally spitting out rocks this big - and this was one of the smaller ones.)

(a pile of ash and rocks at Crystal Lake)

So happy 4th of July everyone! Assuming that Mr. V makes it back from his hike in one piece then we'll be checking out the fireworks in this tiny town tonight!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #2

Second week of questions from Wife of a Sailor's MilSpouse Friday Fill-In:

1. Tell us about your dream job… one that you could do regardless of pay.

I want to be a Civil War historian. Yes I'm a huge history nerd and my dream job is to work at a National Park battlefield. Money would be the issue in the sense that a lot of those jobs are usually volunteer jobs, with the exception of a few low paying jobs. However, at the moment, location is my bigger issue since Civil War history doesn't exactly extend out to the Pacific Northwest.

2. What is your most prized material possession (kids and pets don’t count!)?

My pictures. I have several bookshelves full of picture albums and they mean the world to me. I've always said that if my house was on fire, my pictures would be the one thing I would save because they are irreplaceable. To me, pictures are more than just pictures. They are a full history of my life. They tell my story. And without them I feel like a piece of me is missing. From a historian perspective, history is only known through memories - mainly, stories and pictures. If that's missing, the history doesn't exist. I don't think there is any other material object that can be equal in importance to me.

3. What has been your favorite duty station and why?

Jacksonville, Florida (NAS JAX). Its been my favorite for a variety of reasons. First, its on the East Coast and one thing I have learned from moving around so much is that places like New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, etc are all very different, but at the same time there is an attitude and personality that seems to be in every East Coast person that just doesn't exist in places like Texas or Washington (and even Louisiana as is proven by my husband's complete lack of interest in anywhere on the East Coast). I don't know how to explain it exactly. All I know is that I have realized I can be comfortable and feel at home anywhere from Maine to Florida, but I don't feel that same comfort anywhere else. (Not to mention that Florida is overrun with people from New Jersey, so I have to admit that that is also an plus to the area for me.)

From a historical point of view (I'm on a history kick in this post if you can't tell), Jacksonville borders St. Augustine which is the oldest city in the nation. Anyone who has any interest in American history would be lying if they said that they didn't care about St. Augustine. Its such a great city full of history, plus I got married there :-).

4. What is your least favorite household chore?

I hate making the bed. Hate it. Absolutely hate it. I really don't know why, but I do. I hate remaking the bed after waking up, but I especially despise putting new sheets onto the bed. I've been known to pull out a blanket and just sleep on the mattress for a few days just to avoid making the bed.

5. If you could give one piece of advice to a teenager today (not specifically a MilTeen), what would it be?

Don't worry about what other people think! Thats all I worried about in high school, and while I wasn't a follower and I didn't go out of my way to be someone that I wasn't, I was very insecure because I didn't fit into that popular crowd. The stupid thing is that I never even wanted to be in that crowd, but I still felt insecure. Looking back now though, I had a small group of great friends, and those friends are still my friends today. I almost feel stupid when I look back and think about how much I cared about what others thought in high school, and I'm thankful that I never did compromise myself or "sell out" because I am happy with who I am and who I was.

A Little Old-Fashioned Fun

Back in December, about 2 days after Mr. V got home from Iraq, he decided to buy himself a truck. But not just any truck...THIS truck:

That would be an old 1964 Ford pickup truck. Its rusted everywhere. It has the same engine that it had back when it was made in 1964. Its missing a door handle on the inside passenger door. The windows are cracked, a rear view mirror is missing. Wires are hanging out everywhere. There are all sorts of things wrong with it. To top it all off, it even came with a ski mask under the seat and a bumper sticker that reads "Jeffrey Dahmer says that tattoos taste better at Tiny Tim's Tattoo shop". I wish I was joking about that last part.

Mr. V's first car was a 1960-something Mustang that he restored. (He'd probably hate me for not remembering exactly what year his first car was.) He loves old cars and enjoys restoring them. We've been saying that we wanted a truck so we could haul stuff around (i.e. firewood, anything large that we buy), so this truck is perfect. It can haul stuff, and in his free time (that he never has) he can restore it to its original condition.

In the meantime, the truck sits on the street in front of our house as a huge eye sore. He's driven it a few times to run errands, but I have to admit that I'm not too fond of riding in the truck. The first time I went for a ride in it, we ended up broken down on the other end of town, and had to call my friend's husband to come rescue us. The few times that Mr. V has driven it without me as a passenger have been hit or miss as far as how well it runs. We bought an antique cabinet at a garage sale a few weeks ago. We had paid for it with the promise of coming back to pick it up in a few hours. The truck made it 30 minutes down the road to pick up the cabinet, but the people we bought the cabinet from had to push Mr. V down a hill so he could do something with the clutch to jump start the engine (you can tell that I know nothing about cars) after it became clear that the truck wasn't going to restart on his way back.

Since Mr. V clearly doesn't have the time to restore the truck any time in the near future, he tries to find other ways to play with it. This past weekend he decided to organize a group of friends to head to the old drive-in movie theatre on the island. I have to admit that I was skeptical. First, I didn't think the truck would make it to the drive-in and back. And second, I didn't think that anyone was going to humor him in regards to using the truck to get us to the drive-in. I'm happy to say that I was wrong. We ended up gathering up several friends and headed off to the drive-in.

Since the bed of the truck is rusting away, Mr. V bought some straw to line the bed with so we could sit back there. Then we packed up some blankets, some hand warmers (did I mention that its supposed to be summer now?), a battery powered radio (the drive-in's sound system is a radio station and the truck has no radio) and some old fashioned coke in a bottle and we were on our way.

I am happy to report that we made it there without the truck breaking down! The theatre was showing a double feature of Toy Story 3 and The A-Team. I wanted to see Toy Story. He wanted to see The A-Team. So we set up some chairs, laid some towels on the straw so we could sit on it without being poked, wrapped ourselves up in some blankets and had a great time!

I have to admit that I had much more fun than I was anticipating. I guess my apprehension about the truck in general, combined with the cold weather, made me think I was going to be miserable all night. I was freezing, and 3 layers of clothes (t-shirt, sweatshirt and jacket), 2 blankets and some hand warmers didn't do much to help, but I still had fun.

Now we're looking forward to planning the next drive-in adventure!

There are a lot of things that I don't like about this town and general area, but this is the kind of stuff I never did anywhere else. I didn't grow up in a place where I could go to a drive-in, while looking at the sunset over the mountains, and see cows and horses and barns in the distance. I love new adventures, and this was definitely one!

(packing up the truck with blankets in anticipation of the weather getting even colder once the sun set!)

(the straw to cover the rusty truck bed)

(me - looking very apprehensive about going for a ride in the truck)

(getting the straw all laid out)

(The Blue Fox Drive-In - since 1959!)

(old fashioned coke bottles and if you look closely at the back window you can read the Jeffrey Dahmer bumper sticker)

(The Olympic Mountains in the distance)

(Everyone waiting around for the movie to start - it should be noted that its about 9:30pm here and it hasn't even started to get dark yet)

(around 10:00pm and the sun is finally setting)

(eating and waiting for the movie to start)

(all bundled up waiting for the movie to start)

(still waiting for the movie to start)

(group shot before the movie - my friend's dog is in the bed of the truck too, but he's hard to see. I love this picture though!)

(10:30pm...still not quite dark, but dark enough to start the movie. Its hard to see but this is an old advertisement for the theatre)

(around 11:00pm...notice that the sky still isn't completely dark yet)