"Mama- I gotta go potty"

On our roadtrip this was FREQUENTLY heard from the backseat.

While on our way to Portland, we drove through the most beautiful pine forests with crystal blue lakes and rivers appearing through breaks in the trees. Sprinkled through the forest were lots of state campgrounds and thanks to the boy and his bodily functions we got to stop and check one out.

While we played around, Logan demonstrated super-hero strength, never seen before and maybe never to be seen again.

Let me give you a closer look

Amazing, isn't it!! No photoshop here

"Rustic" Cabins

We knew we would be leaving Crater Lake later in the day so we wanted to stay near by. Since we were on our way to Portland, we took the North exit out of the park which is only open about 2 months out of the year since snow is nearly a permanent resident, I guess. Well, as you can imagine, this area doesn't see a lot of tourism. We found these cabins, cute little A frames, with a queen bed and a twin, perfect for us. It had the best satellite TV we'd found so far, and a microwave and fridge, all crammed into a single room about 10 x 10. I wish I'd taken a picture of the shower though, imagine the stall located in the far corner of the cabin, with the A frame roof, you had to sit on a stool to rinse off. But I can't complain too much because the place only cost 36 bucks. We asked the owner of this 8 cabin establishment for a recommendation for dinner. She stopped and thought for a moment, as if she had never been asked this question before... huh? By the way, she did have the no vacancy neon sign glowing, so this was a popular spot. She directed us into the town of Chemult, about 5 miles down the road, we'd have the choice of a general diner or the Pilot Truck Stop that had a Subway. YUM-YUM We made the trek to town and were surprised to find a pizza place, with excellent pizza luckily. But the crazy thing is that it was for sale. For $350,000, you could own your own pizza place with a full bar in back in a tiny town that only sees tourist 2 months out of the year. In fact, the cabins we stayed in were for sale along with the diner down the street and the market across the street. I guess if you really wanted to, you could buy pretty much buy the entire town of Chemult, OR and call it your own. We headed out in the morning, didn't buy a thing, except for dinner. Off to Portland we go...

Crater Lake

This was the coldest weather we experienced along our trip, Lo had 2 sweatshirts on, I had 2 sweaters and a jacket, Shawn was in shorts and a jacket (typical).

Once the fog lifted and we could actually see the lake, it was beautiful, but still a bit cold and very windy. We hoped to take the boat ride over to Wizard Island, the cinder cone in the lake, but zooming on a lake in arctic temperatures didn't sound so great. We hung out in the lodge for a while, waiting for the temperature to rise. Lo was a trouper, he even sat through my lesson on composite volcanoes and the history of Mt. Mazama, the mountain that blew its top some 7.000 years ago to create this caldera. We continued our sight-seeing along the rim, stopping at various view points and taking a couple hikes.

There was plenty of old snow hanging around and the dusty surface didn't stop the boys from throwing a few snow balls.

We also drove out to the Pinnacles, which are vents from the ancient volcano that hardened into these tubes due to the extremely hot gasses flowing out of them. The softer, more easily eroded rock that surrounded these vents were washed away by the river that is now deep in the valley below. Here is Shawn acting like the King of the Forest

And finally a shot of all the snow on our way out of the park

Time to chill with the grill

Aunt Miss gave Lo this tasty treat before we left on our road trip, a lollipop attached to a grill. (You know like the grill of a car but for your teeth, duh?) It was the perfect way to pass the time on a long stretch of road. He had so much fun with it, yet I don' t think he ever saw what he looked like. It was his idea to pretend to be sleeping with it in... always a goofball!

What's the mystery??

When Logan heard that we were visiting the Trees of Mystery, he thought we would be stepping into his own Scooby Doo mystery. He kept asking for a week or two before our trip "What's the mystery?" or "I know I'll solve this mystery", so we hoped he wouldn't be disappointed. Luckily a 50 foot tall talking waving statue of Paul Bunyan set the stage for a great adventure through the redwoods.

We saw all sorts of "mysterious" trees, my favorite was the candelabra tree. They also recently added a gondola ride to the mountain top where you have an amazing view of tree tops for as far as you can see edged by the pacific ocean. It was breath-taking.