Summer Vacation 2006 Day 1

My family arrived late on Saturday, and on Sunday we had plans to go to Mount St. Helens. Rick decided that he was close enough to the active volcano at home thank you very much, so he and Lobo decided to just take it easy and spend some quality alone time before we headed out to the coast.
Mal and I had a great time taking pictures, many of which can be found on my flickr page in my Mount St. Helens group. I particularly liked the ones seen here, though as I've been told the one is just a picture of a window. I also got some pictures of a dragonfly or two at the wetland areas that are around the Mount St. Helens Silver Lake Visitor Center. These wetlands were created when the eruption pushed ground water up to the surface. It's all very beautiful. We took a bunch of pictures at the Johnston Ridge Observatory which is just 5 miles from the mountain. The before and after pictures of the area are just amazing, but even more so is all the life that is making its way back to the area. I'm glad I went, and I'll try my best to get Rick to go with me next time I go. However, even though they are opening the actual mountain up for climbing at the end of this month, I think I'll refrain from getting that close...It's a principle thing.