Reporting in on our excursion to Mt. St. Helens, which was very interesting, but we never actually saw the crater due to the socked in conditions at the Johnston Ridge Observatory.

The drive from the pier took over two hours through lovely green Pacific Northwest scenery along the Columbia River and through a number of small towns before entering into the park. As we climbed through the park and the blast zone you could see some of the effects of the eruption - areas of ash, mud flows, tree stumps, a partially buried home, a demolished logging truck. The Weyerhauser Co. has replanted vast acreage of the area; signs appear periodically identifying which year a section was reseeded. In the restricted zone nature has been left to its own devices and it was very interesting to see how much that has come back over 30 years. The May National Geographic magazine has a good article on this.

Our guide was quite good; we learned all about geology, volcanoes and ecological recovery. He showed a documentary on the bus ride, "The Fire Below Us", which told the story leading up to the eruption and the days of the eruption along with retelling the experiences of some of the survivors (and victims) of the eruption. We made two stops - one at the park visitor center and finally one at the observatory before driving back to the ship. On the way back we learned a bit about the Lewis & Clark Expedition and were treated to another documentary about that.

This is what you WOULD see from inside the Johnston Ridge Observatory if you visited on a sunny day, rather than in the pouring rain:



Image courtesy of USDA Forest Service, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. by J. Quiring, USDA Forest Service, 1997

Astoria looked like a cute little town, probably charming on a nice day rather than a soggy one. They are very proud of being the setting for some films, particularly Steven Spielberg's "The Goonies." Our guide pointed out the Goonies' house along with some locations used for that memorable Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Kindergarten Cop.

Astoria is currently gearing up for the bicentennial of the town, after celebrating the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark expedition a few years ago. Our guide told us that politically they are currently debating the economic pros and cons of focusing on tourism vs. trying to bring log yards and other industry back to the town.

Besides the Mt. St. Helen's tour Regent offered a wide variety of shore excursions for such a small port, some more intriguing sounding than others. You could see Fort Stevens on foot, on a bicycle tour or on a haunted ghost walk or take tours of other historical sites. There was the opportunity to cross over to Washington to tour the the World Kite Museum & Hall of Fame and a Cranberry Museum. Also one could eat Tillamook Cheese, sip beer on on a tour of the Ale Trail or eat tea and scones at a Victorian home. And of course there was a tour of local film locations, including a shopping stop to buy "Goonies" gear.

Back on board the LCT trivia team narrowly missed a second consecutive win yesterday, coming in second. Trivia has been packed and I think today we will need to form a second team. The deck 6 Block Party was well attended.

Today is a sea day - we enter the Inside Passage and the weather is much brighter. On tap are a Spotlight on Food & Wine cooking demonstration followed by a presentation on "green" winemaking trends, a slot tournament and blackjack tournament in the casino, a tex-mex barbecue for lunch, a lecture about the Inside Passage, and most importantly the B&K cocktail party.

Tomorrow we arrive at Ketchikan so we are hoping the rain doesn't resume as forecast.