Ashford, WA

 We had an interesting stay at our AirBnB in Longview, WA....it was fine...it was just very "Brady Bunch Vintage".  The apartment was the entire basement of a 60's vintage house.  Plain birch plywood cabinets, low ceilings and believe it or not, sculpted olive green shag carpet!  Hard to believe but all of it was in excellent shape!  Like it had never been used much....I had seen the photos, of course, so I'm not complaining.  It was actually quite comfortable and exactly where we needed it to be for our trip.

 We're pretty good at packing everything up and getting on our way each morning.  Started the day by driving towards Mt. St. Helens.  

 

There are several visitor centers along the route and we stopped at them all.  We watched several short films and the displays were most informative.  We knew the basic story since we, of course, were alive and sentient in 1980 when it happened.

View from the first visitor center - still 40+ miles away so not a great view.

Driving towards the volcano, the views were spectacular.  

 

The wildflowers are in full display now.  

We took several short walks/hikes.  Cool under the trees but 90+ degrees in the sunshine!

Saw a small snake in the creek....he was sunning himself and paid no attention to us.

 

One mile trail promised "valley views"....this is all we got for a long trek out/back!

Getting closer to the volcano.

 

Sorry for the repetitious photos, it was just lovely.

 

As we drove thru the countryside towards Mt. Rainier in the early evening, we were treated to several beautiful lakes and rivers along the way.

 

It certainly is living up to our expectations!