We had an adventure! It wasn't the kind of adventure like in Flannery O'Conner's "A Good Man is Hard to Find." (And if you haven't already, rush right out and read that story.) In fact, it really wasn't bad at all, but when the car broke the day before we were supposed to drive nine hours with the kids and John's parents, I had a hard day considering contingencies and solutions. The car did not get fixed in time, but my sister loaned us hers--smaller with less luggage space--but it did the trick, and I am extremely grateful.

Crater Lake is gorgeous. I forget how much wilderness there still really is. We drove for two hours in uninterrupted forest and that was before we got to the National Park. It was so restful to see the trees. The crater, the lake, the mountains are physically gorgeous, but what they mean--an eruption that darkened the sky for days, devastation ten times greater than Mt. St. Helen's, lava, lahars, and now the return of old growth forests--boggles my mind. The magnitude of the eruption and the scale of time that has lead to this amount of regrowth sinks into me in a way just looking at photos did not.

The boat tours weren't running, but we took several small hikes around the lake and to the pinnacles and a waterfall. We also drove around the lake looking at it from all different angles and in all different weathers. I actually liked it best with storm clouds gathering.

Yes, the weather ranged from thunder and lightning storms to I need a hat and coat, but who cares? We stayed in the motor inn, ate at restaurants, drove a lot, and finished off our trip with a rollicking visit to Slappy Cakes in Portland. It was a good adventure.