Crater Lake!

Photo Caption... Wizard Island: Volcano-in-a-volcano.

Last night we arrived in Crater Lake, on our third attempt... twice before we had mechanical difficulties right at this point in the trip and never made it here. We had planned on a long day of driving yesterday, but there is a forest fire 40 miles to the west of here. We, of course, were approaching from the west, which means we had to drive all the way around the mountains to come in from another direction!


Today was a truly great day... we drove around the park, got to see the stunningly beautiful, crystal-blue lake, hiked down 700 feet of elevation to the lake, took a swim, took a two-hour-long boat tour (a two-hour tour, a two-hour tour...), hiked back up, all in all it was great fun!


Celebrity Sighting! We were just all hanging out, having lunch at the lake shore after hiking to the bottom, and who comes swimming by? None other than Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt! No, wait, that's just me. It's a fairly common mistake.

Caution: Educational Content. In case you don't know, Crater Lake was once a 12,000-foot-high volcano named Mt. Mazama that got ticked off and done gone and blowed itself up. Done ee-rupted so dang big he done falled in on hisself. It's the deepest lake in the U.S., 9th deepest in the world, and is the clearest lake on Earth. (Yes, they can measure it.)

We drove in through a wicked awestorm thunderstorm last night, hail and everything. Unfortunately the lightning set off a couple more fires in addition to the big one. It's all smokey and whatnot here. Incidentally - and this is important, so pay attention - his name is Smokey Bear. Not Smokey the Bear. He's got no middle name. Yes, I did once get a serious reprimand from a park ranger on this very topic.

How 'bout dem pictures?!?!?

p.s. Izzie has, for the last two days, started referring to herself as Jesus. Don't know why. We suggested to her that if she's Jesus, she might actually have to start being nice to people. Don't think she's going to fall for it, though.