Sam & Ben's Visit

	At the Seattle Children's Museum
	Other people feeding the giraffes.
	Sam watches the lions sleep today.
	Ben finds a lion willing to let him sit on it.
	Sam and Ben checking out the Komodo dragon, just after seeing the live ones.
	"Meer-cute"
	Meer-cuter?
	Grandma and Sam check out the bald eagles. There's no glass.
	The bird house sells little sticks with birdseed on the end. Grandpa sets up the boys with one each.
	Penguins! In the end, this zoo trip was mostly about birds.
	We stayed for the raptor show. It started (I think) with this hawk, the only bird in the show not native to the Pacific Northwest.
	Another northwest native is the ginormous turkey vulture.
	This turkey vulture, like all us northwesterners, is a big believer in recycling.
	Back to the perch to take a bow.
	Red-tailed hawk, I think.
	We learn that while a cheetah can reach a trivial 60mph, peregrine falcons have been clocked going more than 200mph when diving down to catch something.
	The barn owl only came out for a brief swoop around today for some reason.
	We learn that while a cheetah can reach a trivial 60mph, peregrine falcons have been clocked going more than 200mph when diving down to catch something.
	We get to see the peregrine falcon in action.
	Snatching its prey in mid-air. Darn perch got in the way.
	Although it catches airborne prey, it's also happy to sit down to eat. So to speak.
	What will they think of next?
	After the nephews, grandparents, and Miss Rita visit the aquarium, I join them at Ivar's on the waterfront, where the seagulss do a great impression of peregrine falcons by catching french fries in mid-air.
	We visit the Museum of Flight. (I actually took this picture from the open cockpit of a biplane the previous summer.)
	While we're walking in, a 787 lands after taking a test flight.
	Sam has aspirations to be a jet pilot. Grandpa agrees to let them try a simulated flight. First, potential pilots get used to the controls on the warm-up simulators.
	Then it's time to get strapped in to the 'real' simulator. Belts, check.
	Restraint harness/roll cage, check.
	Controls, check.
	Take-off. Apparently somebody's executing a barrel-roll.
	Flying upside down and backwards.
	Grandma is concerned about the shrieking coming from the simulator. Miss Rita (left) enquires of the operator, who assures her that the test pilots are actually doing surprisingly well.
	White-faced? Nauseous? Shaking in fear? Hardly. "Oh, man, that was so cool!"
	Time to check out the SR-71 Blackbird, Air Force One, and the Concorde.
	Another shot from the biplane, showing, clockwise from top right, the Concorde, the first jet to be Air Force One, a 747, a 737, and I *think* an early 707 which NASA used as a test plane for many years. We only got to see the inside of the first two.
	I hope that the Big Event for the trip was going to see a real live volcano: Mt. St. Helens. The logistics were . . . interesting, in part because I thought the boys might enjoy at least one night Camping in the Woods. I am, however, not really much of a tent camper. (Egregious understatement.) However, Uncle Eric spends at least two weekends every year out in the woods teaching students about medicinal plants. In fact, Eric had left two days earlier for eastern Washington to teach a different class, so he couldn't join us for the beginning of the trip. Instead, he joined us on the second day. I would have just let him go home instead of coming all the way down to the campground, but without his help, I'm sure we would have starved.
	Our trip to Mt. St. Helens starts at the Silver Lake Resort. Sam turns out to be an enthusiastic angler. His first fish wasn't all that big, but since he'd only been fishing for about 10 minutes, it was a promising start.
	Sam and Ben get their first good look at Mount St. Helens at the Forest Ridge Center. The facility itself was closed during weekdays due to budget cuts.
	Ben. Sam. Grandma. Volcano. What more could you ask for?
	"Oh, no, my hand covered the T!" We have driven to the end of the road.
	Clouds? Snow, blowing off the dome in the crater? Oh, please, it's a volcano! That's steam!
	Sam & Ben on the right hand side of the crowd.
	You can see how the area around Silver Creek is fairly flat looking. Silver Lake Resort was beautiful, but it wasn't exactly "wilderness." As you can see by the deep green color and heavy ridges, Iron Creek Campground was deep in the woods. Real, serious woods. The kind where you might find nephew-eating bears. All of us drove from Johnston Ridge to meet Eric at the campground for dinner.
	Dinner in the Woods: Step 1, start a fire.
	Ya gotta blow on it a bit to get it going.
	Setting up their tent.
	We were lucky enough to land the best camp site on the grounds; the one right in the bend of the river, furthest from the entrance. Sadly, nobody'd managed to bring the ingredients for S'Mores, but we all marvelled at the amazing flavor of campfire-roasted hot dogs. Absolutely no need for condiments. After dinner, the older folks headed back to the resort, leaving the uncles and nephews to avoid bears. Ghost stories were told. (Ask Sam about the Scary Noises during Uncle Dave's tale.) Afterwards, the nephews decided that they needed to relocate their tent to, say, a spot Right Next To, Nay, Practically Touching, the uncle tent.
	The next morning, Uncle Eric is back at work, sylvan setting notwithstanding. I set out to take some pictures in the morning light.
	Pictures of things like . . . moss!
	The trail to the river.
	And the aforementioned river.