“…and I think to myself what a wonderful world.” – Bob Thiele

In two weeks, I’ve slept in three time zones, seen mountains, rivers, desert, volcanoes, ocean, fields of lava, and painted hills. Truth be told, I’m having a tough time condensing it into a blog post. I’ve decided to split it up, but I’m still struggling. So here goes:

Mount Hood, Oregon

Take a look at the beauty that is Oregon’s highest mountain and a potentially active stratovolcano. We stopped by the Timberline Lodge at the base of the mountain and took the trail up. It was fun to see folks dressed like us on the trail, hiking next to ski boarders ripping down the snow-covered passes below — in July.

Even with this breathtaking backdrop, my kids are still goofy.

The lodge is below, as well as more mountains.

Then we hopped back and the car and continued our trek to the high desert.

Bend, Oregon

We stayed in a gorgeous resort near Bend, Oregon with a breathtaking view of the high desert and the Cascade Mountains. Sunrise, sunset, storms…it was consistently gorgeous.

Newberry National Volcanic Monument

This is one of the most unique places I’ve ever seen. We trekked through acres of volcanic rock. There’s no way to do this justice. The stones sound like glass and are porous. Pumice, maybe? Times like this made me wish I’d paid more attention in science class.

Yet somehow a few plants are able to grow.

– Continued in next post.