Tracy and Kreg come for a visit

They arrived on July 31st and will be here for almost 2 weeks.  We have been out and about quite a bit and here are some of some of the places we went with them: Mt. Hood, Mirror Lake and back to the coast.  And, of course, some flowers along the way.

Heading up the mountain.

No, we did not go all the way !

A view looking southeast.

There is skiing and snowboarding all year long.

A view looking southwest.

We decided to cheat and take a ski lift to the least 7,000' level.

Since no one was nearby, we had to do our own self portrait.

Snowboarders.

Getting ready for a snowball fight !

Getting towards the end of the run.

It looked cool with the clouds.

The trail to Mirror Lake.  It was a 3.2 mile moderate round trip. Ha ! Caroline and I were hurtin' the next day.

A view from the trail.

Doesn't it look like gnomes should be living in there ?

Mirror Lake with Mt. Hood.  I guess it was worth the hike.

Back to the coast and Haystack Rock, the 3rd largest monolith in the world.  It was a cool and overcast day.  The mist you see at ground level was being blown in off the Pacific.

The tide was out, revealing a wonderful tide pool.

Star fish (about 10" across) and sea anemones (the largest one was about 4" to 5" long).

Close up of the star fish.

A crab - the shell was about 5" across.

Posing in front of Haystack Rock.

Notice anything different ?  It's the 1st of August and no one is in the water !

Up the beach from Haystack Rock was a large outcrop of rocks.  Tracy ,Kreg and I decided to climb them.

More places to climb, but we didn't go any further.

Looking back at Haystack Rock.

After we left Haystack Rock, it started to clear up a little.  On the rock to the left is a lighthouse.

Penstemon.

A variety of lupine.

I don't know.  I looked and looked and could not find out what this is.