Finally made it to Crater Lake

Captains Log July 21 –  We  had  a  great  time  today!   We headed  out  for  Crater Lake  this

Store and restaurant at South Entrance

morning.  We were not sure if there’d be a place to eat so I took some fruit, carrots and snacks to get by with.  Bill didn’t think he better drive with his toe surgery, and really shouldn’t be doing a lot of walking but we were running out of days to go so I drove and he slept.

We started our visit at the South Rim.  They have a pretty large parking area and we had perfect timing and got a spot immediately.  They have a big gift store and a small cafeteria for ready made sandwiches and salads and do burgers and hotdogs on the grill.  The actual Visitor Center is closed so there was no movie, or intro, but that was fine as we got to do that part 2 years ago when we came and there was so much snow still that we could only drive so far and the roads were closed.

View from South Entrance, Wizard Island

I got Bill a sandwich and I was not paying the price for the tiny salad with a dash of chicken on it so I survived on our snacks!  We stopped so many times while driving the entire loop around the lake.  I took a ton of pictures and the lake is prettiest from where we started but the side with the Phantom Ship is also very nice.  There were bikers and hikers all over and foreigners and children and so many people, but we never had a problem parking at any of the stops we made.

Now we can officially check Crater Lake off our bucket list!  It was pretty nippy when we arrived and we took jackets but about ¼ around the lake it was warming up.  We didn’t see any wildlife but the tiny chipmunks that are willing to eat from your hand and pose for photos!!

Mid-way around, so blue!

On the way home we stopped at Becky’s in Union Creek for her pies that we heard were out of this world.  She does 8-10 different kinds of pie each day.  I had coconut cream pie and Bill went with chocolate peanut butter.  It’s pretty pricey at $8 a slice, but it is a big slice and close to 4 inches tall.  It was enough for 2 servings so we sat out at a picnic table and ate half and took the rest home.  The filling was to die for but the crust was very thick, which I guess you’d need to hold it together for the heavy slices, but it was pretty boring and dense.

There was no question that dinner would be

From Northside, Phantom Ship island

leftovers!  That was fine as I wanted to make some blackberry crisps for us and 2 small ones for 2 of the guy loop hosts. So I kept the convection oven going strong til the baking was done.  Bill delivered the crisp to the guys and we called it a day!  A really good day!