Here is the view of Mt. Hood that we had on our last day in Oregon. We pulled off the highway to drive up the mountain and see the hotel that is there. We were glad we did, as it had been quite a few years since we were up there and we enjoyed ourselves.








This is the entrance to Timberline Lodge, the
hotel on Mt. Hood. It was built in the 1930s and is a very interesting place. You see Vernon on the steps.


















We walked through the lodge and then exited at the back so we could look at the mountain some more. We walked this paved trail for awhile. The lodge is at 6,000 feet elevation so we didn't walk very fast but the views were great of the surrounding area. The Pacific Crest Trail crossed this paved one. Hiking the Pacific Crest of the Cascades would be like hiking the Appalachian Trail, except for a big difference in altitude. Remember I said we were at 6,000 feet.



In this picture you are looking back at the lodge and the mountains beyond. If you see a peak with snow on it, that is Mt. Jefferson. Hood and Jefferson are two peaks in the Cascade Range with Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier in Washington State.

We didn't play in the snow but others did and made snow balls to throw. Vernon jokingly proposed making a snow angel but that works best in soft snow. This would not have been soft, for sure.


And finally, here's Mt. Hood from the airplane when we left Portland, with Mt. Jefferson in the distance.

We enjoyed our Oregon vacation and now we are back at work. Adjusting back to this time zone and climate took a few days and we were very tired but now are back to normal.




Our next visit to Shands will probably be August 27 when Vernon is scheduled for a routine visit with his cardiologist there. It will be almost seven months since we saw Dr. Hill at the last biopsy. We'll probably go to Gainesville on Saturday so we can have some time to visit friends and the nurses on both shifts before returning home Monday evening.