Surrounded by Volcanoes!

Yesterday was Lassen Volcanic Park, today was Crater Lake - two days filled with volcanoes. At Lassen, we saw the boiling sulfur pots - geez did those smell. On our drive back to Oregon we had dinner looking out at Mt. Shasta. On our drive after dinner we saw the most amazing sunset ever. There was a ridge of mountains off to the left side of the car and the sky was painted with brilliant pinks and oranges. To the right side of the car was a full moon next to Mt. Shasta. I took pictures of both, but the car was moving and they were blurry and didn't do it justice. Speaking of pink in the sky - isn't that supposed to be a good sign for the next day's weather? (Pink at night.....) Well, today we encountered our first dose of rain. On our way up the mountain, it was raining off and on, with a lot of cloud cover.  John and the boys were going to walk down to the lake (the lake is an enormous crater left by the volcano imploding on itself, what was once as 12,000 foot mountain is now 7,000) and Alexa and I were going to take a trolley tour around the rim. Why split up? The cars park on the rim. The surface of the lake is actually much lower. Going down didn't seem so bad, but I read that climbing up to the rim from the lake's surface was equivalent to climbing up 77 flights of stairs on over a mile of switchbacks.  Umm, no thanks!  Anyway, John dropped Alexa and I off at the trolley and the boys headed out on their adventure. The first thing we heard on the trolley was that we should have been there yesterday when the sun was out that the lake was a brilliant, vibrant blue. It's clear - you can see down 144 feet (learned that today). We had a good time, learned all about geology and animals and plants and the history. We had some great views, but I was wishing that the sun would come out to see it in all its glory. I also kept worrying about the boys. Yesterday, on a pretty level loop path, Jimmy wiped out and took most of the skin off his knee. I was worried about the steepness and how everyone would do getting back up the cliff.  No need for worry, they did it without issue - John said the boys even sprinted up the last switchback. All agreed it was a tough hike. The best part of the day - the sun came out and we witnessed the brilliant ble we had heard about, I am so glad we saw it. We were actually back at the hotel in time for dinner  (there is a nice restaurant that had live entertainment tonight) and a swim in the huge, indoor pool. Tomorrow is a travel day, with a couple of sites. We'll keep you posted!