Pacific Northwest Trip: Day 9

On the final day we drove through Portland throughout the night and stopped at a rest stop along the way. In the morning we made our way back into Idaho and we stopped at some Fossil Beds and then headed to the Minidoka site. This was one of the internment camps for Japanese Americans during WWII - very sad stuff there. But very interesting to learn about.

I believe we found this building when we were driving through Shoshone. We just had to take this picture for our friends Matt Jenn Baugh.

Our last stop of the trip was Craters of the Moon National Monument. We only thought we'd spend 1-2 hours there but we ended up spending 4 hours! We hiked pretty much everything there! 

All of the black is some form of lava.

Crazy tree probably got burned during the lava flow.

This was our hike up Inferno Cone. It reminded us of a mini Mt. St. Helens climb...it doesn't end over that ridge...its always deceiving!

Ramin at the top of one of the ridges.

At the very top of Inferno cone.

A few from the top of Inferno Cone.

Heading up one of the Spatter Cones.

Inside one of the Spatter Cones.

Inside one of the Spatter Cones.

View inside the North Crater.

Cool shot of the oozing lava.

On our way to the lava tube caves!! It was HOT!

Inside of the entrance to one of the caves. We made it into Indian Tunnel, Boy Scout Cave and Beauty Cave (my favorite), but the battery on our camera gave out just inside of Indian Tunnel and it was way too far for us to walk back to the car and get a new battery. So this is the end of our 9-day trip in pictures  We were a bit exhausted by the time we got back home - as you can probably tell from all of the things we did.

THE END OF OUR PACIFIC NORTHWEST TRIP 2013!

Pacific Northwest Trip: Day 8

On Day 8 we left Vancouver and Ramin's parents and headed back down to Washington. First stop was North Cascades National Park!

This is the old power generator station at the bottom of the park. 

Spectacular view!

We then took a ferry ride over from Seattle over to the western peninsula and made our way into Olympic National Park. Lake Crescent is BY FAR the MOST beautiful lake both Ramin and I have EVER seen!! Seriously!

Ramin at Lake Crescent. No joke, those colors are REAL and so beautiful!! 

We made our way down to the Hoh Rain Forest and took our obligatory sign picture!

Yes, we did drive through Forks (where Twilight was set), and no it wasn't anything like the movie (which I knew it wouldn't be because most the movies weren't even filmed there! :P) 

The Hall of Mosses trail was probably one of my favorite trails because I had been wanting to go there for some time. It was very peaceful in there and just awesome! 

Want some moss?

Can you see the elk? 

Cool natural arch! 

Roots and moss everywhere!

Inside a hollowed out tree stump...

Underneath the roots!

Here I am underneath some roots.

This gives you some perspective of how tall those trees are. This one had fallen down. And where Ramin was standing wasn't even the end of it! You can see me way off in the distance!

Even the telephone booth (with no phone) had moss on it  

Yep, we drove down Highway 101 after leaving Olympic National Park - and we did see the Pacific Ocean 

Pacific Northwest Trip: Day 7

Day 7 of our trip was spent heading up to Whistler Ski Resort. On the drive we stopped by Shannon Falls.

Ramin at Shannon Falls

Both of us at Shannon Falls

Another waterfall we passed along the way was Brandywine Falls. I loved this one! 

Up at Whistler we walked around the Olympic Park 

After we drove back home from Whistler, Ramin and I took a seabus back over to Vancouver and walked up and down Gastown.

View of Gastown. That lady in the picture looked like she was happy to be in our picture  

Here I am with the steam clock. We were lucky enough to hear it go off twice during our walk  

Pacific Northwest Trip: Day 6

 On Day 6 of our trip we took a ferry from Vancouver over to Victoria Island. We were so lucky to have perfect weather that day! We departed from Nanaimo terminal.

Almost about to dock! 

After we got off the ferry we headed over to Butchart Gardens. 

So many pretty gardens and flowers! 

So much walking and climbing throughout this entire trip!

Awesome flowers! I didn't want to post all of the pictures we took of the flowers because there are so many, but I picked a few favorites.

The rose garden alone was amazing! 

Family photos in the rose garden!

Just amazing! 

Indoor conservatory. Loved it! 

After the gardens we then headed more toward the main city and up to Craigdarroch Castle. I absolutely LOVE old mansions like this! We took a tour inside for a few hours but didn't get many pictures because the lighting wasn't that great. 

Outside after the tour.

We headed over to the main city center and visited the Parliament building. We tagged along on a school tour and learned some interesting things. Very cool inside!

At the fountain outside of Parliament. You can see The Empress hotel in the background.

The front of the Parliament building.

The Empress Hotel

While Ramin's parents went down to the docks to rest and people-watch, we headed over to Miniature-World. It was AWESOME! Again, we have so many pictures from there that I didn't want to post them all up here. This particular exhibit is Fantasy Land. LOVED this place!