Day 3 -- 7/10/25 (Thursday) Kalama

 We arrived in the port of Kalama on the Columbia River at 8 am.  Instead of a formal breakfast in the restaurant, we opted for a breakfast buffet on deck 4. Then we set off to explore Kalama. The port area and the beach are very picturesque. We visited the Interpretive Center with interesting info/exhibit about the history of Kalama (which was on the Oregon trail), and an attractive public market, which also houses a preserved enormous totem pole of the Lelooska Native American tribe. The town is small (2500 residents), and the port doesn’t look particularly impressive, but we’ve learned that over 100,000 rail cars arrive at Port of Kalama each year. Approximately 15 million TONS of grain are exported from Port of Kalama each year. Soybeans, corn and wheat are exported from grain facilities at the Port of Kalama. These products come from many states including Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

After lunch, we had a bus tour to Mount St. Helens (MSH). We started in the Visitor Center where we learned the incredible story of Mt. Saint Helens eruption. MSH is one of several volcanoes in the Cascades mountain range. At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, MSH erupted, shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. In a few moments this slab of rock and ice slammed into Spirit Lake, crossed a ridge 1,300 feet high, and roared 14 miles down the Toutle River. The avalanche rapidly released pressurized gases within the volcano. A tremendous lateral explosion ripped through the avalanche and developed into a turbulent, stone-filled wind that swept over ridges and toppled trees. Nearly 150 square miles of forest was blown over or left dead and standing. 57 people died. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but MSH and the surrounding landscape were completely changed.  The visitor center has walking trails from which you can see the new landscape created by the eruption. The scientists didn’t expect how quickly the area was going to recover after this disaster. Wildlife started coming back after 2 years.  Then we drove closer to MSH to see the lake and the mountain up close, but the days was cloudy so we only saw the base. The rest was in the clouds.

Social score: lunch – win (an interesting couple from Indianapolis; he was a big wig in the Lilly Endowment); dinner – win (fun youngish couple from Michigan)

Entertainment: musician/comedian + unintended comedic interruptions from a drunk woman (Lauren) who desperately wanted to dance. She had to be escorted out.




















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