West Coast -- Mt Lassen, end of the week

Thursday Jonathan and I hiked up Brokeoff Mountain with Paul and Sheena and Rick. What a view! We could see everything from up there, including Mt. Shasta in the distance. In the afternoon we hung out at camp doing a puzzle and just relaxing and visiting. That night the girls recruited us to all come over to their show at the campground stage. It turned into a great evening of everyone joining in to act out various fairy tales and stories, including a full re-enactment of the story of the mountain lion and the deer. Friday we all rented a pontoon boat on Lake Almanor. We took a picnic down and all took turns riding on the boat and hanging out on the shore. Some of us went into Chester and did some shopping as well. Christy and I found a great gallery with local art. Friday night we lit the bonfire, made s'mores and sang campfire songs. Saturday Greg and Christy hiked to Bumpass Hell with Sierra as their guide. She was so excited to be the "leader" since she had been there before. She did not want us to come along, and the rest of the group was hiking to the waterfall from the trail by the visitor center, so the two of us and Evelyn went with that group. In the afternoon Rick and Gail and their clan took off, and Greg and Christy also left after dinner. That evening our girls and Eric and Dawn's boys did another show for us on the stage. They wrapped up their show in the morning right after breakfast with a final performance of Herb the Vegetarian Dragon right before we all took off in various directions. Mom and Dad were also leaving north through the park, so we caravaned with them and saw the devastated volcanic area on the other side of Lassen Peak, and had a picnic at Lake Manzanita. Mom and Dad took off at that point and our family hiked around the lake before we left. Unfortunately Evelyn took a major face plant on the trail just before we got back to our car and got some pretty good scrapes on her chin and hip. We had to lay her out on the trunk of the car to get all the little gravel out and get some bandaids for her. She was a total trooper--even hiked the rest of the way back to the car after her fall without being carried. We drove up to the lodge at Diamond Lake that evening and it was pretty late when we got there. We did manage to get to stop in Ashland for dinner along the way, which was a fun surprise that we hadn't planned on. We just happened to be around that area at the right time, so we swung over and got to hit another of our favorite restaurants that we didn't get to the week before.