Day Seven. This morning was a casual start to the day and continuation of our travels through Oregon: Mom and Dad brought the necessary ingredients for breakfast, namely hot water, and we all sat in bed slowly getting ourselves ready to pack up and move on once more.

The bridge we will take across to visit Lewis and Clark National Historical Park before turning south toward Portland.

After reaching the park and squeezing into a parking space, we strolled the short trail to the fort that Lewis and Clark apparently spent four months in while preparing for the return journey back to "civilization."

Some of the trees we saw are massive. Giant plant beings towering high and covered in dark, deep green to pale hues.

The fort! Small but quite nicely built. Of course this is not the original, but it is a reconstruction based on the diaries of the explorers.

Mom and dad said they could live in a place like this. Provided it have the bare essential modern conveniences, but still a small, unimposing structure, blending quietly in with its surroundings. I think I could live quite happily.

There were four separate rooms on each side of the fort. They were all the same size, about the size of my brothers' bedrooms. It smelled of sweet, damp wood and sounds of small trickling streams nearby could be heard.

The kitchen appeared to be outside the fort's walls. 

Looking through the trees at a river that sits beyond the woods.

This is the river the Lewis and Clark traveled by, and finally came to the end of their search for a passage to the west coast.

Gazing out at the waters.

There is a mile trail that leads to another part of the river, and more or less follows the river banks. While walking this trail, we came upon two enormous slugs. The shoe above for measure belongs the youngest of of our group.

At the end of the trail, a deck leans out over the river's edge a little. 

The flora and fauna that we got to see along the path were amazingly beautiful. Everything is so green here. At this time in Michigan, the main colors are brown and a yellow-ish green as signs of the reawakening natural gradually appear. 

I have no idea what plant this is, today was the first time I've seen it. 

Tiny little flowers that only grew a foot from the ground and lined the gravel pathway.

On our way back to the car.

Thick lichen clings to almost every tree. 

After the fort and park, we drove a little ways to the coastal town of Seaside which was recommended by the student who guided us around Bastyr. It's a small town, quaint and on the beach!

Today was windy and a bit chilly, but mom and I took a brisk walk along the beach unafraid of getting sand in our shoes. This was the sort of this that we had been looking forward to doing on their trip and we were going to be sure we did it.

This beach is known for its sand dollar population, so as were walked on wet sand we scanned the beach for any wholly intact sand dollars. 

We didn't find any whole ones, but the beach was littered with fragments of them. These are the closest we could find to a completely together sand dollar.

A crab shell that we happened upon. It was missing the rest of its body, but surprisingly we saw quite a lot of crab shells scattered on the beach.

Once mom and I returned to the three boys who had scouted out a place for lunch while the two of us scavenged the sands for unbroken sand dollars, we followed the boys to a sandwich shop they deemed suitable. And it was. The food was good with plenty of fresh vegetables. After dining on the sandwiches, we trekked back to the parked Explorer and continued on to Portland,

Now that we are in the big city, Portland, we plan on spending a couple of days here exploring and getting a feel for the place before moving on to another town in Oregon. 

おやすみ！

じゃあね！