Day 2 Crater Lake and how a one mile hike can turn into five miles...

Paul looked up the 10 day  forecast for each destination on our trip in order that we would be able to pack appropriately.  Crater Lake was supposed to be high of 60.  It was more like high of 75 in the shade.  Not complaining, but I did pack a lot of long sleeve shirts and pants (along with skirts for monastery/church visiting).  I only brought two pairs of shorts (which can definitely not be worn at the monastery) and our plan was to not do any laundry at all during the vacation (there really wasn't a chance to do any laundry).

Day 2- we went to the two visitor centers, watched a movie about Crater Lake, picked up our Junior Ranger activity books (the boys do activities and earn stamps to eventually earn a Junior Ranger Patch which is kind of cool because my boys collect patches from different places that we visit and I sew them on their school backpacks- my sister came up with this idea first so credit goes to her:).  We bought postcards for the grandma and both sets of cousins and mailed them.  We saw lots of amazing views of the lake and Paul really really wanted to do the hike down to the lake.  I asked the ranger how it was (difficulty-wise- we DO have a four year old).  Ranger said it is easy going down, difficult going up.  Ok, well, let's give it a shot.  Later in the evening at the campsite, one of the rangers had a program and he said that hike is a mile down, five miles up.  That felt about right.  Paul ended up carrying little p on his shoulders most of the way up.  I was with Big P and about a million mosquitoes.  It was nice at the water (very cold, by the way).  Big P and I tried stopping every so often on the trail back up, but each time we stopped, we were attacked by all those mosquitoes.  So we kept going.  This is the only hike that I have ever heard Big P complain on- and we have done lots of hiking with him.  And he never complains. 

We went back to the site and made dinner and went to the ranger program.  The next day we were leaving for St. John of Shanghai monastery in Manton, CA so we began packing some things.  At the entrance of the campground there were showers ($.75 for 4 minutes).  We decided to shower on our way out in the morning.  End of day 2 (I don't think anyone could ever tire of just looking at the lake- it was disappointing to not be able to drive around the whole lake- ti na kanoume (what can you do).