On 18th May 1980, Washington State experienced a massive volcanic eruption at Mt. St.Helen which devastated the surrounding area for 17 miles with 17 lives and many homes lost. We visited Mt St Helen National Volcanic Monument and visitor centre and saw a film and talk which detailed the story leading up to, during and after the eruption. The explosion leveled 230 sq miles of forest in 10 minutes, the mountain lost 1300 ft of height and the lava caused a landsl...

We tried to make a booking for the ferry to take us from Victoria, Vancouver Island back to Port Angeles in the state of Washington, USA but were told that they only allow 40% of the space on board to be booked in advance, the rest of the space is on a first come first served basis and the bookable spaces were booked up for weeks in advance. There was a ferry departing at 10.30 in the morning which would mean us either getting up very early to ger in line or even...