Vancouver, WA - 2025

 We had a great time visiting Eric, Jessica and family in Vancouver WA.

We typically stay at an RV park in Portland, OR. One thing we were reminded of quickly is the drive from Portland over the bridge to Washington on I-5 was ridiculous starting around 1-2pm until after 8pm. We spent a few hours with Eric and Jessica that first weekend driving to some other parks on the Washington side. We feel we have found a better location for next year so we don't have to deal with that crazy traffic again.

Eric and Jessica invited us to their date night at Oak Creek Station to play bingo on Wednesday night. This place is pretty cool with many food trucks with a different variety of food. Their bingo nights are sponsored by different breweries in the area. If you purchase a beverage from the sponsored brewery you get 2 bingo cards, every other beverage is 1 bingo card. The sponsored brewery had some cool prizes and someone from that brewery called the numbers. We also tried a Trivia night and we surprised ourselves by taking 6th place out of 12 or 15 teams.

Eric and Jessica have friends that own a cabin on Forestry Land near Mount St. Helens. Eric has been working on remodeling the cabin and updating its electrical, heating and plumbing services. His expertise showed in all areas of this cabin. 

While there we toured the Ape Caves. Ape caves are the longest lava tube known in North America. It was discovered by Lawrence Johnson in late 1951. He told his friend Harry Reese about his find and the following year Reese, and Lawrence began explorations and were the first known explorers of the lava tube. This was a really unique experience. We have never been in a cave that wasn't guided or a cave where there wasn't some lighting. It was pitch black and you needed lighting to see where to walk. We had had to climb up and over rocks and one area there was a rope where you had to pull yourself up a taller rock. 

Entrance

Shining a light down the lava tube

A unique rock surface

A vent in the ceiling

This is the ladder to get out

Ernie climbing out

Once out, it was warm and the sweatshirts needed to come off. We also had a 1.5 mile walk back to the entrance/parking lot.

One thing that is always fun when we visit is we play a lot of games. Along with the card game Hand and Foot, these are the other games we played.

One afternoon we participated in an Escape Room, we escaped the "Snatched Room" before the time was up.

We were there over the 4th of July holiday. Eric and Jessica had a few of their friends over for a BBQ and fireworks. Eric smoked a beef brisket and a pork roast, both were really good. We didn't stay for the fireworks because Echo was not handling the pre-fireworks around the neighborhood very well. The next morning we headed back over to their house and helped them put chairs, tables and other things away.