The last time we went snowshoeing around Enid Lake it was cloudy, but today it was clear enough to get a great view of the peak of Mount Hood peering over the trees.

(That’s a just completed hand-knitted festive cap that Nancy made for the little pose-guy.)

OK if you knew this from the “Bar 20 feet” sign, then you know waaaay too much about midwestern airports than is good for you :-). Otherwise, figuring out which city is roughly equidistant from Milwaukee, Denver, and Dallas shouldn’t be too hard, but here’s a hint: that miiiiight be Warren Buffet sitting over there waiting for his flight.

K&Z’s has plenty of other things I’ve never tried before, like pastrami, blintzes, and knishes, but there’s no need to go completely wild :-)

And we made another quick stop to check out the local Bigfoot attraction.

Who loves a car ride? The puppies say, “We do!!”

Success! We made it all the way to the visitors center with plenty of daylight left!

You can see the new dome building in the middle of the crater.

Is that smoke or steam from a side vent, or just swirling dust?

It is really an astonishing sight, and I’m glad we finally got a chance to see the mountain close-up.

We didn’t know any of the racers’ names, but we noticed that the leader was wearing a black bike helmet and was followed closely by a biker wearing a white helmet. Lap after lap “White Helmet” chased “Black Helmet”, and we each cheered our favorite. But finally, in the last few laps they were passed by a third biker in a blue helmet who had been resting by drafting back in the pack (apparently called a “peloton” in biker lingo) and Blue Helmet won! Very exciting finish, and then we walked to a nearby ice cream shop :-).