Here, I will tell you a little about Longview, Washington and the surrounding areas.

First of all, we have a squirrel bridge. As far as I know, it's the only one of it's kind. It's called Nutty Narrows and has been around since 1963, I believe. The man who created the squirrel bridge was Amos J. Peters. He was a General Contractor. His office was located in the building that is across from the current location of the bridge. He would see squirrels crossing the street and get hit and killed by cars. He built this bridge for them and as crazy as it seems, they DO use it! At Christmas, the City of Longview puts a tree on the bridge and decorates it with lights.

Mt. St. Helens is only about an hour's drive for us. I remember seeing it blow up when I was just 8 years old. We make a trip up there about once a year and it still amazes me to see all of the destruction. It's also amazing to see the progress the land has made. It's now been 17 1/2 years since the eruption. Much of the wildlife and plantlife has returned on its own and it is getting prettier every year.

A few facts about the "Killer Volcano":

•It hasn't erupted in over 10 years. The lava dome hasn't grown at all for the last decade.

•Earthquake activity is at its lowest level since coming to life in the 1980 eruption.

•Mt. St. Helens is a relatively young volcano of just 40,000 years and WILL erupt again.

•The eruption in 1980 registered 5.1 on the Richter scale.

•If all of the ash could have been gathered into one spot, it would have formed a pile 150 miles high.

•Debris displaced Spirit Lake 206 feet higher than where it was originally.

•The blast killed 230 miles of what was once beautiful forestland.

•Enough timber was knocked down to build nearly 500,000 homes.

•A total of 57 people died either from the blast, suffocating ash or falling trees.

•Mud destroyed 200 homes, suffocated millions of fish and ruined a dozen bridges.

•If the raw energy from the blast could have been captured, it could have provided electricity to 600,000 homes for 100 years.

Longview is about an hour East of the Pacific Ocean. It's really a nice drive and is beautiful once you get there.

If you drive the Oregon side to the beach, you will go through several small towns.

At the mouth of the Columbia River you will find Astoria, Oregon. This is a great town to see. Astoria has a ton of shops, restaurants and other things to check out. There are several museums, including the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which is shaped like a wave.

You can visit the Astor Column. It's a 125-foot column. You can climb the 166 steps and from the top you can look out over the city and Columbia River.

Several movies have also been filmed, in part, in Astoria. Some of these are: Goonies, Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3.