Update

So I am finally updating my traveling blog, because we finally left on our trip. So we left IL on the 30th of July. We stopped in Kolby, KS on our first night out of home. We later arrived at CO to surprise my grandparents and we did ;) Will give details later. Spent the next morning anxiously awaiting the time we were to leave to go hang out with my friends house. Nerf Wars live on! The next day we got up extremely early @ 3:30am Mountain time for our flight at 5:30. We flew from CO to San Francisco, CA and then before we flew into Portland like we were supposed to, we took a bump (we caught the next flight to our destination) on purpose and received a 300$ voucher for the next flight we take. After the 2hr delay, we left San Francisco and landed in Portland. We drove to Chemult, OR and slept in a neat little inn called 'The Featherbed Inn' better known as 'Crater Lake Inn' had an awesome breakfast in an local restaurant and then headed out to Crater Lake. Had an awesome time at the bottom, dipping our feet and all and the way down wasn't terrible but the hike back up was... well, I won't describe my tortures. I'll just say they may need to build an elevator sometime.  I met a new pen pal (Hi Emily!) at the shore of the Lake and then we packed up and headed toward my aunt's house in Florence.We had to re-hydrate after that terrible hike and I will tell you. I thank God that we had a bunch of apple juice and carrots in the car, AND THEY WERE STILL COLD! Whooo! We stopped along the way (near Crater Lake, in the National Park) to stomp around in some snow (yes, snow, in the sumer!) We stopped at an absolutely amazing place with it's own library and garden and a great view of the river, and get this, it was a restaurant. Wow. The food was excellent and the library had some great reading material. We arrived at my aunt's house at about 6:30 pm ish and had an awesome dinner of chicken, rice, rolls, watermelon and milk. It was extremely good. Well, I have rambled on for long enough. I will post some picture and give details about the beach and downtown next time. Thanks for viewing!