Mt. St. Helens

On the way to Grandma Valerie’s a few weeks ago on an extraordinarily clear and beautiful winter day, I was able to point out all three of the volcanoes that are visible from a certain point on I-205, going north. Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Rainier. Since I was in a talkative mood, I proceeded to tell Judah about the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, two years before I was born, including the story of how Grandma Rachel watched the eruption from her vantage point in one of the bigger towers in downtown Portland where she was working at First Interstate Bank. Usually when I try to impart educational information to the boys while we’re driving in the car, my efforts are received with something less than enthusiasm, but not today. I believe I said that the mountain had exploded – and Judah was hooked. He asked me to keep telling him about the mountain exploding. So I proceeded, dredging up everything I thought I might know about volcanoes, trying to explain what a volcano is, how it’s formed, tectonic plates, etc. After a while, he told me he didn’t know what\’c2\~I was talking about. So I stopped. On the way home, however, when we drove over the Glen Jackson bridge with a full view of Mt. Hood, he asked me to tell him more about the mountain exploding.\par
\par
Since then I’ve borrowed\’c2\~two movies and several books about volcanoes in general and Mt. St. Helens in particular for little Judah. And even if it’s a little over his head, he’s still entranced. This must be why people do unit studies!