Cool!

Last night, we were making our weekly trek up Highway 30 to our Tuesday "dinner out" destination--Bing's Chinese.  Husband was driving; as is my habit, I turned to look out the window to the east, scanning the valley and our line-up of mountain peaks for anything interesting.  And there it was!

I believe the exact (profound) words out of my mouth were, "Wow!  Look at all the s**t coming out of Mt. St. Helens!"  And then I kicked myself for not having my camera.  (This picture comes from the USGS website.)  I gotta start keeping one in every car, or something.

As far as I know, nobody felt the earthquake that was supposed to have happened before the ash plume rose.  No boom, no fireworks...just this sudden huge cloud emanating from the top of the mountain.  It was at the perfect time of day, when the sun was at the point of its descent that it highlights the eastern peaks while throwing the valley into shadow.  

And I was just as glad that the ash cloud was blowing east...