Fire! Fire! Fire!

We got a glimpse of the Mt. Adams wildfire last Sunday on our way home from a saber (fencing) lesson; I'm guessing we saw it an hour or less after it started, because we didn't notice it on our way into Portland. I used my Blackberry to photograph it as we drove I-5 back into Washington. In the photo above, it's the "cloud" to the left of the tree.

Now, living in Vancouver puts us about 50 miles southwest of Mt. Saint Helens, and coming back home from northeast Portland had us driving toward the smoke. Being that I didn't grow up with any volcanoes in my backyard, and that I'm a bit geographically challenged, the conversation went something like this:

Me: Is that Mt. Saint Helens erupting?
Carl: No, Mt. Saint Helens is over there. See?
Me: Okay. Maybe it's Rainier?
Carl: No, Rainier is over there. See?
Me: Hmmmm... are you sure it's not Mt. Saint Helens?

So it wasn't the volcano exploding. At least I wasn't the only one who thought it was.