Yesterday we finished up our vacation with a visit to Crater Lake National Park. It was right along our route home from Redmond, Ore., where we’d spent the past week relaxing at Eagle Crest Resort, and, as fellow blogger John Wroblewski wrote last week, this weekend is a fee-free day in a number of the national parks, including Crater Lake. (Although at ten dollars for a seven-day pass per vehicle, the park entrance fees really should not be an excuse to keep anyone from visiting.) Most of all, I was eager to revisit a place where I’d spent an entire summer working — my best summer job experience. We entered through the North Entrance and drove most of the 33-mile amazingly scenic Rim Drive that circles the lake. Although my husband is also a native Oregonian, he had never been to the park, so I enjoyed seeing his reaction to the incredible vistas from the many viewpoints along the way. The lake’s nickname, “Gem of the Cascades,” is thoroughly appropriate, a fact I first appreciated on viewing the lake from an airliner at 30,000 feet several years before I first stood on the rim of this volcanic caldera. It looked like nothing so much as a gorgeous, brilliant sapphire in a setting of snowcapped peaks. That stunning deep blue is truly unique and remarkable, unlike any color I’ve seen in the waters of the Pacific or Mediterranean. It’s been 33 years since I spent that wonderful summer in the park, and very little of the setting has changed.  One of the most important aspects of our national parks is that they seek to preserve some of the world’s most beautiful and unique ecosystems for future generations to enjoy. I did note that the Rim Village area, which contains the historic lodge and other visitor facilities, has been reconfigured to further minimize the human impact visually and otherwise from this area. A large parking lot that used to sit right along the rim has been replaced with a grassy meadow, and cabins and camp sites are now located several miles away from the caldera edge. Our visit to my old friend was a great way to finish up our time off, and I’ll be sure it isn’t too long before I visit again. If you’re ever anywhere close to Crater Lake, don’t pass up the opportunity to experience this incredible place. — Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor