Crater Lake, OR: July 21, 2010

We stayed in a cabin for one night near Crater Lake. As Andy was leaving the office after checking in, the manager said, “Well, I feel like I have to tell you that a cougar has been sighted near your cabin the last 2 nights. Yes. Right around cabin 25 (our cabin). I suggest you keep your headlights on and your children close as you move from the car into the cabin.” ?????? I appreciate her sharing this information with Andy and that he shared it with me. I wish he hadn’t shared it with me in front of the kids. It was VERY difficult to get the kids settled and to sleep.

Crater Lake: BEAUTIFUL.  Snow in July is pretty fun , too!

Henry being congratulated for his hard work as a Junior Ranger.  Henry's holding a bag of trash he collected.

Confusion Hill!, Northern CA

Your typical American road trip stop. You enter a lopsided house built into the side of a hill where the laws of gravity are suspended: water flows uphill, balls roll uphill. I became dizzy as soon as I entered. Walking across the room was difficult. Strangely, most of photographs we took didn’t come out; they all look blurry and ghost-like. Hmm…

Northern California: July 19-20, 2010

Andy was the only one of the 4 of us who had seen the big trees before. It was really important to him that during our trip we drive through a tree. He wanted us to experience first hand the size of the trees.

We had to see, if not touch the ocean. We arrived in the evening.  The kids were so happy to be running on the beach. They played the game where you chase the waves out and run back on shore as they come back in again. Any guesses how this game ends?

We drove to a different beach the next day and happened upon a surf school. The students were participating in a 3-man wheel barrow race while we were there.

A friendly game of tag on the beach

Angel Island, CA: July 18, 2010

We spent a great day with our friend Lacy. We met her in Tiburon and took a ferry to Angel Island. The kids did a great job hiking to the summit. Luckily for Henry and me Lacy was willing to share her sandwich at the top of the mountain. We had worked up an appetite!

Muir Woods: July 17, 2009

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Our first view of the big trees. The kids took part in the Junior Ranger Program. 

San Francisco, Napa, Yountville, Healdsburg, CA: July 13-18, 2010

San Francisco! My big birthday! Fancy hotel! Good food! Cable Car rides!

We got a 3 day pass for the cable cars and buses so we could hop on and off as we liked.  We even did some random, "Let's just see where this bus goes."  It seemed like all lines kept returning us to Chinatown, so we enjoyed some Dim Sum.

 

Jackson, WY/ Victor, ID: July 10-11

We camped in Yellowstone for 3 nights. The nighttime temperatures were in the high 20’s/ low 30’s. One night there was snow. Signs and literature everywhere warned about bear safety. All food, toiletries, cooking materials, etc. needed to be stored in a “bear box” or a hard topped vehicle (like your car). Our camper does not have a hard top, so we put everything in the car. We returned to our site one evening to find a warning ticket from the rangers because we left an empty collapsible 5 gallon water container on our picnic table. While we saw both a grizzly with 2 cubs and 2 black bears in the park, none visited our campsite.

After 3 nights of camping and no showers it was nice to check into the Old Faithful Inn for a night. When Henry woke up sick to his stomach at 4 AM, I was thrilled to be in a hotel with a private bathroom. Unfortunately, we had to put sick Henry in the car for 2 hours at noon to drive to Jackson. Our hotel in Jackson was great: TV. showing a marathon of "Phineas and Ferb" (if you've never seen an episode, I recommend you check it out), a clean laundry facility and a front porch on a creek. Emma was able to fish right out our front door.  It was a perfect place to regroup, relax and get Henry better.

We also got to spend time with our friend, Julie. We’ve missed her since she moved West. So it was great to hang out and see her hometown of Victor, ID. We had some great meals and a fun float trip.

Yellowstone-more

In April we signed up for a trail ride in Glacier National Park. This was something that Emma in particular was looking forward to. But we had at least a month of driving across the country looking at horses before we would hit Glacier. So in Yellowstone when the opportunity arose, we signed up for a guided trail ride. For those of you who don’t know, we are not horse people. When I was about 10, I went with my father to a horseshow. He ended up holding the reins of a horse for a friend. Something like, “Hey, can you hang onto my horse while I go to the bathroom?” While we were waiting for the friend to return, my dad put me up on the horse just to hang out; sort of like a pony ride. While we were sitting there grinning at each other, a small carriage with some crazy ladies with wild hats came driving up behind us and spooked the horse. I was thrown to the ground and broke my arm. Since then I have had a few opportunities to “get back up on the horse”. When I went away to camp one summer I took lessons. The culmination of the 4 weeks of camp was a horseback riding competition. Ribbons were awarded to the 1st through 4th place riders. My level had 5 competitors including me. The other 4 received ribbons…

When we arrived at the corral in Yellowstone for our ride, we could see a bison across the parking lot. It was a little closer than I was comfortable with. But we thought we could make it safely into the little shack to register. As we started to walk across the lot, we were screamed at by an employee to get into the building or back in our car. There was another bison we hadn’t seen that was right behind the bush we had parked in front of. A wrangler (is that what they are called?) came riding out to chase the bison away. Our sprint into the shed got the adrenaline going. Now I was ready for a trail ride! We signed waivers and read a page of instructions. This made me a little nervous: my riding instruction was coming from a piece of paper? But luckily we were gathered together with the other 15 or so riders for some verbal instructions too. Kids would be in the front near the lead guide and though our instruction sheet said we should keep a horse’s length between us, today we should all ride nose to tail. There had been a bear sighting in the area. The thought was if we were all one line of horses, we would look like one giant horse and be more intimidating to a bear if we happened upon one. Just as we were about to saddle up, there was a flurry of communication between the guides and our ride was called off. There was a bear on the trail engaging in unusual behavior. For the last two trails that had gone out, the bear had been following the horses. As we walked back to the shack to get a refund, a couple of the guides jumped on horses and went galloping off to help with the bear situation. It was quite dramatic. The kids were disappointed. I found I was relieved. Especially with the whole bear thing. I’m not entirely comfortable on the horse and then a bear is going to be added to the mix? And I wouldn’t just be worrying abut myself. I would have my non-horseback riding little kids each on their own horses and my non-horseback riding husband on his horse? I was quite happy with my consolation prize of an ice cream cone!


BTW—You can now leave comments on the blog! I didn’t realize I had to change a setting to allow comments. Please comment away! We miss everybody!