Day 12 - Ah, the beach.

The long drive yesterday was worth it.  What a day today.  The kids were up early and eager to head down to the beach.  My Aunt and Uncle and Grandmother had already moved back in to the beach house from wintering in Tacoma.  I am always amazed at how much nature changes things over time.  Having views of the beach every two years really makes the changes standout.  The levels of the sand, the number and size of rocks on the beach (and the increase in barnacles on the rocks), the amount of driftwood pushed up, the appearance or disappearance of jellyfish, crabs, bullheads, etc.

Sadly there are also the human-made changes - lots of trash in the water and on the sand.

 Cassie and Brianne made it their mission to clean up the beach and they did a great job.  C&B also took rapidly to the sea kayaks/stand up paddleboards (SUPs) and used their newfound SUP skills to help with the litter cleanup.  When I say "lot's of trash" I may be exaggerating.  I think anything more than zero is a lot :)

We were so absorbed in playing that I failed to take any pictures.  I think Kat took some on her phone but I don't have access to those yet. (ed: here you go. -Kat)

One of our favorite things to do at low tide is to make "streams" in the sand. Our first one this year was a rather larger engineering feat, with a series of terraced, cascading reservoirs. Can't wait for the next really low tide so we can do even better.

Day 11 - The push west

Not a lot to report today.  We awoke with renewed energy and did get going before 10 for once getting on the road by 9:40am.  We had 10+ hours of driving today to get to the beach.  The drive was uneventful.  We stopped at a rest area in Idaho for lunch.  Free lemonade and cookies.  The restrooms were odd in that the stalls had no doors and everything was made of steel and welded in place. Perhaps to deter theft?  We caved to the kids and had dinner at a Burger King in Silverdale then we made it to my parent's house at the beach by about 9:30pm.

Near Snoqualmie pass, we encountered some constructions, with signs advising that there would be delays for rock blasting later that evening. We asked the kids if they would like to stick around for the explosions, but strangely, they preferred to continue on to the beach.

Day 10 - Yellowstone Cont'd

Maybe this is why it takes so
long to get going in the morning?

Woke up, breakfasted, and vowed to pack faster but we were still on the road at 10am.  We decided to go around the east side of the southern loop and up the west side of the northern loop and exit out the north entrance.  We thought we would be able to see most of yellowstone in a couple days but I believe it would take at least a week to do justice to everything Yellowstone has to offer.

Something cool about boiling mud.

Saw some mud pots, paintpots, hiked to a waterfall at the grand canyon of yellowstone, and saw some more mud pots and some wildlife then it was off to ??? (we didn't have a solid plan past this point :)  While driving through Yellowstone it was neat to see how the ecology changed as we headed north.  Evidence of the massive wildfires from 1988 were everywhere but the forest recovered with new growth trees everywhere.

 We stopped and ate dinner in Bozeman and decided at that time to grab a hotel in Butte for the night to restore our energy.  Some quick pricelining yielded us a room at a reasonable price.  The family voted to push on tomorrow to our final destination of Discovery Bay, WA (hence forth referred to as "the beach") instead of stopping at Mt. St. Helens or Ranier for a couple days.  Our recent experiences have taught us that we really need to spend more than a night or two in a spot to begin to really explore that location.  We might go camping in the Olympics while staying at "the beach".  I want to camp close to a flowing river for a night or two, not sure why, just seems like it would be fun.

Lots of Bison, Deer, and Elk

Waterfall at the canyon.

Almost forgot the gratuitous
car top carrier shot!

Day 9 - Yellowstone

Woke to the sound of a thousand car doors opening and closing as people retrieved their breakfast food.  Thanks to the bears, as we have been reminded hundreds of times by the park,  food has to be stored in a vehicle or bear proof box located in the vicinity.  Despite our efforts, we were unable to attract a bear to our site ;-)

very cool vanagon passed us in the parking lot
The paint says it all.

We were up and mobile by 10:15am and set our sights on seeing the southern loop of Yellowstone.  We had a false start thinking we would hike to the Lone Star geyser first but opted out after seeing the trail map and figuring out it would take us close to 3 hours round-trip.  Instead we headed on to the Old Faithful show where we knew would would see many different geysers and thermal features in one area.  We arrived and managed to find a parking spot in the enormous parking lot and made it to Old Faithful in time to see it erupt.  We then walked the boardwalk and had really good luck arriving at the gysers right before they erupted.   The whole walk was over 4 miles and took most of the day and we ended up pretty tired.  We did end up seeing old faithful erupt three times during our walk but the most impressive geyser was Grand geyser.  We took hundreds of pictures of thermal features and I can't decide right now which is worthy to post here.

Steam bath anyone?

We realized we didn't have the time or energy to see anything else on the southern loop today so we headed back to camp.  Our campsite was really close to yellowstone lake so we found a trail leading to the lake and explored the shoreline as well as a sand bar that extended out into the lake.  Back at camp we setup the slack line, made a fire, roasted brats, dogs, and smores.   Later that evening I tried to use one of the precious shower tokens you are required to pay for when you pay for a campsite only to find the showers closed.  If anyone needs four shower tokens for yellowstone let us know.  Tomorrow we will try and get going early.

Day 8 - The drive to Yellowstone

We had a restful night, woke early, had a hotel breakfast, packed the car, said goodbye to the parents and hit the road at about 9:30am.  There were several routes to choose from to get to Yellowstone but in the end we decided to take i80 to 287.  This route takes us through some of the original trails used by settlers and we ended up crossing the continental divide six times.

upside: 

• slightly shorter distance
• suppose to be a super scenic drive

downside:

• no cell/internet coverage (we are used to this by now anyway)
• road construction or accident could back up traffic forever
• slower speed limit

Bomb shelter or picnic table?

The long road to Yellowstone

The journey was interesting and scenic but in a different way.  Instead of majestic mountains and lakes there were arid plains and hills.   At one point we saw a flame in the distance and came upon a Sinclair Oil refinery which was unexpected.  Then we saw a really sad looking golf course outside of Rawlins.  Picture a golf course in the desert without irrigation.  It's one large sand trap.

Car top carrier at Sweetwater reststop
Part of the Oregon Trail

We stopped at a rest area that had picnic tables under what looked like mini bomb shelters.  I can only think they were built that way for protection from the brief thunder and lightning storms that frequent the area.  One of which we experienced while eating lunch.

hmm, it's three years old.

The fact that this certificate even exists is a statement on the state of our environment.

Car top carrier shot

Just before the Tetons, we stopped for gas in the little town of Dubois, WY.  It wasn't hard picking a gas station as only one of them had the World's largest Jackalope exhibit.  They also had good ice cream.

Indeed. I have never seen
 a bigger Jackalope

getting close to the Tetons

We did encounter some road construction where the two lanes were shut down to one for several miles.  The construction crew was using a token passing method of traffic control.  We happened to be the last car through and the flagman gave us a wooden stake to hand to the flagman at the other end.  Crude but effective.  Later on we had several miles of dirt road and eventually the scenery changed again to mountains and trees.  We had entered the Tetons.   We bought a National Park yearly pass and drove the scenic route through the Tetons into Yellowstone.

Yellowstone - the Walt Disney World of the National Park Service.  The success of the park is obvious by the sheer quantity of visitors and the fact that we were greeted with this notice: 

We were lucky to get a camping spot for two nights.  The signs at the entrance indicated all sites as full.  We found our camping spot - small and very close to other sites but with enough cover that you weren't staring at your neighbors as you ate at the picnic table.  The 10x14' tent fit fine and we set off to find some dinner at the Grant Village lake house restaurant.  The food and the scenery was good and priced at about what you would expect for a park concession.

At the lakehouse restaurant

Went to bed early to the sound of cars, car doors, and people talking while wondering if the bears would find us because we brought water bottles into the tent. :)

Day 7 - Aftermath

It was rough getting moving today.

There are two girls in
 there somewhere

The past few days of activity were catching up with us.   I'm going to blame the altitude for my sluggishness.  Another group was slated to use the lodge and cabins so we had to be packed up and out by 10am.  After some horseplay, there was more cleanup to do in the lodge and kitchen before we could leave (I ended up mopping the whole floor - not a good job for a reforming perfectionist.  It took me well over an hour to complete).  By the time we were finished, we had left the lodge better than we found it.  After packing up the car, we headed off to explore the Snowy Mountains some more.

Note the shiny floor! 

 We hiked a few trails, one of which took us around the remains of an old mining camp which consisted of a single cabin and the remains of the mine entrance and equipment.  The mine ended up being in a poor location and didn't produce much but it was cool to imagine working there over a hundred years ago.





Another trail had a lookout stand which I found Aidan barely hanging on to.  He did survive the fall, the snow cushioned the blow :)

no children were harmed
in the making of this picture.

There was an informative sign talking about the vegetation at 10k feet.  It's not an easy life.  Turns out much of the moss and plants are over 100 years old and have incredibly deep tap roots and don't start blooming until 20 years into their growth cycle.

a survivor

We headed back to Laramie to try and catch Mark before he departed for his residency in Lander, WY about 6 hours away from Laramie.  He was just able to squeeze in the wedding between his medical school classes and residency work!  Side note:  Got a txt from Mark saying he had a good first day of residency despite it being 100deg F in Lander.  He participated in a c-section.  Everyone has their own idea of fun I guess :)

By now, too much of the day was gone to get on the road to our next stop so we stayed at a hotel in Laramie graciously provided to us by my parents.  The hotel was a welcomed break.  There we recovered, resupplied, swam, showered, ate chinese and went to bed early - well some of us did.  We decided our next stop would be yellowstone with a drive-by viewing of the Tetons.  We were originally planning to camp at the Tetons but spending more time in Yellowstone was more attractive to us.  We had postponed reserving a campsite at Yellowstone because we didn't know exactly when we would be there.  In hindsight that wasn't such a good idea.  Initial attempts to find a campsite seemed to indicate that all the spots were taken.  We started to re-think our destination but after several hours of effort, Katrina was able to secure a campsite for two days in Grant Village at Yellowstone.  Tomorrow we are off to camp on a volcano.  whoohoo.

Day 6 - Wedding Day

breakfast/reception area in the Lodge

Katrina, Andria, B, and C, were up early making pancakes, eggs, sausages, and reheating leftover biscuits from the rehearsal dinner last night.  We also put out supplies so guests could pack bag lunches and go off exploring the Medicine Bow National Forest while the caterer started work in the kitchen and last minute preparations were being made for the wedding.

After we cleaned up and made our own lunches, my family and my cousin's family drove the 5 minutes further up the mountains to see what we could find.  At 10,800 ft we found boundless beauty and snow.  We ate our lunches with majestic lakes and mountains in the background and then an obligatory snowball fight ensued with me being the primary target :)

We couldn't spend too much time exploring as we had to be back at the lodge to get the girls ready for the wedding (they were bubble girls), but we knew we would have to come back here before we left the area.

The wedding was fantastic.  The chapel and benches were all made out of fallen pine trees.  The weather was perfect.  Overall a success.

Guests from Baton Rouge

Christina has a lot of wonderful friends that played a part in the wedding.  She had a friend officiate, another made the cake, another read at the wedding and another took pictures.  I'm sure there are others I am forgetting.  They were fun to party with too.
After the wedding, there was a reception, dinner, smore's and dancing into the night.   Then cleanup/dismantling as we had to be out of the lodge by 10am the next day.

car top carrier at 2 miles high