Spring break 2015

Mini adventure

We usually plan our big trips way, way, way in advance, so this year's trip seems pretty strange. We are headed to Paul's parents' house near Port Townsend, Washington.

The sad reason is that Paul's grandmother, Phylis Westerfield, passed at the beginning of July, so we are headed out for the funeral.

But we are making the most of it, and turning it into a two week vacation.

We technically left yesterday (Monday), as we started with a hotel stay in Chicago (and left our car there), but I consider today to be the first real day of the trip. We had a noon flight out of O'hare, to get in at 2:00 in Seattle. (Side note: O'hare has a lot of food choices, but since we were carrying it on the plane, I sadly had to forgo getting a torta from the Bayless Frontera grill. Definitely the right choice, as it turned out.)

(Also, the bad hotel coffee this morning had me joking to Paul that the 22 Starbucks at the airport were calling me. That was a made-up number, but I bet there are at least that many. As we traversed our concourse for about 12 gates, we saw three Starbucks.)

So the plane left the gate approximately on time, then sat for a while - not that unusual at O'hare. But it turned out that there was some sort of medical situation in the front of the plane. (As we were in the waaaaay back of the plane, we knew nothing about it.) Back to the gate to let the individual off, the flight attendant let us know he was okay, and we were able to try again.

This ended up putting us about an hour behind schedule. Beverage service and food sales didn't reach our row until nearly 2:00 p.m. So I was very glad we had our own lunches with us.

One nice surprise on the plane: when we booked the tickets, we couldn't find even three seats together, we were sitting 2+2+1. (B was stressing over having to sit next to a stranger.) But the passenger for the aisle seat next to B never showed up, so I was able to move to the row with her and Aidan.

Sorry it's fuzzy - we were on the move!

We now come to the fun part of the day. (Sarcasm.) From the SeaTac airport we take the light rail to downtown to catch a ferry to Bainbridge island. On the light rail we call Paul's mom to let her know where we are, and not to leave for the ferry pickup just yet. She told us they had heard there was some problem with the Bainbridge ferry. This was a timely warning.

When we arrived at the ferry terminal, we found a scene of near chaos. There was an incredible line of people waiting for our ferry. Normally there's no problem walking on to a ferry, the only delays are for vehicles. But a few hours before, one of the ferries had broken down, and they were operating their busiest ferry line during rush hour at less than half capacity.

More background: http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/07/ferry-stalled-off-bainbridge-island-with-405-passengers/

The agent at the ticket desk estimated that it would be 2 to 3 loads (at least a couple of hours) before we could get on. But there was a ferry leaving for Bremerton in about 2 minutes. No time to consult, we bought the tickets and ran for the boat.

Once aboard, we dragged our luggage around like refugees for a little while, as there were almost no seats left. Eventually we found a spot to settle in, and called Paul's mom and let her know to pick us up at the other ferry.

It felt like a bit of a near crisis situation on the ferry. There was a long line for the vending machines, which were almost empty. People were talking with their neighbors, commiserating, sharing information about the broken down ferry. (It was dead in the water for a couple of hours, with hundreds on board.)

At one point the lady on the intercom came on to say "Could everyone on the ship please just stay where you are right now? Those in the front, stay in the front, and if you're in the back, stay there." Well, you could have heard a pin drop, everyone was just looking at each other like "whaaaaat?" She then went on to say "We are having trouble getting an accurate head count, so please just stay put." A relieved babble immediately went up all over the ship.

Not much left to tell. We made it off the ferry, got picked up, had an interminable 2 hour dinner at Olive Garden, and now everyone's in bed. Here's hoping for a quieter day tomorrow.

Wisdom of the road

Here are some of the lessons we learned from the trip:

• National Park campgrounds are beautiful, and inexpensive, but almost impossible to get during the busy season (summer?). What to do?
• Some spots/campgrounds are reservable. These may be more expensive - like in Yellowstone, the reservable campgrounds were run by a concession company. Make your reservations WELL in advance.
• For Glacier and Yellowstone, you can see the times that the campgrounds filled each day on a website. These all seemed to be morning times, some quite early. So you could stay overnight at a hotel very near the park, and be in line early; or you could drive through the night and time it to arrive in the park in the early morning. Neither of these was very feasible for us on this trip.
• Try going in the off season. I don't know when you can find a good combination of nice weather and smaller crowds, but I know it isn't in July!
• Utilize National Forest camping. The national parks are surrounded by national forests, which offer campgrounds (often primitive). Apparently one can also pull off and camp by the side of the road in most national forest areas - be sure you bring your own water. A small RV or camper van would make this much more feasible.
• Pick up "Official State Maps" whenever you can - at rest areas/welcome centers, and sometimes at hotel or campground check-in. AAA maps and google maps are great for navigating, but the official state maps let you plan the big picture, and often give more detail on the areas you're passing through. 
• Small cooler wasn't enough.  It couldn't hold ice for more than a day.  Need a medium, well insulated cooler for future trips.
• Car top carrier was essential for us.  Carried all the soft goods - sleeping bags, pillows, pads, etc. Probably could use a slightly bigger one - 16cuft perhaps.
• Audio books are great for passing the time
• Sprint/Virgin Mobile phones are useless in the Northwest states.
• A vehicle with more ground clearance than a mini-van is probably a good idea if you want to access primitive campgrounds in national forests.
• You need more than a day to see the parks.  I would say 4 days minimum (Paul).

Day 30 - Smith/Dorn Resort at Sibley Lake

The luckless fisherman

We had a good nights sleep with the parents waking late and the kids waking earlier and enjoying a decadent breakfast of jam with croissants on the side.  There were a lot of activities planned for the day so we had to get moving.  The girls were anxious to use the paddleboat and go swimming so we did while Katrina, Dawn and Aidan played Dominion.  I tried my hand at fishing after hearing that some nice sized fish were caught right off the dock.  Many casts later I had a couple strikes on the lure, enough to keep me casting, but sadly no fish resulted.  It would be BBQ, not fish, for dinner tonight. (The BBQ was delicious)  After Evan and Jeffery returned from camp, the new water tube was inflated and the kids gave it a maiden usage.  We were pulling the tube behind a pontoon boat so the speed was limited but it was enough speed that the kids had fun and even experimented with full-body skiing behind the tube.

The maiden voyage

Once the sun started to set the whole crew, Wefel's, Smith's, and Dorn's played several rounds of murder.  Dawn introduced this game to us during past camping trips and the kids (and adults) enjoy playing it.  Once it was fully dark, we took a chance and set off the fireworks we had been hauling around with us for the past month.  There is a backstory on the fireworks in that they were intended for Aidan's birthday since setting off fireworks was his birthday wish.  Overall it was a fun and busy day.

Tomorrow we should be home.

Day 29 - Off to Pequot Lakes

We woke to the sound of thunder which spurred us to action.  We had the fastest pack up time ever at 45 minutes.  We were on the road early and the storm never really materialized.  After a couple hours of driving we made a stop at McDonalds. I'm not a fan, but on this trip I have become fond of their breakfast oatmeal plus we needed more monopoly game pieces.  :)

Dinner.  really?

My reputation preceded me.

Most of today was spent driving through North Dakota.  The signs of a modern day oil rush are everywhere.  Lot's of construction, hotels, houses, stores and billboards advertising refinery equipment.  Go Fracking!  We made lunch in the car as we drove and made it to Pequot lakes in time to have ice cream for dinner at the local ice cream store then arrived to a warm reception at the Smith/Dorn cabins around 7pm.

I like the Pequot lakes water tower.  Well done.

Day 28 - TRNP

Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  This park is a hidden gem.

We woke after a good sleep and decided we liked the campsite enough to stay another day and go explore the park. We went to a ranger program at the Painted Canyon visitor center - which is also an interstate rest area.  I would guess it is the only rest area where you have a good chance of seeing bison in the parking lot (and 100% chance of encountering bison poop).  We hiked around the the Painted Canyons then went back to the south park and drove the loop through the park.  Saw the prairie dog towns and prairie dogs, bison herds, wild horses and a cool wasp like insect that digs holes in the ground and moves rocks.

We ate dinner in the make-believe western town of Medora at a buffet that was pretty decent.  Medora exists today from the generosity of Harold Schafer who donated millions to restore the town.  A foundation and donations plus tourism keeps the town afloat.

After dinner we took a short hike to the Little Missouri river where the kids played around for a couple hours in the water.  They found lignite, a low grade coal that is layered throughout the badlands.  It makes a cool crackling sound when it gets wet.

Early to bed as we head to Minnesota tomorrow.

cartop carrier shot

Day 27 - Drive to TRNP (North Dakota or Bust)

Apparently, camping in a National park just isn't in the cards for us on this trip.  After leaving the hotel we drove hwy 2 following the very busy train track. We drove east across the top of Montana though plains and reservations. The undulating hills lulled our navigational skills to sleep: we missed a turn, and ended up heading south by smaller, almost deserted highways. (Travel tip: keep your gas tank filled up!) We picked up some sandwiches and arrived at Theodore Roosevelt National Park around 6:30MST.

 The MST/CST timezone runs through the north part of the park and skirts the east side of the south part of the park which we were heading to, so every time posting includes the time zone.

Our backup site.  Not too shabby.
also requisite car-top carrier shot

At the park entrance, the park Ranger said getting a site would be tight and it indeed was, we just missed out on a couple tent sites and all the pull-through sites were full although some sites looked to be abandoned but with a valid camping slip attached to the post.  We were sad, as the sites were very nice and scenic,  but we were prepared to not repeat the night we had at Glacier.  Right next door to the TRNP entrance we found the Madona campground which did have available spots and after giving them a once over and deciding they were pretty good we paid for one.  The campsite advertised free wi-fi and indeed they tried to.  It worked about as you would expect.  We setup camp and ate our Subway sandwich dinners. We believe if we hadn't stopped to pick up sandwiches we would have been able to get a site in TRNP.  The whole problem of getting a campsite at a National Park has led me to a business idea which should become the topic of a future post.  

The kids ran off to play on the campground playground until it got dark, then we roasted s'mores and most of us hit the sack.  I lingered around outside as the sky was crystal clear and dark.  Saw some meteors, satellites, and the Milky Way which inspired me to try my hand at some digital night sky photography before turning in for the night.

unedited picture of star trails