The Wild, Wild West

Whew! Sorry for the delay in posting. We are still having the time of our lives but we are so busy in the doing that we havn't made time for the writing.

(this is mom's post)

When we last posted we were on our way to the Grand Tetons. From Utah it was an incredible scenic drive to Jackson Hole, WY. If you ever get the opportunity to travel north of Logan, UT passing through Logan Valley and Bear Lake it is a must! Jackson Hole is a very quaint and chic western town. The downtown is cute as a button! The Grand Teton mountains are spectacular! We began seeing all kinds of wildlife---moose, buffalo (bison) and such. We stayed in a cabin at Signal Mountain Lake where Dad ate his fill of bison chili and we watched American Idol with a sweet old couple we met from South Carolina.

After Grand Teton National Park we went straight into Yellowstone National Park. It is like no other place on earth, really. It is a geolist's dreamland. It just so happened that, on our science rotation, we are studying Earth Science this year. How handy is that? Yellowstone covers over 2,200,000 acres and has the most concentration of geysers in the world. It was cool to spend a few days living and exploring on top of a very active geothermal land mass. Yellowstone is constantly changing (earthquakes and such) but good OLD FAITHFUL is going strong! We stayed at the Old Faithful Inn right beside the Old Faithful geyser. It is well over 100 years old and full of character.

Old Faithful (you're probably wondering who took this amazing picture. It was Madison. Ok this is Madi. :)

As we were driving through the park, the snow was piled high (higher than Dad is tall) onboth sides of the road. The lakes were mostly frozen. It was beautiful. Later that day we got a few hours of snow. It was awesome! It stormed for a while and then clear, beautiful blue sky came and stayed with us the rest of our stay. I am so glad that we got to be there with all the snow. It made for a unique experience and we didn't have to deal with crowds of tourists!!! Of course, we had to build a snowman. It was kind of funny because some of us were in shorts and took our shoes off and sunk into several feet of snow during the process.

Cold!!!

The wildlife is AMAZING! There are literally thousands of bison and elk and we were lucky enough to spot not one, but 3 of the 124 wolves in the park. One of them was right beside us near the river. But that is not the most incredible wildlife experience we had. You are not going to believe this but we saw a bison actually give birth! We were just a few yards away from her! We had seen a line of bison walking along the river when Mom saw something unusual about the back end of one of the bison---and it wasn't scat! It was 2 little feet sticking out. So we pulled over and watched as the mommy would walk a little and then lay down a little and very quickly she gave birth right there in front of our very eyes! It was amazing! The mommy immediately began cleaning the baby although she came out pretty clean looking already. We stayed there for about an hour so we could see the baby take its first steps. We have it all on video.

We have a National Parks passport that we have been stamping at all national parks and monuments. It's too bad that we didn't think to buy one until after we had gone to Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Painted Desert and Yosemite. Oh well!

I did not realize this, but Yellowstone has its very own Grand Canyon. It was beautiful. As we walked through much of the park's boardwalks, Mom had a little trouble with the strong sulfar smells. It seems that baby doesn't care for that particular smell! We saw some great films at the visitor centers. The whole time we were in the park we were trying so hard to see a bear. Just as we were about to leave the park there he was---a little black bear, awww.

Next we drove through an absolutely gorgeous valley. We had learned that when you see cars pulled over and/or cameras lined up on tripods, you better stop your car and check it out. We saw a red fox and 2 of her little ones. She was actually tame and came right up to us and let us feed her. We did not feed any other wildlife but her. She was actually a semi-resident at a campground.

We spent the night in Cody, WY. It was quite the western town. It was settled by Buffalo Bill. We actually stayed in the hotel he built and named after his wife, Irma. It felt like stepping back in time when we walked into our room---very cool! We went to the Buffalo Bill museum. It was one of the best museums I have ever seen. It was very hands on. We also went to church there. We got there just as they were starting and the bishop was welcoming everyone to their ward conference. I think I laughed out loud in the chapel because that makes 3 Sundays of ward conferences for us on this trip!

We spent the night in Sheridan, WY last night and made our way to Rapid City, SD. We stopped at Devils Tower (the first national monument). There were TONS of prairie dogs. They were so cute! We will be checking out Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands tomorrow and then we thought we might pop in to Minnesota and Wisconsin just for the heck of it. We're making our way back to good ole NC and will hopefully get there on Saturday or Sunday.

Swimming at the hotel pool

"That's all folks!"

Fran Sancisco

Hey everybody! We haven't forgotten about the blog, we've just been in the car all the time, and I can't make posts when we're on the road. We still haven't written about San Francisco yet. The first day we got there, we went to Pier 39 in Fisherman's wharf. How did we get there? We took a trolley! =D It was an interesting experience. The workers weren't exactly cheerful. And they could tell we were obviously not used to doing it...You can hang off the side of the trolley, so that when you pass another trolley, you are INCHES away from getting ripped to pieces. Mom and dad did it. The roads here are SO steep! I don't know how these people climb up them all the time! There were tons of double-decker buses. We never got to ride one though. It was foggy off and on pretty much the whole time we were there. At the wharf, there was about every kind of store you could think of. There was also a double-decker carousel. There were a million different restaurants. We walked around and had lunch. We went inside an awesome crazy hat store. :) There was also a store called "Chocolate Heaven." OH MY GOSH. It was incredible! We went back to the hotel and ordered room service for dinner! The next day was our official touring day. We took an all day tour. First we went on a ferry. We could see Alcatraz. As much as I begged,mom and dad wouldn't let us drop Spenser off there. We never really got to see Alcatraz up close, but it still looked pretty freaky. We landed in Sausalito and looked around and had lunch at a pizza place. Then we met with our tour guide and rode a bus all around San Fran.

We went across the Golden Gate Bridge.You really couldn't see the whole bridge though, because of all the fog. We went to a beautiful place called the Palace of Fine Arts. We also went to the Golden Gate Park. We rode around a lot more, then we stopped and went inside an amazing cathedral. It was my first time seeing one on the inside. We were allowed to take pictures. The stained glass was my favorite part. It was awesome!! I won't add pictures since we already have a few. There were also lots of paintings on the walls. We saw Lombard street (the most crooked street in the world). We obviously couldn't go down it on a bus. We had to go down a BIG hill. Thankfully, we didn't have to go UP one. We went to Chinatown. That was sometimes cool and sometimes creepy. The tour ended after that. We went back to the hotel. We were SO tired from walking down all those hills! We liked Pier 39 so much that we went back there for a seafood dinner. The next day was the day we were leaving. Of course, that was the day with the best weather. You could see the Golden Gate Bridge perfectly and we were able to take some good pics. We decided to drive our van down Lombard street. We then left for Yosemite. We got to drive through it a little bit that day, since it wasn't too far away. There are a bunch of cool waterfalls. The next day, we went through Mariposa Grove to see all the GINORMOUS sequoia trees. Mom really liked the one named "The Grizzly". Again, you have to be there to really get how huge they are. We went under a tunnel tree. We did do a hike to the bottom of one of the waterfalls. It was really cool, because when you walk across the bridge at the bottom, you get really wet!! :) It was fun. After the waterfall, we went back to the hotel for a swim in one of the many heated pools. We got up at around 5:00 the next morning to leave for Morgan, Utah where we visited with our friends the Streubers. We were in the car for about 18 hours! Next on our route is The Grand Tetons. :) Post you later!

California Dreamin'

Hi everybody! We've been getting a lot of exercise, since we've been walking almost everywhere! It's a good thing too, with all the fantastic food we're eating. :) We woke up Monday morning, and left for Big Sur. We stopped by the ocean to walk around on the beach for a while. It was COVERED in ginormous seaweed. And it is so extremely foggy here, you can't see anything too far away. Then we drove the rest of the way to Big Sur. It was breathtaking! Pictures make it look much smaller than it really is. The road had lots of twists and turns, so dad couldn't watch the scenery too much cause he was driving! When you are on a road high on a mountain top, you can see a HUGE sea of fog below you. It reminded me of being in an airplane looking down on the clouds. But this fog seemed to go on forever! Hundreds of feet below the surface of the fog, is the ocean. It was kinda scary at times. After we had lunch close to the edge of a cliff, we left for Monterey. We stopped by the Hearst castle, and to see hundreds of elephant seals laying on the beach. That was a sight to see...and smell. :(

(gross)

I took this :)

Next was Monterey. For those of you who don't know, mom and dad used to live in Monterey when they were newly-weds. So it was cool for them to see the stuff they used to do 26 years ago. Mom, dad, and Spenser got out of the car to see a park- Lover's Point. I was asleep in the car. They said there were ground squirrels that would walk right up next to you, so you could feed them. We went to a Mediterranean restaurant for a snack of stuffed grape leaves and pita bread with hummus. Mom and dad used to eat there ALL the time. We went to Old Fisherman's Wharf. It was really cold! We saw a couple of sea lions in the ocean. They bark SO loud! Then we went to Cannery Row. There was a giant candy store, so Logan was happy. :) We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner that has a fantastic view of the ocean. Then we left for a long drive to San Francisco. Of course, we didn't make it all the way. We spent the night in San Jose. (haha that rhymes) I'll make a new post about San Fran, because there's a lot to say!

El Grande Canyon!

Mom's notes:

The first part of our day in the Grand Canyon was spent hiking the South Rim---and I do mean the actual rim. One slight of step and you are toast! There were a few tense moments when we thought we may not be able to experience the grandeur because of Logan's fear of heights. But she amazed us all as she persevered, dug her claws into Mom and/or Dad and hung on for dear life. I cannot even begin to describe the works of God's awesome creation! You have to stand at the rim and gaze at the depth and height and breadth of the canyon all at once to feel the magnificence. It is truly breathtaking!!! We ate lunch at El Tovar (a 100 year old, 4 star restaurant). Their desserts were almost as breathtaking as the canyon!

We viewed the Imax film about the Grand Canyon then headed back to town to devour the famous mile high pies at the Pine Country Inn. (We met a ranger at the park from Anderson South Carolina, where I lived from 1977-1981, who gave us the 411 on all the "good eats" in the area.) So, needless to say, we felt compelled to have those culinary experiences.

The next day we got up at 3 am to go back to the Grand Canyon and view the sunrise. That was definitely a spiritual highlight of our trip!

(It was freezing!)

On our way to Hurricane, UT to visit my sister Bonnie we had some interesting experiences at the Navajo Bridge and Jacob Lake. We were able to place a Book of Mormon with our new friend Bob. Elder Cox, Logan's all time favorite missionary, gave us a challenge and we are heaven bent on doing it!

May 1st, Madi's 13th birthday, we spent with the Barnums in Hurricane. Aaron had just gotten his cast off and we went to his baseball game---Go Red Sox! We also sent Madi on a treasure hunt before eating ice cream cake.

The next day we headed for the Hoover Dam and, due to extenuating circumstances, ended up spending the night in Las Vegas after touring the Dam.

On Saturday we spent most of the day in Death Valley, CA. It was actually a very beautiful and desolate place. We went to Badwater (the lowest point in the western hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level). That was pretty weird standing there and looking up at the huge mountain in front of us that had a marker to show just how far below sea level we actually were. We worked hard to keep hydrated and to keep our engine from overheating as we shifted from high elevations to areas below sea level at Death Valley National Park with its extreme temperatures. Mom took a taste of the earth on one of the many salt flats. But that's no big surprise since she always craves salt when she's pregnant! We barely missed a head-on collision that happened around one of the curves. We also climbed some sand dunes. We were amazed at the variety of colors on the mountains.

We spent that night in Ridgecrest, CA where we attended church the next morning. We had a long journey ahead of us and were just going to stay for fast and testimony meeting but the kids were begging to stay for all the meetings. How can you resist your children begging to keep the Sabbath Day holy? So we stayed and, guess what? The Sunday School lesson was about keeping the Sabbath Day holy! We are loving going to a different ward each week. We may just decide to become mormon gypsies for life!

Right now we are on our way to the Pacific Ocean but are stuck in a massive traffic detour because a windmill caught on fire. These windmills are amazing! Where we are now, there are easily more than a thousand of them. It's quite a sight! We stopped in San Luis Obispo to get some shut eye. We are halfway through our journey.