Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park was the last stop on this trip and it was well worth the wait.  Beautiful, amazing, fantastic, I could go on and on.

                                  
                                   Rose and Ted sitting on on the porch on our "cozy cabin".

                                        Driving the "Going to the Sun Road" was incredible.  Click on the
link below to learn more about the road.

http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/goingtothesunroad.htm

We went on a two hour trail ride and had a blast!  Ted and Jane were very nervous and by the time we we were done, Ted was ready to go home and take horse back riding lessons!

When you spend so many hours on the road over 19 days, you notice so much more along the roadside than you ever would normally and this time for me, it was the cows!  Black cows in particular.  They are everywhere!  You see them in the 100+ degree heat, and the pouring rain and lightning, they are always there, roaming, eating.  So, when we got to Yellowstone, it blew my mind, when we came across "free range"cattle.  Yes, EXTREMELY large cows, just walking, standing eating in the middle of the road.  They didn't seem to care if there was a person, or car, or truck in their way.  One local warned us about driving too fast, because "cows are as smart as a jar of mayonnaise".  Whatever....I thought they were AWESOME!  If I had the room, I would have brought one home.

We stopped at Many Glacier Hotel.  It was built in 1914, by mostly Minnesotans.  It was beautiful....

        Ford Motor Company restored these for the National Park Service to use on tours.

Spokane and Bozeman

We left Port Townsend Thursday morning with a temperature of 58 degrees!  Wow,  would things change quickly.... We landed in Spokane for the evening and it was 108!  We found a great restaurant called Wisconsinburger.  We did just a little exploring and headed back to the hotel.

Only a few hours later coming in to Spokane!

                                       Does this look like  DOT approved seat belt usage?



On our way in to Washington, the sign was impossible to get a picture with.  It was located in an area that we couldn't reach, so we told ourselves to remember that we needed it on the way out of  the state.  When we left Spokane the sign was at the top our list.  Believe it or not, number 48 shall never be....the sign out the state was located in middle lane of a busy interstate.  We made the decision to keep all four children alive and skip the sign.  But after all of these miles and sign pictures, it was a bummer to miss the last one.

Yesterday brought us to Bozeman.  What a fun town with a beautiful backdrop of the mountains. There are fires burning in the area and the air is thick today with smoke.




 Smoke surrounding the sunset, beautiful yet creepy..

Tomorrow we leave for Glacier National Park.  We are trying to monitor the fire conditions.  So far, it sounds like our stay is not going to be affected, but we know that things can change quickly.  We have had no cell coverage in Bozeman, so hopefully we will get it back while we are on the road tomorrow to keep checking in with park service.

Last days in Port Townsend

 We went in search of the infamous Glass Beach yesterday, but about all we found was a dead crab and bunch of sand and rocks.  Jane walked a little further than the rest of us and was able to find a little sea glass, but we heard later that most of it is a 4 mile hike down the beach!


Later in the day, Mark had signed up Rose and I to take longboat sailing lesson.  We had to row out to the bay before we could put the sails up.  The oars were 35 pounds of heavy wood each!  We made it and learned a "little" bit about sailing on the big seas!

        This is Ted....mad again about not getting to go with on the sailing lesson, but you had to be 12!

Today we drove about an hour to the town of Port Angeles and took an hour ferry ride to Victoria, B.C.  It was a beautiful day for a boat ride and we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some whales!  Wish we could have snapped a few pictures!

I don't think we had the time to take in Victoria and all of it's ins and outs.  Maybe someday we will stop back through.

               Brothers enjoying the ferry to Port Townsend!

We found Port Townsend to be a cool little town with a main street lined with ornate buildings from the 1800's that house many unique shops and restaurants.  Its very dry here from a lack of rain so everything is brown, which makes the neighborhoods look kind of sad.  We've had fun walking the town and sightseeing, of course the people watching hasn't disappointed!

 Puget Sound is very beautiful and offers lots of awesome views that we could sit and look at for hours. 

It's fun to be in an area with a nautical theme where everything is centered on the Sound. 

Everyone here seems to have a dog with them, which makes us miss Hudson even more.  That, coupled with the fact that we missed Hudson's birthday and the fact that we will be picking up his new brother when we get back, makes us even more excited to start the journey home.  A very special thanks to our friend Rachael for making sure Hudson had a great 8th birthday at home!

Next up, more ferry rides, Victoria B.C., Spokane and Glacier National Park.

A few more sights in Seattle before we head further north.....

                          Seattle, Seattle and more Seattle...

Yesterday morning we awoke in a beautiful new Hilton Hotel and started the day with a trip to the Space Needle. We took the awesome monorail that was built for the 1962 World's Fair and arrived in about 10 minutes.   After a 43 second elevator to the top of the needle we were treated to the best views of Seattle that can be had.  What a fun, interesting and easy to navigate landmark with great views!

 

 

 

 

 

                                  The Chittenden Locks and fish ladder were next on our list.

The Army Corp of Engineers did a remarkable job building the only lock system in Washington.  The fish ladder was really interesting to learn about and it was really cool to watch the salmon swim up the ladder from the underground viewing area.  Bizarre how they operate on instinct alone and just know what to do.

                                        

                                          Once again, Ted was mad at one of his siblings.....

 

Not far away from the lock was Bruce Lee's gravesite with his son, Brandon, next to him.  Unexpectedly, there was a solid stream of people visiting the site and leaving items on both graves.


        

The final stop was Kurt Cobain's (Nirvana front man, for those of you that don't know!) former home  and the park next to his home where a large vigil was held after his death.  In the park sits a single bench that continues to draw Nirvana fans who inscribe messages to Cobain.  There is a large wooden gate closing off the homes driveway in front of the house, so Mark sent Thomas up to the gate to stick his hand under and take a picture, it turned out quite well!

 

 

Beware Port Townsend, you're next...

Portland, Mt. St. Helen's and Seattle

                                          PORTLAND!

We arrived into Portland on Wednesday and made our way right to the Pearl District for the famous food cart pods for lunch.  After perusing the many different carts, we settled on The Grilled Cheese Grill....The jalapeno popper sandwich was awesome!

We did a little exploring around downtown Portland, it's an interesting city! 

The homeless population was quite a shock to the kids, and to Mark and I also, with all the city parks filled with make shift shelters.  After shopping, eating and walking miles, we were pretty tired so we had an early night in back at the hotel.

                                   WASHINGTON

Yesterday we drove north to Mount St. Helen's National Park.  It was a fantastic drive.  I don't think we have ever seen surroundings quite as green!  The weather was beautiful, so volcano viewing was great!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It definitely looks nothing like the ash covered devastation that I remember from news coverage in 1980!


We were then on to Seattle.  It seems that every one of our trips is not complete until we stay in one hideous hotel.  The first night in Seattle was that night.  It was too late in the day to find something else, so we were stuck.  We didn't want to take our shoes off or touch anything, the air conditioning sounded like an air compressor turning on and off all night long and it was still about 1000 degrees in the room!  I did find us a MUCH better hotel for the second night.

We visited Pike Place Market where we watched the fish mongers throw a few fish around checked out the chewing gum wall!  Ick! 

                  We caught Rose actually looking out for her little brother in the busy marketplace.....

The EMP Museum which is a pop culture museum that had some very fun exhibits like Star Wars, Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix and Chuck Jones of Looney Toons fame.