Montana Vacation - Day 2 - Yellowstone National Park

When we roused and breakfasted, we piled everyone into 2 vehicles and made our way south for a 40 minute drive to the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park.  This was the first time that any of us had been to a National Park, except for Dad who had been here visiting a friend in 1989, a year after the major wildfires that ravaged much of the park in 1988.  The remnants of the fires were still visible as we entered the park - both dead and burnt pine trunks and new lodgepole pines that had been reseeded naturally by the trees' firecones that only open after intense forest fire heat melt the resin that seals them.

We turned south around the major loop that runs around the center of the park and stopped for a break at a picnic spot near the Nez Perce Creek.  We waded in the cold shallows there and got the only group picture of the trip thanks to a friendly tourist that Dad found.  The kids are wearing matching Disney/Yellowstone shirts that Becky (Aaron actually) stumbled across on sale at the Disney Store before we left.

 Our next stop was a collection of thermal features accessible only by boardwalk trails.  Yellowstone sits atop a massive supervolcano that lets off steam through these.  There were hot springs with colorful extremophile bacteria cultures decorating them, hot air vents that sound like small jet engines, hot mud pits bubbling away, and a few smaller geysers, like the one the kids posed by above.

Then we made our way to the Old Faithful area.  This predictable geyser draws millions to the park every year.  We ate lunch at a nearby burger cafe and settled in near the  predicted eruption time.  It erupts every 60 or 92 minutes, predicted based on the duration of the eruption (if it erupts for less than 2.5 minutes, it'll erupt again in an hour; longer than 2.5 minutes and it'll be 92 minutes - give or take a few fudge points).  The eruption was preceded by another nearby geyser that was visible nearby.  Our afternoon eruption was awesome and worth the trip.  It's neat to see things like these thermal features that are unique in the world. Afterwards, we toured the nearby Old Faithful Lodge, constructed from massive logs with wooden staircases throughout.  Mark, Leslie, the kids and I tried to climb up to the Eagle's Nest room visible at the top of the lodge, but a key staircase was locked because it was unsafe after an earthquake several years ago.

We kept heading around the loop, turning east and then north. We stopped for a few minutes to get a look at the enormous Yellowstone Lake that we'd been driving along.  We noticed a small wildfire that the rangers were letting burn on the opposite shore.

After a bathroom break, we drove north up through Hayden Valley.  The Yellowstone River meandered through and this is typically a hangout spot for wildlife.  Today we caught a brief glimpse of a black bear loping through the nearby woods and herds of bison in the valley.

Several bison wanted to share the road with us.  One of them was ambling up our lane on the 2 lane road on the side of a small mountain.  As we realized it had nowhere to go, we kept signalling the cars in the other lane to move on up so that we could change lanes and get around him, but most of them were too busy taking pictures of the bison.  Finally someone let us around.  The one in the picture above literally jumped out from the woods on the left to cross in front of us and we quickly learned that bison always get the right-of-way.


We worked our way past the valley to the mouth of the the Yellowstone Grand Canyon.  The Yellowstone river cascades through some amazing waterfalls around here.  Today we made our way down a trail to the brink of the Upper Falls, the smaller of the 2 at "only" 109 feet tall.  It was still impressive because you get to stand right next to where it pours over the edge.  Click on the link to see a picture of where we were standing in relation to the Falls when I took that picture.

On our way out, we finally saw our first elk.  There were 2 cows grazing to the left of the road and 2 bulls grazing to the right.  We didn't see any moose or wolves, but we'll stray on the lookout this week and try to come back later for a few of the sights that we didn't see this go around.

Montana Vacation - Day 1 - No Bags, No Rental Car, Beautiful Scenery

Today we landed in Bozeman, Montana for a 10 day vacation.  I've got a medical conference at the end of the week, but we arrived early to see the sights.  We barely made our connecting flight in Chicago, but our bags didn't make it.  We were told that they were being routed to us through Denver and they'd deliver it to us by noon tomorrow.  That also left us without the boys' carseats, which was OK, because we didn't have a rental car.  Turns out, they were out.  They did hook us up with another car rental agency who got us a car at about $200 more than we had our other one reserved for.  A couple of loaner car seats later and we were driving to Big Sky about an hour south.  Before we left, we met up with my brother, Mark, and his new girlfriend, Leslie who came in on a flight just after us (with their bags).  His two oldest kids had driven up with my parents over the last 2 1/2 days and were already waiting for us there.  We caravaned down through some very beautiful country.  The last 40 minutes of the drive were through the Gallatin Mountains with the Gallatin River flowing along beside us. It was a beautiful start.

As we drove up the mountain into Big Sky, we ended up at the Cascade Cabin, a four-bedroom cabin that Mom found for rent online.  It had a full kitchen with a large 8-person table.  There was a fireplace downstairs and a hot-tub out on the porch that went around 2 sides of the house. You could see the nearby Lone Peak mountain from the porch which also looked out onto a largely undeveloped area that included a small brook and a trail.

Mark, Leslie, the kids and I took a walk down the trail.  The kids picked wildflowers and we found a pond in the middle of the brook's flow that sheltered a duck family.  I posed them for a shot on one of the bridges that ran across the brook (or is it a stream by this point?)

The trail was near the bedding grounds of 2 mule deer.  At one point they even walked by the porch at the cabin.  They still had velvet on their antlers and were beautiful to watch.

We grilled burgers for dinner and got the kids down at a reasonable hour.  I had checked with the airline and our bags were due in a little before midnight and I wasn't keen about waiting for delivery tomorrow.  Dad and I drove back up to Bozeman - that scenic drive is not very scenic at night.  Instead it is a long series of hairpin turns that you can't see until you're right upon it.  The plane was delayed (naturally) but when it did arrive, our bags were on it and we brought them home and crawled into bed at 2AM (4AM to my Ohio brain) to rest up for a trip to Yellowstone National Park tomorrow.
Cascade Cabin, "backyard" walk, grilled burgers, driving back up to Bozeman in the dark, back by 2 AM

A Sunflower Just His Size

Aaron and Becky planted this in the spring.  It started with his desire to plant the maple helicopters that kept falling from the tree in our front yard (that one is peeking out from behind him).  While they were at it, they planted these pygmy sunflowers.  He's been helping to water them all summer.  We're a little worried that they won't make it through the August heat while we are in Montana, so we decided to snap this shot before we left.

Paper Sack Serape

During Alex's Spanish immersion class this week, he learned about different Spanish-speaking cultures, food, crafts, and sports from all over the world.  One of his crafts was to make this serape from a paper grocery bag.  He was pretty proud of it, so we decided to immortalize it here.

Mario Jumping on a Goomba in Chalk

by Alex Evans

Mosquito Central

Aaron told us he wanted to go on a hike.  I had been trying to log time in all of the area Metroparks, so I looked online for one we hadn't been to with hiking trails and settled on Pearson Metropark in the nearby suburb of Oregon, OH.  We packed gear, snacks, and (thankfully) bug repellent.  What we didn't realize was that the Black Swamp Trail was aptly named - not for the swampiness; it was actually dry - but for the swarms of mosquitos that smelled the only fresh meat for miles - us.  Having never been on the trail, I got a little turned around.  I knew the trail was a loop and so if I kept going straight, we end up at the beginning.  After the fact, I realized that we were going exactly the opposite way I thought we were (clockwise instead of counter-clockwise around the loop).  I thought I might have made such an error somewhere in the middle, but I wasn't sure.  Around this time I realized that we were not having fun getting attacked despite our DEET repellent and we wanted to get off the trail as quickly as possible.  So, we just kept going around the trail's 0.8 mile loop as fast as we could, swatting away the mosquitos with our hats.  At one point I saw something rustle in the gras and said something to the effect of "Boys, come here! Look at the frog. OK, Let's go."  When we got to the end I only had 4 bites due my stronger DEET concentration, but the boys had a couple dozen each.



Off the trail, the bugs diminished greatly, but we didn't want to take any chances, so we headed indoors.  The park has an air-conditioned building with chairs in front of a long set of windows that looks out into a clearing.  We sat in there and ate our snacks.



Out there they had installed an artificial fountain/pond and several bird and wildlife feeders.  We snacked and drank and identified as many birds as we could using a guide on the wall.  In the center of that picture is a goldfinch on the feeder perch.



Then we ran over to the park's jungle gym and let the boys run around for awhile.  This park has a pedal park pond that we didn't sample and a sledding hill that we may sample in the winter.  Otherwise, we may leave this park to the mosquitos.

Yard Sale Day

For the first time in years we decided to hold a garage yard sale.  Some other families in the neighborhood advertised in the paper for a community wide sale and we just chipped in for the ad.  We were able to get rid of a few things and packed the rest up for donation to charity.  The boys took advantage of the traffic to set up a snack stand with bags of popcorn or cups of lemonade for 25 cents each.  50 cents would buy you a juice pouch.  We totaled it up at the end of the day and subtracted expenses for supplies.  They got to keep the rest which went toward a handheld videogame system Alex had been saving up for.  Aaron was a persistent and tenacious salesman. He'd get very excited as people would approach, and then shout loudly at them "WE HAVE LEMONADE AND POPCORN!" repeatedly until we shushed him.



Becky set up a little stand selling handmade jewelry.  She had several interested people come up, but no takers today.  Garage sale bargain hunters just weren't interested in new custom made items.  She had at least one person tell her that they'd look her up at Christmas time to order some gifts for friends.



My medical assistant, BJ, came by with her husband to check out the boys' snack stand and were good customers.  As a reward for their patronage, the boys played an air guitar concert for them to the soundtrack of The Rolling Stones' Paint It Black and Dragonforce's Through the Fire and Flames that they learned from Guitar Hero III for the Wii.  They rocked out the neighborhood - next time we'll have to sell tickets.

Etch-A-Sketch WALL*E

Alex has a natural talent with the Etch-A-Sketch. He drew this picture of WALL*E the robot from memory in just a few minutes.

Independence Day Sparklers

We've always done sparklers as a celebration on the 4th of July.



They're festive and fun and they have always seemed easy for the boys to be able to handle.



This year however, we learned differently.  After Aaron's sparkler went out, he wanted to find out what happened when you touched the glowing rod that remains, to see if it was still hot.  He found out that it was.  He only burned a small spot on one finger and it'll be OK.  But I think we may take a break from sparklers for awhile.

Fireworks at the Fort

We came out to Fort Meigs for their Independence Day celebration in Perrysburg again this year.  We hoped to have time to let the kids ride some of the carnival rides, but the weather had other plans.  It has been raining alot over past several days, including a heavy drenching yesterday.  This left the park rather soggy, especially right in the middle of the carnival rides.  Not to mention the power cords for the rides running through the impromptu swamp.  No thanks.



Becky brought us a picnic lunch and we bought frozen dessert from an ice cream truck.  We made our way into the fort and set up our chairs with a great view of the sky above the Maumee-Perrysburg bridge which had been shut down for this evening's launch.  We played frisbee and chased bubbles.  We read, listened to the nearby band playing patriotic songs and settled in for the fireworks.



They seemed bigger and lasted longer than last year, whether because they really were or because the passage of time had shrunk last year's pyrotechnics in our minds.  It was an uncharacteristically cool night for July, but the extra clothes Becky brought on a hunch that we would need them kept us warm.  After the show we made our way through the swampy park (I found a dry path along the outskirts actually) in the dark to our cars.  Leaving Fort Meigs after the show was a pain again because we were forced by the police to turn to the right.  The main road was to the left, but the right led deep into a maze of residential streets.  We got lost in there for over an hour before stumbling onto a road that led us out.  We'll have to plan better next year.  Still, hard to beat fireworks seen from a fort.

Scout Ballfield Campout

Last night we went to the Mudhens stadium for another game and another Scout sleepover.  Becky and Aaron joined us for the camping portion this year.  Becky was very involved with the Scouts this year and Aaron was very distraught about not getting to stay last year.  Thankfully the weather this year was better as we didn't get soaked like last year.



Before the game, all the Scouts got to parade around the front of the field.  Becky and Alex went around this time, both in full uniform.



Alex wore his new Bear hat and neckerchief as well as his patch vest which houses all of the extra patches he has earned, but can't wear on his uniform.  The big yellow "C" on his left is the equivalent to a high school "letter" where he can house his Sports and Academics pins.  Right now he has a Swimming pin, but may have a couple more joining it from Day Camp activities.



Becky got Aaron a Little Scout Buddy ball cap and t-shirt so he'd feel like part of the crowd.  He is very much entrenched into the Scouting mindset and is looking forward to starting Tiger Cubs in a couple more years.  Onto the side of the hat, Becky sewed the patch that he got for camping here tonight.



Another Scout from Alex's den, Nicolai, was here tonight also (which represented a majority of the 3 Scout den) and sat with us and ate popcorn and drank hot chocolate while we watched the animated baseball movie, Everyone's Hero.  Becky discovered a solution to last year's tent hassle.  Since we can't use stakes to anchor the tent, she found 2 small tents that don't require any.  These "InsTENTS" (get it?) pop up to a usable form with a minimum of effort in under a minute.  A few minutes later and the rainfly is strapped on and we could toss our stuff inside.  Becky and Alex slept in one tent on a full-size Aerobed mattress which just fit.  Aaron and I slept on self-inflating pads in the other tent.  The kids slept better than we did, but we made it through the night.  A 5:30am rain shower made us glad that we set up those rain flys.



This morning we got up and packed up the gear.  Stowing the InsTENTS is almost as easy as setting them up and they were light enough to carry on and off the field with our other gear all in one trip.  We ate a buffet breakfast in the Roost on the upper balcony before heading home.  This is now officially a tradition that we'll plan on doing for many years to come.

Look Where I Found This Gum

This year the Cub Scouts were able to have their campfire ceremony outside again thanks to fair weather.  Each team prepared a skit to present to the rest of the camp and assembled family members and friends.



Alex's team' skit involved one Scout stashing his gum on the stage for later, with the rest of the team coming by, one by one, and stepping in it or putting their hands in it accidentally before stomping off of the stage making disgusted grumbling sounds.  I think you can guess where Alex found the gum. You can probably also guess the punchline - the original Scout coming by to reclaim the gum and start chewing it anew.  Yum.

Double Camp Week

This week marked Alex's first week of Cub Scout Day Camp at Camp Miakonda.  This year they have the theme of Cub Scout Olympics 2008 in honor of the upcoming Beijing Games.  He was assigned to a "country" for the week - this week he was on Germany's team and went with his team to all of the events this week.



We didn't get to take any pictures of Alex during camp, but they took this picture of him receiving either exciting or terrible news during craft time.  They completed the steps for a Geology Academics belt toop and pin as well as several other acheivements for next year's Bear badge. He got to swim every day which was a huge bonus for him.



Today was Aaron's 1st day of Hobbit Day Camp at his school.  This week was full of crafts, water play, sports, and Aaron's favorite - snacks.  This is a step up from last year's younger Hob Haven camp, so he is very proud to be so grown up.

Pre-Disney Blog Posts

Today I finished the March posts before we went to Walt Disney World. I am woefully behind which is seeming to become a perpetual state. Please follow this link to catch up on (most of) March.

Armstrong Air & Space Museum

After a pancake breakfast and packing up the campsite, we drove a few miles away to the Armstrong Air & Space Museum in Wapakoneta, OH.  Named after Wapakoneta's hometown hero, Neil Armstrong.



There were a few space capsule mock-ups outside for the boys to climb around on.  BUt the real magic was inside.



There was all sorts of momrabilia from Armstrong's childhood to artifacts used on space missions.  There were space suits, dehydrated food samples (behind glass, not to taste), and space capsules.



Near the end of the tour there was a movie shown in the auditorium that was housed in the big cement bubble seen in the top picture above.  It was a movie about the manned moon missions and the excitement that it caused back in the day.  At the very end there was a mission simulator that Alex used to try to land the Space Shuttle.  I was taking notes for the day he asks me to borrow the family car.  I'm afraid it doesn't look good.

Camping at Grand Lake at St. Mary's

Today we launched our summer camping trip, this time at Grand Lake at St. Mary's state park.  Technically we left the house last night, but it was raining with the threat of severe weather later.  We had a break from the rain long enough to set up our tent last night. We spent the night in a nearby motel and headed back to the campsite today under much clearer skies. After eggs and bacon, we geared up for swimming.  Grand Lake is Ohio's largest inland lake.  When it was built in the 1800's, it was the largest man-made lake in the world at the time.  We really didn't explore the lake, just the beach near the campgrounds.  The cove floor was a little mucky, but the boys had fun.  The beach itself smelled fishy, and when we were leaving we realized that it was due to the sand-covered dead fish about 20 feet from our towels.



The campground let us rent bikes - actually chopper-style trikes that Alex tooled around in for an hour. 



Tonight we built a fire and roasted hot dogs for our dinner.  Later we roasted marshmallows for s'mores.  A group of people set up a soccer game in a field behind our tent and the boys watched the match until bedtime.  After we put them down Becky and I engaged in our favorite camping activity.  Sitting by the fire and talking until we burned up all of the wood by about 1 in the morning.

Wacky Pose

If they'll pose normal for one picture, I'll let them give me their wacky pose. This picture was clearly the better of the two I took.