Wisconsin or Bust: Tuesday

We had talked about getting out at 6:00 in order to make it into the park when the Visitor Centers opened at 8:00, but I was tired and didn’t want to get up at 5:00 to make that happen. So I got up at 7:00, and we got out at 9:00, though it only took an hour and a half to get back to the park (nighttime speed limits are lower in Montana, so we were able to make better time in the morning).

Sam had his clothes set out on the floor of the closet, which was next to the bathroom. For some reason, water leaked all through the carpet, soaking his clothes. They were sopping wet. Since he had only packed four shirts and that was his last one, Meghan and I only had “women’s cut” shirts, and Ruby’s were all too small, Sam had to wear one of John’s shirts. One of John’s XL shirts. He tucked it in and wore a jacket over it until it got too hot, and then just wore a huge shirt.

The north entrance to Yellowstone in Gallatin, MT has this wonderful grand arch.

Across the top it says: "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People"
On the left: "Yellowstone National Park"
On the right: "Created by Act of Congress March 1, 1872"

The route we planned out was to come in from the north entrance and make our way down the west side of the park loop, stopping at anything we wanted to on the right side of the road until we got to Old Faithful, then to turn around and go back up the west side, stopping at things on the other side of the road, then heading over the north part of the loop, hitting the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the waterfalls before leaving out of the East Entrance. And that’s exactly what we did!

Click here to go to a large map of the park.

I know, don’t pass out, we followed our plan. At least part of it. We just took much, much longer than we talked about. We each had a “must-see” item, so we focused on making sure those happened.

Right when we entered the park, there were elk grazing in the middle of all the buildings, the Visitor Center, the post office and everything! It was a perfect start to a visit in Yellowstone.

It took a while to get into the park and we decided to eat lunch before we started looking at things. Luck shone down on us when we were looking for a place to eat. After driving past a couple of picnic areas with no tables free, we drove down the little road marked “Fountain Flat Drive” and found a quiet little picnic area with only one other family there and had a nice quiet lunch away from everyone.

See how secluded this picnic area was? 

The first thing we stopped to see was the Norris Geyser Basin. We were expecting huge crowds and we were not disappointed. We couldn’t even find a parking spot, and John had to drop us off and drive around looking for one. We walked the loop on the boardwalk and it was so exciting to see everything bubbling and blopping and steaming and shooting. The colors were bright and my camera didn’t seem to be capturing it, until I used the “vivid color” setting, which to my eye made the colors on the camera match was I was seeing in person.

Ruby at Norris Geyser Basin. She absolutely loved all the geysers.

The colors are amazing!

Fortunately, after that crowd, we found the rest of the park to be remarkably un-crowded. There were lots of people everywhere, but we weren’t driving five miles an hour in a long line of cars all day. Just when there were animals around. And then people turned into idiots.

We took a drive down Firehole Canyon Drive and saw the pretty Firehole Falls along the Firehole River in the canyon.

Next, we stopped at the Lower Geyser Basin, home of the Fountain Paint Pot and then on to the Midway Geyser Basin, home of the Grand Prismatic Spring, which was featured on the cover of National Geographic a couple of months ago, and which was Meghan’s “must-see” item. It was gorgeous. Unbelievably so. We were all very impressed. Lots of other pretty pools in this area.

Grand Prismatic Spring.

Ruby’s and Sam’s “must-see”, Old Faithful was next. There were tons of people here, but they have huge parking lots there, and Old Faithful is a mound up high enough that everyone can see it even if you’re back under a tree because you arrived just before it was expected to go off. John dropped us off and went to find a parking spot (right before it shoots up is a bad time to look for a close parking place)

It does these little spurts when it’s getting ready for the big spectacular blow, and after each one of those, the kids said, “Is that it? Is is done? I think that’s it.” And I kept telling them, you’ll know when it’s going off, trust me. And sure enough, they did.

Old Faithful, being faithful.

The kids watching the geyser.

Sam. In his dad's shirt. Old Faithful was dying down by this point.

Ruby in her own shirt.

My kids.

As Sam needed a shirt that actually fit, we stopped at the gift shop and the kids each picked a shirt. I got some moose jammies.

By this time it was getting late in the afternoon and we had to be getting along, so we drove back down the west side and visited the Artist Paintpots before heading east along the north part of the loop.

Artist Paintpots. It's spelled like that on the map.

We stopped at Canyon Village to get a stamp and ice before heading to the North Rim Drive to view the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. On the way we made a wrong turn and pulled into a driveway near some cabins to turn around and I spotted a black bear walking through the trees! One other car of people was there, and a few people came running down from the cabins to see, including one woman dressed only in a towel and hiking boots! At first we thought she had a bathing suit on, but then we noticed that she was very diligent about keeping it closed and pulled down. It was kind of funny. Anyway, we were among the first ones to see it, so there weren’t may people around getting in the way and we were able to get a picture and get away before a crowd formed.

Da bear.

Eventually we made it to the Canyon and walked down the path to the viewing point. This whole area is just stunning. It was also John’s “must-see”.

Lower Falls.

They're so cute. Note that Sam's shirt actually fits him.

After viewing the canyon from various viewpoints, we went back to the Village and ate dinner at the Canyon Lodge. John and Meghan and I each had a bison burger and John and I shared some huckleberry ice cream for dessert. Huckleberries are a Yellowstone thing. So are bison.

And as much as we wanted to stick around and explore some more, we still had a long drive ahead of us and needed to get going. On the way back around to the exit, we ran across a big herd of bison in the Hayden Valley. There was a little calf standing right next to the road.

We left out of the East Entrance and headed east along US-14 to meet up with I-90 right around Sheridan, WY. Google said this was the fastest way to get to Spearfish, SD, our stop for the night. It did not say that we would have to go through every mountain in the state. We didn’t see any other cars or people or anything for hours. Hours! We were in the middle of nowhere. We were on the Bighorn Scenic Byway, but since it was the middle of the night, we didn’t see anything but the road twisting in front of us. It was 4:00 a.m. before we got in, and we were tired (by “we”, I mean John and me, the kids were asleep the whole time). I didn’t get to sleep until 5:00.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about my “must-see”? A moose. We didn’t see one, and my moose jammies ended up being too small, so Meghan got them :(

Wisconsin or Bust: Monday

The plan for Monday was to leave bright and early and get on the road, and visit Grand Tetons National Park and get a start on Yellowstone. But since it’s us, you know that didn’t happen.

We had decided to stop back for another hug for Grandma on the way out of town, but we first had to pack up the car and pick up the kids. That all took waaaaay longer than it should have.

Turns out, packing the car takes forever when your little helpers are not with you. Usually it takes one or two trips to the car to get everything in there. Everyone carries their own stuff and then John will go back for one last trip while we stuff everything into the car. With just the two of us, it took us five trips to get everything down to the car, then we had to pack it.

Then, the kids were not ready when we arrived to pick them up, and Ruby lost her toy bear that suddenly was her most precious possession in the world. Thankfully, her Aunt Telynn found it in the bathroom, of all places.

By this time we were an hour late and John dropped us off to see Grandma while he went to get ice and gas. The kids all took a turn playing the piano for Grandma and I chatted with my Uncle John for a bit about a business presentation he was working on.

Sam having a turn at Grandma's piano.

We had decided to pop in quickly to say hi to my cousin Emma, who had just had surgery on her shoulder, and since she lives around the corner from my Grandma, it was on the way. We visited with her for a little bit and said hi to my Uncle Richard and then got on our way.

We stopped off in Centerville for the world’s best eclairs at Dick’s Market bakery. Only Dick’s had moved to the other side of town. So we had a little tour of the town and I showed the kids where I went to school there. After we picked up our treats at the bakery, we finally got on the road. Three hours late.

Best eclairs in the world are at Dick's Market's bakery in Centerville, UT.

Our route took us up US-89 through Logan, up around Bear Lake (which was beee-utiful!), through the corner of Idaho, and up the west side of Wyoming. It was a pretty drive, and we realized on the way that we wouldn’t make it to Yellowstone before the Visitor Centers closed.

Bear Lake.

Sign at the South Entrance to the Grand Tetons, with the gorgeous mountains in the background.

Maps of National Parks are very deceptive, because the roads are always twisty and windy, and have pretty slow speed limits. Which is all fine, unless you’re in a hurry. We did make it to the Grand Tetons Visitor Center in time to look at the exhibits and get a stamp, and we very much enjoyed our drive through the park. It is so beautiful.

Ruby at the Grand Tetons Visitor Center with the only moose we saw :(

The sign at the South Entrance.

We hit the South Entrance in Yellowstone just after 7:00, which is when most of the Visitor Centers close, though a couple are open until 8:00, but we didn’t reach one of those until 9:00. It was late. John had made reservations in Bozeman, MT, which on a map looks pretty close, but doesn’t take into account all the mountain roads.

We stopped to see the West Thumb Geyser Basin, and walked around that loop. There was an elk just hanging out munching on things right next to the only way to get back to the car. I discovered that the only way to really capture the bright colors of the springs and pools was to use the vibrant color setting on my camera. The colors in the pictures really do match what we saw in person. On regular settings, everything looked so dull.

One of the beautiful springs in West Thumb Geyser Basin.

On the way through the park, there were elk and bison around, and we were held up a bit for some bison on the road, one of which came very close to the car. It was pretty dark, so my pictures didn’t come out well. The kids were really excited. We were close enough that we could hear them grunting or snorting, or whatever it is that they do.

A beautiful sunset over Lake Yellowstone.

By the time we finally made it into Bozeman, it was after midnight. John was upgraded to a two-bedroom suite, which was nice and very comfortable. Even though the kids had been sleeping in the car since it got dark, we all zonked out right away.

Wisconsin or Bust: Sunday

Even though we had a late night, we wanted to catch a 9:00 church session so we could spend the rest of the day visiting. Everyone was pretty tired and it took longer than it should have to roll out of bed. We were a little late for church and walked in during the opening hymn. It was an older building with an ornate covering for the organ pipes and chandeliers for lighting. It was a nice meeting and the topic of the day was "Finding Peace in a Turbulent World".

After church, we went back to the hotel to change clothes and headed up to visit John's brother Jim's family before they had to go to church at 1:00. We had a nice lunch with them, and after lunch they left for church and we headed up Emigration Canyon to see the This Is The Place Monument. We were so busy visiting and chatting that I completely forgot to take any pictures of the cousins together!

I remember going up there as a kid for a 4th of July picnic, and I just remember the big monument there. Now there's a bunch of statues and some kind of pioneer village park. Anyway, we didn't have a lot of time, so we found the name of our ancestor's handcart company on the handcart monument, and read most of the plaques, and then headed off.

The monument from the pioneer side. On the front and up top are pioneer statues/friezes, on the left side are statues of the trapper/trader explorers and on the right are statues of the Spanish explorers. Brigham Young is in the middle up top, with Heber C. Kimball and Wilford Woodruff on his right and left, respectively.

The handcart monument.

We went to visit Grandma and had a nice visit with her, chatting and looking at pictures. I brought my computer and showed her pictures of the kids and their cousins and videos of their piano recital performances. She was impressed. She was my piano teacher, so I hoped she'd be pleased with how well they all three play. She was.

My cousin Robert brought her that purple scarf from Afghanistan, and she brought it out to show us. I tried to put it on her like a headscarf, but didn't have bobby pins, so she ended up looking, as she said, "like an old shepherd".

Serious Picture

Goofy Picture

After our visit, we went back up to visit Jim's family and had dinner with them and played Giant Spoons (it's like regular spoons, except with giant plastic spoons), which is one of our favorite games we play with them. I still can't believe I didn't take any pictures.

The kids spent the night with their cousins, as they love to do when we visit, and John and I went back and got ready for the next day.

So much for Sunday being a day of rest!

Apologies

I'm sorry for falling behind, but we've been traveling though no service zones and getting in late at night.

Thanks for keeping up with us, we'll get caught up as soon as we can.

I may not even be able to post this!

Wisconsin or Bust: Saturday

We were able to get on the road Friday evening, and spent the night in Reno. We thought we had a good plan in place to make it to Provo in time to check in to the hotel, change clothes and be on time for my brother Critter's play, but we forgot that we'd be losing an hour when we crossed into the Mountain time zone.

By the time we got to Elko, NV, we realized that we might not make it in time, especially considering that I-80 was supposedly under construction and down to one lane. There were cones, the road was half closed, but we didn't see anything that looked like construction going on. It just looked like there were cones in the middle of the road.

John did a fine job of driving and we made it in time to check in to the hotel and discovered that we were a block away from the theater, and were able to walk there. When John checked in, he was upgraded to a suite. It's pretty fancy, it's a Parlor Suite at the Provo Marriott Hotel.

This is a picture of our type of suite from the hotel website (they probably have one on each floor). You can see the living room and the doors to the bedroom, and some of the great view of the mountains. Behind the photographer is a kitchenette, and there's a walk-in closet in the bedroom with a large bathroom with a separate shower and tub. Fancy.

Critter was performing in a show called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), which claims to perform all of Shakespeare's works in 90 minutes with a cast of three. Three men.

While there were some parts that were not entirely appropriate for children (most of it went over the heads of the youngest two), we mostly laughed our butts off. Critter was hilarious, as always.

Here are the kids out in front of the theater:

While we were waiting for the ladies at the front desk to find our online ticket purchase, I was surprised to see my cousin Rebecca and her new husband Sam walk in! Later, my sister Stephanie and her husband Bryan joined us, but we knew they would be there.

After the show, we got a tour of the theater and then we all went to Los Hermanos for a rather late dinner. Most of us went back to our hotel to hang out and chat for a while. Becca and Sam had to go, as Sam had just driven back from Texas and was tired.

Front row: Ruby, Sam, Meghan, Steffy, Becca

Back row: Me, John, Bryan, Critter, other Sam

Eventually, Steffy, Bryan and Critter had to go and the kids needed to get to bed, so we said good-night and turned in.

Meghan's Travel Companions

Meghan likes to sit in the back row by herself in our trips. There's an AC plug back there and she can play on her phone without the charge running out.

This trip she has to share her seat with my fig tree and a pothos houseplant.

The fig tree is a little droopy. It's under some stress. We were planning to just grab it and toss it into the car, but its roots had punched through the pot and gone into the ground (which explains why it was getting so big). We had to repot it just as we were leaving. It's not doing too well, and we'll probably lose a lot of the top. It's a tough little tree and it may lose some branches but will come back in the end.

Off we go!

This afternoon the moving van drove off with all of our stuff and headed off for Wisconsin. We have too much stuff.

And now we're on the road!

We had a fun day playing in the one cleaned out room with the twins, who will be dearly missed, along with their parents. It was definitely a teary good-bye. I sure do love those little guys. Sniff.

This has been a whirlwind week filled with friends visiting, swimming, having us over, sharing hugs and tears, bringing meals and showering us with love. Some days we had people in and out all day long!

There are so many things we will miss in California, especially the fresh produce! I don't know what I'm going to eat all winter.

We'll figure it out.

Here we go!