Catching Up

Well, I've completely failed at keeping this thing updated over the past month in the Seattle area. So, I guess I'll do that real quick before we leave for Europe. Our time in the area this summer has been great! We each did a little bit of work, but mostly play. It's been an unforgettable summer.

I already mentioned Hawaii, which was incredible! We spent seven days near Lahaina in Napili Point. Phill and Steph each surfed a little bit. We found a great hole in the wall surf shop owned by a guy named Wayno. His store was called Killah Wiffah because of the killer smell behind the shop. Hilarious! The guy was a total riot. He builds surf boards himself and is involved in all sorts of island preservation associations. He seemed like a genuine article.

Other than surfing, we spent a lot of time just on the beach and snorkeling. One evening we did a luau and another day we drove to Hana. Unfortunately, the road to the seven pools, which is what we really wanted to get to, was closed. We were all so bummed out because it's a terribly long drive to get there and then you have to turn around. So, we found a little natural pool in the edge of a cave in a park that we were able to swim in. It's entirely fresh water and so clear because of how pure it is. We had to kind of climb down this rock edge a bit before we could get in to swim.

Once we got back from Hawaii, we did a bit more relaxing. Some of the highlights include the Pike Street Brewery, local wine tasting, lots of boating days, lots of bon fires, lots of games of washers, a few days in Lake Chelan, and a wedding in the San Juans.

Tomorrow my mom is driving us up to Vancouver, BC. We'll stay the night there and then have an early flight the next morning headed to Paris. So, next time you hear from us, we'll be on the other side of the pond. Can't believe this trip has actually arrived...

I posted some pictures of the last month that we've missed updating.

Paradise

We're spending our final evening in Hawaii tonight. I am not ready at all to go home tomorrow. The weather is wonderful, the ocean is gorgeous, the attitude is so low key. We've done some incredible site seeing, lots of swimming, snorkeling like I've never seen before, and even met a sweet surfer dude with some great island tips. This is Phill's first trip, and he's having a great time playing all day and surfing when he can. And although it's not my first time, I think it's possible that I'm enjoying myself more than ever before. Hawaii is always great, but this time...I'm truly not ready to go back. We're thinking we might have to live here someday! Maui no ka oi...

I know we haven't had a moment to update a lot recently. Our apologies to our devout followers! I promise that we will update with the final road trip adventures and happenings since then. But until then, here's some pictures from the final days of our road trip.

We Made It!

We've arrived in Seattle as of yesterday afternoon! We left Sacramento, made stops in Crater Lake, Roseburg Oregon, Nehalem Bay State Park, Cannon Beach, Mount St. Helens and finally stopped! It was an incredible trip, but we are happy to have landed and have nowhere to drive to for a while! More later on the final adventures of the road trip. We'll post pictures shortly as well. Stay tuned...

Nearing the End

We spent the day in Sacramento yesterday doing almost nothing...and it was wonderful. I slept in until 9 AM which I haven't done in, well, I don't even remember how long. Phill and I lazed around the majority of the day until Garrett got home in the afternoon. We watched some episodes of That 70s Show, Price is Right...aw, midday television! Then Garrett took us down to the air station to give us a tour of his offices and the hangar. It was really impressive to see it all. The plane that was in the hangar was the plane that he just returned from deployment in. It was so much bigger than I imagined. We walked around the outside and then got a tour of the inside as well. I've never been inside the cockpit of a plane before, so that was pretty cool. There are so many dials and gadgets in there. I don't know how anyone keeps all of it straight.

Then we went grocery shopping in search of some Pacific Salmon for dinner. In terms of good seafood, it's nice to be back on the west coast again. We BBQ-ed some delicious Coho salmon. We lucked out too because Garrett forgot frosting for the cake he made, so Phill and I both got to ride in his little convertible Jensen Healey to get frosting. It worked out for us pretty well! What a fun little car. The whole stay in Sacramento was such a nice refresher to the busy-ness we've had going on. We both feel refreshed and ready to press on.

This morning we're getting packed up and ready to head further north. We'll be arriving in Crater Lake this afternoon and camping there. I still can't believe we're almost to Seattle. What a trip...

Yosemite, Take Two

Well, we made our second attempt at Yosemite yesterday. Success!

We hiked part of the trail around the Mariposa Tree Grove. You wouldn't believe the size of these trees, especially when compared to the already huge hemlocks in the grove. We stretched our arms across the width of many of the trees and it still wouldn't reach the diameter. One of the first places along the way that we stopped was a fallen tree. The root system on the tree was pretty impressive, but apparently the trees actually have really shallow root systems. The roots only go three to six feet underground, but can extend up to 150 feet horizontally. And the thickness of each root is crazy!

Sequoia trees reproduce via cones that contain 200 – 300 seeds. When we first drove into the park, you could see several of these cones hanging from the very ends of the branches and they're monstrous! They grow on the trees for 20 – 30 years before falling. And even after they fall, only one in a million may germinate. In order for them to do so, the conditions have to be absolutely ideal. They need soft, mineral soil; sufficient light, and adequate moisture. The tress rely on external forces to help the trees drop the cones and spread the seeds. Many of the trees in the grove have portions that have been burned by fire. Apparently the park used to work really hard to control natural fires, but later learned that fires actually help the trees reproduce. And in addition, other plants in the grove benefit from the fires as well because the burned out branches allow more light to get in.

A sequoia's bark is a real pretty red color that has deep grooves in it. It's a very distinctive bark and really beautiful. You can look up to see the tops of the trees and just about fall over backwards because of the height. We stopped at the Grizzly Giant tree and the California Tunnel tree. It's truly shocking to see the sheer size of both. The first branch (not the trunk) on the Grizzly Giant is seven feet wide! That's almost an entire foot taller than Phill. And then the California tunnel tree you can walk right through...easily! It's not as if you have to hunch down or anything. You just casually walk right through. The early pioneers used to walk their horses through. And as recent as the 1960s, people used to be able to drive their cars through a similar tunnel in a tree in the park that has since caved in. Obviously this was before the SUV generation, but even so, can you imagine!?!

After the hike, we drove to Glacier Point – a viewpoint at about 7200 feet in the park where you can see Half Dome (the park's most famous cliff) and the two waterfalls. Of all the viewpoints I've seen in my life, this one definitely makes it near the top. It was so spectacular! The contrast of what you can see from that point is unreal. You have gray and black mountain cliffs that have been rounded by glaciers, so they appear kind of like bald mountains. Then 7200 feet down you have a lush, bright green valley. On either side of Half Dome are two gushing waterfalls. And of course the blue sky. The panoramic view seems to go on forever on all sides. It looks so rugged and untouched in many ways.

American Indians believe that Half Dome and North Dome (the predominant cliffs in the park) were once a husband and wife that argued incessantly. As a result, the spirits turned each into stone at each end of the park to forever face each other. Geologists, on the other hand, are still wondering how the cliffs in the park have been formed. They believe that the walls of Yosemite formed into hard stone nearly five miles underground and eventually the top layers have been eroded away exposing what we see today. And it seems to be a work in progress. I'm not sure how part of Half Dome fell off, but I've at least heard that it was due to the immense weight of it that it eventually just fell. When you look into the woods, you can see these enormous boulders (like three times the size of a vehicle) that have just landed in the middle of the woods. Beware of falling boulders...

We came back down to the valley from Glacier Point and headed back to Sacramento. Somehow we managed to take the long way around. Oh well. It was beautiful and sunny out and the right temperate to drive with the windows down. It felt great to have some fresh air. There's so much more that we missed in the park due to our short time to be there, but we certainly feel like we got a good overview and would love to go back and explore more.

When we decided to take this whole trip, we promised ourselves that we would take our time places to explore and really see things rather than rush through. Unfortunately, the past couple of parks have been somewhat rushed, but overall, we feel like we've been true to our promise. Yosemite and Death Valley will have to be parks that we return to another time.

No Room in the Inn

Well, we made it to Yosemite, but what a nightmare all of this has been.

We got to Yosemite around 5:00 and not a single camping spot was available. The park was insane with people! After being on the road for so many days, we've completely lost track of the day of the week. Note to self – do not visit Yosemite on a weekend. It's crazy! So, we drove to the south entrance to see if we could find a place to sleep. The campsite outside the park was full, hotels in the town 12 miles south were completely booked, hotels 25 miles south were booked...it was looking like we might sleep in the truck again. We finally found a state park with campsites available 45 miles south of the park. We set up our tent in the dark which really creeped me out because of snake warnings. I'm ready to get to the land where creepy things aren't as prevalent (no rattlesnakes in Seattle). We finally got the sleep around 11 and then Phill woke up around 1AM to a horrifying screeching sound as if an animal was being mutilated. Luckily I didn't hear the animal at all, but I did hear Bailey go nuts over it growling and barking. We both layed there quietly for a couple of minutes after it was over and I looked toward Phill and said - “are you asleep.” And he responded - “not a chance.” We were hearing every little noise at this point which was really creepy. So, we got all of our stuff and climbed into the truck to sleep a while. An hour later, we were sweating to death, so we ventured back into the tent. An owl was hooting at this time, which was a really nice sound to fall asleep to. I'm not sure if I've ever really heard an owl hoot.

We both felt pretty silly once we woke up and saw our surroundings (we didn't have a good sense of it since we set up in the dark). The site was right by the edge of a lake and the trashcans were close by with no lids. They obviously don't have a major animal problem. I don't know what Phill heard being eaten, but I don't think we should have felt as threatened by it as we did. Small children were walking around that had apparently slept soundly all night. Meanwhile, the two adults with their tent crawled into the safety of our vehicle halfway through. Yeah...we were feeling a little wimpy.

We got back to Yosemite around 9:30 AM and the park was packed! People were flooding in the gates. We couldn't drive to the giant tree grove because the parking lot was full, and the overflow parking lot was becoming too full as well. It was looking like it was going to be a miserable day fighting among people. So, we decided to can it and drive up to Sacramento to see the Faulkners. We'll be staying with them for a few days and will probably use one of those days to make a side trip down to Yosemite. I hope it's slower mid week so that we can actually see it. So, that's where we headed. It's probably good because we're ready for a nice bed, good company, and hot showers! Faulkers and your doggies...look out, here we come!

Record Temperatures

Things haven't gone nearly as smoothly for the past couple of days as they did for the first part of the trip.

Friday we left the Grand Canyon and headed to Death Valley. On our way, we stopped at Hoover Dam which is the state line between Arizona and Nevada. Oh my gosh it was hot! The radio was saying they were experiencing record heat and would probably hit triple digits by the end of the weekend. They wouldn't let us park and leave the dog, so Phill had to just drop me off and turn around and come back for me. I didn't see that much, but I got the basic idea. Damn...that's a big dam. Pressing on...

We got to Death Valley kind of late in the evening. We kind of went around Las Vegas and then through this tiny town called Death Valley Junction. It was a complete ghost town – I mean, completely abandoned. It was almost eerie. Since we got to Death Valley so late and it was so hot, we did a really rushed drive through the park. It was kind of unfortunate, but we haven't felt rushed through any other park yet. So, we're calling Death Valley the one that got away. But we did make it out to the first point which had an incredible view of the valley. The plaque up there said that the entire land is tilting. As the mountain tilt upward, the basin tilts toward (further below sea level). The only thing that keeps it from sinking too much is that the “stuff” eroding and blowing out of the mountains fills it up as fast as its sinking. The basin is 282 feet below sea level – the lowest elevation in North America. We raced from our viewpoint in the mountains down to the Badwater Basin itself. It reminded me of Yellowstone a little bit in terms of how harsh and strange the land is. And there's actually a kind of sulfur-ish smell there also, just like at Yellowstone. The sun had already set, and the temperature was still ridiculous. And there was absolutely no breeze whatsoever. It honestly felt like a consistent heat like you would feel with an oven door open.

The valley used to be an old minor's destination. Apparently there are still thousands of old mines in the park. We noticed remnants of things that looked like they could have been miner's equipment at one time. Apparently many were extremely successful at finding ore at one point.

When we read through the literature that you get at the front gate of the park, we learned that pretty much the only things that live n the park are kangaroo rats, scorpions, black widow spiders and rattlesnakes. Great.... I decided that it might be a good night NOT to camp. Unfortunately, we had a real challenging time finding accommodations. There's a reason this place is called Death Valley. We had to drive out of the park and just get out and ask every single hotel along the way. Finally, we found a place in Independence, CA. I feel like I've been a pretty good sport this entire trip in terms of “roughing it,” but I was clearly at my maximum for the night. I was tired, hot, nervous about critters, etc. So then the only motel left in townwas the Courthouse Motel which looked like the hotels you see in the horror movies – dark, U-shaped parking lots where you pull right up to your room and you're not sure the lock functions real well on the door or the window. I was being really judgmental about the place, but I felt really out of my comfort zone. However, when we woke up the next morning with a good night's sleep, a hot shower, continental breakfast and free internet, I was actually quite pleased with our choice. They're just little tiny fishing towns with old fashioned hotels. In the day time, it appears a lot less creepy!

Anyway, then we pressed on toward Yosemite. On the way out of town, we saw a sign that said the pass we needed to get to Yosemite was closed. Ugh! Instead of taking a straightforward route there, we had to go all the way north of the park, around the top and in toward the east. It wasn't quite how we had planned, but it worked out. And we tried to stop and see Devil's Postpile on the way, which was also closed. Goodness, things just aren't quite going right it seems.

We drove on the pass to where the closed sign was just for a nice side drive. There was a ton of snow up there and what a pretty drive! Bailey had a blast playing in the snow. Talk about extremes. We started in cold rain, then hot desert, beautiful lake front and now snow. What's next!?!

We'll hopefully get to Yosemite tonight around 4 or so.