San Francisco and the end of our journey...

On Monday we headed out to San Francisco for the remainder of our trip.  We had rented a large house and headed over to drop off our groceries and head out for a day of sight seeing. 
View from the living room:

Our plan was to visit Muir Woods but it was so crowded that we decided to head to Sausalito for the afternoon.  It is a very small, posh seaside town at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge with a great view of San Francisco across the bay.

 

 

On Tuesday we spend quite a bit of time playing in the Golden Gate Park.  It is a massive park (over 1,000 acres) that has all sorts of attractions from science to play areas to 'lawn bowling' (Bocce).  The kids had a ball. 

After that we continued walking around the city, stopping for ice cream (which had become a daily ritual by now) and taking in a museum.  We capped off our day in the city with dinner at Paxti's Pizza (http://www.patxispizza.com/).  It was a fantastic restaurant that had phenomenal Chicago style pizza (they also have gluten free crust and non-dairy cheeses for those with allergies).  We walked out of there full to the brim but with the needed energy and enthusiasm to tackle the big hill we needed to climb to get to our house:).

 

 

 On Wednesday, we were off to Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf.  We caught the train in the morning and took it to the Embarcadeo.  We then strolled along the water over to the pier where the Alcatraz boats leave from.  Right before this pier, was the 2013 America's Cup pavilion and docks.  It was pretty cool to see some of the boats.  They look amazingly fast and while we were on Alcatraz, we actually got to see the boats in action.

 

 Alcatraz itself is an interesting place.  They have an excellent audio guided tour (it is free ) and provided a great overview of the prison, some of the inmates as well as some interesting stories about the goings on while it was active.  The kids liked hearing about some of the infamous inmates as well as climbing into the cells.

After doing our 'time' in Alcatraz, we headed for Fisherman's Wharf.  By 5:30, we were ready to head home.  We waited a few minutes in the long line for the train, but then decided it would be more fun to walk part of the way and see more of the city.  So we strolled towards Market street, passing through some of China town and other diverse areas that San Fran has to offer.  It made a late night as we did not arrive back to our house until after 7, and didn't eat dinner until around 9. 

Thursday morning, we were up at 5:30am and on the road to SFO by 5:50.  It was sad to say good bye to our friends and to know that our adventure was nearing the end.  Our flight was on-time and by 8:30am, we were in the air and heading for Boston.  The flight on jetBlue was great and went by quickly.  This was our 5th flight on jetBlue during this vacation and all of the crew on each of them were excellent. 
We arrived in Boston at 4:20PM and were ready to head home.  We look forward to catching up with all of you in the coming weeks and sharing some of the amazing memories and fun times we enjoyed.  Thanks for following along! 

 

 

Saratoga

We arrived at Access RV in Salt Lake City last Friday at 8:30am and dropped off our rig that had been 'home' for the past 3 weeks.  Big sigh of relief that we had driven 1900 miles with no accidents or mishaps!  Praise God for answering those prayers!

(kids seeing a TV for the first time in 3 weeks)

They dropped us at the airport and we were on our way to SFO (yes, we double and triple checked the time of our flights this time).  After the uneventful flights, we arrived on time at 2:38 PST and our friends- Scott, Kelly and their kids- picked us up.  Luckily they had the foresight to drive both of their cars and we just fit the 6 of us, the 5 of them and all of our luggage in.  We were so excited to see them and the kids even more so.  We would be staying with them in Saratoga for the next 3 days and then the two families would be heading to San Francisco where we rented a house for Monday through Wed nights.  We spent the rest of Friday hanging out and catching up long into the night.

 

On Saturday we had a nice, slow morning eating breakfast and discussing what we wanted to do today.  After hearing about a few options, the kids made the decision to head to Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz mountains.   This park contains some hiking trails that lead to some huge rocks that used to be under water and at some point were pushed up by the San Andreas Fault.  You can easily see some of the smooth holes, caves and pock marks that were made while they were covered by water.  The kids had a blast climbing on, in and around them.

For the afternoon, we decided to go from the mountains to the sea and we drove to the coast to relax on the beach in Capitola (a small town next to Santa Cruz) and have a late lunch.  It was a perfect day on the beach.  The air temperature was only 65 but the sun was out and made it feel much warmer.  The water was about 60 and warm enough for the kids to play in most of the afternoon. 

Today we got up and headed to church in Los Gatos at the Calvary Church where our friends attend.   They have their fellowship time (opportunity between the 9am and 10:45 services to socialize over coffee, tea, doughnuts, etc..) outside in the courtyard.  We thought that was pretty cool to be able to do that outside all year.  It was an excellent service and a great message and from what we could see, it was an active church with a true heart for God.
After church we strolled around downtown Los Gatos and had lunch at a great Greek restaurant.  Sometime tomorrow we will head out to San Francisco for the last part of our vacation: Alcatraz, Coit Tower, Fishermans Wharf, Goldengate Park are a few of the things we are planning to see.

From Glacier to Ghost town

It was sad to leave Glacier this morning.  We all felt it, especially Jack.  I have a feeling that he will make good on his promise to come back here as a ranger one day.  We packed up and headed out by 10:30 for a day’s drive, and encouraged to realize that our friends, the Woods, who had also been in this area, were headed in the same direction.  We were able to catch up with them in little ghost town called Virginia City.

The Woods are friends of ours from home.  We have hiked and camped with them.  We have experienced girl and boy scouting with them, and we were excited to see them here in Montana for ice cream in a ghost town because they won’t be headed back to Massachusetts after their summer vacation, but back to their native England.  And they will surely be missed! 

Well, it turns out that Virginia City, is a perfectly intact gold-rush town.  The original businesses have been preserved as a kind of living museum of how life was lived here exactly 150 years ago this year.  Like most ghost towns, Virginia City didn’t last more than a few years, then was abandoned as the gold fever dwindled. 

We enjoyed strolling the streets, and peeking into perfectly preserved store fronts, hotels, banks, dress and shoe shops. 

Tonight we enjoyed our last campfire out on the road.  Tomorrow we head for Salt Lake City area where we will pack up and then drop the RV off on Friday morning first thing.  Then we will head to San Francisco for the last week of our adventure.  We will post our next blog from there!

Images of Glacier

Avalanche Lake

 (Jack)

Today started off as it usually does.   At 6:15 dad, our chief morning guy, woke us up to a song, tickling, and poking.   He also pulled our blankets and covers off, leaving us exposed to the cold Montana morning. We groggily pulled on clothes, ate a quick breakfast that is now no more than a memory, and stumbled down to the transit center to wait for a bus to pick us up and take us to the Avalanche Creek stop. We arrived at Avalanche campground with a half hour to wait for the ranger program, so we wandered down to the lakeside, where we disturbed a stranger doing tai chi by the creek. 

Shortly, we met the ranger and set off with a group of 25 on the ranger guided ranger tour up to Avalanche Lake. It was a 4 mile round trip hike, easy, well shaded and comfortable.   We hiked through the only cedar/hemlock forest in the entire park and it was scenic and fun.   Some of the trees were 13 feet in diameter and 500 yrs. old.  The ranger wasn’t very personable which was lame, and I made a mental note to not be like that when I work at Glacier later in life.  It took us 2 and ½ hours to get the 2 miles up to the lake, due to frequent educational stops by the ranger where she told us about the ecology and geology of the area where we were hiking.  When we got to the lake, we ate our picnic on some rocks overlooking the back of BearHat Mountain.  It was really pretty and there were many waterfalls up on the peaks which surrounded us.  When we hiked back down we did it without the ranger, and the crowd, and it took less than 40 minutes.  

When we got home we relaxed and went into the village area again.  When we came back, there was an old man measuring out our campsite to see if his 36ft rig would fit. Then he asked all these questions about when we were leaving because it’s first come, first serve in Apgar campground and he wants to grab our site when we leave tomorrow.  It reminded me of that grouchy relative that we all hear about, waiting for you to die so they can get your money.   

Today ended as it usually does.  Dad just won our nightly round of National Parks Monopoly, and we are settling in for the night.  Maybe we will even hear the bagpipes again – somewhere in the campground a bagpipe master entertained us with some great music last night.  It was pretty cool.

 

First days in Glacier

Will….

        Yesterday we woke up at 6 AM because we wanted to get a spot at the Apgar Campground in West Glacier.  It is first come first serve. We did get a spot and while we made breakfast at our new spot, people circled like vultures looking for a spot. It is a nice campground -and has been full since we have been here.  We relaxed and went into the village.  We went swimming at Lake Macdonald and after dinner, we went to the Campfire program.  Ranger Liz was one of the best we have seen.  She really got into her descriptions of the nighttime animals of the park.  We really loved some of the stories she told us about skunks and the antics

      Today we slept in and I woke up at 9. We took a shuttle to Lake McDonald Lodge. We got to the shuttle station 20 minutes early but when the shuttle got to the station WE DIDN’T FIT ON IT. We had to wait 30 more minutes until another came.  When we finally got to the Lodge it was lunch, so we ate at the lodge.

         When we got back to the R.V., it was time for our scenic float trip with dinner included.  We didn’t see any wildlife but the Flathead river crystal clear and the scenery was spectacular!  Our guide Jeanette cooked us dinner and the food was excellent!   She was super nice and really personable. We swam lots even though it was really cold. It was a really cool trip.

        Our trip is going really well and everyone is safe and in good spirits. Keep commenting!!

Looking for the Sun!

Today we awoke early for our “Red Jammer” tour.  We walked the trail to the Apgar Transit Center and met our guide, Matt.  He was a fascinating man.  In the summer months, he lives in staff housing in Glacier and drives bus number 97 almost daily for a nine hour tour, chatting with passengers.  In the winter months, Matt lives in a log cabin 1 ½ hours north of Glacier, almost at the Canadian border.  During that time he lives without: electricity, modern plumbing, phone, computer and internet.   He skis 2 miles to retrieve his mail, and get to his truck in order to go “into town”.  We really enjoyed our day with him and the other 10 passengers.  Highlights included some grizzly bear sightings, and a warm cup of tea/hot chocolate at Many Glacier Lodge!

One thing that we have had trouble with since we arrived is dressing properly.  You might be scorching hot on the beach at the lower altitudes, then freezing cold in a cloud at the higher altitudes.  Well, I had a lot of wardrobe regret today!   In the rush to get out the door, and in my haste to actually look presentable, (earrings and clean shirt today), I found myself in an open top bus in the clouds in a skirt and freezing my tush off!  Yes, I am sure that I gave more than a few hearty souls a great laugh as I tried to muster a smile through clenched, chattering teeth! 

Our nine hour adventure took us all the way across the Going to the Sun Highway, from the West Entrance where we have been camping, to the East Side.  Near the East Side, we passed out of Glacier, and onto the Black Feet Indian Reservation, then back into Glacier near St. Mary’s.  The Going to the Sun Highway runs 50 miles and is very slow going.  Many sections have steep cliffs to one side, and traffic is slow and winding, especially if there is a wildlife sighting!  Our driver stopped at many locations along the highway for rest stops, leg stretching, and sightseeing.  We had an hour and a half at the Many Glacier Lodge for lunch.  From the porch, Mike and the kids were able to see a mother grizzly and her two cubs clambering up the shore opposite us.  I missed out because I was searching the gift shop for something warm to wear.  I settled on some really tall, but very goofy, brown colored socks with a bear and Glacier National Park embossed on them.   Got them out of the bag and onto my feet, then back into the bus, and what do you know, the sun came out!  (God has a great sense of humor!)

We all learned a lot today about geology, wildlife, plants and glaciers.  We are back at the campfire for dinner and roasting marshmallows.  Life is good….