Smith Rock, Oregon to Lava Beds National Monument

The fun meter is officially PEGGED!  Only two more nights before I'll be sleeping at our home in Texas - can't wait. Anyhoo . . . The last time I posted I was in Bend, Oregon enjoying the Ale Trail. I rode my bike all over town and basically had a great time.  The day that I headed out I traveled north a ways to Smith Rock State Park to check it out. I'd seen photos and knew that I wanted to get some of my own.

It is a decent sized park, taking about an hour or two to walk all around the mountainous terrain.  It is interesting because this portion of Oregon is basically high (altitude) desert, and Smith Rock juts out of nowhere with the pretty Crooked River meandering along the base.  It is popular with climbers, though when I was here portions of the park were closed as it is a golden eagle nesting grounds.

So after that it was off to northern California to Lava Beds National Monument.  I hadn't realized how much of the west has been shaped by vulcanism, with large swathes of Idaho, Oregon, and California (throw in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico for fun!) just littered with huge broken lava fields.  Lava Beds adds a new twist with many caves (many in a short, one-minute walk from each other) and old lava tubes to explore.

The light part to the right of the photo (my left) is the exit.  This is the only cave that had lighting provided.  The first cave I went in (Skull cave) descended a good ways down to a permanent ice-cave portion that was unfortunately blocked off.

The "topside" portion of the park was pretty desert-like with mostly low growing bushes and very rough, broken basalt to walk on; though trees were growing in patchy locations.  It felt hot, coming from Washington, but the caves made a nice respite.  Some caves you just walked down in, others required climbing a ladder or two sometimes making a tight squeeze.

More to come, stay tuned. Cheers,

Marc

Christmas photos

We are wrapping things up here to finish out the year. I know I just said it in the last post, but what a year it has been…

Anyways, we enjoyed talking with family on Christmas. But since we are out here on the West Coast, I thought I'd share some photos of all of us from Christmas Eve.

I had to get my camera and the lights set up for Christmas morning, and part of that was getting everyone in front of the camera.

Leah loved to get Catherine and me in front of the camera for a change.

Happy New Year's everybody!

Marc

Giant's Graveyard with Ian

This past Sunday Ian and I headed up to the Olympic National Park to Third Beach to go check out Giant's Graveyard. We gambled on good weather, and partly won/partly lost. Sunday was nice, but ended up getting cloudy right as the sun was setting, so no great photos for me (boo!).

On the plus side, Ian and I had a phenomenally great time. I couldn't be more proud of Ian on this trip. He carried his backpack and didn't complain ONCE! In fact, he was super-chipper the entire walk in. While we didn't have a bunch of elevation to gain or lose, we did have to scramble up and over some steep headlands which involved using ropes to assist with the climbs and descents. Again, Ian did fantastic!

Once we got to our beach and camp site, Ian helped me to set up the tent and get everything situated. I think the views we had were pretty stunning.

We did a bit of exploring while the tide was out, which allowed Ian to do some "rock" climbing. Or as he puts it, working on his climbing mojo. ;-)   We got back to our campsite in time for a nice dinner, and then play time. Ian enjoyed learning to skip some rocks (he finally made some skip!) and playing in the sand.

Once Ian had had enough of skipping stones, while he was playing in the sand with his stick, I got the fire going. It was nice to just sit and relax, and enjoy some downtime.

We got rained on a bit last night, which means we didn't get to stargaze at all. Ian was really looking forward to that, but it obviously didn't pan out. We got up good and early for breakfast and packed up our stuff to head out. If you look closely in the photo below, at roughly the right third, you'll see Ian making his way up the headland. That was the smallest one, too!

Along the way we got to see a whale baleen and some sea otters on the beach and then again in the water - which was an instant hit with Ian (okay, me too); aside from a frog and numerous birds the otters were the only wildlife we saw.

Don't judge the photo below too harshly, this is a rough edit (since I won't have time to work on it for a bit). But this was the only sunset color we had, and it shows you Giant's Graveyard all spread out before you.

This was most likely my final trip to the Olympic coast in the short term, which makes me a bit sad. It is rugged, remote, and beautiful. I've enjoyed exploring the Olympics. There is still a bunch that I never got to see, but that will have to wait for another day, I suppose. Cheers,

Marc

Rialto and Second Beach, Camping in the Olympic National Park

After my last camping trip a couple of weeks ago to Mt. Rainier, I promised the kids that we'd go camping after our Disney Vacation. That weekend was this past weekend. Some people would call us me crazy for taking the kids camping in a rainforest during the rainy season in late October. You'd be right.

Luckily, I came prepared. Our first day we drove past Forks, Washington out to Mora at Rialto Beach on the Pacific Ocean. We set up our campsite, which consisted of our 10x10 canopy to cover the tent, as well as a ground cloth to go underneath the tent. Then the tent with a rainfly. Even with all that, it was still a bit damp. The tent was small enough for me, Ian, and Leah that it stayed cozy the whole night. It was definitely warmer than the first night that Ian and I spent here much earlier this year.

We tried to make it out to Hole in the Wall, about a mile north of the parking lot at Rialto Beach. The river that Ian and I log walked and jumped over earlier this year had completely re-routed itself. It looks like a massive storm shoved a ton of trees and sand up onto the beach causing the river to move. I couldn't find any way to cross, and Leah didn't want me to take my shoes off to carry her across the river. So we got skunked.

The next morning, after a fun breakfast of hot cocoa and pancakes, we made our way to Second Beach just south of La Push. It was a fairly easy walk through the forest and then down to the beach. The beach itself was very pretty, with the various sea stacks making up "Giant's Graveyard".

Finally, during the walk in, we passed this giant tree. The exposure was pretty tough, so I've juiced it up a bit so you can see it better (I hope) in photoshop. The kids spontaneously shouted about the Whomping Willow as we came upon it, and asked if I would take their photo next to it. Luckily this particular tree was neither a willow, nor whomping. So this one is for all you Harry Potter fans!

Cheers,

Marc

Vacation is officially over!

Like the title says, vacation is officially over. Boooo!!!!!

So after Disneyland, we did a day at Knott's Berry Farm just down the road. The next day we headed north to visit some family in San Francisco. Since it is a very long drive from LA to SF, we stopped at Big Sur for the night, staying at a state park cabin. A quick internet search the night before let me figure out that a waterfall that I'd been wanting to photograph was just a couple of miles down the road from where we were staying. Catherine chooses the best places to stay!

The waterfall actually plunges straight into the Pacific Ocean when the tide is up. It is McCay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. Beautiful!

The next day we drove to San Francisco and enjoyed a walk around Pier 39 and Ghirardelli Square. The Pumpkin Spice Caramel Chocolate squares are to die for. We had a very nice time with Melissa, getting to tour the art gallery where she works and then having a nice dinner.

The following day we made the very long drive from San Francisco to Crater Lake National Park. Despite an early start (we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge at about 8:30 or so) we didn't arrive at the Park until just before sunset. We literally drove straight to the rim for some photographs, and then made our way back down to our cabin for the night. Part of the delay was our own fault, we stopped at Regusci in the Napa Valley to go pick up some of our favorite wine along the way.

The photo above is from sunset and the one below is from a bit after sunrise the next morning. I'd really love to come visit when the rim is cloaked in snow. It would make for an excellent winter camping trip...

Catherine's sister, Christina, is visiting us for the week. I'll have some photos from our Oktoberfest adventure posted in the near future. Cheers,

Marc

More Disney Fun, Revisited

So I'm going to delete my last post with the same photos since my post was pretty lame!

The kids had a great time at Disney, as you'd expect. They got to ride the rides they wanted (with some cajoling at times), but better than that they got to meet the characters. While they aren't the biggest Mickey Mouse fans, they did thoroughly enjoy getting to meet him and getting their photos taken with him.

Ian had his big day with the Jedi Academy, so Leah deserved a bit of time with her favorite Disney character: Tinkerbell! She got to meet her sister, Periwinkle, too. But Tinkerbell was definitely the highlight of her trip, more so than any of the other princesses.

The Disney photographer was busy with another family for this photo. I ended up taking the photo of another lady and her child, and she kindly took our photo in return.

I tried to take another photo Leah-style, which worked out okay. What can I say? I'm a work in progress!

After three days at Disney we took a day to go visit Knott's Berry Farm. It was ridiculously under-crowded! I waited a maximum of five minutes for each of the major rollercoasters. And I have two new rollercoaster buddies. Leah will ride anything that she can fit on. Ian likes the metal twisting/flipping coasters. Either way, I don't have to ride alone!!!!

At one point in time, after a particularly fun ride, Ian said "I have never felt so alive in my entire life!". That pretty much sums up our Disneyland/Knott's Berry Farm/Southern California adventure.

Cheers,

Marc

Having fun at Disneyland

Well, the internet was down yesterday when I was going to attempt to blog, so I'm running a bit behind. We've had several early mornings and late evenings while here, trying to make the most of the time that we have here. I have a ton of photos from yesterday and today to go through, as well as some video that I'll be uploading in the next couple of weeks.

Below Ian and Leah are sitting in the comfy chairs provided in the hotel lobby. We'd later go on the spinning tea cup ride which I got spinning to a ridiculous rate. Ian and Leah both wanted more, but Catherine and I were both fine to just let the ride spin itself out without any more assistance from me once I was done.

I tried to take many photos of us on the rides. Just like the last time I tried this, I am nowhere near as good at this as Leah is. I had to cull through a bunch of these to find one with all of us in it. Somehow I am out of focus, but I like the pure joy on Ian's and Leah's faces. To say they've had a blast at Disneyland is a wild understatement.

Cars Land opened up a couple of months ago at Disneyland. The race they have there is a huge hit with the crowds. It was one of the few rides that we did twice, and we won both times. Someone we ran into at the park has a theory that the car with the loudest cheering is the car that wins. Ian and Leah probably won those races all by themselves if they go by volume!

We rode several of the rides at Cars Land, including Luigi's Floating Tires, where I took this Hall of Mirrors-type photo. Only on this one I tried to be a bit more sneaky!

To finish off our first day at Disney, we wondered over to one of the entrances where a kind employee offered to take our picture. This was not the first time, I think it must be a part of the customer service training that all of their employees cast members go through.

We are moving on in our California vacation. Tonight is our last night at Disneyland. Tomorrow we will visit Knotts Berry Farm, where hopefully I can talk Ian or Leah to ride some of the rollercoasters with me. Have a wonderful day everybody!

Cheers,

Marc

family fun

So a little background for the final post from our summer vacation: a couple of years ago (2010/2011) while we were still living in Thallichtenberg, Leah used her little camera to take this photo. See how everyone is in the photo and looks normal? Yeah, me too. 

I thought I'd take a photo of all of us in our tent at Grand Teton before we went to bed. So I held the camera out Leah-style, and this is what I got. I chimped the photo and saw that Ian's eyes were closed and my head/neck looked weird, so I gave it another go.

This was an improvement?!? No, no, no, no. I had to try again.

Only, everyone was laughing so hard at my "improved" expression, that we couldn't settle down for several minutes for another photo.

I think Ian's and Leah's stomachs must have been hurting we were laughing so hard!

But we finally settled down and I took an okay photograph.

You'll notice that it took me well over five attempts to Leah's one for a photograph. Oh well, we have a nice enough photo but a wonderful memory of a fun time while camping. Cheers,

Marc

Glacier National Park

After Yellowstone, we made our way to a buddy of mine from waaaay back in the day - my old roomie from Battalion. He and his wife have two daughters roughly Ian's and Leah's age, and they have just started a distillery in Ennis, Montana. The facility was beautiful, as was the country around Ennis, and it was great to catch up on what everyone has been doing in the many years since we've gotten out. We had a nice lunch together, and then we headed out to spend the night in a hotel in Helena. That was a much needed break to do some laundry and sleep in a warm, soft bed.

We drove to our corner of Glacier National Park the next day, which was easily the prettiest National Park we've seen (though Olympic National Park does come close!). We got to our camp site, set up our tent, and then went on up the Going to the Sun Road for a little bit of exploring before dinner.

We went to the Sun Point pull out, and hauled out the stove and made a nice dinner there, while we waited for the sun to set a bit (so I could get some nice photos). It was a very short walk from the parking lot/picnic area to the Sun Point point. The camera is set up just next to the plaque pointing out the various mountains. I love the timer for whole family photos!

And this is the view 180 degrees from the photo above, just a bit later in the day.

The next day we went to the Many Glacier part of Glacier National Park. We did some hiking (Ian and I saw a hawk from very close up, some grizzly bears from very far away, and some other less interesting fauna), then caught a nice lunch followed by a birthday-boy ice cream. There was a brief, strong thunderstorm while we ate in a restaurant, which meant we got to stay dry. After it cleared up, we met up with a park ranger for a guided hike, where we met up with this guy below.

The moose was a good bit away, but just on the edge of comfortable. Any closer and we would have been making our way away from him. I took a couple of photos of just the kids and the moose, when another photographer asked if he could take a photo with all of us in it. Sure!

The next day we drove the Going to the Sun Road all the way up to Logan Pass and the continental divide. The kids had completed their Junior Ranger Badge requirements, so we stopped at the Visitor Center at Logan Pass and got the kids sworn in as the newest Junior Rangers. We then hiked to the Hidden Lake Overlook. I had wanted to hike all the way to the lake, but it was closed due to bear activity which was just as well since the hike took a bit longer than expected. The ground squirrels were out in force, as was the stunning scenery.

And the mandatory post-swearing-in ceremony photo with the kids proudly wearing their badges.

Of the many parks we've visited this year, Glacier is easily the most stunning park we've seen. Even Catherine remarked at how beautiful it was! The photo below is from the very popular Wild Goose Island overlook. It was packed the first morning I went, and I was literally never alone here even when Catherine and the kids were "sleeping in" while I was out. It is the kind of place where I'd go back to time and time again - even though I'd like to explore much of the park under a backpack.

Ian asked several times if we could go back to Glacier for his birthday next year, to which I answer with an enthusiastic "YES"! We'll see what time brings, but I don't think I'd ever say "no" to a trip to Glacier.

Cheers,

Marc

Yellowstone National Park

We're home now, vacation is unofficially over. BOOOO!!!!

We had a great time. Catherine and I got to relax a little bit and the kids had a nice time earning their Junior Ranger badges at all of the National Parks we visited. I'll recap a bit from each Park, then I'll wade into the weeds a bit with the animals and a funny (to us) story in future posts.

So last National Park I wrote about was Grand Teton, which was very pretty. Next up was Yellowstone which is jam packed with all sorts of outdoorsy goodness. It wasn't a long drive from Grand Teton to our camp site in Yellowstone, which was nice. We were able to set up our tent site and then head back up the road back to the Old Faithful area to go see the geysers in action. We stayed for a dusk geyser "eruption" at Old Faithful - but I gambled and lost. The kids and I went for a walk around the upper geyser basin anticipating Old Faithful's eruption at a specific time, which is plus or minus 10 minutes. In this case, early by 10. Which is why all you see here is steam, because the water was already gone by the time we made it to where I wanted to photograph Old Faithful. The timing never worked out again for a nice sunset eruption, which was a major bummer for me.

The next day we explored the rest of the geyser basins, to include some hikes. This geyser below is Riverside Geyser, which is apparently impossible to predict when it will erupt. Luckily for us, it was when we were walking by it.

Same place, just a hundred yards or so further up the trail is Morning Glory Pool, which was one of my favorites.

We decided to treat ourselves with a swim in the Gibbons River that ran right by our camp site. We even had our own hot spring to help keep us warm, but it wasn't necessary. The kids and I had a nice time swimming in the swift current, while Catherine enjoyed wading.

Good thing the kids' camera is waterproof!

And yes, both Ian and Leah earned their Junior Ranger Badges from Yellowstone. Total parks visited so far: 3. Total Junior Ranger badges: 3.

We made our way to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River on our second full day, which was an early morning for all of us. We had the place pretty much to ourselves, but that could have been because it was almost freezing. Literally. It was in the low 30's when we first arrived, and it didn't improve much while we were there. Which was true pretty much every morning. It made for some cold sleeping, but nothing that we couldn't handle.

Once the sun came up though, the tourists started arriving in great numbers. Catherine tells me that three buses arrived while I was tinkering around trying to get a good photo (this one above is from the afternoon, so no - my morning shots did not turn out). I believe her, and I must say that my behind will be the most famous butt in all of Asia judging from the number of people taking their pictures next to me on the overlook to the falls. I kept taking my own photos through the whole ordeal, which was a bit funny while it was happening.

Next stop, Glacier. I don't want to ruin the surprise - but trust me, if you haven't made it to Glacier National Park, start planning your trip now!

Cheers,

Marc

Celebrating Military Appreciation Day

Today just so happens to be Military Appreciation Day, and we took great advantage of all the goodies just waiting for us. I bought a new backpack (look out Olympics/Mt. St. Helens/Mt. Rainier!) at REI, since my last one failed me on a hike in the Olympics this past year. That one was well over 20 years old, and had seen its fair share of hikes and such. I can't wait to load up the new one and test it out!

Then, to top off the day, the National Forest Service (and a ton of other government agencies) made the Interagency Access Pass free to all military members. Yeah me! That got us in to the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge today, and will work everywhere else we end up going this year for National Parks/Forests/etc. I was contemplating buying one of those for this year, and finally my procrastination has paid off handsomely.

Anyhoo. I'm attaching a couple of photos of all of us here in Washington. We took a nice long walk to the end of the boardwalk. 

Unfortunately, it was a couple of hours after low-tide, so the mud flats were out and the birds were out too. But we did see some bald eagles flying, which is always cool. I was taking the photos above when a kind stranger walked by and offered to take a photo of all of us, shown below.

My strategy to wear out the kids worked. "Let's have you guys race to me". Fifty percent of the time, it works every time ;). Unfortunately, it also worked on me. I think I'll be going to bed early tonight.

Enjoy your day everybody, we sure did.

Marc