annals of a summer family vacation, epilogue

One minivan, five states, 12 days, 2,400 miles, and at least 20 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches later, we're home. It was an epic family vacation, the sort that we'll all (ok maybe not Lucy) remember forever. Nothing like squeezing five people into single hotel rooms night after night to bring everyone closer. 

We had dinner on our patio together last night and hung out with our feet in the baby pool long into the evening. We remarked that before our trip we would probably all have been doing different things on a night like that - the boys downstairs playing legos or pokemon, Joel walking around chatting up the neighbors, Melissa trying to finish a sewing project... But even though we're not in a hotel room anymore (thankfully), we're used to all being together now. And in the end, that is the this trip's most important gift.

A random assortment of images from our journey through the American West... 

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Kirsten and Ryan Smith's wedding in Bozeman, MT.

Melissa and Lucy, Bozeman MT.

Milo and Liam in front of a map of Montana, Butte, MT.

Kids in bed.

Milo and Liam, Leeks Pizza, Grand Teton National Park.

Milo and Lucy, Bozeman MT.

Kirsten, Melissa, Kate, Bozeman MT.

Liam, Lucy, Milo, Grand Tetons.

Melissa, Lucy, Joel, Speciman Creek, Yellowstone.

annals of a summer family vacation, episode 4

The Grand Tetons. If Kirsten's and Ryan's wedding was the heart of our trip, our time in the Grand Tetons was the soul. The three days we spent in the park was the stuff lifetime memories are made of. We stayed at the beautiful old Jackson Lake Lodge inside the park, in a small room right out of the 1960s. No TV, no air conditioning, no frills. The setting was amazing though - here it is from a distance, built on a bluff with a view of the mountains (see above) beyond the Jackson Lake flats where grizzlies and elk were spotted nightly.

We swam in Jackson Lake...
...hiked to Inspiration Point for a view of Jenny Lake and the other side of Jackson Hole...

...after our hot and dusty 5 mile hike we were rewarded with a jewel of a lake that we had all to ourselves (String Lake)...

...later we saw a mom and baby moose cross the road right in front of us...

...and we spent our evenings at the lodge marveling at the amazing view that our camera could not hope to capture adequately, looking for grizzlies, and swatting mosquitos.  

annals of a summer family vacation, episode 3

The Yellowstone Edition.

Yep, that's Old Faithful. It erupted within 9 minutes of the projected time of 12:08, and we got to see the event along with hundreds of other tourists.

When I was a kid my parents used to tell us that if we ever saw a Kentucky license plate, we'd stop for ice cream. Well, the Old Faithful Visitor Center parking lot is a lucky place - the kids spotted no less than THREE of them. We did get ice cream later, but Liam abstained due to his Butte milkshake experience.

Milo getting his hard-earned Yellowstone Junior Ranger patch.
Mud pots, hot springs, geysers... we saw them all. Along with thousands of other people. The main attractions at Yellowstone are like Disneyland.

And coming soon...the sweet part of our trip: Grand Teton National Park. Here's Lucy by Jackson Lake earlier this afternoon.

Signing off to see if I can see the grizzly recently spotted just outside the lodge...

annals of a summer family vacation, episode 2

Day three: Butte Montana.

We were only there for about two hours, but Butte made a big impression on us. We stopped there really only because we have some friends that lived there for a couple of years and have some good stories about this small former mining town.

First stop, the Berkeley Pit. It's a monsterous relic from a large scale pit mining operation that was shut down in the 80s once all the copper had been stripped out. Now it is a huge crater right in the middle of Butte, filled with toxic water. It's shocking to see such a tangible example of humans' total disregard for the landscape, let alone the neighborhoods that were demolished in the 50s to make way for the pit.

We make a stop at the house the Stapletons' once called home. We decided that if you're going to live in Butte, this place wouldn't be so bad. It is right downtown and quite lovely, if a little decrepit. 
But the real gem we found in Butte was Matt's Drive In.
We found this funny spot in our Roadfood book, and had to stop for a milkshake.
Liam drank his entire milkshake and spent the next two hours holding a plastic bag in front of his face because he made himself so sick. But that was after we realized we were sitting next to Mae, the very friendly owner of Matt's. 
We learned that Mae had just celebrated her 97th birthday and had owned the place since 1943, after having worked there as a teenager in the 30s. She was wonderful, and so were the milkshakes. Here's hoping we're all so lucky as to be hanging out at a lunch counter eating ham and fried egg sandwiches when we're 97.

annals of a summer family vacation, episode 1

Family Road Trip 2009. Twelve days, five states, one minivan. 

We start at 2pm on Monday 7/13, after a delay in the Market of Choice parking lot to pick up peanut butter, a sippy cup, and a hawaiian plate lunch for Joel.

First stop, Hood River. Windsurfers, Full Sail Brewery, and 403 stairs that we climb for the view and the exercise. 

We spend our first night in unremarkable Kennewick, WA. After an equally unremarkable hotel breakfast we drive 3 hours to Coeur d'Alene, ID, where we spend a lovely day by Lake Coeur d'Alene.
And take pictures on one of the town's numerous moose statues.
Then, we're on to Missoula, MT. Great Mexican food in Missoula, it turns out.
Thirty hours into the trip. So far so good. We decided to take it easy and make our journey, rather than our destination, the goal. So we rest when we need to (ok, when Lucy needs to) and stop for ice cream a lot. 

comeback kids

It wasn't the full 10K that we had originally planned to run, but 4.5 miles still felt like an accomplishment given the recent experience with the boot.  Meagan and I ran 4.5 miles in 39:51, just over 9 minute miles. Running the Butte to Butte was my goal when I started running again in January after having Lucy, and the bursitis was especially annoying given that I had put all that pressure on myself... We crossed the finish and then walked (ok wobbled) to a nearby friends' house to drink mimosas and watch the rest of the race. 

The rest of the family ran too! Joel and Milo pushed Lucy in the Bob, and Liam took off on his own, running with 5,000 of our neighbors to finish in 45:01. I met him at the finish and he looked fresh as a daisy. (Milo, poor guy, has inherited his mom's red face and dad's sweat glands - but he ran the whole way and had fun, which is all that matters.)