Sunday, October 4, 2009
It's a snow day for sure
When we got up this morning, we could tell that it had snowed during the night. It was snowing softly while we were eating breakfast but shortly afterwards, it started snowing much harder. Everything is starting to turn white outside. We are staying in our room until after lunch, which is when Fernando, Eva and her parents are going to come see where we are staying. I'm not sure what we will do after that.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Leaving Yellowstone, seeing Glacier National Park and in Calgary
Here's what's been going on the last few days before Saturday.
Thursday Oct. 1
As we were eating breakfast in the house there in West Yellowstone, we saw a little weasel running around on the deck outside. It didn't stay around long so we didn't get a really good look at it. That weasel was an exciting thing to see - it was so cute! We packed up all of our stuff after breakfast, and were a little sad to be leaving such a nice house. It was very comfortable there.
We left West Yellowstone, and drove through some beautiful mountain scenery covered in the snow that fell yesterday. It was all the scenes that we try to replicate in our homes at Christmas time. Just beautiful.
We stopped for lunch at Quizno's and after Quizno's went across the parking lot to a little coffee shop and bought coffee, chai and some pastries for the road.
We got to Kalispell, Montana fairly early, checked into Motel 6, and watched a show on TV there about Yellowstone. We enjoyed seeing on TV all the places we had just come from. Later we went out to eat at Applebee's and had a really nice dinner there.
Friday Oct. 2
No breakfast at the Motel 6, so we just packed up and headed to a coffee shop in downtown Kalispell. From there we drove to Glacier National Park. Another place we drove through that would be nice to visit again, or even live there for a little while was Poulson, Montana. It is right on Flathead Lake and looked like a lovely town, with the lake and the mountains all around. We drove around the bottom of Glacier National park, because the main road that goes through the park was closed in the very center. So we had to decide whether we were going to go in from the east or the west, and picked the east side because that is the direction we'd be heading afterwards. The road along the bottom of the park was very winding and slow.
We had lunch at the entrance to the park, and after that drove into the park. We drove as far as we could go, until the construction forced us to turn back around. We scanned the rocky mountainsides as we drove and finally saw two little white specks on the rocks up high. We stopped at a turnout, got out our binoculars and were thrilled to see that they were Mountain Goats!!! Other cars stopped after us, and someone got out a scope and we all got to get a good view of those goats. Driving on a little further, we saw more little white specks, which turned out to be more Mountain Goats, and then Eva's mother spotted some Big Horn Sheep! There were four of them sitting close enough to the road to get a good view of them with our binoculars. So we felt very lucky to have seen two very elusive animals! We spent a little more time in Glacier than we probably should have, but it was hard to leave with all the animal sightings. We had a longer than expected delay at the Canadian border, also. We finally got to Calgary around 9pm. By then it was raining. We drove with Fernando to see where his condo is located and then Guillermo and I drove to our Bed and Breakfast. After unloading some stuff, we drove back to Fernando's condo, went with him to pick up some dinner from the neighborhood Japanese restaurant, and we all ate that delicious food in his living room.
Saturday, October 3
Well, we finally got this laptop to work at the bed and breakfast we're staying at in Calgary - this is an old laptop so it doesn't take the "easy" passcodes that most places give out. When they gave us a passcode with only 5 letters, I knew it wasn't going to be good, since our laptop needs ten letters/numbers. After a little digging around on a laptop they let us borrow, we finally figured out the code and gave them back their laptop.
So, ANYway, as I sat down to write this, I looked out the window of our room and saw that it is snowing!! There seems to be some sleet mixed in with the snow. Outside it looks rough and cold, but we are nice and warm in here, just taking it easy until we go over to Fernando's condo in about 40 minutes.
We picked up some delicious sandwiches for lunch at an Italian restaurant just down the street from Fernando's condo, and we ate them at his place. Then we took the cars to get the oil changed and for the Toyota place to look at the underside of our Camry. When that was all taken care of (and it didn't take long at all), we did a little shopping at some outdoor supply stores, and then stopped and picked up some sausages that Fernando grilled out on his balcony. Supper was grilled sausages, rolls, asparagus, red potatoes, carrots and salad. Rounded out with wine coolers and beer, it was absolutely delicious and made for a very memorable evening!!!
Thursday Oct. 1
As we were eating breakfast in the house there in West Yellowstone, we saw a little weasel running around on the deck outside. It didn't stay around long so we didn't get a really good look at it. That weasel was an exciting thing to see - it was so cute! We packed up all of our stuff after breakfast, and were a little sad to be leaving such a nice house. It was very comfortable there.
Some pictures of the Bull Elk vacation rental we stayed in
We got to Kalispell, Montana fairly early, checked into Motel 6, and watched a show on TV there about Yellowstone. We enjoyed seeing on TV all the places we had just come from. Later we went out to eat at Applebee's and had a really nice dinner there.
No breakfast at the Motel 6, so we just packed up and headed to a coffee shop in downtown Kalispell. From there we drove to Glacier National Park. Another place we drove through that would be nice to visit again, or even live there for a little while was Poulson, Montana. It is right on Flathead Lake and looked like a lovely town, with the lake and the mountains all around. We drove around the bottom of Glacier National park, because the main road that goes through the park was closed in the very center. So we had to decide whether we were going to go in from the east or the west, and picked the east side because that is the direction we'd be heading afterwards. The road along the bottom of the park was very winding and slow.
Saturday, October 3
Well, we finally got this laptop to work at the bed and breakfast we're staying at in Calgary - this is an old laptop so it doesn't take the "easy" passcodes that most places give out. When they gave us a passcode with only 5 letters, I knew it wasn't going to be good, since our laptop needs ten letters/numbers. After a little digging around on a laptop they let us borrow, we finally figured out the code and gave them back their laptop.
So, ANYway, as I sat down to write this, I looked out the window of our room and saw that it is snowing!! There seems to be some sleet mixed in with the snow. Outside it looks rough and cold, but we are nice and warm in here, just taking it easy until we go over to Fernando's condo in about 40 minutes.
We picked up some delicious sandwiches for lunch at an Italian restaurant just down the street from Fernando's condo, and we ate them at his place. Then we took the cars to get the oil changed and for the Toyota place to look at the underside of our Camry. When that was all taken care of (and it didn't take long at all), we did a little shopping at some outdoor supply stores, and then stopped and picked up some sausages that Fernando grilled out on his balcony. Supper was grilled sausages, rolls, asparagus, red potatoes, carrots and salad. Rounded out with wine coolers and beer, it was absolutely delicious and made for a very memorable evening!!!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
It's snowing here in Yellowstone!!!
This post will cover Monday, Tuesday, and today, Wednesday.
Monday Sept. 28
Guillermo left our hotel early this morning to get the oil changed in our car and to have them check the tail pipe under our car, since we noticed about 2 days ago that it seemed to be hanging really low. Turns out that everything is ok with the tail pipe. We all had a nice breakfast in Berit and Tomas's hotel room and then we packed up our stuff and headed to Yellowstone.
It was a beautiful sunny day, and quite warm! We drove straight to Old Faithful and got to see it erupt just minutes later, so it was perfect timing.
After watching Old Faithful, we walked the Upper Geyser loop slowly - stopping at each geyser, marveling at how each one was and wondering what was going on in the earth under our feet. By the end of the loop (which is 2.8 miles) we were all pretty tired. Then it was time to drive to our vacation rental house!! We were going to eat somewhere first, but decided to go look for the house while it was still a little light outside. We had a hard time finding the house anyway, and it was totally dark before we finally found the place. Whoa. What a nice place!!!
Tuesday Sept. 29
We got up fairly early and drove out to see if a very necessary road to see Yellowstone was open or closed. This road has been closed the last few days due to a major fire. And to top it all off, another very important road was closed due to construction!! Well, when we got to the park, we found out that the road is still closed because of the fire. We were desperately hoping they had made more progress on beating that fire, so this was really rough news for us. There was nothing we could do about the other road that was closed due to construction, since it was plain closed. To get to the part of the park that we really wanted to see, the part of the park with the most wildlife, we would have to drive all the way up to Bozeman, Montana, and then back down into Yellowstone. This would make us drive an extra 300 miles total out of our way, just to get to where we want to go in the park, but we had no other choice. We thought maybe we'd wait one more day, for Wednesday, to see if the road would be open then, but the forecast called for snow on that day, so we decided, if we're going to do it, we'd better just go ahead and do it today.
So, we headed on out to the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone by way of Bozeman, Montana. As it turned out, we made an excellent decision to go this day, even though it meant being on the road for 6 hours - OUTSIDE the park. The weather was beautiful, and we saw lots of interesting animals!! We saw a Grizzly Bear, Bison, Black Wolf, Coyotes, Elk, Pronghorn Antelope, and Bald Eagles. We didn't leave the park until about 8:30 at night, had a late dinner in Gardiner, Montana and then drove the 3 hours back to our comfortable house back in West Yellowstone - we got back at around 12:30am.
Wednesday Sept. 30
When we got up in the morning, there were snow flurries outside!! We took it easy this morning, after the long day we had yesterday. By the time we left to go visit Yellowstone one more time, it was snowing harder. We first went back to the Old Faithful area to do a little souvenir shopping and to have lunch. The trees were starting to get white with the snow. We visited several geyser sites, and the weather was really cold, with the wind blowing the snow against us as we walked around. It was so COLD!!
Later, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up things to cook for our evening dinner. Fernando was going to grill outside, got the grill out and everything, but it was so cold, and the grill was dirty, so we thought it'd just be easier to put everything in the oven. It turned out to be a great dinner after all!
Guillermo left our hotel early this morning to get the oil changed in our car and to have them check the tail pipe under our car, since we noticed about 2 days ago that it seemed to be hanging really low. Turns out that everything is ok with the tail pipe. We all had a nice breakfast in Berit and Tomas's hotel room and then we packed up our stuff and headed to Yellowstone.
It was a beautiful sunny day, and quite warm! We drove straight to Old Faithful and got to see it erupt just minutes later, so it was perfect timing.
Tuesday Sept. 29
We got up fairly early and drove out to see if a very necessary road to see Yellowstone was open or closed. This road has been closed the last few days due to a major fire. And to top it all off, another very important road was closed due to construction!! Well, when we got to the park, we found out that the road is still closed because of the fire. We were desperately hoping they had made more progress on beating that fire, so this was really rough news for us. There was nothing we could do about the other road that was closed due to construction, since it was plain closed. To get to the part of the park that we really wanted to see, the part of the park with the most wildlife, we would have to drive all the way up to Bozeman, Montana, and then back down into Yellowstone. This would make us drive an extra 300 miles total out of our way, just to get to where we want to go in the park, but we had no other choice. We thought maybe we'd wait one more day, for Wednesday, to see if the road would be open then, but the forecast called for snow on that day, so we decided, if we're going to do it, we'd better just go ahead and do it today.
So, we headed on out to the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone by way of Bozeman, Montana. As it turned out, we made an excellent decision to go this day, even though it meant being on the road for 6 hours - OUTSIDE the park. The weather was beautiful, and we saw lots of interesting animals!! We saw a Grizzly Bear, Bison, Black Wolf, Coyotes, Elk, Pronghorn Antelope, and Bald Eagles. We didn't leave the park until about 8:30 at night, had a late dinner in Gardiner, Montana and then drove the 3 hours back to our comfortable house back in West Yellowstone - we got back at around 12:30am.
Our day in the park
When we got up in the morning, there were snow flurries outside!! We took it easy this morning, after the long day we had yesterday. By the time we left to go visit Yellowstone one more time, it was snowing harder. We first went back to the Old Faithful area to do a little souvenir shopping and to have lunch. The trees were starting to get white with the snow. We visited several geyser sites, and the weather was really cold, with the wind blowing the snow against us as we walked around. It was so COLD!!
Later, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up things to cook for our evening dinner. Fernando was going to grill outside, got the grill out and everything, but it was so cold, and the grill was dirty, so we thought it'd just be easier to put everything in the oven. It turned out to be a great dinner after all!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Today we meet up with Fernando!
But before talking about meeting up with Fernando, here is what has been going on since our last post.
Friday morning, the 25th, we had an EXCELLENT breakfast in our hotel and got out on the road just a little late - for the length of drive that we were going to be doing that day. From Albuquerque, we drove to Gallup and then up to Shiprock, NM. That drive had us going through the Navajo Nation, and that was a kind of sad drive because it becomes so obvious what kind of land the Indians were left with. Absolutely ugly, where nothing can grow - which is how too many of their reservations are.
From Shiprock, we drove up to Cortez, Colorado, through Dove Creek and then made a turn north at Monticello, Utah. It seems like once we were in Utah, the land became much nicer. We saw so many beautiful landscapes along the way and we'd have gotten nowhere if we had stopped to take pictures of all the interesting things we saw. Utah was actually a very pretty state as far as the landscapes go. There were lots of beautiful rock formations and mountain ranges.
Vicki at a rest area in Utah
Once at Duchesne, we headed east and since it was dark by now, we decided to stay in Roosevelt. There wasn't that much there, either, and if we had only known, we would have gone the extra 28 miles to Vernal - which we saw the next day was a really CUTE little town.
Saturday Sept. 26th- we ate breakfast in our room - no free breakfast at the Best Western there! We drove through Vernal just a few minutes later and saw how precious the little town looked, and there were lots of places to stay. Petunias grow so beautifully around here, and the streets in Vernal were lined with LOTS of big pots filled with purple, pink and white petunias.
From Vernal, we drove to the visitor center at the Flaming Gorge and got several maps. The lady there recommended taking the road on the west side of the Gorge so that's what we did, instead of going across the dam. We saw lots of beautiful views along the way and even stopped at a place where the lady had said we could probably see Salmon spawning, but all we saw was one trout.
View of Sheep Creek Bay
Down in Sheep Creek Bay
But, we did pass a nice little mountain stream later where we stopped and we DID see Salmon!!! It was so exciting. We took the little trail that took you right down to the river and we could see the salmon so well from that trail. It was just beautiful!
Pretty much after that, we left Utah, and the land was kind of ugly again. The land in Wyoming at this point was not beautiful at all. We drove to Green River, Wyoming, then to Rock Springs, where we then turned north on Hwy. 191. We saw lots of Pronghorn Antelope along this highway and the landscape didn't start getting pretty until about Boulder, Wyoming.
Views around our hotel - the Flying Saddle Resort
On September 27th, we headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and we saw these beautiful trees along the way. We are excited today, because in a few hours, we will meet up with Fernando, Eva and meet Eva's parents for the first time.
We checked into our hotel in Jackson Hole and waited nervously for Fernando, Eva and her parents to arrive. We kept looking out the window of our hotel room to see if we could see Fernando's car! When they arrived we were so excited! We greeted Tomas and Berit - saying a few words of welcome to them in Swedish. We were so happy to have everyone there and we will never forget this nice day!
We all visited the Tetons Park later that day. Here we are by Jenny Lake.
Friday, September 25, 2009
In Albuquerque!
It was not our intention to go as far as Albuquerque the first day, but after missing important exits, and then passing through Indian reservations where there ARE no turn-arounds, well, we ended up in Albuquerque, and then on the west side of Albuquerque. The good part about that is our trip today will be a little shorter!
So, anyway, we had rain at the beginning of our trip yesterday, but it pretty much quit around Kerrville. Then it was cloudy until Fort Stockton, and then we were in the sun the rest of the way! At least the weather was cool!
It would be nice to go to Rio Rancho today, but since we don't know where to go, or if we did know where to go - if anyone would be there, we are just going to head on up to Utah this morning! Too bad, since we're so close. But we've got a long hard drive today, not on expressways like yesterday, so it's best we get going!
So, anyway, we had rain at the beginning of our trip yesterday, but it pretty much quit around Kerrville. Then it was cloudy until Fort Stockton, and then we were in the sun the rest of the way! At least the weather was cool!
It would be nice to go to Rio Rancho today, but since we don't know where to go, or if we did know where to go - if anyone would be there, we are just going to head on up to Utah this morning! Too bad, since we're so close. But we've got a long hard drive today, not on expressways like yesterday, so it's best we get going!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Fall is here for sure
Giddy over packing! It's feels so free to be packing for a road trip. The last several trips we've taken have been on planes, and traveling by plane is full of "everything we want to take HAS to fit into ONLY these two containers (suitcase and carry-on).
Traveling by car - well, besides packing up our suitcases, if we want to put some stuff in a paper grocery bag, which will remain open on top (imagine that!!), then we very well can!! We don't HAVE to stuff our shoes into the suitcase. We can even hold them in our hand as we go out the door, and put them under our seats!! It's great!!!!
We can't wait to meet Fernando, Eva and Eva's parents in Jackson Hole next week!!!
A little cold front came through our area today, on this first day of Fall. The weather got rainy and really nice and cool, at times we even felt cold!! The weather is just lovely right now.
Traveling by car - well, besides packing up our suitcases, if we want to put some stuff in a paper grocery bag, which will remain open on top (imagine that!!), then we very well can!! We don't HAVE to stuff our shoes into the suitcase. We can even hold them in our hand as we go out the door, and put them under our seats!! It's great!!!!
We can't wait to meet Fernando, Eva and Eva's parents in Jackson Hole next week!!!
A little cold front came through our area today, on this first day of Fall. The weather got rainy and really nice and cool, at times we even felt cold!! The weather is just lovely right now.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
How about my birthday hat!
Just had to post about the hat Fernando sent me for my birthday!! I LOVE it!
The picture on the left shows how I spent almost 2 hours of every morning during this past summer. Minus the hat, though.
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