It was really beautiful driving through Wyoming and South Dakota. The weather kept changing from sunny to cloudy, almost tornado like. It made cool cloud shapes and rainbows, some of which were double. We also saw tons of pronghorn deer all along side of the road in open pastures.
Once we got into Minnesota, though it wasn't quite as pretty. And the people drive so rudely. They squeeze in between you and the car in front or behind without a hand wave. They are just as bad a California drivers, except for the honking horns. We went to the Mall of America in Bloomington Mn. Three full floors plus half of the fourth floor was stores and the rest of the fourth floor was restaurants. They also had a huge area in the middle for kids with a Nickelodeon theme park, an underground aquarium, a lego land, miniature golf, theaters and on and on. It's a great idea for an area that is cold most of the year. I think both of us spent $20 each, not including food. We did very well managing our allowance.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Driving through Wyoming and South Dakota
Mt Rushmore
We took a side trip to see Mt Rushmore since we were so close. It was interesting to see but not friendly. It was a small memorial that is basically centered around the carved figures. There was a tram up to the top and a hike but we did not do those. We went, we saw, we left. Not much to say about it.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Yellowstone
So our next stop was Yellowstone. We had a long drive and decided to go by freeway as long as possible which put us entering the park's west entrance. We got to the park at about 9:45 pm to find out the shortest route to our cabin closed every night at 10 pm and we wouldn't make it before it closed. If we would have entered at the south entrance this wouldn't have been a problem, but we did not know about the closure before hand. Anyway, it was so dark in the park since there are no street lights and we were terrified a large animal (deer, elk, moose, bison) would walk out in front of us. We both had our eyes glued to the front and sides watching carefully. We did pass several animals along the way as well as an accident involving a van that hit a very large deer. It died...so sad. As we were drivin, we kept glancing at the temperature (we have a thermometer in our car) and it was dropping. By the time we got to our cabin it was midnight and 33 degrees. We knew it would be cool but were unprepared for that kind of weather. The next morning we ventured out for breakfast to find there were patches of snow here and there still on the ground from the winter. We couldn't see that the night before, though. After breakfast we drove part of the park to see what kind of wildlife we could spot. We got lucky and saw Elk, Mule and Pronghorn deer, a bear, a few bald eagles even one on a nest and lots of bison. I almost got trampled by a small herd of deer running through Mamoth Village. I was out of the car taking a pic of 2 Elk while in the other direction the herd were heading right in my direction. It was quite funny to look up and see 6 or 7 LARGE Elk running toward me.
The park itself was not what I expected. There were thousands of fallen trees just laying around making it look messy. It was rainy and cold the second day when we were supposed to see the geysers. We just drove by most of them but we did stand in the drizzily cold to watch Old Faithful. Because the sky was overcast and the steam of the geyser, we didn't get a good pic. You couldn't make out the sky from the shooting water. Very disappointing. All in all it was a great time. We should have scheduled more time there to go hiking.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Arches National Park
Well finally the weather warmed up and cleared up. It was in the high 70's, but that is still low for this time of year. We were feeling adventurous today and attempted a 4.5 mile hike to the Double O Arch. Part of the trail was destroyed by the collapse of another arch so we had to climb up and over large chunks rocks and we had to walk across "fins" that were about 6' wide. It was a little strenuous but well worth it. When we reached the Double O , we climbed up the arch and walked onto of the top arch.
Bryce Canyon National Park
We've been in the mountains for about two full days and it is killing my nose. I am having nose bleeds and a stuffy dry nose at the same time. And the altitude makes me feel like an old woman while I am hiking, huffing and puffing up the trail!! Other than that and the crazy weather we have been experiencing, it has been great. The temperature is unseasonable cool in the high 50's and low 40's. It even hailed on us while we were hiking. In Bryce, we did a 4.2 mile hike into the Queens garden and saw the hoodoos. These rock formations are so incredible and everchanging. We saw Bighorn deer, mule deer, praire dogs, and chipmonks.
Zion National Park
After we left LA we drove to Zion National Park in Utah. It was cool (high 60's low 50's) and rainy for half of the day. The park provides shuttle transportation throughout the park to reduce traffic, so we hopped on the shuttle and started our day at the end of the park and worked our way to the entrance. Our first hike was the riverside walk which is an easy 2 mile round trip trail that follows the Virgin River. Next was the Weeping Rock trail which is a half mile uphill to a rock alcove where water seeps through the rock. After lunch, which was eaten at the shuttle stop because it was raining and that was the only covered place to sit; we hiked to the Emerald Pool. It is an easy 1.2 mile hike that has three water falls and steep drop offs to the side. We saw deer, aquirrels, and lots of birds in Zion. Some of the Mountain formations are The Wathman, the Great White Throne, Angels Landing and West Temple. After all of the hiking we were ready to pack it in for the day.
Los Angeles
Our first stop on our cross country move was to visit my uncle Gary in Los Angeles. We arrived in LA at almost midnight and as soon as we stepped outside the airport baggage claim area to wait for Gary to pick us up; we heard horns honking. People here are such impatient drivers or maybe we are used to Hawaii drivers who almost never honk their horns. Welcome to LA!!
The first day we were here, we went to Venice Beach and walked the boardwalk all the way to the Santa Monica Pier (about 3 miles one way). It is a really great setup. There is one part of the sidewalk for walkers and and other side for roller bladers and bikers. It was a cool day, lower 60's, and there were tons of people out. One side of the boardwalk had the typical souvenir shops and the beach was on the other side. Venice Beach is also where the popular Muscle Beach is and of course Santa Monica Pier has the famous ferris wheel.
We then drove to Pepperdine University, Malibu. My uncle works for Pepperdine so he wanted to gives us the tour. It was a really nice school that overlooks the ocean.
The second day we went to the Griffith Observatory. We got a view of the Hollywood sign on the walk up to the observatory. The grounds were nice and overlooked downtown LA. Then we went to the Gene Autry Museum. It was interesting to see all of the costumes and hand written letters from the actual people who wore and wrote them. We had a nice time visiting with Gary and seeing some of LA. Thanks to Gary for putting us up and putting up with us!! We'll return the favor when you visit us in Maine.
