Vacation to Yellowstone, day 4

Day 4: August 10th, 2013

 Yellowstone National Park, North Entrance to Fishing Bridge

After gathering supplies in Bozeman, we headed into Yellowstone's North entrance, which is marked by the Roosevelt arch.  Then we went up the road to Mammoth Hot Springs  for a lunch break for before joining the crowds of tourists climbing up the wooden walkway.  At the bottom of the path was a  sign warning people to stay on the path, with a picture of a person -- apparently a child -- being scalded by a hot geyser blowing beneath him. This worried Oliver and he asked many questions about how someone might be exposed to a sudden volcanic blast. He suddenly wasn't so excited to be heading to the hot springs.

Halfway up the path, Zaeda predictably lost steam and asked to be carried.  I relented and picked her up, where the breeze soon knocked her sun hat from her head, sailing off the path, and landing 8 feet away, beside a sulphurous pond. After all the signs at the foot of the trail, there wasn't much to do but see it sitting there, a glaring pink thing in an expanse of stone and puddles, marring the view of the dozens of international tourists unloading from buses at base of the trail.

She burst into tears. There wasn't much I could do. Oliver fretted that the hat would explode into flames. We made our way down the path, both kids looking back at the lost hat woefully. I may have felt the worst;  I'd carried something foreign into this natural environment and then discarded it. It was somehow worst than littering.  I noticed a long stick beside the path used it to go back and snag up the hat. 

Hat still on

Hat blown off the walkway, into the hotsprings. A sad moment.

Mr. Not at all bothered by the many steaming pools around him.

Heading through the park, we soon encountered road blocks of people stopping to take pictures of a single bull elk. Just up the road we spotted a lone bison far away in a meadow. Around the corner, there were a hundred of them settled beside the river, up the hill, and spilling into the road where they blocked traffic for people delighted to be taking such close up pictures of them. We were in no hurry and it was fun.

Oliver with his own ccamera, sneaking up on the elk.

Settled at camp, the kids rode bikes and then we went to a gift shop for ice cream.

Vacation to Yellowstone, day 3

Friday, August 9, 2013
 from Missoula to Bozeman

Museum of the Rockies, today's big destination.

Zaeda serves lunch in the children's play section.

Oliver in one of the costumes hanging from the wall.

Fishing with magnets.

Oliver completes a fishing license

Looking for bugs in the field beside our Bozeman, Montana campground.

Vacation to Yellowstone, days 1 & 2

Day 1:  Thursday August 7, 2013
West Linn to Spokane

Greetings from Jellystone Park in Missoula, Montana!

Yesterday we picked up the rented RV, a new Mercedes-based diesel 24 foot Class C. We left the Portland area not long after 2 pm, heading toward Spokane. The first leg took us up to near Hermiston. The kids enjoyed the built-in entertainment system and games we'd prepared. By mid-day we'd reached Eastern Oregon and the fuel empty light chimed in a very lonely stretch of road where the next town seemed a worrisome distance away.  We made it to fuel, but not after some tense miles estimating the range before we dried up. We resolved to refill more regularly.

The next leg was up to Spokane through Eastern, WA. The sun was setting and it was a perfect summer night. We made it to our campsite at 10 pm with the single longest day of driving on our trip offically done. We were all wiped out.  The kids are sharing a bed in the back and giggled and fought for another hour before conking out.

Day 2:  Thursday August 8, 2013
Spokane to Missoula

This morning we traveled through northern Idaho and then crossed into Montana. At one point sparks started shooting out of the dash and we pulled over. The cause was clear -- and Oliver quickly confessed that he thought the cigarette lighter socket is where one keeps pennies.

Zaeda watching for a scheduled appearance by Yogi.

We arrived in a very family-friendly Jellystone RV park and settled down for an afternoon that was pretty hot, then cooled off to a really perfect evening. We started with bike-riding, swimming, a  tractor ride with Yogi Bear himself, and then huckleberry ice-cream cones.

Tomorrow: Bozeman and dinosaur bones!

Jenny took this picture of the kids in the field near our campsite.

Fourth of July 2013 and Some Goofing Off

Our friends and neighbors, the Caddels, host a casual fourth of July up the street and this is the second year we've joined them. There were about 20 kids running around.

Our neighbor Dell is a car collector, and he had some of his collection parked along the street.  He was showing me his 1965 Pontiac Catalina convertible when half a dozen kids asked if they could crawl in the back. He generously let them do it, but I could tell it's wasn't easy for him to relax with all those grimy little hands and feet all over his classic.

One day as I worked in the front yard, Zaeda stood outside with a ukulele and jammed for a while. Quite a few cars stopped to watch her show.

Blowing bubbles after a hard bike ride

Jenny and Zaeda looking sharp in summer dresses

Oliver loves to play with the camera. I gave him the older one and let him go. These are some of the pictures he took:

Selfies

Dinosaur toys

Early Summer Fun and Projects

photo by Oliver

Here we are in the long days of summer, and it's a chance for both play and projects. Last weekend, I borrowed Dad's pressure washer to clean up the deck and the roof. I get up on the roof several times a year, and in the fall and early winter, I'm on a ladder cleaning out the gutters a couple times a month. But being under so many trees, the roof collects a great deal of debris, and if it sits long enough to develop moss or fungus, it spells trouble for the wooden shingles.

The older guys who have taught me so much about taking care of a home have also recently demonstrated, by example, how easy it can be to fall off a ladder or a roof. So I rigged a harness out of a utility belt, a  bicycle cable, and a few carabiners.  I tested my weight by hanging from a tree. I then tied up to a line on
the roof. At the end of the day, the job was done, the ground around the house was mess from the stuff I'd
washed off, but I managed to hang my hammock on the deck, and relax a bit.

The following weekend, I pruned and actually dropped a 40 foot tree in the street (firewood for 2014) and then took on the long overdue garage, where my tools were a mess. First, I finished adding a base to the wonderful hardwood worktop Darren built for me a few years ago, and then I built another table.

In between, Oliver helped me design a bat box, which was a project he saw on TV and has been talking about ever since. I put one together using scrap, and then the kids helped me plaster the cracks, sand it, and paint it.

Oliver decided to write"Welcome" to all batkind on the front.