One more look at the Tetons

The last time I went through the Tetons as a teenager, with Tara and Mom, was in a tow truck. The time before that, as a younger teen, getting Tara to her youth camp on time meant driving through the night through the Tetons.

This trip gave us two successful drives through these mountains, one at the beginning, and another at the end. What a nice change.

Yellowstone National Park, part 2

Yellowstone National Park, part 1

After our evening of many ferry rides, we packed up our Bainbridge hotel room, took one last trip across the bay to Seattle (and the first in our car), and headed east. We stopped at Snoqualmie Falls and lunch in North Bend at "Twede's" who got famous with their homemade cherry pie and "damn fine cup o' coffee" on the short-lived series "Twin Peaks". We didn't have the coffee, but that cherry pie was mighty fine.

Missoula was our stop for the night, and then it was on to Yellowstone. Wildlife sightings included elk, buffalo, a black bear cub, and various birds.

Two last views of Seattle

We're home now from our lovely vacation, but I'm still catching up on my log. Our second day in Seattle had an unexpected twist at the end of the day. After seeing "Inception" near the Space Needle, we took the monorail back to downtown, then hiked down to the waterfront, getting to the pier just in time to catch the 5:30 ferry to Bainbridge Island, and have dinner there. We were pretty proud of ourselves, getting there just before it sailed, getting our tickets from the automatic kiosk, and hurrying up the gangplank to get on board.

About 45 minutes into the ride, I began to wonder why it was behind schedule. (It's a 35 minute ride). At 6:30, we joined the other passengers at the front of the boat waiting for it to dock. Which is when I saw the sign at the pier that said "Bremerton". We had boarded the wrong boat.

We ended up having a very nice dinner at Anthony's, dockside on the patio, and an hour later hopped the next ferry going back to Seattle, and then had a speedy fast turnaround after we docked to get off the boat, run back inside the terminal, buy 3 more tickets for Bainbridge, and then go through the right doors to get to the Bainbridge ferry and get on that boat before it left the dock. Phew. A second night of traveling across Elliott Bay in the dark, with a lovely view of the Seattle lights behind us.

We saw "Inception" in IMAX at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. We played on the giant table and chairs set after the movie.

On the Evening of the First Day

After exploring Seattle, we took the water taxi across Elliott Bay to West Seattle, where cousin Christie Skoorsmith met us at the landing and drove us to her lovely home. Christian had made dinner (with his dad as his sous chef), and had decorated the table and chairs on the deck with a beautiful deep red tablecloth, and gold chair covers. So elegant for outdoor dining! We met their lovely baby Eva, Christian's mom and dad (who were visiting from Arizona), and saw cousin Marie and daughter Grace, Aunt Lois and Uncle Ron, and Marie's friend Eric, who Grace called Barry for most of the evening. Christy, Christian, Marie, Grace, Eva, and Ben at various times played a bean bag toss using Christian's Monkey Wrench Game board. Who knew it was so easy to abolish poverty, provide universal health care, organize a union, achieve true democracy, and elect a pro-labor candidate!

It was a wonderful evening, and so nice to connect with family. The highlight of the evening was when Christian serenaded us on his bag pipes, accompanied by Eric on the drum.

Marie drove us back to Seattle, after a stop to give us a tour of her lovely little West Seattle home, and we caught a late ferry back to Bainbridge Island.

The Very Best Hot Chocolate in the World

Ben remembered from our trip to Seattle 3 years ago that the automatic hot drinks machine on the ferry boat had the best hot chocolate he's ever tasted.

Our first day in Seattle included a ferry boat ride in the fog, a long search on foot to find the relocated Elliott Bay Bookstore (well worth the looong walk), a monorail ride to Seattle Center, lunch at a lovely French restaurant, and a trip to the top of the Space Needle for Ben and Doug.

Rain Forest Mossiness and Ben swimming at Lake Crescent

Lake Quinault Lodge, Olympic Natl. Park

Lake Quinault Lodge was wonderful. We had a beautiful view of the lake from our room, the food was delicious (although we found out after dinner that they would have brought us bread if we had only asked), and the lounge area was big and quiet and relaxing.

This set of photos:

Doug and Ben played chess on the big honkin' chessboard.

Doug and me at dinner - a closed-in porch with windows all around looking out over the lake.

Me with Harvest Moon, a basket weaver and story-teller at the lodge.

Day 2 in the Olympic Peninsula

After saying goodbye to Eric, Carla, and Ryan on Saturday afternoon, the 3 S-Y's stayed the night at Lake Quinault Lodge and explored the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic Natl. Park on Sunday. This took us through Forks, Washington, made famous by the "Twilight" books and movies. In the photo below, Ben is brandishing his Harry Potter book at Bella's red pickup (Bella is the main character in "Twilight").

The top 3 photos are from our stop along the coast, where the forest bordering the beach looks eerily like the forest in "Lord of the Rings" where the hobbits hide from the big black devil horses.

After lunch at the Nilsen's (C and E made teriyaki chicken and rice), we caravanned to Aberdeen, WA with Erik, Carla and Ryan, stopping at Fort Clatsop on the way. We  hiked in the Olympic National Forest with Carla, Erik, and Ryan, and saw a honkin' big tree, as Ryan would say.

Seeing Old Friends

In Portland, we stayed with Carla and Erik Nilsen, wonderful friends from pre-Ben days. Friday morning we took the kids (Ben, Kari, and Ryan) to the indoor bouldering center, and Bill McFarlin joined us. Erik and Carla were my first friends in Ann Arbor, MI, when I lived there on my own for a year while Doug was still in Venezuela. Then when Doug had a temporary teaching job in Portland, they had moved there, and kept Doug from getting too lonely while I was still in Texas.

Bill and Beth McFarlin were our first friends in Fort Collins. We're sorry we missed out on seeing Andrew and Bryn Nilsen, and Beth, Katie, and Sam McFarlin.

Columbia River Gorge

Last Thursday we left the fly-fishing mecca of Ketchum, Idaho, and drove to Portland, via the Columbia River Gorge.

A Best Western in Fort Hood had a wonderful restaurant with patio seating overlooking the gorge.

SYFFMRT - Day 3 - Tuesday

Doug booked a fishing guide for the day. I drove him from our lodge/condo while Ben slept in, and we had breakfast at "Moose Girls" - they had a lifesize cut-out of James Dean on the wall, and an almost crunchy granola menu. We discussed our fantasy 6-month trips - what we would do if we had 6 months to travel anywhere, and money were no object. And then we came back down to earth and talked about what we might do next year for our 25th wedding anniversary.

Ben is going on a 10-day school trip to Italy and the Greek Islands at the beginning of June, so that would be the perfect time for us to schedule our trip. (The down-to-earth trip, not the fantasy trip.)

After breakfast, we met up with J.C., Doug's fishing guide for the day, and Angus, J.C.'s fly-fishing chocolate lab, and I sent a smiling Doug on his way.

Ben and I found the Ernest Hemingway Memorial, where we both got to do a little photography, then explored Ketchum. The moose on rollerblades and the dog on stilts were two of the highlights. (Sorry - no pics of Angus the Fly-Fishing-Chocolate-Lab, or the moose on rollerblades.)

We also found the weekly Farmer's Market and Art Market, and picked up some peaches, raspberries, marionberries, fresh eggs, a delicious Riesling wine, a huckleberry pie, and a salmon/jicama/avocado salad.

After we found Doug, we took him to the Farmer's Market to meet Farmer Dick, who wanted to share a fantastic fishing location with Doug. We started driving there before dinner, but turned around when the road changed from gravel to dirt, narrowed, and had a very steep drop-off down the side. Doug will put up with a lot of things in order to go fishing, but he draws the line at narrow mountain roads with steep drop-offs. Ben closed his eyes until we got back on the gravel.

Dinner was on the covered patio of an old Ketchum restaurant that included one "slow food" menu item each night, which I had - lamb meatballs on fettucine.

A lovely day.

Day 2 of the Family Road Trip

Up early enough in the morning to drive through the Tetons with just a few other cars, instead of bumper-to-bumper cars.

The mountains were beautiful.

We had breakfast at Genevieve's in Jackson Hole and found some black and white film for Ben.

On our drive across eastern Idaho, Ben was using his new film to shoot some photos from a turn-out in the road, when an INL Security Vehicle pulled up next to us, and a security guard in desert camo and probably 40 pounds of gear attached to her uniform (including a gun strapped to her thigh), and asked if we were okay and what we were doing. We'd seen signs for the INL, but had no idea what it was. Turns out it's the Idaho National Laboratory, a nuclear facility whose mission is to "ensure the nation's energy security with safe, competitive, and sustainable energy systems and unique national and homeland security capabilities." and whose vision is "by 2015, INL will be the pre-eminent nuclear energy laboratory with synergistic, world-class, multi-program capabilities and partnerships." She said that she wanted to make sure that nothing was wrong, but I think that Ben's camera was her concern. Not that we could even see the nuclear facility from where we were stopped. There wasn't much to see but scrub brush and a low mountain in the background. But we didn't argue. Ben got back in the car, and we calmly drove away.

More on our ghost lodge in Ketchum in the next post.

SYFFMRT - Part I

The Swall-Yarrington Family's First Mega Road Trip

Tweet Style

Saturday night, 10:00 - Doug in bed, Ben in bed, Maria not in bed.

Sunday morning, 5:50 - Happy Ben out of bed, Doug in bed, Maria in bed.

Sunday morning, 8:00 - Not-so-happy Ben in back seat of car, as we are pulling out of the driveway, suggesting that next time we ask for more help from him on trip prep day, and adding that he'll offer his help.

Sunday morning, 11:00 - Everyone happy again, eating Subway sandwiches in Rawlins, WY. Ben points out that being in a desolate place like this empty-but-for-Subway-and-the-local-Republican-Party-headquarters-shopping-center, reminds him how great a place to live Colorado is.

Sunday afternoon, 3:10 - Ben: "Are those the Tetons?" Doug or Maria: "Nope, not yet."

Sunday afternoon, 3:18 - Ben: "Are those the Tetons?" Doug or Maria: "Nope, not yet."

Sunday afternoon, 3:42 - Maria: "There they are!"

Sunday afternoon, 4:00 - All checked in, all hungry, but no dinner at the lodge until 6:00. Back in the car.

Sunday afternoon, 4:45 - Sitting at a table on a small screened-in porch of an old cabin turned cafe, with a meadow and river stretching out before us, and the Tetons as the glorious backdrop. Wonderful food, wonderful view, happy family.

Sunday evening, 5:30 - Driving along the loop road from the cafe, hoping to catch back up with the hiway.

Sunday evening, 5:45 - Up ahead, the loop road turns to gravel.

Sunday evening, 5:46 - We cross a bridge over the river, right next to a fishing lodge. Doug's eyes light up as he stares at the water.

Sunday evening, 6:00 - We turn around to go back the way we came on the loop road, winding our way back to the highway and Togwotee Lodge to read until bedtime.

Sunday evening, 7:00 - Ben is ready to go to sleep. Do we really need the lights on?

Sunday evening, 8:45 - Ben realizes he can connect his laptop to the internet, and so play PacMan, and all is right with the world.