Out West Trip: Day 22 (Hurricane, UT to Bryce Canyon, UT)
Today’s Highlights: Hiking towards The Narrows in Zion. Finding vacancy at Bryce Canyon. Sunset viewing of the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon. Paying for frigid showers. We woke later than I had hoped, but we had quick breakfasts and packed up fast. The drive back to Zion was easy, and we got there early enough to
Out West Trip: Day 21 (Las Vegas, NV to Hurricane, UT)
Today’s Highlights: Leaving Las Vegas. The low sun on the cliffs of the Zion Canyon. A 360 view from La Verkin Overlook. Dinner in our lakeside campsite near Hurricane, UT. After far to few hours of sleep, we got up due to the heat and the noise of the pressure washer. Really? Pressure washing in
Out West Trip: Day 20 (Oakhurst, CA to Las Vegas, NV)
Today’s Highlights: Buying choco rocks at Alien Jerky. Making it through the hot desert without overheating. Walking across the Hoover Dam. Eating dinner near a canal in Venice. Spotting the Brooklyn Bridge and the Eiffel Tower. After making breakfast in the campsite, we packed up and headed out. We stopped first at the yarn store
Out West Trip: Day 19 (Oakhurst, CA)
Today’s Highlights: Snow! Walking through the trunk of a giant sequoia. Being chased by a Bobcat. Getting absolutely soaked at Bridal Veil Falls. Throwing snowballs at Glacier Point. I woke up early to work and then update the blogs and answer emails. After Rob and the girls got up, we packed up a bit and
Out West Trip: Day 18 (Mount Diablo, CA to Oakhurst, CA)
Today’s Highlights: We woke up above the clouds. Chloe finally talked to Mindy. Evie had a little bath. We made it to just outside Yosemite. Because Camille wasn’t feeling well and the raccoons wandering around, we slept in a bit. We hit the road a bit late and then stopped at a Starbucks in Pleasanton
Out West Trip: Day 17 (Half Moon Bay, CA to Mount Diablo, CA)
Today’s Highlights: Visiting with a friend in San Francisco, walking on the Golden Gate Bridge, driving down Lombard Street, having a raccoon steal our bread at 3000 feet up Mount Diablo. I woke very early in order to attend a conference call. Once it was over, I slept for another hour and then we all
Out West Trip: Day 16 (Capitola, CA to Half Moon Bay, CA)
Today’s Highlights: Meeting up with “Aunt Suze” and her friends at the Winchester Mystery House, driving tour of Google and ILOG history, lunch at a crepe place in Palo Alto, new books, spotting dolphins in the bay! We woke before 7. The girls took showers while Rob and I packed up the van. The road
Out West Trip: Day 15 (Morro Bay, CA to Capitola, CA)
Today’s Highlights: Bagels and wi-fi at a coffee shop overlooking the Pacific, listening to a kindie band at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, ice cream in the no longer flooded coastal town of Capitola. We woke to the sounds of the ocean. Once we were changed and packed up in the drizzling rain, we headed to
Out West Trip: Day 14 (Barstow, CA to Morro Bay, CA)
Today’s Highlights: Visiting a ghost town, going down into an old silver mine, camping at the beach in Morro Bay. I got up early to do some more uploading of photos and other things on the computer. Everyone else got up a little later, and we packed up and left the KOA just a bit
Out West Trip: Day 13 (Grand Canyon, AZ to Barstow, CA)
Today’s Highlights: Watching the sun rise over the Grand Canyon, stopping for lunch at a diner on Route 66 in Kingman, AZ, walking across the London Bridge, not surrendering our apples to the state of CA. I got up around 5am and walked out to the rim to watch the sun come up. Along the
Out West Trip: Day 12 (Grand Canyon, AZ)
Today’s Highlights: Explored the south rim of the Grand Canyon, Rob hiked the Bright Angel Trail, Gwyneth and the girls watched the sunset. We slept in a little bit, then had a quick breakfast before walking over to the shuttle bus to the rim shuttle bus. We spent the entire morning riding the bus, walking
Out West Trip: Day 11 (Mesa Verde, CO to Grand Canyon, AZ)
Today’s Highlights: Navajo Pizza at Twin Rocks Cafe in Bluff, Utah, driving off-road to see Mexican Hat, making up names for the rocks in Monument Valley, seeing the Grand Canyon! We got up around 7am and cooked breakfast with the “oldest” food from the cooler, then packed up and said goodbye to Mesa Verde. Instead
Out West Trip: Day 10 (Holbrook, AZ to Mesa Verde, CO)
Today’s Highlights: Standing in four states all at the same time, climbing down a ladder into a kiva in a cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde, finally getting to make smores. The sun rose *very* early because of MST. I worked for a bit while Rob and the girls got pancakes and eggs from the KOA
Out West Trip: Day 9 (Silver City, NM to Holbrook, AZ)
Today’s Highlights: Exploring a catwalk high over a river, walking on a swinging bridge, looking at 225 million year old trees, entering Mountain STANDARD Time. We got up later than we had hoped and tried to quickly get ready to head out the the Catwalk National Recreation Trail. The drive up was a little slow.
Out West Trip: Day 8 (Silver City, NM)
Today’s Highlights: Climbed up to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, watched a lizard eat a centipede, found a Hawaii license plate. We slept in a little in the morning and then decided to have the KOA breakfast. It was still quite windy, so our plates and napkins kept trying to fly away. We headed out of
Out West Trip: Day 7 (Carrizozo, NM to Silver City, NM)
Today’s Highlights: Waiting 1.25 hours at a train crossing, seeing 1000 year old petroglyphs, sledding on the dunes at White Sands. After an easy breakfast, we hit the road. On the way to Alamogordo, we decided to take a short detour to see some 1000 year old petroglyphs at Three Rivers. We had to wait
Out West Trip: Day 6 (Carlsbad, NM to Carrizozo, NM)
Todayโs Highlights: Alien encounters, eating in the UFO McD, walking on old lava flows. After breakfast, we worked on cleaning and packing up. We hit the road a little after nine and headed right for Roswell. On the way out, we could see the place where the brush fire had been the previous evening. In
Out West Trip: Day 5 (Carlsbad, NM)
Today’s Highlights: A tortoise trying to eat corn at the Living Desert Zoo, Carlsbad Caverns, seeing a wildfire across the lake I woke up as the sun rose to work. Despite record high temperatures during the day (hitting 100), the morning was frigid. I wore my heavy fleece with the hood up and was still
Out West Trip: Day 4 (Georgetown TX to Carlsbad, NM)
And, we’re off! (yet again…but this time for real! After some last minute work and packing, we hit the road. Last night, we decided to take the backroads instead of the highway. As we left Georgetown, we did have to get on the interstate — for one mile — our one mile of interstate all
Out West Trip: Day 3 (Georgetown, TX)
Today was a working day for everyone. The girls had a “feast” of whole wheat waffles with flax for breakfast first. Since Chloe got her homeschooling done very quickly, she and Phil took a trip down to the river while Rob, Camille and I kept working. In the afternoon, The girls and I went shopping
GBK Gwyneth