October 3 - 6, 2013 - Four Days in New York City

October 3 – 6, 2013

New York City, NY

We made our now-annual trek to New York City this past weekend to celebrate my Mum’s 83^rd birthday and to show Luisa NYC during her stay with us. As always, it was a busy, exciting time. The amount of things we try to fit into four days is somewhat insane, but that’s New York. One wouldn’t want to waste any time there.

We arrived late in the morning on Thursday with a lovely clear view coming into LaGuardia airport, direct from Des Moines to meet my Mum’s flight from Detroit a half hour later.

We all shared a taxi via the Midtown Tunnel because of traffic on the Triboro Bridge and suddenly were in downtown Manhattan. The scale is larger, the pace is faster, and the crowd of cars, taxis, buses and people is amazing.

We checked into our hotel much earlier than we expected and our rooms were not ready for us. We like to stay right on Central Park, near the Plaza at 59^th and 5^th Avenue. It’s a splurge, but worth it for the view and convenience. We left our luggage there and went in search of lunch. In one of my worst ideas of the trip, I suggested the Carnegie Deli, which was close by and a NYC legend for sandwiches and rude NY service. We each ordered a sandwich and received a mile high pile of meat each. The deli meats were great, but as a sandwich, it was just a pile of meat without anything else with it.

Full after half a sandwich each, we made our way through Times Square (which was mind-boggling, as always) and over to the MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art. They have an American Modern show there which was very interesting. It is a mix of artists and medium from around the 1920s, including very early O’Keefe, Stieglitz and his circle’s photos, Hopper canvases, etc. The architecture of the MoMA building itself is an exhibit to see, also.

We returned to our hotel and really checked into our rooms. We had two adjoining rooms on the 22^nd floor, our highest floor at the Helmsley Park Lane yet and we had great views. Central Park stretched out before us. Here's our view looking north.

We “freshened up” and changed and headed back out for our first night on the town. We traveled south again to Aurellos on 42^nd Street near 7^th. It is ranked as one of the best restaurants in NYC and we wanted to try it. I tried their pumpkin risotto and scallops with potato and leek, both of which were subtle and very good. Luisa announced that the first appetizer exploded with flavors in her mouth and all in all, everyone enjoyed their food.

From there, we walked to the Shubert Theater for Matilda, the musical. Once there, Alle realized that the front of the Shubert is the one used in the movie version of The Producers and that was a touchstone in the Theater District for her. We all loved Matilda. It had a beautiful set, the songs were fun and the child star was incredible. Very worthwhile.  And, that was only our first day.

On Friday for breakfast, we enjoyed room service for as much as a typical dinner for four might cost in any other city. We walked through Central Park so that Luisa could see our hotel from the Park and the beautiful lay-out of the lakes, paths and central promenade.

We exited at 72^nd Street to the East and went to the Frick Collection. What a beautiful house and what amazing paintings. The Frick family acquired at least one of so many famous European painters from 1500 – 1900. Each room is more glorious than the next and it is difficult to imagine a family living amongst the treasures. There are Rembrandts and Vermeers, Holbeins  and Hobbema, as well as Monet.

From the Frick, we traveled down 5^th Avenue to meet one of Mum’s friends from High School. They both attended Music and Art, now LaGuardia High. He is an artist and a member of the Century Club. We met him there and viewed some of the amazing art there, as well. Early members were asked to contribute either $25 to join the club or a piece of art. Many, including Winslow Homer, contributed a painting rather than paying the “hefty” fee. Now, of course the paintings donated are worth thousands or millions of dollars each. We enjoyed lunch there and then walked around 5^th Avenue shops and to Grand Central Station. Grand Central still feels central and important. My Mum stated, “The most important thing Jackie Kennedy ever did was to restore Grand Central Station”.

From Grand Central, Mum decided to return to our hotel and rest. The girls and I decided to take a subway down to the southern tip of Manhattan, Battery Park and see the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center site. Battery Park is under construction, but we did see the Statue of Liberty from the shore. We walked north to the World Trade Center site and even though we only had a short time, we decided to try to see the new memorial. It was very worthwhile to see it. I found walking up to the large fountain and seeing all of the names and the water rushing down into an endless square stunning. I stood with my mouth open looking at the cascading water, replicating the falling of the towers and the loss of life. I was moved to tears, thinking about that day and the scale of the destruction.

We headed north again by subway and met up with my Mum at our hotel. Friday night (our second night), we were dressier and made our way to 1 Central Park West and Jean Georges restaurant, one of NYC's three star Michelin restaurants. This was a treat. Due to time, we chose the four course prix fixed menu rather than some of their larger and longer tasting menus. Every course, except for my entrée was exceptional. The real stand-out was the service. We had impeccable service. Our waiter was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. Whatever we needed arrived before we had to ask for it. A real stand-out in a city of fabulous restaurants.

From Jean Georges, we walked up to Lincoln Center for the NY Philharmonic’s performance of Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony. We love Lincoln Center with its three vibrant theaters looking out on Broadway and Columbus streets and its fountain bubbling forth, forming a wonderful white backdrop for the figures of people hanging out around it before performances. It’s a beautiful space. Before Beethoven’s 9^th, we had to listen to a new modern tribute to it, composed by Turnage. Some people probably celebrate this piece, but I found it an atonal replication of some of the gang fight songs of West Side Story. Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, on the other hand, was a tribute to that work. The choral parts filled Avery Fisher Hall and were glorious.

Saturday morning, we again tried a Room Service breakfast and headed north on an A train as early as possible, which for us, was around 10 am . We took the subway all the way up to 181^st Street, my Mum’s old neighborhood. We walked around the old park, up Pinehurst Avenue and to Fort Tryon Park. I have many happy memories of walking through that park as a child with my grandparents and to my eye, it appeared unchanged.

We arrived at the Cloisters around 12N. The Cloisters with its many inner courtyards, medieval stone pillars and artwork, is a sanctuary.

In celebration of the 75^th anniversary of the Cloisters being open to the public, they were playing the wonderful 40 part choral piece by Thomas Talis in one of the chapels. The 40 voices were separated and each part was playing out of a separate speaker. The result was to be part of what sounded like a live performance of a 15^th Century choral work in a 12^th Century chapel with wonderful acoustics. It was beautiful and everyone present stood with their eyes closed, in a trance.

We walked back to 190^th Street and took the A train back to Columbus Circle. We had more time to rest and get ready than previous nights, but somehow suddenly, we were heading out again for dinner and an evening event. We walked up to Café Fiorellos and the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. At Fiorellos we dined on huge pizzas and an enormous “open-faced” lasagna, but after the incredible service and experience at Jean Georges the night before, it was hard to measure up. The food was good and it was wonderfully close to Lincoln Center. We left with a half hour to spare, to enjoy the lead-up to the Opera.

The people are always so interesting at the Opera. There you see people in slacks and sweaters along with couples walking in black tie with diamonds sparkling; Groups of students giggling standing along side season ticket holders and couples who look like they might own major parts of New York. I had splurged and bought tickets just a few rows up from the stage on the main floor. My Mum was delighted with her close-in seat. We also love the translation screens of the Opera text which are displayed on the seat backs in front of each attendee. Your screen is only visible to you and it is so nice to follow along with the words to the songs. Here's the view up to the ceiling from our seats.

We saw Cossi fan Tutti or something like “Women are always like that”. It is a Mozart opera which is not very complimentary to either men or women. But, it is a comedy of hidden identities, misrepresentations, and people becoming trapped in their own schemes. The only challenge is its 3 and half hour length. But, it was very grand to be there and each of us enjoyed the setting, the environment, and the seemingly effortless singing. The Metropolitan Opera is always excellent. I’m not a huge Opera fan (my Mum is), but the Met is always worthwhile. Last year’s Marriage of Figaro there was one of the finest productions of anything I have ever seen.

Luckily, NYC never sleeps and as we walked back at 12M, we were surrounded by other theater goers and people out on the town.

On Sunday, our last day, we took a taxi to the upper East side to visit an old friend of mine for breakfast. After a wonderful meal and seeing the East River with him, we walked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view their current textile show and photography of Julia Margaret Cameron. Both were excellent. Cameron’s portraits of family and friends of her time (mid-1800s) are glowing with soft light and captivating.

We taxied back to our hotel and left for La Guardia airport. My Mum was feeling nervous about her flight, so we left with about three hours to spare. Last year at the end of October, our flight was one of the last out of LGA prior to the Hurricane Sandy hitting New York, so we were grateful for on-time departures and no storms this year. After sunny days in the 70s in NYC, we were shocked to return to Des Moines to find rain and 50 F. Four action packed days in NYC and now, thankfully, sleep.  

 

September 12 - 15, 2013 - Long Weekend in Boston and Maine

Long Weekend in Boston and Maine

September 12 – 15, 2013

We have booked more travel than usual this Fall, using Luisa’s stay with us as an excuse. We decided to take her along with us as often as possible when we have the chance to travel. With this in mind, we took Alle and Luisa with us to visit Boston and coastal Maine when we were invited to a wedding September 14^th in Kennebunk, Maine.

The four of us flew to Boston early Thursday morning, after leaving our sleeping boys for the longest time we will be apart from them since they were born. They will be in good hands with their nanny, Savanna. We arrived in time to take a Boston Duck ride from the Prudential building, which is close to our hotel, the Fairmont at Copley Square. We settled into our two rooms, separated by four floors for some reason, and set out for the Duck tour. It was a good, quick tour of the top Boston attractions, as well as the mandatory dunk into the Charles River to have a quick look at Cambridge from a distance.  Here's our Duck Boat/Bus sliding into the river (as reflected in a near-by mirror).

 

We took Luisa to Legal Seafood for her birthday dinner that evening and were the last ones in the place as we ordered almost one of everything on the menu and then dessert.

On Friday, we did touristy things we have never done while in Boston before. We walked the Freedom Trail and then took the T (subway train) over to Cambridge for lunch and the Harvard University tour. The Freedom Trail is a wonderful walk around all of the best sites of colonial Boston. I have seen most of them before, but it was more interesting seeing them all together in one walk and thinking about the time and the actions of the people there as the US moved towards independence.  

 

Being in Harvard Square is like seeing an old friend, but it was new to Alle and Luisa. So, the Harvard tour was a good introduction for them.

It was fun to walk into Cardullo’s (shop of gourmet items), which I remember from spending summers near-by when I was between the ages of five and fifteen. I also forced the girls to walk west to see where I used to live and more interestingly, Longfellow House and its lovely gardens and view to Memorial Drive and the Charles River.

We went back to the North End for dinner later that night and had an amazing meal at Ristorante Saraceno, a small family run Italian restaurant on Hanover Street.  We found out the easiest way to embarrass teenage girls is to be serenaded by street musicians (whom we had to pay, of course) as we ate our gelato from a near-by gelato shop afterwards.

Saturday, we left the area after taking more photos of rowers on the Charles and of Memorial Drive on a beautiful, crisp Fall day.

We drove north about an hour and half to Ogunquit, Maine. We were staying at the hotel recommended by the wedding party and I had made the incorrect assumption that it would be near the wedding and reception. They both turned out to be another half hour away and so we broke a few traffic laws trying to make the wedding on time.

After a lovely, and unfortunately, very on-time wedding in a small church in Kennebuck, we had a chance to congratulate the bride’s father, who is an old college roommate of Ricardo’s.

We went to the reception, ate wonderful food, tried to figure out Tom’s statistics of the wedding guests (!), and danced with our teenagers.

On Sunday, we had another amazingly clear, sunny late summer’s day on the coast of Maine. We walked the Marginal Way in Ogunquit and at one end of it, ate truly fabulous lobster rolls at the Lobster Shack in Perkin’s Cove. There are other restaurants and ordering windows right near the Lobster Shack, but they are only trying to pretend they are the Lobster Shack. The real thing has the best food.

We then drove to Manchester, New Hampshire to try the new flights to Des Moines on Southwest Airlines. All in all, we had an action packed four days and we hope a wonderful four day introduction to the northern East Coast of the US for Luisa.

 

Day 21 – Back in Iowa

Day 21 – Back Home in Iowa

August 17, 2013

We arrived home at 2:30 am and carried our two sleeping boys up to their beds. They had tried valiantly to stay awake to see our house and cats when we arrived, but as bedtime came and went, each of them fell asleep.

4,030 miles. 3,286 photos (on my camera cards). Five people ready to sleep in our own beds and take real showers.

When we woke up this morning, I felt as if I had been on a boat for three weeks. I was off balance and kept expecting our bathroom to sway and tilt back and forth.  The boys and I walked out our back door and into our yard and I said “What a great campsite! We have our own waterfall, a big grassy area, a sandbox and two cats.” Peter said, “and our own swing!”

We unpacked the camper as we started, by putting everything into bins and placing them in our garage for later sorting and putting away. I started the first of about 20 loads of laundry and we all cleared out the RV. I feel grateful that the engine, brakes and tires all worked for the whole trip. Unfortunately, the rest of the features to support actually living in the RV were either broken or worn out. It felt good to say thank you and good bye to it.

Later in the day after we cleaned the RV, Ricardo left to return it, and I showered, I decided that we have the best shower in the world. It was nice to feel truly clean. It was also nice to setup my laptop, plug it in and have both power and an Internet connection. Both of those were hard to find during our three week road trip.

To start our next chapter, after Ricardo left with the RV and I showered, the kids and I left for the airport to pick up Luisa, one of Alle’s cousins who will be living with us for the next five months as an International exchange student from Germany at our high school. Tomorrow, we will all visit the Iowa State Fair (the biggest and the best in the world!) and start getting the girls ready to start school next week.

Thanks for your interest and reading. Safe travels and happy camping.

Self Portrait on Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park

 

Day 20 – Custer State Park, South Dakota to Iowa

Day 20 – Custer State Park, South Dakota to Iowa

August 16-17, 2013

Today became our last day on the road. We had a big breakfast at our campsite; the kids woke up the way I remember from my childhood camping – by the sounds of pots and pans and the smell of eggs and bacon. We were trying to leave early, but it was 10:30 am once we finally packed up and left the Legion Lake campground of Custer State Park. The drive was beautiful to Rapid City, SD and then the landscape slowly became more flat and less varied as we headed across South Dakota.

South Dakota has done a good job of promoting quirky tourist stops. Mount Rushmore began as a project to bring tourists into the Black Hills area of SD.  As we drove, we started to see signs for another called Wall Drug. I have never stopped, but as far as I can tell, it is a large store with lots of facets and gimmicks to bring people into the town of Wall, SD. They begin advertising it in roadside signs and billboards about 100 miles from the actual location. We tried to glimpse it from the highway, but did not stop.

About four hours later, we did stop at another SD promotion, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The signs for it brought us in a big loop around the downtown area. The Corn Palace is an event center which has been decorated on its outside walls and some interior walls with ears of corn.

Each year the town decorates it differently, but the building essentially houses what looks like a basketball court. We took a few photos, bought some corn, and found a place for dinner. Our dinner place did turn out to be a find, a steak (and pasta for the boys) house called Chef Louie’s. Over our rather large dinners, we decided that we were up for the additional five hours it would take to reach home in Iowa.

So, we are still on the road at 1 am. The boys are asleep in the back of the RV. Ricardo and Alle are on their respective iPhones listening to music. Ricardo is driving and I’m trying to type on the bumpy road of Interstate 80 heading east. We were going to have one last night of camping at Niobrara or even a KOA on the border of South Dakota and Iowa, but we all want to get home.

Day 19 – Black Hills, Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park, South Dakota

Day 19 – Black Hills, Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park, South Dakota

August 16, 2013

I woke up today dry (after the thunderstorms last night) and without a headache (after a mind numbing and nauseating migraine) – wonderful! We all had showers this morning at this RV park, which is a great and rare addition to our morning. I showered with the boys, which is always exciting and fast paced. We made our way back to camp after watching the real excitement for the day – the garbage truck pick up the dumpster outside the bath house – and had breakfast. Everyone was in good spirits today and we set off for Mount Rushmore.

We were prepared for seeing the largest crowds yet on our trip and were pleasantly surprised. The drive to Mt Rushmore is very beautiful and winds through the Black Hills forests. We loved seeing all of the bison intimidating tourists on the roads

and the many stone bridges that our RV just managed to squeeze through.

The National Memorial of Mt Rushmore certainly has the most infrastructure of any national park we have been to with attendants directing each vehicle to vast amounts of parking, huge stone steps leading to a promenade of all of the US states' flags framing the mountainside with stone carved statues of four of our presidents. In 2010, the park service added an amphitheater and many more steps creating an all-day tourist handling machine.

We walked up and took the mandatory photos of the statues.

I was most interested in the park ranger talk at the sculpture studio. There, we saw the models for the carvings and heard about the process of carving. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglulm created the scale models and made the measurements. A huge group of men, mostly miners and construction workers who were able to handle air tools and explosives hung from trapezes to cut away the rock. They worked on the carvings for 17 years until the sculptor died; his son took over for a short time and the project ended in 1941, without some of the planned detail of clothing and surroundings being completed.

Here is a rarely seen profile view of Mt Rushmore.

From Mt. Rushmore, we made our way to Hill City, which is a quaint western style town with a mix of Indian art, back country stores selling packing gear, and biker shops with Sturgis merchandise on sale (the big biker rally in Sturgis, SD was last week). We found Keen sandals for the boys to replace their old and tattered ones, ate lunch and sampled the ice cream there. After Hill City, we drove by the Crazy Horse site, but only looked from afar at the partial statue. We felt a bit burned out of seeing huge stone carvings in hillsides. We returned to Legion Lake campground and went swimming. The lake became more and more calm into the evening.

After dinner of steak grilled on the campfire and more corn on the cob (boys’ favorite), we sat under the stars and tried to remember campfire songs to sing together. Alle brought her guitar and ukulele along. Tomorrow, we cross SD, visit the Corn Palace and camp our final night at Niobrara on the border of SD and NE. Iowa is not far away now.

Day 18 – Billings, MT to Devil’s Tower to Custer State Park, South Dakota

Day 18 – Billings, MT to Devil’s Tower to Custer State Park, South Dakota

August 14, 2013

After showers and a breakfast, we got back on the road in Billings, Montana. Our drive today was long and much of it was on Interstate 90 across Montana. I tried to help drive more today and managed to exit around Sheridan, MT. We drove down the Main Street to try to find a market or grocery store for fresh bread. It was one of the larger towns we saw, but we did not find any food stores. A man outside an antique sign shop gave us directions to an Albertsons. Albertsons was another exit east and in the middle of the ugly sign filled urban sprawl part of Sheridan. We had our lunch on the road, heading east.

I drove to Devil’s Tower with Alle riding shotgun and helping navigate. Ricardo sat in back, playing with the boys and ultimately taking a nap. Afterwards, he said that he got more of a taste for being in the RV as a passenger, and “it’s awful”. It can be quite nauseating in back, especially on hills when there is a gas smell coming in from the exhaust. Peter and Ricardo slept, while Ted built different magnetic cars with one of the new games I had brought for the trip.

We loved Devil’s Tower, a National Monument in the northeastern corner of Montana. It rises up from the land and we caught glimpses of it as we made turns in the small roads leading to it. There is nothing really around the huge monolithic tower of rock and it is not on the way to anywhere. One has to just want to see it and find it in the countryside. The tower is a sacred site for many of the Native America Indian groups from this area. One of the legends about it tells of a family of seven daughters and one son. The son turns into a large bear and hunts his sisters. The women go to the top of the land, which rises up to protect them. The bear scratches the sides of the tower, giving it large groves in the sides, which today aid the many rock climbers who try to scale it. The area around the tower is kept natural and it is a lovely site.

From Devil’s Tower, we took smaller roads heading south and east into South Dakota. Unfortunately, the migraine headache which had been chasing me for the past two nights came on with a vengeance. I ended the day, groaning in the back of the RV as Ricardo navigated in heavy rain to Custer State Park, a bit east of Custer City, SD. We are in the Legion Lake campground for the next two nights.  Here is Legion Lake of the Black Hills, SD.

I made dinner for the gang around 8 pm and went to bed. At about midnight, I woke from snoring around me and moved to sleep above the driving area with Alle. I woke up Alle because I thought she was sleeping downhill. So, we went outside to check and see the stars. Out here without much civilization around us, the stars are so vibrant and bright. We noticed that the RV was downhill on one side and went in and shifted our beds. About two hours later, another thunderstorm blew through and I felt a bit of rain. One of the other features of this dilapidated RV is that the sunlight above Alle’s space is stuck open.  It started to pour in on us and I lept up and woke up Alle again. We succeeded in taping plastic grocery bags over the opening and went back to sleep. The adventure continues.

Day 17 – Canyon Campground, Yellowstone Park through the Beartooth Scenic By-way to Billings, MT

Day 17 – Canyon Campground, Yellowstone Park through the Beartooth Scenic By-way to Billings, MT

August 13, 2013

Here is the view from our stop for road work in the Beartooth Valley just northeast of the northeast entrance, or in our case, exit from Yellowstone.

We left our campsite at Canyon Campground in Yellowstone Park this morning

and stopped at the large and too-commercial Canyon Valley center of shops and visitor center. It is one of the newer centers in the Park and it handles large crowds. We purchased a toy replica of the historic yellow Yellowstone buses (to complement the red bus we purchased in Glacier),

some hats, t-shirts and ice and were on our way. We have two reservations tonight; another night at Canyon or Buffalo Bill State Park in Cody, WY. We’ve decided to head towards Cody.

Our first stop was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It is spectacular. We stayed on the north rim and the pull-outs along the separate one-way loop road include three inspiring vistas.  The first was of the falls of the Yellowstone River. It falls over 300 feet into the canyon.

The canyon itself is about 1400 feet deep, 24 miles long, and 2400 feet across. Here the “yellow stone” for which the park was named is more clearly visible. The Yellowstone River continues from the falls in a fast paced rush of white and deep green water. We enjoyed every walk and view of this area.

The boys were so excited about their new Yellowstone hats that even Ted was willing to pose for pictures.

At one point as we were looking back towards the river and falls, an osprey glided past us and into the canyon.

A storm blew up on our last vista stop, so we decided to stay for a quick lunch in our RV in the rain. Everyone is still enjoying lunches of random sandwiches with a variety of luncheon meats, left-over meats from dinners, and, of course, PB and J. Alle and Ricardo had PB and B or with banana. We still have about 20 pounds of the about 30 pounds of salt water taffy I brought along from home, so it was salt water taffy all around for dessert.

After lunch, we headed through Lamar Valley to the northeast corner of Yellowstone Park. It is known for wildlife sightings. Ricardo had heard wolves in this area last night, but we spotted mainly bison herds.  After exiting the park, we headed north to see the Beartooth Range and valley. It is a 65 mile rambling scenic route, winding into Montana and back to Wyoming.  The Beartooth Highway is a National "By-way" and has been called America's Most Beautiful Drive by Charles Kuralt. Parts of it were more breathtaking than the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier.

From here we planned to head south again to Cody, WY.  Instead, we spent so much time on the winding mountain roads of Beartooth, driving at over 10K feet, mostly above the tree line and through lingering snow,

we stopped for dinner in Red Lodge, MT and decided to stay the night near-by, outside of Billings, MT.

We are now officially on our way home –  to Devil's Tower, WY, Custer State Park in South Dakota and into Iowa over the next four days.

Day 16 – Northern Yellowstone National Park, Canyon Campground

Day 16 – Northern Yellowstone National Park, Canyon Campground

August 12, 2013

Today was an exhausting day; the boys were stroppy and difficult most of the day. On the bright side, we saw the beautiful sites of northern Yellowstone. From the hike around Tower Falls



(the rest of the family took the unofficial trail down to the river -- I took photos),

to the interesting white and orange travertine terraces of Mammoth Falls and River,

and finishing with huge open valleys around Norris,

where we spotted bison and elk.

We pulled into our new campsite in Canyon for a lovely fireside meal of rack of lamb grilled over the fire. It helps to eat really good food while camping!

Day 15 – East Glacier, Montana to Canyon Campground in Yellowstone, WY

Day 15 – East Glacier, Montana to Canyon Campground in Yellowstone, WY

August 11, 2013

The drive from East Glacier Park to northern Yellowstone Park is a bit of a crazy drive to attempt with two three year olds in an RV in one day, but we wanted to get back to Yellowstone to see the northern half and we had reserved a spot in Canyon for three nights. So, we decided to go for it.

Ricardo started his day very early at 6 am, driving in our rental car from East Glacier to the airport near Kalispell, MT to return our car and pick back up our RV. Glacier does not allow trucks and RVs over a certain length onto the park roads, so we’ve had a rental SUV for the past three days. It is about four hours round trip. The rest of us got us leisurely, said good-bye to the large stuffed bear in the teepee inside the lodge,

ate at the breakfast buffet at the Glacier Park Lodge, dipped our toes in the swimming pool outside, and visited the gift shop. The boys are enamored with the red jammer buses in Glacier Park, so we purchased a small toy version.

When Ricardo returned, we packed up the RV and were on our way again at around 11:45 am. Not early, but with enough time to complete the eight hour drive.

In hindsight, it probably would have been better to find a camping spot before Yellowstone, in Gallatin Canyon, for example, but we drove on. Luckily, it is a lovely drive. The first half is through completely open, ranch lands first on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, then in central Montana. We drove on Montanta highway 89 and then 287, stopping briefly in the friendly town of Choteau. Both of these smaller highways go south all the way to Yellowstone. The shortest route includes some time on Interstates 15 and 90.

We also stopped for gas in Manhattan, MT when I realized today was the first day I could book individual tickets for the Metropolitan Opera in NYC for our visit with my Mum in October. While Ricardo filled the RV with gas and my family sat patiently, I got Internet access via Ricardo’s iPhone hotspot and tried to secure four tickets. It was one of those somewhat silly attempts to connect with a different reality in the middle of a holiday and in the middle of nowhere.  Somehow I did manage to select seats, enter my credit card information and purchase tickets while we bounced around on the highway after our stop.

We decided to take a bit of a longer route through the Gallatin Canyon and enter Yellowstone via West Yellowstone. The Gallatin River and Canyon are worth the extra time. Route 191 is a scenic and beautiful route, used for the river scenes in the movie “A River Runs Through It”.

We saw many fly fishermen on the river and even glimpsed the light filled snap of a fly cast as we looked back and took photos from the RV.

We drove up the mountain to see the Big Sky skiing areas, which we had not been to before.

We entered Yellowstone late in the day, a bit before 8 pm and were surprised by the commercial section of West Yellowstone. Suddenly, after seeing mostly cattle and horses and only a smattering of small towns during our drive, we were surrounded with lots of pedestrians eating ice cream, loud t-shirt shops and fast food signs. We haven’t seen a McDonalds or KFC sign for most of our trip. My inclination was to go through as quickly as possible and seek the quiet of Yellowstone.

It was another hour from the west entrance of Yellowstone past the Madison and Norris campsites to Canyon. Entering the park when the rest of sane campers are either eating or relaxing near their campfires has its benefits. We had empty roads and beautiful views of the sunset framed with mountains or river valleys. We also spotted many elk groups wandering in the stream valleys.  We enjoyed some local Windy River, WY sausages in Choteau, MT market buns for a very late but happy-to-get-here meal.

Day 14 – Glacier National Park, MT

Day 14 – Glacier National Park

August 10, 2013

I am glad that as I write these notes, Microsoft Word completes the date for me. I have no idea what day of the week it is and I could only guess at the date. We have been on the road for two weeks.

Today, we explored the small town of East Glacier for breakfast and dinner and in between drove through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation town of Browning to Many Glaciers part of the park. At the heart of Many Glaciers is the historic Many Glaciers Hotel. It is a similar wooden structure and age to the lodge we are staying in, but it sits at the shores of Swift Current Lake surrounded by mountains and some small glaciers. This morning, the lake was calm and had a mirror like surface.

We were lucky enough to get tickets for the two lake boat ride across first Swift Current Lake and then after a short hike between lakes, across Josephine Lake. There are only 49 seats on each boat and reservations are taken up to three days prior. We were not that organized and were glad to find that they set aside a few seats each trip for people on a waiting list. The boat ride is mellow and beautiful. The views are the most spectacular I think one can have without mountain climbing. The lakes at Many Glacier were my favorite spot of our trip.

After spending the whole afternoon there, we climbed back into our van and headed back towards East Glacier. Based on our experience last night, we were expecting about a two hour drive, which thankfully only took about an hour and 15 minutes. We multi-tasked before dinner with Ricardo doing laundry in the small town, the kids and I shopping for Christmas gifts in a wooden spoon shop, and all of us meeting for dinner at Luna’s. Alle was very excited to find that the wooden carvers made Harry Potter like wands. She selected one and heard the full story about its construction. She signed a special registry and received the numbered wand.

While we ate our second ice cream of the day after dinner, we had the treat of seeing the once-a-day Amtrak Empire Builder train arrive in East Glacier. Many people got off and many people got on the sleeper cars headed for Seattle. It was running a few hours late, but perhaps that is part of the charm. I sent an email to my Mum, who is a huge fan of train travel and Amtrak.  Ted was so terrified of how huge real trains are when they are arriving in front of you, he went with Alle to sit in our car to watch.

We are now gearing up to pick back up our RV, pack and leave Glacier National Park tomorrow morning. We have our longest day tomorrow if we are to reach Canyon Campgrounds in northern Yellowstone Park.