STOP! Have you read the previous posting? This is part 2. If you want to read the first one change it above. The dates are a bit out of whack as we lost initial blog and we are currently updating it...
Part 1 is under October 2011
Ok, so here we go...
Our first stop was at Napa, the wine capital of California which is just North of San Francisco. By the time we settled in at the RV Park it was mid afternoon and so our parents decided to just go for a drive (and skip the wine tasting). We even found Jordi’s winery!
On the way back we found a great little park which is specially designed for dogs (what a great idea!). We stopped for a while and played with two giant huskies (they were so friendly).
When we got back to camp, we decided it would be great to go for a swim. While we splashed in the pool in the afternoon mummy and daddy plotted our itinerary and tried to make sense out of all the books, maps and brochures that ‘Diligent Bob’ supplied us with.
Redwoods
Oh, we are so grateful to Bob and Mary-Ann that they recommended this area and to this particular campground! Oh, wow! Words cannot describe it! It was like camping in an enchanted fairytale land! Massive redwoods reaching all the way to the sky with rays of sunshine peeking through, giant logs and stumps to climb on - decorated with ferns and moss and leaves. Nature’s spectacular display of beauty!
And to top it all of we met our neighbors: an awesome family from Vancouver that we are going to call “Super Js” -Super because they were super and Js because all of Graham and Christine's children's names stared with J: Jessica, Josie, Jack and Jenna.
We spent the most wonderful two days with them going on different adventures through the redwoods, playing in their tent, cycling through the campground (little Jenna was our age and was gracious enough to share her bike with us) and climbing any massive tree stumps that we could manage.
All 6 of us also attended the Junior Ranger course with wonderful Ranger Richard who showed us how to make clay imprints of animal tracks.
We even went for a walk to the river and looked for all sorts of tracks and traces of animals. We found some footprints of deer, a fox and even a bobcat.
Once we finished our course and answered lots of questions we were once again sworn in as Junior Rangers. This time we got our badges from the Redwoods National Park.
After the Junior Ranger Program we all went for an adventure. First a drive through the Avenue of the Giants and then a hike to the tallest Redwood Tree. It was massive! The tree we saw in the Sequoia National Park was the fattest, this one the tallest! We learned that there are a few ways to gauge what is "biggest". Either way, both of these trees were huge!
At night we all celebrated fantastic day with what else but….S’mores around the campfire, LOL.
The next morning, we finished our homework, said goodbye to the redwoods and their beautiful wild residents who were spoiling us with their visits for the last two days….and off we went again.
Our friends: Chipmunks
Blue Jays
We were very sad to see our ‘Super J’ friends go. They had to leave as they were finishing their 2 month adventure and had to go back home to Vancouver, Canada. Maybe we will see them again one day….
Mt Shasta.
Ok, we definitely learned not too trust the GPS. It told us this morning it’ll take us 4.5 hrs to get to Mt Shasta. It was a windy road so we gave it a benefit of doubt but after arriving at Mt Shasta after a 10 hr drive, we decided to only take major roads from now on.
Mummy was so excited that we finally arrived in Mt Shasta as there are some waterfalls which she has once seen in a stunning photograph and ever since she saw them she wanted to come to America to photograph them. So we got up early in the morning, put our trekking boots on and off we went to information center to learn how to get to the falls.
You have no idea how disappointed mummy was when she found out that the actual track to the falls had been closed off for 12 months! She didn’t speak for half an hour and then she told daddy that she doesn’t want to take pictures of anything anymore L
Our Daddy however didn’t give up. He said “let’s drive there; we have GPS coordinates so lets find it. There must be a way”. We got to the parking lot in half an hour and spoke to a man named Brian who just arrived and was releasing Rainbow Trout fish into the river. He told us that the only way to get to the falls was to walk along the train tracks but he said not to go there because the workers on the track will turn us around. It seemed the only way to get to the falls was along the train line.
We talked to Brian for a little while and watched him release the fish and then, like a miracle, Angellique appeared. Angellique is a 65 year old widow of the late Dr Pontier. She is originally from Switzerland and she now works as a missionary for Mother Theresa mission. Needles to say, she just adores kids and (of course) she instantly fell in love with us.
When Angellique found out we were planning to only stay one night, she absolutely insisted we stay longer. She told us to bring our RV across to her place and she will become our host taking us on the most amazing tracks, including the ‘forbidden falls’, which of course mummy could NOT possibly say ‘no’ to.
Little did we know that this detour would become a 6-day ‘hiking boot camp’ as Angelique happens to be a seasoned hiker and when she says she will show us a lake it means a 3hr, 2000ft climb to the most spectacular view. Nobody but Bella could keep up with her.
Although we got a heck of a workout, we also got totally spoiled by a lady who became our adopted granny for a week. She even insisted we shift into her master guest room full of stunning antiques. Mummy and Daddy gave up saying ‘no’ to Angellique after the second day. Not only did she have amazingly persuasive powers but she had so much love to give and us being there made her so happy that our parents just let her spoil us…
First she took us on a hike to see Castle Lake – from the top of a ridge of course. After climbing the rocks for 3 hrs we realized that one could not possibly appreciate the lake without being in this spot. And not only the lake…check out the view of Mt Shasta (second tallest mountain in US, only a few feet short of one in Alaska). Needless to say, Bella pointed straight out and said ‘can we climb this mountain, Angellique?’
The next day we went to see mummy’s favorite place, Mossbrae Falls. To get access onto the track, Angellique did a little negotiation and put a ‘magic spell’ onto the rail workers and got us access with train timetable at hand (so that we could safely get to the falls).
After walking along the track for half an hour and truly realizing why this track had been closed to tourists we got down to the most spectacular place we have ever seen! Wow! Mummy was so happy she stood there mesmerized. Check out some of the pictures she took. You like?
Over the next few days we also visited a town called McCloud where Angellique’s friend owns a hotel. They happened to have a Buddhist retreat on where some Indian Guru had attracted lots of people from all over the world.
So we decided to join them for a session of meditation. Well, the girls did, daddy decided that it was not his ‘cup of tea’ so he went for a walk instead. None of us had done this before and so it was quite strange. As it was a ‘healing’ session there were people sitting and laying everywhere. The Guru didn’t say much. In fact he was sitting there with his eyes closed most of the time. We think he might have been asleep. Pity he missed the session.
Remember how Bella asked Angellique if we could climb Mt Shasta? Well, we did! Sort of. It would take three full days to get to the top but we managed to get to the first patch of snow. It didn’t look that far from the car park but after a few hours of climbing our parents were asking ‘ why are we going there again?’. They said it was a bit of a ‘Shasta’ of a mountain to climb but we thought it was a great adventure!
Well, we finally got to the snow – right in the middle of summer we got to throw snow balls at each other, boot-ski down the mountain and build a fabulous polar bear which we named Shasta (for obvious reasons).
We also went to Kangaroo Lake and met some Aussies from Geelong fishing. Trust an Aussie to find Kangaroo Lake!
We also found some deer, which were not shy at all. They even came and ate some flowers out of our hands.
We went to some more waterfalls, McCloud Upper, Middle and Lower ones. All trekking…
We also went to Hedge Creek falls.
One day, while exploring, daddy accidentally took a wrong turn and since Angellique was too busy entertaining us, we realized that we were heading into another state with very little fuel left. So we decided that instead of going back home, we might as well just embrace our adventurous spirit and keep going towards the sunset.
We pulled up to a Walmart (a cross of Safeway and Kmart) and stocked up on new toothbrushes, jammies and change of clothes and by midnight we found accommodation, which served sensational waffles for breakfast. We were set.
In the morning we went off to Crater Lake, which is in a National Park in Oregon. The lake was once an active volcanic mountain that collapsed onto itself creating a massive bowl. Being so high up it got covered in snow and when it melted it created the deepest lake in the United States with water so crystal clear and blue that it makes one, even as little as us, say WOW!
Being a National Park we enquired about their Junior Ranger program, which made us busy learning all sorts of things. We had to answer lots and lots of questions and at the end we ended up with a new Junior Ranger badge. We are starting a seriously good collection of badges.
On our last day at Angellique’s we hiked her favorite trail along the river. We climbed trees and we climbed some rocks. We even found some beautiful leaves called Elephant Ears and we made all sorts of outfits out of them. The hats looked pretty good…
Angellique was so sad to see us go. She made us promise that we will come visit her again. We certainly will miss her.
Just before we left Mt Shasta, we found out that the documents we were waiting for (from Australia) would take another 2 weeks to arrive in San Francisco where we have to redo our passports. This means that we are starting to run out of time to travel North into Canada and across as we would get caught up in bad weather. And with the big rig behind us daddy doesn’t want to risk getting caught in snow and driving on icy roads.
Our initial plan was to be in Vancouver, Canada by now and be on the East Coast by late autumn where mummy was so looking forward to taking pictures of the deciduous trees and landscapes. It looks like we will be lucky if we get to Canada by then. Oh boy, the plan needed some major changes.
So what we decided to do is travel up to Canadian border through Oregon and Washington and instead of meeting up with mummy’s best friend Monika in Canada (she hasn’t seen her for 20 years) we’ll ask them to come over the border to catch up with us for a weekend in the USA before we have to go back to San Francisco to get our passports replaced.
Once that is done we would FLY to Canada so that we can get visas re issued (the visa, which we have received in Australia only works with the old passport and the only way to get a new one is to be OUTSIDE of the USA).
Once we get to Canada, we’ll get our visas and maybe even catch up with some of the wonderful friends we have met along the way who were from Vancouver. Then we can fly back to San Francisco (back to our car and RV caravan) and change our itinerary to go anti clock-wise and stay in safer weather patterns.
Anyway, it is all mumbo-jumbo to us. Lucky mummy deals well with all sorts of stresses at work so this is just another ‘little obstacle’ our parents need to solve. Makes no difference to us – we are having a ball regardless!
OREGON - 8th of September 2011
And so the journey continues…
During our drive mummy and daddy saw this dilapidated house. They kind of have a ‘fascination’ about old barns and houses. Mummy had to jump whole bunch of wire fences to take photos. She got totally covered and scratched in those prickly balls and blackberry bushes. Too bad she had shorts on and thongs (flip-flops).
Hope you like the picture though….
We crossed the border today after driving for a whole day. We arrived at Harris Beach and checked into a glorified car park – an RV, concrete park - right on the beach. Unfortunately we didn’t see the spectacular sunset this area is so known for – the whole place was covered in fog.
The next day we traveled North a little more, thoroughly enjoying the beautiful Oregon Coast. We stopped on the beach for a few hours and while mummy was busy taking photos, we built all sorts of infrastructures…
9th September 2011
Today we arrived at town called Bandon, which is also in Oregon. We came here because we found some brochures saying that they have a zoo here which allows you to pet some baby animals. And wow, what a treat we got! They had two baby tigers and a baby leopard on display!
When we first got into this little but by far the most interesting zoo, we were greeted by a Lemur called Julian who asked to rub his back. He was adorable! He held our fingers with his soft and delicate little hands and he even gave Jordi a kiss on her lips, LOL.
While we were wandering through the park we were suddenly surrounded by a herd of goats, sheep, lamas and donkeys that were released for us to enjoy. They all came up for a pet and then wondered off to an area where they had a buffet breakfast- yummy hay.
A little baby goat got left behind and started to follow us instead so we both walked him over to the herd where his mummy was hitching a ride on top of a donkey. He was very grateful we helped him find his mummy and so after his breakfast he became our buddy for the rest of the day.
As we walked back to the main part of the park we saw another herd coming toward us. This time it was a stunning herd of deer with lots of beautiful babies, Ohhhh!
Then there was a friendly flock of geese…
And when we thought this day could not be any better we heard an announcement that we could come up and meet Rocco - a baby tiger! We were so lucky we where here on a weekday outside of school holidays so the park was not that busy (which was fantastic). We got to spend a little time with Rocco, pat him and take some photos. He was so adorable!
The lady then brought out a baby Leopard that was also soooo adorable! We got to pat him too.
We then got to hold a baby possum.
And some nice ferrets
And we got to pat a Skunk, which had his stinky glands removed and was as nice as a pussycat.
Then we met Rocco’s sister ‘Truly Scrumptious’ who was happy to hop on our laps and indulge in her bottle. She was so sweet and soft like a big puppy dog. Scrumptious indeed.
We had such an awesome experience in this zoo. We would so highly recommend it to anyone. It was totally ace! Only the Chimp was a bit upset we were leaving!
He probably wanted to hop into this car with us
We then went for a meal and some browsing in the old town of Bandon where we have learned that the zoo we went to is actually owned by Steve Irwin wife’s family. That would explain why it was so good.
We also met a lady who was playing a Harp and some other interesting looking instruments. She showed us how to play it; what a wonderful sound it made.
11 September 2011
We next drove up to Tillamook. Bob and Mary-Ann told us to stop here to sample some cheeses in their famous cheese making factories. Since we drove for most of the day, we only got a chance to go to one. It was a French Cheese one called the Blue Herron.
On the way to the campground we went past a camping shop so we decided to stop and buy some fishing rods. Oh, boy, guess what else we saw at this shop??? Guns!!! All sorts of little to down right massive ones. This is where hunters come in to buy their gear. It was just scary! And all those poor animal’s heads stuck on the wall….
Bella of course didn’t miss an opportunity to tell the owner that she did not like his shop because he was selling guns and he had these animals killed. Luckily enough he understood her point of view and had a good sense of humor and so we walked away unharmed, phew! (lol)
Because we got to camp so late we decided to have dinner at good all McDonald’s, which sure enough, had a massive playground. While we were having great time going down the slides, mummy and daddy were studying maps to work out our next days’ destination. Looking like ‘lost tourist’ they have attracted attention of a lovely couple who were sitting next to them.
And this is how we met Will and Ella, seasoned travellers who have been travelling FULL TIME for the last 5 years. They gave our parents lots of different tips and invited us to come to their private member’s RV Park the next day.
In the morning we went to the famous Tillamook Cheese factory. We’ve been seeing their cheeses in the supermarkets but this time we actually got a chance to see how they package it up. It was very interesting. So was tasting their famous ice-cream – although it was very hard choosing from 28 different flavours!
We never really saw how they make the flavors. Daddy said they feed different cows with different things; one eats chocolate, another strawberries, another toffee and so on. But we think he was only pulling our leg. Wouldn’t they get bored eating the same thing all the time?
After lunch we rang Ella and Will who we met last night at McDonalds. They invited us over to their campsite and talked their manager to let us stay overnight (it was a membership only RV Park).
We had such a good time with them. Will and Ella have retired from their ‘normal life’ and now are living their dream on the road. And what a comfortable life they live. Big coach towing a little convertible behind them. And their front yard and backyard changes whenever they want. What a life!
We spent a few hours playing hairdressers with Ella in their wonderful home on wheels. While she kept us occupied Will was teaching mummy and daddy all the ‘tricks of the trade’ of being on the road. We all have learned so much.
In the evening we all enjoyed a sensational sunset. So this is what it looks like when the cloud lifts? Wow!
In the morning we were invited to our new friends for breakfast, which was fabulous.
We then went for a walk to check out what other neighbors were up to.
We met Rick the painter who was doing a fabulous job so we stopped for a chat and he explanation on how to paint landscapes.
Then we met lots of people on the pier who were more than willing to teach us all about crabbing as this seemed to be the favorite past time.
This lady here explained to us the difference between a boy crab and a girl crab (girls have a round top and an oval, wider plate pattern). It is important for the fisherman to understand the difference as female crabs need to be released so they can have little baby crabs.
A boy of course!
A girl…
Here we helped releasing ‘the girls’ back into the ‘wild’.
This lady (Dorothy) must’ve really liked us because she decided to show us how we can clean and cook a crab. And then once it was all prepared she let us have it for lunch. Mummy licked her fingers while daddy filmed it from a safe distance, LOL
While we were preparing our crab, Bob next door arrived with his morning catch (Chinook Salmon) which was over 10kg big.
He also showed us how to clean the fish (check out the eggs, caviar he found).
After our morning culinary session we went back to check up on Rick and his new painting. He was so thrilled that we came back that he decided to give us his artwork. Ohhhh, we felt so special! And here is the picture with the artist, Rick Rheel.
It was very sad to say ‘bye’ to our friends: Ella and Will. It’s amazing how you can create friendships in such a short space of time (especially when you are treated to the most amazing blackberry cake). Ella even gave us her incredible blackberry jelly (jam, yum!) for the road. Thanks Ella!
And so we got on the road again. We stopped overnight in the town called Seaside (daddy needed to change oils in his car) and then we went to the last town on the Oregon coast, called Astoria.
Astoria is known here for some noisy, naughty seals which have taken over the fisherman’s wharf. Up they came and beached themselves on the walkways leaving fisherman baffled on how to get back to their boats.
After we left the seals we got onto the most amazing bridge, which took us across to the new state, the state of Washington. Check out the length and steepness of this bridge. Fancy a roller coaster?
13th September 2011 WASHINGTON
After we drove most of the day we got to the town called Forks, which is located in the far North West corner of USA. The town prides itself for being the Twilight capital of the world. This is the town where apparently the vampires and werewolves live from the famous book Twilight. The fact that the author has never been here before writing the book and the fact that the movie was not even filmed here certainly has not stopped the locals from embracing the theme.
In the Twilight Book - mum tells us - this Indian Tribe can turn into wolfs. Daddy said mummy was just pulling our leg...until we saw these in the morning on the beach...
We got up early in the morning to walk the beach, which was full of driftwood and magnificent agates. We collected lots of pretty little stones.
After our walk on the beach we drove to the Olympic National Park which is a stunning Rainforest draped in mystical mosses and exciting paths to explore. We were sure there were fairies hiding there somewhere.
Being a National Park, they offered Junior Ranger Programs, which as always encourage us to learn so much more than we would otherwise. We spent hours wondering through the forest jotting down notes, drawing pictures, smelling, touching and exploring. We were rewarded handsomely with brand new shiny badges. Yeeehaa!
From the National Park we drove all the way to the Canadian Border taking a ferry across to speed up the process. We got there about 6pm on Wednesday. We were happy to have arrived earlier so that we could do a little bit of research on the area before our friends from Canada arrive for the weekend. We were soooo excited to finally meet mummy’s friend Monika and her family.
Our excitement was very short lived. 20 minutes after arriving near the border we got a phone call from Australian Consulate telling us that they had finally received all our documents and were now ready for our interview. Oh boy! We had a choice of either keep the consulate waiting for a week or turn around now. So, after regretful phone call to Monika in Canada, we ‘kissed the border’ and did a major U-TURN driving through most of the night and a 16 hour day the next day. Ouch! At night we even got to snuggle up to some massive trucks at the truck stop when daddy couldn’t drive any longer.
We were in San Francisco (1200 miles later) at 1am Friday morning. In the morning we went straight to the Consulate for an interview where a nice man named Jorge gave us yummy chocolates and drilled our parents for a little while. Once we left the office our parents were suddenly in much better moods and even bought us an ice cream for being so patient over the last couple of days.
As the pressure re passport was released we did what any sane person would do – go fishing!
At Lake Shasta where we stayed for the night, we caught 8 little fish between the two of us. It was fun (for us not the fish – although we did let them go).
Now we needed to get back to Mt Shasta to our ‘adopted grandma’ Angellique to pick up our spare car keys (we accidentally left them there!). Angellique was so thrilled to see us again. She even persuaded us to stay two nights and we went with her to Burney Falls, which were fabulous.
We also went with Angellique to meet her friend Dianna who was so much fun! She has the only private beach in Mt Shasta. Well, she pretty much converted her back yard into a beach and decorated it as a Hawaiian party resort. How cool!!! She even hung the hammock for us to play in.
Dianne also made some Smores for us over her stove. It was a totally wild Hawaiian party!
OREGON – again J
Ok, so we had to say goodbye to our adopted grandma again and watch her jog next to the car waving as we were pulling out of her street. She certainly is a fit little lady.
And so we made it back to Oregon. This time we were travelling inland rather than on the coast so we get to see other things.
As we were travelling on the road Bella made a thrilling announcement to everyone – her first tooth finally came out! Woohoo! We spent most of the day talking about it and celebrating.
We arrived at a RV park that night, which had lots of massive private busses (coaches) parked in it. We very quickly made some friends next door. Tony who owns a big company which maintains massive machineries in Paper Mills become our lost uncle for the night. He cooked us some nice sausages for dinner and then played ‘marco polo’ with us in the pool while our parents talked with Ed (his friend) in the hot tub. It was a blast!
When we went to bed that night mummy told Tony and Ed that Bella was writing a beautiful letter to the tooth fairy. Tony got so inspired by that that he decided to ‘sponsor the fairy’ and gave Bella lots of different quarters from all over the US and Canada. Each state apparently has a different coin, which we didn’t know. Bella was so thrilled the next morning that Tony has forever been engraved in our memory as ‘Tony, the Tooth Fairy’.
The next morning we decided to continue our adventures. Ed recommended a couple of places to go to so we decided to take our time getting north (as we are still waiting for passports).
We then headed East to a place called ‘Sisters’. After driving for quite a while on a picturesque road we came across a sign which recommended not to take vehicles longer than 35 foot/10 meters (car included). As we were just a little bit over and we drove for so long, daddy decided we might still be all right. That is until we came across another sign, which simply flashed at us ‘screaming’ VEHICLE TOO LARGE DETECTED. TURN AROUND. Oh, boy, they were obviously very serious about that, even providing a large turn around area. So, sad as it was, we had to turn around.
With ‘sad puppy faces’ we drove back as the evening slowly started to approach. As we were driving we came across tiny little town with an awesome steel art gallery, which belonged to Ken Scott, a famous local artist. The gallery was closed but it had a few nice sculptures outside so we hopped out of the car to admire them.
Just as we were about to get back to our car, a nice lady by the name of Susan came out and asked us if we would like her to open the gallery for us. Mummy explained to her that its probably not worth her while as we wont be able to buy anything as we are travelling for a long time and cannot take anything heavy home back to Australia.
She said she didn’t mind us not buying anything, she just wanted us to enjoy the great works of Ken Scott and so she opened the gallery just for us. It was stunning! The sculptures, the paintings, everything!
Susan asked us about the trip and we told her how disappointed we were to miss out on getting to our day’s destination. We asked her where we could get some dinner and she recommended a place 15 minutes up the road, a nice family diner.
After saying goodbye to Susan we headed to the diner. We ordered our meal and as the waitress walked off, we saw Susan walking into the restaurant. She spotted us and came over to the table. She said that she felt so bad about us missing out on the trip that she rang the owner of the gallery and asked him if it would be OK for us to stay overnight in his backyard and then leave our RV caravan there in the morning and go for a day trip to our destination, just by car. She said that if we are up for it, we have a place to stay! Wow, how nice was of her to do that!
So we ate up our dinner and went back. Ken met us there and led us to the back of his property and told us we can stay there however long we wanted to. We stayed there for two nights enjoying a wonderful smore cook up on the fire the following night with Susan and her three kids, Trey 16, Nick 15 and Katie 13. And while our parents sat and talked to Susan till late at night, we got ourselves a dose of technology - playing play station with the kids.
During the day, we left our caravan behind at Ken’s place and went to Sisters, a town which was built near an old volcanic explosion (some 300,000 years ago).
Ken recommended we stop and see a couple of nice spots, including this beautiful forest
During our hike from the falls, we met a lovely group of travellers who we chatted to for over an hour. They were all impressed with mummy’s camera and since some of them had some fancy cameras as well but no idea how to use them, mummy did a ‘crash course’ for them on how to take great shots. Not sure if they’ll remember all the stuff she told them but they certainly looked amused.
A couple of ladies asked if they could keep us for a while. They said their grandkids were all grown up now and they missed them being our age. They were all very lovely but luckily our parents said ‘no, sorry’. Phew, lucky! We would’ve missed out on the rest of the adventure!
Bella of course melted everyone’s heart when she gave them cuddles goodbye.
It was mummy’s birthday when we woke up in Ken’s back yard on the second morning. We made her lovely breakfast and showered her with gifts. We spent whole morning in bed playing and cuddling.
In the afternoon we turned north again and headed to Portland (the biggest town in Oregon State). There, after we settled in a comfortable RV Park, we went Portland’s Japanese Gardens. For years mummy had this beautiful screen saver on her computer, which she adored. After looking at images on Google for Oregon, she came across it and learned that it was taken in Portland’s Japanese Gardens. So off we went, but after paying tripod fees at the entrance we realized that the trees have not quite turned their colors yet. Probably two or three weeks too early. Oh well, it was pretty anyway.
In the evening we went out to a fancy Italian Restaurant followed by a trip to the famous Voodoo Doughnut place, which was highly recommended to us by Ed a few days earlier.
The place is very well known and it’s really hip. They have all sorts of doughnuts one can imagine (about 90 types on the menu). They even had one with maple syrup and bacon on it - only in America, LOL. We didn’t have that one though. We all have chosen a different ones, and then we sat outside the shop in a funky alley with lights, music and a party atmosphere.
We sang Happy Birthday to Mummy and then we scoffed the yummy doughnuts.
The next day mummy and daddy took us to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). We spent the whole day there learning about all sorts of things. We also joined a National Annual Membership, which covers over 250 museums in the USA so from now on we can go to them for free. Yeehaa, we’ll be so smart by the time we finish this trip!
At the museum, we visited a Chemistry Lab and learned all about mixing chemicals and the different reactions we can get. We had to wear protective goggles as we experimented with different color flames (learning about fireworks). We even mixed up some Oxygen with Hydrogen together and learned how to create a blast to take a rocket to the moon. Well, they didn’t allow us to mix enough to make such blast but we got a smaller one!
We went to a Physics Lab and learned lots of different things. One that was so much fun was learning about Static Electricity. Our hair was standing up and we kept on zapping mummy and daddy – it was so much fun!
We learned about turbo engines
About how cranes move containers
How plumbing works, i.e. how water gets from its source to the houses.
We got to play some music on wine glasses
And we also learned how to build bridges on a computer
And then we built one out of blocks which was incredibly strong!
There was so much to see and so much to do that the 7 hours we spent there went like a blink of an eye. But we sure were smarter than the day before, LOL
We were planning to spend a few days on the Columbia River but after our parents did a little bit of research we found that our RV park was closer to the river than any other RV Park and so we decided to leave our ‘home’ behind and just go for a day drive on another ‘Scenic Route’ recommended by the book mummy dragged from Australia called “The Most Scenic Routs in the USA”. We try to cover most of them, hence if you looked at the map and followed our trip so far you’d get a bit dizzy as we have been circling around a bit. Well, a lot actually!
During our day trip we found a beautiful lake called the “Trillium” Lake. It was just stunning. We might have missed being on the East Coast in the Fall (Autumn) but the colors here seem to also be quite pretty.
It was a pity the cloud was sitting on top of the mountain (Mt Hood) otherwise we would get a beautiful ‘mirror reflection’ in the lake.
We also came across some beautiful waterfalls but this one certainly took our breath away! The picture doesn’t do it justice, as it was incredibly tall. See the little people on the bridge?
27th September 2011
It’s Bella’s Birthday in Australia today being the 28th but we decided we would celebrate it tomorrow, as it’s only the 27th here. Mummy wants to hold on to her 5 year old for as long as possible, even just for another day.
After speaking to Consulate this morning and learning that we still have at least a week of waiting for the passports and also seeing the weather outside turning bad mummy and daddy made a major decision. They decided that instead of driving north to Seattle (the last major town before Canada) and getting soaked in the rain, we would do a major detour East, through two other states to Yellowstone National Park. We have heard so much about it and we were initially planning to pick it up on the way back from Canada but a few days ago we met someone who just got back from there and told us that at night temperatures started to drop below freezing and there is a chance that by the time we were ready to go there, most roads would be closed off due to ice on the road. So detour it is! New plan: 2,500km in 7 days. Lets go!
28th September2011
After driving the whole day and some of the night, we woke up to celebrate Bella’s 6th Birthday somewhere in Idaho, a state east of Oregon and unlike Oregon, Idaho was a bit more sunny.
We surprised Bella with dozens of balloons on her bed. We showered her with lots of beautiful presents and sang her a Happy Birthday. She was thrilled! Bella even got her own camera to take photos with – she got totally spoilt.
As we had a whole day of driving ahead of us Mummy and Daddy made sure we had plenty of stops along the way. We even stopped by a river lake to feed some ducks and we found some lovely colorful agates. At lunch we stopped at a town called Twin River to admire their beautiful bridge.
And then we went to see Shoshane waterfalls, which were just spectacular. It even had a stunning rainbow over it. Bella was over the moon – she just loves rainbows!
In the afternoon Mummy and Daddy asked Bella what type of food would she like for her birthday. They said she can have anything she likes – since it is her birthday. So Bella chose wisely, as any 5 year old (oops 6 year old) would – McDonalds!
We got to Wyoming (state) very late that night. We decided to include The Grand Teton National Park into our detour. It is the smaller brother of the famous Yellowstone, which is located to its South.
We got to the town called Jackson Hole late at night. We pulled up next to a park in a residential street for the night and woke up to a beautiful view of a funky town in the morning.
We only meant to spend a couple of hours here but we got totally carried away by the interesting shops and galleries they had in this town. A mixture of Wild, Wild West and Hunters Lodge had us all bemused.
Many shops were selling stuffed animals like bobcats, squirrels, foxes, bears, mountain lions, raccoons, badgers and all sorts of birds. You could buy skins of bison or a head of a Moose, if that’s what you liked. Bella summarized it beautifully when she walked into the first shop and yelled shocked “What? You had these animals KILLED just to put them on the walls???” A few onlookers put smirks on their faces while the shopkeeper stood there lost for words.
We found a campground just up the road and we were thrilled to discover that it was a stunning forested area where elk and moose and deer come to play.
As we arrived a nice man next door told us that he had seen a herd of bison just up the road. So we unhooked our caravan and off we went looking for these magnificent prehistoric-looking animals. It only took us 10 minutes to locate them. Well, it was hard not to, they created a traffic jam!
When we arrived back at camp, our friendly neighbor, Ron told us that apparently there is a Moose and his girlfriend walking through our camp. A Moose? We gotta see that! So we went for a drive again and sure enough we found them in the forest. It was so easy to spot them because they have attracted LOTS of Paparazzi. Oh, boy, we thought mummies lenses were big…. Some looked like they were trying to spot Jupiter in the sky and not just Moose in front of them, LOL.
The Moose was beautiful and posed for us for a while before walking off like the celebrity he was.
We sat by the campfire that night enjoying company of our new neighbors, Ron and Merrill who have 6 children and 16 grandchildren. They were enjoying a well-deserved break from all of them. Apparently they baby-sit 9 of them after school every day and in school breaks. Oh, boy… and we thought the two of us could drive our grandparents crazy, LOL
The next day we went for a drive all around the Grand Tetons. We saw an animal on the side of the road, which we first thought was an antelope but Jordi pulled out her clever little book that she picked up in one of the National Parks and soon found out that it was a Pronghorn. We have never seen an animal like that and certainly never heard of one. So we read some facts about it and learned that it can run up to 80km per hour (50 miles), which makes it one of the fastest animals on earth. WOW! Then again, it’s got to run from the mountain lions, coyotes, wolfs and big bears here – it makes sense to run fast!
In the afternoon we visited Wild Life Gallery where we enjoyed magnificent artwork.
We also played in the kids’ corner where after a costume performance; we tried to replicate a few of the art pieces we saw earlier.
We truly enjoyed the scenery and kept on spotting all different animals along the way while mummy snapped away at the incredible autumn colors against impressive Grand Tetons (mountains). It was only a pity that they were having controlled fires around them so the view was a little impaired. But still not too bad, huh?
And of course we had to stop at EVERY barn on the way. Our parents seem to have this fasination with barns. We are not sure what the big deal is. It’s just a barn, ‘gumba’!
Or is it?
On the way out of The Grand Tetons, we spotted a Moose just wondering through, minding his own business. It only took 5 minutes for him to be surrounded by Paparazzi. It seems like it’s pretty tough being famous, not a minute of privacy. Now we know how people in Hollywood must feel. Although daddy says the Moose can get away with stomping the paparazzi without getting sued…. Ah, eh…. whatever that means!
We arrived in Yellowstone National Park mid afternoon on Saturday. Being a weekend we quickly found out that all campgrounds were totally booked out. Not being a school holiday we haven’t had to worry about booking ahead as there were always plenty of spots. Not here though. Yellowstone is Americas first and one of the most important National Parks so people from all over the world flock in. We managed however to find camping ground outside of the park in …another state! Luckily enough it was only 15min drive to the park. So here we are in…. Montana.
For those of you whose Americas geography is a bit sketchy, here are the states we have so far visited:
Yellowstone, wow, what can we say about it? It is a massive park, which is full of colorful holes out of which bubbly water and stinky steam comes out.
We spent two days exploring the park and learning lots of interesting things about how this phenomenon is created.
Yellowstone National Park was created by massive volcanic eruptions, which in its last explosion spewed out 240 cubic miles of rock. Not sure what it is in km or how much it really is but it sure sounds like a lot! This lava heat to this day heats up the many geysers, hot springs and mudpots. And the unpleasant smell we were telling you about its sulphur, a chemical that makes the steam smell like boiled rotten eggs. Phew!
We learned all this because we did a Junior Ranger program, which made us pay attention and learn lots. We had to go on a scavenger hunt and answer lots of questions and draw pictures too. By the time we got sworn in as the new Junior Rangers of the Yellowstone National Park we were so much smarter than yesterday!
At Yellowstone, we ‘met’ the famous ‘Old Faithful Geyser’, which blows out boiling water almost every hour. It was fascinating. A clever machine in the visitors’ center explained to us how this water gets collected from rain and snow, filters through the ground and gets boiled like in pressure cooker by a volcano and then pushes itself through the rocks into the air. Wow!
We even hiked this beautiful Yellowstone Canyon and saw magnificent waterfalls gushing down the rocks– tough walk which included 700 steps. It sure would’ve made Angellique proud!
In the evening of our first night at Yellowstone, we watched a family of two dozen elks (one male and lots of girlfriends) make themselves at home outside of someone’s house. It was really cool!
And then the male elk started to make very aggressive noises and we realized that another bull (elk) was approaching. The original male (lets call him Alfa) fumed. People quickly picked up their wine glasses from picnic tables around the park across from the houses and cleared the space for what looked like a war coming up.
Lots of noises were raised while the 'Alfa' bull ran across the park to chase his opponent who saw him coming, quickly turned around and did a runner. The alfa male made a quick run around his turf, roared a little, went across the road and picked up another cow from the other fellows tribe and brought her home to his grounds. Not sure why they call them a cow as she looked nothing like one but the whole scene was fun to watch. Especially that no one knew which way the fuming elk is going to run so we had to keep at safe distance.
On the way home, when it started getting dark, we had to slow down as we found out a true meaning of the sign below
They sure didn’t care that they were walking on the roads. We saw a few elks, coyotes and chipmunks. We almost patted a Bison as he brushed past our car just walking past.
We also saw these adorable Black Tail Deer and White Tail Deer. Oh, they were so cute!
The whole Teton/Yellowstone experience left us with such an admiration of these National Parks. The scenery and the wild life experience were so incredible!
The only thing that made us wonder was: where are the bears? Apparently there are a lot of brown and grizzly bears around here but we didn’t see any…maybe just as well! They probably heard that daddy invested in one of those bear pepper-sprays that will send them running if they were ever to find us. Or maybe they didn’t like the whistles one of our campground neighbors has given us to make noise if we ever get in trouble. Anyway, not too sure why but they certainly did not come out of their hiding places. Maybe they are preparing for their hibernation. After all, they are expecting snow here next week.
We left Yellowstone reluctantly however we had received an email from Australian Consulate that our passports are ready to be posted to our address. Address? Oh yeah…..white caravan attached to Cadillac somewhere in Montana? Idaho? Washington? Ah, who knows…
Given that our friend, Monika is waiting for us impatiently in Vancouver, Canada (should’ve been there 6 weeks ago), we decided to drive to Seattle, which is in the state of Washington some 1300km away (the closest big city near the border)!
So buckle up…massive drive ahead of us!
Seattle, Washington 8th of October 2011
We have just spent three days in rainy Seattle. And we finally picked up our passports! Wooohooo!!! We are legal again! Mummy was saying that it was strange being ‘an alien’ but we are not sure what she meant by it. We didn’t really change to aliens… Jordi was an astronaut once but aliens?
Rain, rain and rain. Very wet and miserable weather – this is what Washington is all about once the summer finishes. Not that this stopped us from going down the slides in our RV park or playing basketball for that matter. We ever collected some rainwater straight from the awning – much better than the tap.
On our third day, our parents took us to EMP, the Experience Music Project, a museum dedicated to the exploration of creativity and innovation in music. It was located in a groovy building right next to the famous Space Needle (Sleepless in Seattle?)
Man, that was fun!!! We got to play the drums, guitars and keyboards; we got to sing and mix music and jam. We even got a chance to do a whole family performance on stage – daddy was the singer, mummy played drums, Bella was on keyboards and I played electric guitar. We called ourselves the “Berger Band” and we performed to “The Wild Thing” – it was electrifying and we were ecstatic!
We spent the night with our next-to-neighbors who kindly invited us for dinner. Our parents had a glass of wine (or two) with them the other night and they have instantly bonded. Julie and Don who originally are from Calgary, Canada live in this beautiful coach (bus) and they currently work in Washington. Julie cooked us up a beautiful shepherds pie, which was just divine and then a pumpkin pie for desert, which we have never had but CERTAINLY will have again – it was yummy!
It’s always hard to leave when you have just met really nice friends but such is life of the traveller. The good thing is that Julie and Don belong to the group of people who tend to migrate south in winter to escape the cold, so there is chance our paths might cross again. We hope so!
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