Sunflowers & Superman

2012-02-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

So it has been a long time since we have posted anything to our blog. Thanks to the overwhelming support from family and friends we are close to raising all the money we need for our adoption. It has been such a blessing to watch how God has provided for our needs. If you are still interested in piggy banks we are still painting them. We are already talking about where we will be adopting child number two from. :)

Updates about our adoption:

We should be getting our photo referral in the next 4 weeks. We are anxiously awaiting the first moment we see our little one's face.
We do know that it will be a boy. He could be anywhere from 14 months to 22 months when we fly to get him.
We did state on our application that we would accept twins (however that is very unlikely).
Once we get our photo referral, we could fly to Korea to pick him up as quickly as 2 months or as long as 7 months.
We have decided on a boy name: Anderson James (nickname: AJ).

Once our eyes were opened to the needs of orphans around the world, it has begun to reshape our lives. While we are waiting to go to Korea to pick up Anderson, we can't put our lives on hold. So this June and July we will be going to Honduras for 3 weeks to volunteer at an orphanage that our church is adopting. Andy is going to lead soccer camps and Kate is going to lead art camps. We know we can adopt every orphan around the world but we can lead lives that demonstrate our love for them.

This Summer's Adventure

2012-02-04T12:46:00.001-08:00

This summer our adventure is going to be a little different than it has been in the past, but we're just as excited. This year, we are heading down to Puerta Limpera, Honduras to visit the orphanage we help sponsor. The orphanage is named Mama Tara's after the amazing woman that has dedicated her life to caring for over 20 Honduran orphans. Our church sent a group there over Christmas break, and they came back with a fire for doing God's work down there that we are hoping will spread to our entire church. We're planning on spending about 2 and a half weeks in Honduras towards the end of June and beginning of July. Kate is going to do art activities and I am going to try to build a soccer field a play soccer with the kids. More than anything we are just going to spend time loving on the kids and showing them that there are "gringos" who do care about them.The only thing that could put a hitch in our plans is our adoption. It is possible that we could travel to Korea before we travel to Honduras, and that would cause us to have to stay home. But, www know God has got it handled and we just need to be prepared to go wher and when He calls us.Our good friend Adam Cline put together this video of their time at Mama Tara's. It will make you laugh and cry at the same time, so be ready!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysgYjP3Kk8k&feature=youtu.beWe'll have more info soon!Yours in Christ,Andy & Kate

Adoption Update

2012-02-04T12:33:00.001-08:00

So here we are, February 2012 with no baby yet. Things in South Korea have been bogged down for a while, so we still don't have a referral yet. Our agency told us that referrals are expected to resume this month and that we are 8th in line for one. As far as timing goes, we really have no idea when the referral will come in, but when it does, there will be anywhe from 2-7 months before we travel. The baby is going to be a little older than we had anticipated, too. Originally he was going to be around 11-12 months when we got him, but now they are telling us he could be anywhere from 14-22 months when we get him. It all keeps changing pretty regularly, so it's fairly frustrating. We know that it is already planned out, but the not knowing is driving us a bit bonkers. Hopefully we'll have some news in a month or so as to where we stand.In Christ,Andy & Kate

Pass-A-Grille, FL

2011-07-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

On our second day here, we took the ferry over to Shell Island. The island is only a short 10 minute boat ride from where we were staying. We arrived at the island at about 10:15. The water and sands there seemed even clearer than at Pass-a-grille.

We spent most of the day wading through the water looking for shells. We found so many sand dollars that we eventually stopped keeping them if they had any imperfections. In addition to sand dollars, we found olive shells, a lightning welk, a pear welk, scallops, and and Florida fighting conch shells.

When the boat captain dropped us off at the beach, he warned us that stingrays are often found in the water this time of year. He told that if you shuffled your feet while wading in the water, the rays would swim out of the way. We were skeptical, but we followed his directions not willing to risk a painful sting. We are glad we followed his instructions- we did stir up a sting ray while wading in the water. Since we were not hurt thanks to our skilled shuffling, it was fun to see the ray swim gracefully off. Kate actually stirred one up on Tuesday as well, but it actually swam over her foot. It gave her a little scare!

Once again, it felt like we had our own private beach. We walked for a long time and ended up on the opposite side of the island. We were focused on searching for shells but we were delighted when we saw 2 dolphins diving in the water less than 30 yards away.

As we were heading back to our chairs we began to hear thunder in the distance. Since we were on a island, we decided not to eat our picnic lunch but try to make our way back to boat in case it did start storming.
Because we were out in the water most of the day, we did not have our camera with us. But this is us still at Shell Island waiting for the ferry to return. We got back to our room around 2:30. We ate brief lunch, and then lotion-ed back up to go back to the beach. We truly enjoyed alternating between sitting in the beach chairs and floating in the teal water.

We had dinner just a block from our room at the Hurricane Restaurant. We ate outside so we could watch the sun set as we ate dinner.

Andy had a fresh caught grouper sandwich. The menu claimed that the recipe was the same one that they had used since 1945. We have to agree that we don't see any reason to change. It was some of the best fried fish we have ever had.
I had a crab cake melt. It was wonderful as well. We really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. You can't beat a view like this at dinner!

And it just seemed to get better as the sun set!

On day three, we spent day lounging beside the water. We have gone through a lot of suntan lotion in the last three days.

We took our last dip in the ocean at about 5:30. While we were swimming, 3 dolphins surfaced just in front of us. We have constantly been surprised by little unexpected moments in our three days here.
In addition to variety of shells here, we have seen a lot water fowl too. Here is a heron that walked right up to where we were sitting.
Tonight for dinner we went to Snappers. This restaurant was not on the water but the food was excellent. Andy was overwhelmed by the size of his fried "fisherman's friend" platter. It was so much food, that he was unable to clean his plate! Yep, that's a lot of food!

Kate had coconut cashew encrusted mahi with grilled bananas and a potato puff pastry! It was as good as it sounds! We had planned to have key lime pie for dessert but we were just too full!

Each day there has been a little bit cloudier than the previous. Tonight it was too cloudy for a spectacular sunset, but we went down to the beach anyway. The sand was so soft and cool, so we posed for one more photo opportunity. It was a great end to wonderful, romantic vacation.

If you ever need a quick romantic or family-fun get-away, we highly recommend Pass-a-grille Beach, Florida. And while your there, we recommend staying at the Sabal Palm Inn. We had our own little apartment complete with a kitchen. They also offer complementary beach chairs and beach bikes.

Tomorrow, we head towards Atlanta to see Andy's sister and her family, and then on to Concord from there. Andy goes back to work on Monday, and I know he is not ready for his vacation to be over. But we can't complain because we have had a great month of July!

Florida Day 1 & 2

2011-07-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

Kate and I were honored to be invited to my friend Brandon Clark's wedding in Ponte Vedra, FL. Brandon started out as a student/basketball player of mine when I taught and coached at Avery County High School in the NC mountains. We have kept in touch and are now good friends. I was so young when I was teaching him that it was easy to transition to being "grown up" friends. We left early Saturday morning (6:00am!) and drove down to St. Augustine Beach, where our hotel was. We were a little disappointed in our hotel, but we only slept there so no big deal. The town of St. Augustine wasn't as good as we were hoping it to be. It is very touristy and reminds of a cross between Myrtle Beach and Charleston. We didn't like it too much so we were glad we only decided to stay one night.

We got to the wedding in Ponte Vedra around 6:00pm. It was at Palm Valley Gardens, which is a beautiful venue with a large house, pond and nice open area for the ceremony. The ceremony was small and intimate and we loved it. It was so good to see so many of my old friends from Avery County. I have so many great memories with these people, and it was so much fun to revisit some of them at such a joyous time. We wish all of God's blessings on Brandon and Shelley and are very grateful they invited us to be a part of their day.

This is me and my boys. (left to right) Anthony, Sean, Stephen, Q-Ball (me), B.J. and Chris. Brandon is missing but he was kind of busy today so we'll let him slide. I spent a lot of hours with these guys and ate a lot of meals at Sean and Chris's house while I was a young bachelor. I probably would have starved to death if they hadn't fed me so well. Thanks to the Turners, Edwards and Spradlings (and the Country House) for feeding me all those meals! It was so good to see everyone. I hope it's not 10 years before I see them again.

Since we were in Florida already (and Andy had never been to Florida before), we decided to explore the coast and see what adventures awaited! Andy did some research before we headed south, and we decided to go to the gulf coast instead of staying on the east side. We ended up in quaint historic town called Pass-a-grille Beach, Florida. We weren't sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was enough off the beaten path to ward off the huge crowds. And it was beautiful.

The waters were turquoise and the beaches were white. And great sea shells were every where. Sunday there were quite a few people out on the beach, but on Monday and Tuesday it seemed like everyone else went back to work and we were left with our own private beach. And the best part of where we were staying- it was literally 100 steps (Kate actually counted) away from the beach!

Andy and Kate on the beach on Sunday. Look at that water!

After an afternoon on the beach, we went to a local restaurant to get some fresh seafood. This is us at The Wharf. The Wharf is on the sound side of the island. Andy had fresh hand-made crab cakes and I had steamed shrimp. It was some of the best steamed shrimp we have ever had.

The gulf coast is known for its sunsets and the sunset on Sunday night did not disappoint.

Our tan toes in the sunset!
These are the palm trees along the dunes.

After a beautiful sunset, we had to top off our wonderful first day with a beach must...ice cream. There is a local sweet shop only a block down the road from our hotel. To our delight it had homemade ice cream. Andy's choice for the night...Toast Coconut and Chocolate.

Rocky Mountain High...Colorado

2011-07-14T21:24:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, July 13^th we made it to our last national park in out Wild West Tour- Rocky Mountain National Park. We decided to abbreviate our trip and just do a day tour of RMNP.

We started on the east side of the park. We had lunch at the Trail Ridge Café. Since it was a beautiful day and we had been cooped up in the car for two days, we opted to eat lunch outside. And I am so glad we did because the porch was lined with hummingbird feeders that were swarming with Broad-Tailed Hummingbirds. The hummingbirds darting from one feeder to another hypnotized both Stephanie and Kate.

After lunch, we stopped in at the Falls Visitor Center to see what they suggested we see. The ranger recommended that we travel the Trail Ridge Road. Here’s a little information about the road. The road covers 48 miles between Estes Park on the park's east side and Grand Lake on the west side of the park. Eleven miles of this high highway travel above treeline, the elevation near 11,500 feet where the park's evergreen forests come to a halt. At one point we reached a sign letting us know that we were 2 miles above sea level. Jim and Stephanie experienced a little shortness of breath due to the high altitude but luckily none of us experienced the dreaded altitude sickness that several friends had warned us about. At the its high point on the road we were at 12,183 feet elevation. As we drove into the alpine tundra, we watched the thermometer on the dashboard dropped 10 degrees in about 15 minutes. The self-guided booklet tour that Stephanie bought said that in that windswept alpine world, conditions resemble those found in the Canadian or Alaskan Arctic. It's normally windy and 20 to 30 degrees colder than Estes Park or Grand Lake. The sun beats down with high- ultraviolet intensity. Kate experienced the affects of the strong UV rays. Even though we spent less than 30 minutes out of the car in the sun, Kate’s face was visibility sunburned that evening.

Our first stop was at Sheep Lakes, a place that is often frequented by big horn sheep. But there were no sheep to be seen today. We were disappointed because the big horn sheep are the icon symbol of RMNP. Kate and Andy had seen the big horn sheep in Glacier NP two summers ago but we were hoping that Jim and Steph would get to see these unique animals.

From the convenience of our car, we were able to park and walk to several amazing views. There aren’t really words to describe the panoramic views that we encountered around each turn. I’ll have to just let the pictures speak for themselves. But trust me when I say, that in now way do these pictures do justice to the real thing.

In each of the parks we visited this summer, we timed it just right for the viewing of wildflowers. Even in the alpine tundra there were over a dozen types of flowers in a square foot.

We did not do any hiking in RMNP, but that did not hinder our wildlife encounters. As mentioned, we got to see the Broad-Tailed Hummingbird. Its wings make a whistling noise when it flies through the air. We also got to see an American Pike, a rare rodent that lives at extremely high altitude. It can be fatal for a pika if its body temperature ever exceeds 75. We also got to see several large herds of elk. Even though we had seen elk in Yellowstone and Olympic, it was interesting to see the elk in large herds. We also saw several make elk with large antler racks. These male elk had already shed the velvet off their antlers making them look more like the picturesque elk in classic western art.

The ranger had told us that if we did not see the big horn sheep at Sheepshead Lake, then our next best bet would be at Millian Pass. We got to the turn out for Millian pass. We grabbed the binoculars to scan the rocky slopes, but again there were no sheep to be seen. We decided to follow Highway 34 out of the park instead of back tracking over the road we had already seen. You can imagine our excitement when we rounded the bend and there were several cars pull off to the side of the road. We started scanning the mountainside for a possible animal encounter. And there they were. Up on a high rocky ledge. Four big horn sheep. We watched as the climbed the rocky slope and head-butted each other.

Our waitress at lunch had told us the best place to perhaps get view of a moose would be on the west side of the park near Grand Lake. So after viewing the sheep we piled back in the car to make our way out of the park and towards Grand Lake. We passed several traffic jams of people pulled over to look at elk grazing in the meadows. But when we were less than 15 minutes from the park exit we approached our last animal jam of the day. We knew immediately that is one was different because people were quickly exiting their cars and running down the shoulder of the road. As we got closer we could see why. There next to the road beside a small creek was a mother moose and her twin babies (we call them meese!)

If you don’t know, moose are typically shy around humans and like to avoid the limelight. What a rare treat to get to see this mother and her babies so close. As we pulled out of the park and pointed the suburban east towards Concord we all agreed that it was the “icing on the cake” to an awesome adventure!

Tonight we are in Paducah, Kentucky. We are only 9 nine hours from home. And while we have all had a great time filled with moments we will never forget. We are all ready for our own beds. So until our next adventure (Florida in days), we are signing off and encouraging you to get out there on the road and have an adventure of your own!

Andy & Kate

Last Days In Olympic

2011-07-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up and packed up our campsite at Kalaloch and moved north toward our next destination, Log Cabin Resort on the shores of Lake Crescent. We were sad to say goodbye to our campsite on the beach, but excited to see what surprises Olympic had in store for us.

As we moved on towards Lake Crescent, we passed another of Olympic’s famous beaches, Rialto Beach. This beach was not sandy at all; its shoreline was covered with round smooth stones. Most of the stones were a blue-gray color, but some were shades of brown, green, and red. We decided to hike to the sea stack called “Hole in the Wall”. The hike was about 3 miles round trip. But it was worth the effort. On the way to the “Hole in the Wall”, we saw seals playing in the breakers. We also saw another river otter scamper out of the trees into the ocean and a bald eagle soar overhead. Once we reached the sea stack and took lots of photos we explored the tidal pools around the sea stacks. They where filled with more sea stars and sea anemones.

After leaving the beach, we reached Lake Crescent. The lake was formed by a glacier and at its deepest point it is over 600 feet deep. But the waters are a clear turquoise blue; it almost looks unnatural. We spent most of the afternoon setting up camp and doing laundry.

The next morning, we had two hikes planned. The first hike was up to Marymere Falls. This hike took us back through the old growth forest similar to the Hoh rainforest. The waterfall was beautiful. It was about 90 feet high and collected in a small pool at the bottom of the fall.

From the waterfall, we headed into Port Angeles. Port Angeles is a city on the Strait of Juan de Fuca which separates the Washington state from Canada. We ate lunch on the pier at a delicious restaurant called Downriggers. I know we seem to talk about food on our blog a lot but we do appreciate good food. We started with crab dip and asparagus tempura (Washington is the nation’s leading producer of asparagus). Mom had grilled salmon, Kate, Trey, and Jim had a shrimp and crab melt, Meg and Andy had fried halibut. It was glorious! For dessert we stopped at a local produce stand and picked up 2 lbs of cherries. Both pounds were eaten in less than 2 days! They were tasty!

After our hearty lunch, we headed up the long, twisting road to Hurricane Ridge. We decided to take the hike called Hurricane Hill. I think calling it a “hill” was a bit of an understatement. We started at 5000 feet and climbed 600 feet. The trail was 1.6 miles one way- but the way up was definitely the most difficult part. When we were almost to the top Megan said, “How do we get down?”. Mom replied, “The same way we came up.” To which Megan said, “Are you freakin’ kidding me?” The trail was pretty steep but it was also gorgeous. The wildflowers were in full bloom so while we were all sucking in gasps of oxygen at least those gasps were the scent of fresh mountain air with lupine and evergreen mixed in. The ranger at the vistor center had told us that there were some spots that were still covered with snow. We all envisioned some light patches here and there. We did not expect to find entire section (some at least 100 yrds long) still completely cover with snow that was several feet deep. Once we all arrived at the top (which was at varied increments of time), we were greeted with a 360 degree view of Hurricane Ridge. It was one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen. This hike was full of unexpected wildlife encounters as well. There were black tail deer everywhere. They were not really scared of us. In fact, it was usually us that were backing away from the deer as oppose to the other way around. Megan spotted a black bear on the mountainside next to use. This was the first wild bear encounter for Megan and Trey. We also saw several Olympic marmots (this is the only place in the world where they survive) and a mother grouse with her two babies. On the drive down off the mountain, Megan spotted another black bear. This one was close enough for us to get some photos. All in the group agreed that the hike was well worth it and that we were glad we had decided to do it.

After our hike our stomachs were growling. We decided to hit up Port Angeles again. We were pleased with our choice of WestSide Pizza. And we pick up 3 more chocolate bars at the convenience store since it was Meg and Trey’s last night with us; we had to roast the last of the marshmallows. We have perfected the art of marshmallow roasting. Some of us even go as far placing our graham crackers and chocolate bars on a warm rock to heat the chocolate while our marshmallow roast. I highly recommend this technique.

By the time the marshmallow roasting was over, the moon was high in the sky and sparkling off the smooth surface of Lake Crescent. We all said reluctant good nights knowing that tomorrow would bring some temporary good-byes.

In the morning Megan and Trey headed home via the Seattle airport. And the rest of us packed our tents back into the Suburban and made the turn back east. We still have a lot of miles to go. Washington state is a long way from Concord, NC. But we have one more stop along the way. We are going to spend a day in Rocky Mountain National Park, and who knows what other adventures we will find along the way.

Kate and Andy

Kalaloch is Pronounced Clay-Lock

2011-07-09T20:53:00.000-07:00

Wednesday (July 7) we packed up our campsite at Yellowstone and headed west yet again toward Washington State and Olympic National Park. Not much to report here other than another long travel day. We ended up stopping for the night in Ellensburg, WA. Washington looked and felt a lot different than we imagined. When I think of Washington, I think of Seattle and rain, but pretty much all of eastern Washington was dry farm land. We learned that Washington is one of the leading agricultural states in the US.

We got up Thursday morning (July 8) and headed toward the Pacific coast. We went through the Cascade Mountains, and once we got over the mountains, we ran into the weather that we expected for Washington. It was about 57 degrees and sort of misty/rainy all day.

Around mid-day, we arrived at our campground at Kalaloch (pronounced Clay-Lock) Beach in Olympic National Park. This part of the Pacific certainly looks different than any other beach we’ve seen before. It’s pretty cold, and the water never gets much above 45 degrees. There were huge driftwood logs washed up on the shore. I don’t mean just logs, there were entire trees washed up. It’s hard to believe. We had a nice campsite that had a view of the Pacific. It was a little cold, but certainly worth the view.

Kate’s sister Megan and her husband Trey flew into Seattle and drove down to join us at our campsite so we had the whole family in one spot. We had back-to-back campsites so we all hung around the fire to stay warm and had a few s’mores to wrap up the evening. Our campsite had some berries that we thought were raspberries, but turned out be to salmonberries, a local berry. The trees in Olympic were amazing and had all sorts of different root formations and weird angles.

Friday (July 8) we all got up and had a great breakfast of eggs, bacon, grits and toast. Kate and I had said we were going to eat healthy on the trip, but we left that idea in Nebraska. We’ll pick it up on the way back through, but for now we’ll indulge a bit. Today’s first stop was a trip to Beach #4 in search of tidal pools where we could see some sea life. We were really hoping to see some sea anemones and sea stars, but weren’t sure what we would see. The beaches here are so different than what we have in NC. They are very rocky and have huge trees and logs washed up. There are millions of small, smooth, round rocks that have washed up on the shore. It really is an amazing site. The water is also very cold and not a lot of fun to walk in.

We got down to the beach and made our way over to the rocks where you can see the tide pools. We got really excited when we saw our first sea star and sea anemones. Little did we know that we would see as many as we could possibly hope for. There were anemones and sea stars everywhere. The stars come in purple, orange and pink and are big and fat. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s like being in a different world.

As we were looking for stars and such, we came across an otter eating an early lunch on a rock not 20 yards from us. He was eating a fish and we got to watch him for a good while. I think we got a little too excited and were talking too loudly because he kept looking at us and eventually went back into the water to finish his lunch.

It was really nice to have Meg and Trey here with us. I will say though, that we have been going through the food. It’s hard to pack food for 6 people in one cooler and the back of a Suburban with all your other stuff. Makes you wonder how they did it back in the pioneer days. They probably did without Coke and Wavy Lays, which have been a staple around our campsite.

After a picnic lunch at beach 4, we headed toward the Hoh (pronounced Hoy) Rainforest. The Hoh rainforest is a temperate rain forest and has species and growth that only exist in this one spot in the entire world. The Hoh exists because of a combination of several geographic things that happened all together to create it. There are giant trees, huge banana slugs, cougars, air plants, and elk that live in the forest. The Hoh gets an average of 142 inches of rain a year. That’s about 12 feet of rain every year. The Charlotte region averages about 42 inches a year if you want to have a comparison. It feels like you are in the jungle, except it’s kind of cool. Kind of reminds of Jurassic Park when the Velociraptors jumped put and ate everybody.

We found a couple of banana slugs, which is one of the Hoh’s most unique residents. Compared to a bison or grizzly bear, it’s not much. But, as slugs go, it’s pretty impressive.

On our way out of the Hoh, Trey decided he wanted to pick up where a beaver had left off and grab a quick snack. I tried to rupture all the muscles in my legs and do a split between two huge fallen trees.

We left the Hoh and stopped to snap a family pic at the Olympic Park sign, then checked out a couple of t-shirt shops and grabbed some snacks before we headed back to our campsite.

We ended the day with a nice spaghetti dinner cooked up by Steph, whom we have affectionately nicknamed “Cookie” for this wagon train. Jim is the “Captain”, Kate is the “Tour Guide”, Meg and Trey are the “Stowaways” and I’m the “Navigator”. Put us all together and we make a pretty good group. After lots and lots of s’mores, we watched the sunset on the Pacific, which is almost worth driving 3,000 miles on its own. We called it a night and I don’t think any one had any trouble sleeping.

Andy & Kate

Wyoming to Washington

2011-07-06T23:26:00.000-07:00

Today we broke down camp and headed west yet again toward Washington and Olympic National Park. We made it to Ellensburg, WA today and should be at our camp on the Pacific coast by lunch time tomorrow. We're meeting Kate's sister Megan and her husband Trey in Olympic, and we;re all going to be together for 5 days exploring. No pictures today, but we did drive through some beautiful Montana, Idaho and Washington mountains today. Not sure when I'll get to post again so stay tuned for more posts. We're also putting a lot of pics on Facebook so check them out!

Andy & Kate

Cody, Wyoming

2011-07-06T22:54:00.001-07:00

Today we got up and had a nice breakfast that Stephanie whipped up and Kate surprised me with a Guy Harvey T-Shirt for my birthday. All this year I thought I was 33, but it turns out I was 32. So when I turned 33 today, it was like getting a whole year back.

We decided to head of to Cody, Wyoming today to visit the Buffalo Bill Cody Historical Center because it had been recommended to us. It took us about 3 hours or so to get there by the time we stopped and looked at a few sites and a few animals. We made a few stops to play in the snow that was still in the mountains we were traveling through.

We were all pretty hungry by the time we got into Cody and ready for a good meal. We wanted to get a good Wyoming hamburger so we asked a lady at the visitors center and she said Irma’s Hotel was the place to go. We got there and were blown away. Irma’s was built in 1908 by Buffalo Bill and still has most of the original building. I had a cowboy burger, ½ pound of beef with bbq sauce and onion rings on top. Kate and Steph split Irma’s signature burger, Big Thunder. It was really good and I’m really glad we went there.

After lunch, we headed over to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Outside they had a man cooking traditional cowboy food with traditional cowboy tools. He had some samples of beans and biscuits like the original cowboys would have eaten. We had had a little taste and I have to say it was really good.

Jim was still on a pretty good high from seeing the wolves yesterday, so it was good to get a photo with one. If you don’t know, Jim went to NC State, so he is Wolfpack to the bone.

Jim and Steph took a second to say hey to Buffalo Bill.

If you ever get the chance to get to Cody, WY and have any interest at all in the old West, you should certainly go to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. It is made up of 5 separate museums and each has an extensive collection. I would say that it rivals the Smithsonian as far as things from the West are concerned. The 5 museums are: Western Art, Firearms, Plains Indians, Yellowstone Natural History, and Buffalo Bill. You could spend half a day in each of them, but we didn’t have that kind of time so we blasted through them and were pretty tired by the end. Kate almost got eaten by a bear…

And I took a little ride to get off my feet for a bit. I did manage to stay on for 8 seconds.

After we left the museum, we got a little Dairy Queen and made a quick run to Wal-Mart to get some supplies and headed by to camp to get some supper and prepare to leave. We packed up what we could and got to bed early enough that we could get up and get ready to head to Washington tomorrow. More to come!

Andy & Kate

Go Wolfpack!!!

2011-07-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

You’re probably reading this on Thursday July 7 or after, but this blog is for Monday July 4.

This morning, after striking out on seeing wolves last night, Kate, Jim and Stephanie got up at 4:00am to head back to the Lamar Valley to see if they could track down some wolves. I didn’t really want to get up at 4:00, so I let the three of them go ahead without me. I got up around 8:00, had a nice shower and a good breakfast and caught back up with them when they got back around 10:00am. Kate will be telling the next part of the story. I thought it was better for her to tell it since she was there instead of her telling me what happened.

4 AM, yes that is correct, 4 AM came around way too early after getting into the tent at 10:30pm last night. But Mom, Dad, and I dragged our tired butts out of our tents and climbed in the Suburban to make the 1-hour drive back out to Lamar Valley. I drove since I had gotten the most sleep, Mom and Dad are still adjusting to sleeping in “bear country”. It was a little tricky navigating the dark twisty roads up through Dunraven pass, but we made it out the valley just as the sun was rising (5:20 AM). There were already a few people gathered on the ridge with their scopes point up at Druid Peak the area where one of the wolf packs has a den with pups. We stayed there about an hour. One of the ladies with a large scope had a walky-talky that allowed her to communicate with Ranger Rick (actually he is wildlife biologist who studies the wolves of Yellowstone) but we call him Ranger Rick. He has tagged 2 of the wolves so he is better able to locate the where-abouts of the wolves than just us tourists taking a shot in the dark. At around 6:30 Ranger Rick radioed to say that the strongest signals were west of where we were. So we packed it up and started heading west. We got to the next pull-out, just as the crowd announced that they had just seen 2 gray wolves cross the highest ridge in front of us. So like experienced wolf trackers (or wanta-be wolf trackers), we got back in the car and headed west. Finally we caught up with Ranger Rick, we parked the car and grabbed the binoculars. At around 7:30, Ranger Rick silenced the crowd and told us to make no sudden movements, and 2 seconds later two wolves came into view less than 100 yards in front of us. One was silvery gray and the other was a darker gray. They walked along the ridge in front of us, and at that moment the pain of waking up at 4AM melted away. The silvery gray one skirted the ridge we were all congregated on and slid behind us down through the valley and beside the lake. She was beautiful and graceful. And my dad had the biggest smile on his face. I don’t have any pictures because I never expected us to see the wolves so close. But I am kind of glad I didn’t because the absence of the camera allowed me to just live in the moment and enjoy this rare experience fully. And then the magic moment happened. Out of the hills to our right, a wolf howled. And then howled again. And then the packed joined her and their all howled. And then the one wolf that had crossed behind them answered the pack and they called back to her. It was a sound I will never forget. I was so happy I almost cried. Then the wolf that had crossed behind us came back to join the pack, so we got to glimpse her again. It was more than any of us had expected. A couple minutes later, 3 other wolves came into view up in the shadow of the trees.

While Kate, Jim and Steph were catching a nap and a shower after their wolf adventure, I did a couple of loads of laundry. Our clothes smelled pretty bad after horseback riding and we didn’t want to have that smell traveling with us. We all had a little lunch then headed out to explore the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

The canyon was carved out by the Yellowstone River and has some spectacular views. The river is even more powerful than usual from all the snow melt. We watched the water go over falls at Upper Falls and were mesmerized by how much water and how fast it traveled. We stopped at various overlooks and viewing points to get the best views of the canyon and its two waterfalls. I’ll let the pictures below speak for themselves.

On our way to one of the overlooks, we ran into a couple of bull elk with nice racks (antlers) grazing in on a hillside. They were very cooperative and gave us some great poses.

We came back from viewing the canyon around 3:00 and strolled around the Canyon Village. Jim and I split a hot dog, while the girls had some ice cream.

Kate and I strolled through a couple of shops and tried on some hats that we liked.

We got back to camp and had another great dinner of bbq chicken, squash, corn on the cob and cucumber-tomato salad. Right about the time we got cleaned up and got a fire going, a thunderstorm popped up and we went over to the Canyon Lodge lounge to ride out the storm. Hopefully everything in our tents will stay dry tonight! That’s about all I have for us today. Tomorrow we are going to Cody, WY to see the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and explore a bit on our last day in Wyoming. Happy 4^th of July everyone!!!

Andy & Kate

Seven Bear Sunday...Plus a Little More

2011-07-06T22:01:00.000-07:00

You’re probably reading this on Thursday or Friday, but this is the account of what happened on Sunday July 3.

WOW! What a day! I think we’re all going to need a vacation from our vacation. There is so much to see and do that you just want to go constantly, so we are a little tired today, but it was well worth it.

We started our day off with an incredible breakfast that Stephanie made. Eggs, bacon, grits and toast are a good way to start off your day. Kate and I both lost over 20 pounds before we came out here, but I feel we may be in danger of gaining some of that back. It’s pretty hard to resist good cooking and my will power is pretty weak around good food. Jim and Stephanie didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, and probably for good reason. Around 11:00pm or so they heard car alarms going off and people screaming off an on throughout the night. If you remember Kate and my trip to Sequoia National park last year, you remember that car alarms and screaming pretty much always mean that there is a bear wandering through the campsite. I know Jim and Steph read that and probably made fun of me a little for being scared to go out of the tent to use the bathroom, but I believe the shoes were on the other foot now. Jim said he heard a bear breathing a few yards away and I don’t’ think they ever really got to sleep. I think they both had to go to the bathroom and were a little scared to get out of the tent. Now they know the fear Kate and I were experiencing last year. : )

Today’s big activity was horseback riding out of the Roosevelt Corral in the northeastern part of the park. Our ride was supposed to leave at 12:45 so we decided to head up that direction early and see what animals we could find along the way. We were not disappointed. We saw some people pulled of the side of the road checking out something so we hopped out and set up our scope. There was a grizzly bear munching on some roots and grubs about 200 yards away so we got to watch him for a while. Grizzlies are a little harder to find in the park, so we were really excited to see one on the first day of animal hunting. He was a little far away to get a picture but he was fun to watch. After we headed on our way, we had a bit of close encounter with a bison. By close encounter I mean we rounded a corner and about ran into him. He was about as big as the Suburban, so I’m not sure who would have won that collision. We got a great shot of him as he walked by the car. We’ve discovered that the bison pretty much own the roads around here and you’re just in their way if you’re driving.

Our next stop along the way was Tower Falls. It is a pretty big waterfall on the Tower River. Because of all the snow melt up here, the waterfalls are especially big this year which is pretty great.

As we were getting ready to pull into the Roosevelt Lodge we ran into a bit of a traffic jam, which usually can mean only one thing…BEAR! There was a black bear taking stroll along the side of the road right beside us so we got a great close up view of it. It had a cinnamon coat (black bears can actually be black, brown, cinnamon or blonde) and was meandering his way to find something to eat.

We had a little bit of time to kill after our picnic lunch, so we decided to sit on the front porch of the lodge while our food settled. While we were sitting there, another black bear strolled right through the parking lot of the lodge. We had a great view of him while we were sitting on the porch. The park rangers showed up pretty quickly to track him down, since bears that close to people can be dangerous.

After a pretty long wait, we finally got mounted on our horses for our 2 hour trail ride through the Yellowstone back country. If you ever take the 2 hour ride, be prepared to actually ride for about 3 and a half hours with no break. Not sure why they call it the 2 hour ride. Our guides weren’t the greatest in the world, and the trail was pretty dusty, but overall it was a great ride. As we were riding along a valley we came across 2 black bears feeding not 50 yards from us. I think our horses were pretty used to it, because they didn’t even give them a look. We weren’t allowed to take pictures on our horses so we couldn’t get a shot of them, but it was another great bear sighting. The ride probably could have been much shorter but there were a couple of people whose horses kept stopping to eat. You’re supposed to jerk the horse up and give it a good kick when it does that, but they would just sit there and let the horse eat, which slowed us down a lot. I guess not everyone can be an experience horse wrangler like me. : ) When we finally made it over the last hill and got a glimpse of the corral, it was like seeing the promised land. Both my knees, my butt and other unmentionable parts were very sore at this point and I was very ready to be off my horse, Chimmy. Kate’s horse was named Todd and had a pretty funny looking mustache. Jim rode Mouse, and Steph rode the prettiest horse, Blueboy. The scenery was incredible. As we approached the corral, there was a large open filed with some bison grazing, which looked like a scene straight out of Dances With Wolves.

After we washed up a bit and stretched our aching parts, we sat down for an early dinner at the Roosevelt Lodge. Kate and I had fond memories of eating here last time so we wanted to try it again. It’s a nice western atmosphere and the prices are relatively OK. Kate had a huge taco salad, and Steph had some Rocky Mountain trout. Jim and I tried some of the western meats just to say we had. Jim had a bison steak and I had an elk burger. I wouldn’t want to eat them all the time, but they were pretty good after a long day on the trail. Steph and I finished off the meal with a little dessert. And by little, I mean ginormous.

After dinner, we struck out in search of wolves. They really only live in one part of the park, which is close to where we were. You can pretty much only see them in the early morning or late evening so we were hoping to get a glimpse this evening. As we got into the Lamar Valley, we saw a lot of open plain with herds and herd of bison with calves. It was fun to see them all and made you feel like you were watching something out of a move or had been transported back to the 1800’s. We had to stop and wait for a herd of pronghorn antelopes to run across the road. We thought maybe something was after them, but we think they were just playing.

We came across a wildlife viewing tour at one of the lookouts so we hopped out to see what they were looking at. It wasn’t a wolf, but it was a grizzly bear. We got our scope on it and watched it while it was running around and playing in the water. Definitely a cool stop. Too far away for a picture, but that’s probably best with a grizzly bear, don’t you think? The guide said that the Yellowstone wolf researcher would be out and about this evening so if you saw him in his yellow car to follow him. He would know where the best place to see wolves would be. We rode for a while to find a good place to wait for wolves and didn’t ever really find a good spot or see the biologist, who we named Ranger Rick. We did happen across another black bear meandering down the side of the road, which made our 7^th bear sighting of the day. That is a pretty good bear day by anyone’s standards.

We decided to turn around and look or Ranger Rick and finally came across his yellow car and set up our scope where he was looking for the wolves. He had a radio transmitter that track a few of the wolves that had radio collars so we figured this was the place to be. We looked and looked and looked…

But we never saw a wolf. One guy who was there said he saw one, but we’re pretty sure he didn’t. We did see 3 badgers, however and that was pretty cool. That’s an animal that Kate and I had not seen before. They were up on the hill playing and digging so that was fun to watch. Even though we didn’t see any wolves, we got good information on who to watch for to follow to the wolves. Kate, Jim and Steph decided to get up extra early tomorrow morning to go try to see the wolves, but I decided to sit that one out since they were planning on getting up at 4:00am. Will they see any wolves…you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow’s post.

It was getting dark so we packed it in and headed toward our campsite. We ran into several bison jams along the way. The herds were on the move and were crossing the road really close to the car. We were a little scared that one of them was going to charge the Suburban at one point. It was cool to be that close to them, but also scary at the same time. Some of the younger males were butting heads with each other, which was fun watch. We couldn’t go anywhere anyway until they moved, so it was good to have some entertainment.

We finally got past the bison in time to see the sunset over the mountains. It was beautiful and a great end to the day. We got back to our tents around 10:30 and hunkered down for the evening in the hopes of little bear activity and good sleep. Tomorrow is wolf watching and a trip to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. See you then!

Andy & Kate

1st Day in the Parks

2011-07-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

You're probably reading this on Thursday or Friday but this is what happened Saturday July 2.

After getting a great night’s sleep last night at the Wind River Motel in Dubois, WY (pronounced Doo-boys), we got a few supplies, including some scratch made doughnuts, and headed west yet again toward Grand Teton and Yellowstone. It was cool this morning, about 45 degrees when we left so we were all bundled up. We’ve had beautiful weather so far on the trip. Thank you God!

We only had to travel about and hour and a half before we made it to Grand Teton National Park. If you have never been here, I highly recommend it. The Teton mountain range is one of the most breathtaking vistas you will ever see. There was A LOT of snow on the ground on the way in and in the park. This made us a little concerned since we knew we would be camping tonight, but we’re here so we were camping snow or no snow. It was pretty cool to see snow on the ground on July 2 when I know it’s 1,000,000 degrees at home.

We stopped a couple of times on the way through Grand Teton to just take in the views and snap a few photos. I think Grand Teton is a park that not a lot of people know about and it not used as much as it could be. It is probably my favorite park of any I’ve visited so far. We got a great shot of Mt. Moran and its reflection in a small lake. I love pictures like that.

We weren’t planning on staying in Grand Teton long, but we pushed extra hard to get out here fast enough to have half a day here. We made our first stop at the Jackson Lake Lodge, which is an incredibly expensive and beautiful lodge overlooking a meadow that backs up to the Tetons. We really just wanted to show Jim and Steph the view from the lodge and take a quick pit stop, but Jim and Kate spotted a full grown bull moose grazing in the meadow below the hotel. We immediately grabbed the binoculars and spotting scope and watch the moose for about 15 mins. He was a huge moose with a huge rack of antlers and a nice beard. Kate and I had seen moose in Glacier two years ago, but we never saw an adult male with antlers. It was awesome! We had a great viewing spot and watched him in pretty good detail for a while. We couldn’t take a picture because our cameras don’t have much a zoom, but we all got to see it and it was a lot of fun.

Next we headed down to Jackson Lake and took a little walk around the lakeshore to see what we could find. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife, but the lake is beautiful with the mountains framing it in the background, so it was well worth the walk. The girls got very excited about all the new flowers they got to see that we don’t have back in NC so we took a few shots of those as well.

We departed Grand Teton around lunchtime and after a nice picnic lunch on the John D. Rockefeller Parkway, we made our way into Yellowstone. Again, we saw a lot of snow on the ground as we were traveling through the park so that made us a little scared about freezing our bums off camping, but there’s not much we could do anyway except hunker down and bundle up! Our first stop in Yellowstone was the Old Faithful area. We got to the area just as Old Faithful was erupting, so we had about 90 mins to kill until the next eruption. We explored the Old Faithful Lodge and made our way over to the viewing area to get a front row seat for the show. We had a quick snack of Huckleberry ice cream while we waited and it was delicious. By the way, the girl who scooped our ice cream was from NC and her name was Marin, which is my niece’s name as well. Pretty neat. After a few squirts of water that teased us, Old Faithful finally let loose and erupted. I’ve seen it before at a pretty good distance, but it was really fun to see up close. There were lots of people there, which we understood since it is 4^th of July weekend. We were treated to another geyser erupting as soon as Old Faithful stopped. The Bee Hive geyser erupted just a little ways away from us and it is taller that Old Faithful. It only erupts once a day so we were excited to be there at the right time.

Old Faithful is cool, but we were happy to get away from the crowds and head towards Canyon Village to our campsite. On the way we stopped to view the thermal features at the Great Prismatic Spring. If you look it up you will get a better view that we did, because it’s best viewed from above, but the colors were still pretty amazing even at ground level.

We got to our campsite and set up our tents. There is a big pile of snow under a fallen tree in between our sites but we’re not camping on snow or anything. The main problem with the snow is that it leaves a lot of standing water when it melts which leads to hoards of mosquitoes. The mosquitoes here are so big that they were able to carry Kate away. We’ll go looking for here tomorrow and hope that she’s not shriveled up into nothing.

We got everything set up and Steph cooked up a great spaghetti dinner that really hit the spot. We bought some firewood to have a campfire, but we’re all pretty beat after a full day so I think we’ll turn in early and get some sleep so we can hit it hard again tomorrow.

You’ll probably read this 4 or 5 days after it happened since we don’t have internet here in the park. Tomorrow is horseback riding and dinner at the Roosevelt lodge, which we are very excited about. Hopefully we’ll see some bears and wolves tomorrow as well. Keep your fingers crossed!

Andy & Kate

Day 3--Ride 'em Cowboys!

2011-07-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

Today we started our day in Kearney, NE and headed west yet again toward Wyoming. Once you get into Wyoming the landscape begins to change drastically. It’s hard to describe and photos don’t do it justice either. The sky is so blue, the clouds so white and the sky is so big you feel like you can see for miles and miles. We got our first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains complete with snow-capped peaks.

We stopped for a quick break at a rest stop near Sidney, NE where we thought we had a rattlesnake cornered, but it turned out that it was a non-venomous bull snake. Still pretty cool though.

We stopped for a break in Lander, WY and made sure to get a picture of Steph and the statue saluting all the women that worked so hard farming on the frontier.

We crossed over the Wind River several times during the last miles of the trip and got to see it pretty closely at our hotel. They had record amounts of snow out here this year so the river is up quite a bit and running fast. Our hotel for the night was actually right on the river so it was good to be able to see that.

As we were pulling into our stop for the night at the Wind River Motel in Dubois, WY we saw a sign for a rodeo that was happening tonight so we decided to change clothes, grab some dinner and head over to check out an authentic Wyoming Rodeo. The place was packed. It seems that everyone in an around Dubois comes to the rodeo on Friday night. There were also a lot of people there that are vacationing on dude ranches in the area. They dressed like cowboys and cowgirls, but their boots and clothes were a little too clean and shiny to have been used for serious work on the range.

It was fun watching the rodeo. There were kids under 5 years old riding horses like crazy and participating in things that would be considered borderline child abuse back home. Mutton busting would be one of the examples. They put a small child on a sheep and have the kid try to ride the sheep as long as they can. I saw a lot of little kids come up crying, but they kept coming back for more. It was my first rodeo and I think I’ll have a hard time going to another one now that I’ve seen a pretty authentic western rodeo. I even had some authentic western bbq brisket. It was really good. It was pretty cold out there. Hopefully we’ll be prepared for Yellowstone camping nights.

Tomorrow we head into Yellowstone fr 4 days and there is no internet access in the park so I won’t be able to post anything for a while. Stay tuned! More to come. Tomorrow is Grand Teton and Yellowstone!

Andy & Kate

Travel Day 2

2011-06-30T20:10:00.001-07:00

Today we departed from Wentzville, MO and headed west toward Nebraska. We ran into a couple of snags along our route. We had seen news footage of the Midwest floods, but had no idea that it was so serious still. The Missouri River had flooded several areas along Interstate 29 and we were able to see several farms completely destroyed by the waters. We had to detour around I-29 because the flood waters had washed out the interstate and several of the roads that we needed to take. A state trooper we talked to said the floods waters would be there for at least 3 more months. We ended up traveling through a good bit of Iowa and saw more corn than we could possibly imagine existed.

We finally made it around the flood waters and got to Kearney, NE where we stopped at the Cabela’s store. It’s similar to Bass Pro Shops but better and a little less expensive.

We had a nice dinner at Applebee’s and hunkered down at the Motel 6 for the evening. It’s pretty hot in Nebraska. It was 100 degrees a1 8:00pm, which was pretty surprising to us.

Tomorrow we head for Wyoming and our last big travel day before Grand Teton and Yellowstone.

Andy & Kate

June 29--Away We Go!

2011-06-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today began our epic journey west. We have talked about it as a family since December. And Kate’s parents have been working around the clock to get ready to go for the last 2 week’s. We pulled out of Midland, NC around 8:15am and headed west. We traveled down I-40 through the NC mountains and stopped for lunch at a rest stop just before the TN border. We have come to the conclusion after our 2 trips that NC has the nicest rest stops in the country. There is an especially nice one just before the TN border. It is very lush with picnic tables under shade trees and rhododendrons blooming in the background. I highly recommend it.

We drove through TN to Nashville then headed northwest through Kentucky and Illinois. Jim and Steph had a pretty good time seeing all the huge farms in this part of the country. It is pretty amazing to see these massive farms. A lot of them had flood damage, and it was interesting to see the result of all the floods we watched on the news.

As we were crossing the border of Kentucky into Illinois, we passed went through Metropolis, IL which holds its claim to fame as the home of Superman. We would have stopped to see him but I think he was out saving the planet from Lex Luthor again.

After a nice Cracker Barrel dinner (you can always count on Cracker Barrel) we pushed on a little further than we had planned on and ended up at a Motel 6 in Wentzville, MO on the other side of St. Louis. We had to sit through a good bit of traffic in St. Louis. But we all agreed better to encounter a little traffic in the evening after a good day of travel, as oppose to starting off the morning with road construction and rush hour traffic. We snapped this photo that seemed like the understatement of the evening.

Andy & Kate

Here We Go Again...Again

2011-06-29T04:20:00.000-07:00

The time of year is upon us again. That's right...time for Andy & Kate to take a ridiculously long trip across the United States. This year we are headed back to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks. After that, we are headed out to Washington State to visit Olympic National Park, then coming back home through Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. We're very excited!

This year's trip is a little different in that we have some extra passengers. Kate's parents, Jim and Stephanie, have caught the travel bug as well and are piling in with us, or we are piling in with them since we're driving their Suburban, and we're headed out West together. Kate's sister and brother-in-law, Megan and Trey, will be flying out to Washington to meet us at Olympic so it will be an exciting family vacation.

We leave this morning and head towards Illinois for our first stop. We'll try to get as many pictures up as we can on Facebook this year so if you need to friend Kate or me just shout! We should be in Yellowstone Saturday so stay tuned!

Andy & Kate

Adoption Update

2011-01-18T10:33:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to let everyone who is following us in on what's going on with our adoption. Everything is going well as we continue to work on our home study. We have our last home visit this Thursday (1/20). The social worker has been very nice and easy to talk to so we're very thankful for that.

The adoption agency has told us that we could expect a referral anywhere from November to February and them to travel anywhere from January to July of 2012. Since our baby will be between 10-12 months old when we pick him/her up, it is possible that he/she could be born very soon, but certainly is being carried by his/her mother now.

Please pray for that young woman as she goes through her pregnancy and the difficult decision she has ahead of her. Please pray that she makes good decisions regarding the health of her/our child and that God gives her a peace about this process. Since we will probably never meet her, at least not for a very long time, I hope she knows how loved her baby will be in our family.

We continue to raise money for our adoption. We have been very blessed to have far more piggy bank orders than we ever could have imagined. We have some more enterprises underway and if you would like to see those please click on the link below to our adoption fund-raising site.

http://shiftadoption.blogspot.com/

As we know more and hit more milestones, we'll let you know. Until then, keep us and the future little Highsmith in your prayers.

~Andy & Kate

A New Journey

2010-10-27T06:19:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, Kate and I have started the adoption process. We really feel like God has laid orphans on our hearts and this is what He wants us to do. As far as we know, we are able to have biological children, but we feel strongly led down this path. We know it will be a tough road, but we know our family and friends will be behind us all the way. I'll be updating as we get news and reach milestones so check in every now and then.

We have decided to adopt from Korea this time. There are a lot of requirements for different countries and long story short, Korea fit our particular situation.

We ran into our first roadblock as the agency we had chosen stopped accepting out of state applicants on the day we were to send in our application. So, we had to regroup and choose another agency, so we are now going with Carolina Adoption Services out of Greensboro. We're gathering our information to get the paperwork for our homestudy right now.

Keep us in yours prayers and hopefully around March 2012 we'll be bringing home our first child!

~Andy & Kate

I'm In Love With A Tart

2010-08-29T18:12:00.000-07:00

There is a dessertery in downtown Concord that Kate and I absolutely love called The Chocolatier Barracund. The chef is from France and makes the best desserts we've ever had. We were in there with my sister Nicole last weekend and saw a new dessert that he was making that we thought we'd try. It was a coconut cream tart, and is is one of the best desserts I've ever had. We went back this weekend to have another. It is quite delicious and I recommend you stop in and try one if you get the chance.

Beach Trip 2010

2010-08-14T16:43:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics from our family beach trip to Holden Beach. Kate and her parents were there Sunday to Thursday on their own until Megan, Trey and I got down later in the week because we had to work. Kate and her folks did a lot of fishing and we all did a lot of eating!

Point Reyes Day 3

2010-07-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

So we got up this morning (Tuesday July 20) at 5:30am and drove back into San Francisco to go whale watching. We got to the dock and didn't really see anybody. What we didn't know was that the company had cancelled the trip due to high winds without calling us. So, not only did we get up really early, we had to pay a $6 toll to go across the Golden Gate Bridge again and pay $10 for parking not to mention the money for gas. Needless to say, we were a little upset with them. We had planned on leaving tomorrow morning to come home, but now we are going to give whale watching one more try and alter our schedule a little bit. We'll still leave to come home tomorrow, but we're going to leave from the pier around 1:00pm when the boat gets back in.

We spent today doing a bunch of nothing. We went to the Point Reyes Visitor's Center to ask the ranger what we could see. We were interested in the tide pools and also an elk reserve that is close by. The elk there are in the rut, so we thought we may get to hear them bugle. The range said it has to be a negative low tide to see the pools, which means the water has to go out further than normal, which only happens twice a month. They don't really say much about this on the website, so we were a little disappointed there. The ranger also said the elk usually bugle at night, so we decided not to drive up there just to see elk, since we saw a lot of them last year.

We came back to camp and took long naps and ate some lunch and just hung out for a while with nothing to do. It was nice to be able to not feel like you had to go anywhere, but we also feel like we're wasting time just sitting here. After the nap we had a little ice cream then did some laundry. We're going to go out for dinner tonight and I'm going to have some fresh local oysters since this area is known for them.

At this point, Point Reyes has been a bust. We haven't really seen a whole lot that impressed us. The Pacific was cool the first day, but since then, it's been a bit disappointing. Let's hope for whales tomorrow.

Pray for our safe travels home as well and if all goes well, we'll see you Sunday morning!

2010-07-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up at 5:00am after our coldest night yet. It’s so funny to us that the coldest nights we’ve spent have been at the beach. I can definitely say that this is the only time I remember wearing fleece all day in July at the beach.

It only takes about 45 mins to get into San Francisco, but we didn’t want to have to drive in Monday morning rush hour traffic, so we got up extra early. We drove across the Golden Gate bridge to get into the city and didn’t hit any traffic at all.

This is Alcatraz Island.

We had to be at the dock for our whale-watching trip by 7:30am and we got there around 6:30 so we had time to walk around Pier 39 for a while. We were the only people there besides the vendors so it was nice to walk around and see it without the crowds. We got to spend several minutes along with the famous San Francisco sea lions. They are funny to watch and pretty active early in the morning. All the really big ones are out in the seas mating, so we just saw the juveniles and some of the females. Someone told us that over 1,600 sea lions come there in Thanksgiving. It was still really cool to see and hear them.

They have the biggest piece of macaroni I’ve ever seen!

We met our captain and boarded the Kitty Kat, our boat and set off through the San Francisco Bay. We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and past Alcatraz on our way out to sea. I had gotten seasick on my last excursion out to sea so I took two Dramamine to fight off the sickness. I made sure to stare at the horizon constantly. I never got sick, but I felt nauseous a lot of the time. We were in some pretty rough seas. It was very windy and the waves were pretty big. Frankly I’m surprised we went out, but maybe it’s like that all the time. Some of the passengers stayed in the cabin but they started getting sick one by one and puking over the side. The key is to stay outside, no matter how cold and how wet you get so you don’t get sick. We had to put on the yellow rain slickers that you always see on TV in order to stay relatively warm and dry. It was a pretty uncomfortable 5 hours to be honest. Kate did better than I did.

Here’s the bad part…we didn’t see any whales! They said that’s the first time they hadn’t seen a whale since November. I could have dealt with feeling bad if I had at least seen some whales. Their policy is that if you don’t see a whale, you get to go on another trip for free. That works pretty well for them since most people are tourists and can’t go two days in a row. We, however, are not your typical tourists and we told them Kate would be back tomorrow (Tuesday). I decided to sit the next trip out. All I could focus on for the whole trip was not getting sick. My eyes were tired from focusing on the horizon the while time. As much as I like being on a boat in the lake, it looks like I’m a landlubber when it comes to the ocean.

We got back into port and had some chowder and shrimp at one of the Pier 39 restaurants. I was 51% hungry and 49% nauseous, so the hungry won out, but it was a close race.

We decided to go check out a local beach called Stinson Beach and drive up the coast a bit to check out some tide pools that you are supposed to be able to see starfish and other cool stuff.

Kate had to drive because the Dramamine was making me so sleepy I couldn’t keep my eyes open. We got to Stinson Beach and got a quick dessert. It was a brownie with chocolate and vanilla ice-cream, whip cream, strawberries and bananas. It was very tasty and didn’t last long. We walked on the beach for a while until we decided it was too cold. We probably were still chilled a bit from the boat, but we both had fleece on and were still cold. There were people laying out like it was 90 degrees outside, and I can’t figure out how they weren’t cold.

We headed up the coast to the area where the tide pools are supposed to be, but the tide was up so we waited for while to see if it would go down. I fell asleep in the car while Kate read. The tide was coming in so we didn’t get to see anything. We headed back to camp and I went to sleep for a few hours to try to shake off the Dramamine. I will not be taking that again if I can help it. We had some sandwiches for supper then climbed into bed. It was the coldest night we’ve had yet and had to really bundle up. We were prepared from last year’s experience so we never got cold during the night.

We’re getting up early again tomorrow to take Kate back for more whale hunting, so keep your fingers crossed!

Point Reyes National Seashore Day 1

2010-07-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

We got up and left Yosemite this morning around 8:00am. We’ve got packing down to a science now. We set out for Point Reyes National Seashore, which is about an hour north of San Francisco. We had to travel through Oakland, CA to get to our destination. If you ever think you want to take a trip to Oakland, don’t. Driving there was a nightmare. Every exit we needed to take was blocked by the police or under road construction. I don’t like driving in cities anyway, but Oakland was about as stressful as it gets.

We got through Oakland and made it to Olema RV Resort and Campground. The road to the town of Olema was very curvy and very bumpy. Kate and I both are about tired of curvy, bumpy roads at this point. The straightness of the interstate is going to be a welcome site on the way home. I don’t get carsick very often, but I started to get sick around here. We set up camp and the first thing we did was laundry. We were both on our last pair of clean underwear, so it was necessary.

After laundry, we went down to the seashore. It’s cool to see the Pacific Ocean and how it’s different from what we're used to in NC. The surf is a lot heavier, and it’s cold out here. The water is freezing and the air isn’t that much warmer. It’s constantly windy. In some points the ocean comes right up against the rocks. We went to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, which is one of the oldest lighthouses on the west coast. They close the lighthouse when wind conditions are over 40mph, which is quite often apparently. The sign there said it might be the windiest place on the west coast. It was definitely colder and windier than the beaches we have back home. It’s funny that this is the coldest place we’ve been to yet and we’ve been in the mountains for the past week. We took a stroll on the beach and then headed back to camp for supper.

After supper, we took a much needed shower. I’m embarrassed to say that it’s been about 6 days since our last shower. I know. We think it’s pretty bad, too. They say if you can smell yourself then other people have been smelling you for 3 days. We passed that mark a while ago. We were glad to take a little time to clean up this evening in a shower that we didn’t have to put quarters into. The showers here at the campsite are the kind you have to keep pushing a button to get water to come out of. Once you push the button, you get 9 seconds of water so you really have to be diligent or you’ll get cold. While I was in the shower, I heard two people in the toilet area slamming stuff around and giggling. I knew something was going on that shouldn’t have been and my guess was that it was teenage boys running amok. I was going to try to stop them from doing whatever it was they were doing, but I was completely naked and covered in soap so that would have hindered my abilities, but the site of me naked and covered in soap should have been enough to scare away the toughest of customers. It turns out that they cut the water lines in all the toilets so that was a bit of a headache.

After our shower, we crawled into bed and got ready for an early morning. Whale watching tomorrow! Up at 5:00am. Yuck!

Yosemite Day 3

2010-07-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up early thanks to some kids playing directly next to our tent at 6:00am. Camping etiquette is nonexistent out here. We had a breakfast of more sweet potato pancakes then headed out to the valley for our day’s activities.

Today’s big activity was horseback riding through the park, but we didn’t have to be there until 12:00, so we took a little hike to Mirror Lake first. It was only a couple of miles so it wasn’t a huge hike. Mirror Lake is a temporary lake and usually dries up by the time summer is over. Yosemite had a late winter this year so the lake was still there, but not very impressive since we saw it past its peak time. We still got a good shot of why it’s called Mirror Lake though. We took an unexpected detour on the way back, but we found our way back to the path.

We had lunch at a little taco stand in the park that was surprisingly good and relatively reasonable for the national parks. Pretty much all the food in the national parks is vey expensive. I really thing the parks service is messing up here, but I guess it’s like any theme park. Once you’re in, they have you so why not make some money off of you.

We got to the stables and checked in and they set us up with our mules. We thought we were going to be riding horses, but it turns out they had mules waiting for us. Kate’s mule was named Roxanne and mine was named Guinness. Mine was the biggest mule I have ever seen! It was half draft horse so it towered above the rest of the mules. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but it was a long way down to the ground from where I was riding. I had to dodge my fair share of limbs too because I was sitting up so high. He was a good mule though and he took care of me. When I got off, the inside of my legs were so sore because he was so wide. It was like riding while doing a partial split!

We rode through the park up the John Muir Trail. It was pretty steep and pretty rocky. I thought it was a lot steeper than the Grand Canyon trail and definitely felt a little more scary. The mules are trained to go to the outside of the trail, but ours seemed to take that to the extreme. There were plenty of times when we jerked the reigns back toward the trail because we were both uncomfortable with the path they were taking. Still, it was a good ride. As far as the ride and scenery, it was probably the best one we’ve taken yet. We got to see a lot of the park on the ride and the top was a great view from Clark’s Point where we could see the entire valley. As far as the guides, I was less than impressed with them. We had two with us and they couldn’t have been more than 23 or 24. Not than a young person can’t ride a horse/mule, but they didn’t really interact with us at all. The lead guide had a frisky horse that didn’t want to go where she wanted it to so she had to move to the back, which made me nervous. The other guide that came up to the front stayed so far ahead of everyone that you never really saw her. I’m sure they have to deal with annoying tourists all the time, but if we weren’t their giving them money, they wouldn’t have a job so I would expect a little more. We also felt like the mules were not as well trained as in other places we’ve gone. I had to control mine a lot more than I’ve had to in other parks. Even the people in the ticket stand acted like it was a hassle to do anything. Oh well. Normally we tip our guides quite well, but we didn’t feel compelled to do that this time. Their loss. Even with that, it was still the best ride we’ve been on yet.

After the mule ride, we went to the Ansel Adams gallery their at the park and Kate took a couple of photos in black and white in his honor.

We got back to our campsite to see that our neighbors, a new set, had set up camp in their site and partially in our site. They had 5 tents set up (the maximum is 2) and had 3 big vehicles, one of which a big truck which took up part of our parking space. I was pretty mad when we pulled in, then they offered us hamburgers for supper so I forgave them pretty quickly. We ate and talked with them for a while then went to bed.

Overall, Yosemite is a beautiful place that I feel has been a bit over developed. There are people everywhere and it’s hard to take in the beauty with all the people around. I think it would be a great place to go in September or even June, but July is not the time to go. Of course we were there adding to the crowds, but I wouldn’t feel compelled to go back.

Tomorrow we head to the coast!

Yosemite Day 2

2010-07-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

So I went to bed last night with full intentions of not having to go outside to use the bathroom, since they have just as many bears in Yosemite as Sequoia. I purposefully didn’t drink anything after 6:00pm, but of course I had to go outside, so I did my now famous 5-10 minute ritual of gathering the courage to go outside in the dark. I woke up sometime in the night and heard animal footsteps outside the tent. I lay awake in terror for a good 5 minutes before I realized that it had to be a deer since it sounded like hooves and what ever it was was eating grass. As soon as I turned over it ran away anyway, so that was a relief.

As I was walking to the bathroom this morning, I saw a large pile of poo in our campsite. It was definitely not deer poo. It could have been dog poo from one of the other campers, but I’m betting it was bear poo. I can’t be certain, but of course it’s bear in my mind.

We had a delicious breakfast of sweet potato pancake and bacon. My sister, Nicole’s, mom got them for us when we were in Atlanta. It’s a mix where all you have to add in water and they are so good! You don’t even need to put syrup on them.

Today we planned to take a hike in the Yosemite Valley. On the way to the valley is a viewing point called Tunnel View. It is a spectacular view of the Yosemite Valley with great views of Half Dome, El Capitan and Bridalveil Falls. It’s an image that you may even recognize as it shows up a lot when you see pictures of Yosemite. We also passed the Yosemite Chapel on the way in. It’s pretty old and would be a cool place to get married.

Kate snapped a good picture of Stellar’s Jay while we were in the valley today. They are a pretty big blue jay and they like the tourists for all their food and trash.

We got into the valley at just the right time and prepared for our hike. The hike we took was on the Mist Trail and was a hike up to the top of Vernal Falls. The Mist Trail is the signature hike of Yosemite. We figured it would be kind of steep since we were hiking up to the top of a waterfall, but we weren’t prepared for what lay in store for us. Virtually every step of the hike was very uphill. When you finally get to the end of the paved uphill path, you start on the unpaved uphill path. I have never hiked anything like this before. You are picking your way up these paths and steps that are so steep. Not to mention the fact that there are people everywhere. Yosemite is so crowded in the summer and there were people trying this hike that looked like they may have a heart attack at any moment. Kate and I may have looked like that too because this hike was crazy. The total hike is 1.8 miles and over that 8 miles you climb over 1,000 feet in elevation. This trail is called the Mist Trail because you walk so close to the waterfall that it sprays mist on you for a good portion of the trail. We ere literally soaking wet by the time we got finished, but we were so tired that we didn’t care.

We ate lunch at the top of Vernal Falls and watch all the tourists ignore the 10,000 signs that say not to feed the squirrels. I hate squirrels, so when they come up to us, we scare them away, which is what you should do since they are wild animals. Instead, people feed them so they get used to getting food from people. There were over 300 squirrels bites in Yosemite last year, making the squirrel the most dangerous animal in the park.

We made our way down the trail, which was equally as strenuous because it’s so steep. Our knees hurt quite a bit from the strain of going downhill, and we were glad to get to the bottom.

We got a little snack and then rode our bikes around the park a bit. Yosemite has a bike trail that goes around the interior of the valley so you can see a lot of the valley on your bike. It was a nice ride and it made us glad we had brought our bikes with us.

After the bikes, we headed back up to Glacier Point to get Kate a t-shirt that she really liked. I liked it too and was going to get one, but it didn’t fit right. It is the only t-shirt I have seen on the entire trip that I really liked and now Kate has it and I don’t. Not fair. We had a little supper back at our campsite then lit a small fire for a while. Our neighbors had gathered a bunch of firewood and were leaving the next day so they gave us some of their wood to use. We now know for a fact that our trouble keeping a fire last year was 100% due to the bad wood we got in Gran Teton. This fire lit with one match and burned like a champ. We spent the time by the fire waging a small war against the Yosemite mosquitoes. They were a formidable opponent. I was doing well defending my front, but they were sending soldiers to distract me in the front while they bit me through my shirt on my back. I had a little section of 4 or 5 bites on my back. It was a good strategy, although they lost of a lot of good men in the process. Once I got wise to their strategy, I think I won the day.

As I was walking back from the last bathroom run of the evening, I saw our neighbors just casually sitting by their fire smoking a joint. They had been cooking massive amounts of food all weekend and now we know why.

So darkness falls again and fear returns. I am not the least bit scared of bears during the day, but something about them at night freaks me out. I know they don’t want to eat me, but I also know that people in California are crazy for the most part, so why would the bears be any different? Let’s hope my bladder and I can get on the same page.

That’s it for day 2!

Yosemite Day 1

2010-07-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

I’m afraid I have to eat a little crow here. In my post from Sequoia, I was a bit skeptical about all the Californians screaming and yelling about bears. I’ve been to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks where they have grizzly bears. I thought these people were being a bit ridiculous. Well, we were talking to several people, including a ranger and they all said that bears come into Dorst Creek campground (our campground in Sequoia) regularly. Every time you hear a car horn or people screaming and banging pots together, you know they are scaring a bear away. You can hear this happen about every 5-10 mins. One guy we were talking to said he was in camp two nights ago and felt a bear’s breath on his foot. Needless to say, all this freaked me out quite a bit. You would start to hear the people scaring the bears away as soon as darkness fell. It was like a zombie or vampire movie where you were scared to be out at night.

Kate and I both took a Benadryl to help us sleep through the bear noise that goes on all night. Kate was quite a bit more composed than I was, mainly because she doesn’t have to get up to use the bathroom at night. I wake up every night to go so all I could think about was running up on a bear in the middle of doing my business. I pee right outside the tent when we camp because I’m too lazy to walk to the bathroom. Last night I was terrified to walk to the bathroom. To be honest I was terrified to leave the tent. I woke up at 11:30 having to pee so bad I was in pain. I had gone to bed praying that I wouldn’t have to go, but I guess God wants me to face my fears. I laid there for a while contemplating how mad Kate would be if I just peed in the bed so I wouldn’t have to go outside. I’m 99% kidding about that. I finally got up the nerve to get a flashlight and peer out the door of the tent to make sure there wasn’t a bear outside waiting on me. I had a vision in my mind of a bear sitting at our picnic table reading the newspaper waiting on me to come out of the tent. I’m not sure why I feel so safe in the tent. Probably because we do a very thorough job of putting anything that may attract a bear in the bear locker. I laid there in the fetal position for another 5 mins trying to build up courage to go outside. I decided to take my chances and go outside. I had to pee a lot so it took a long time and I was feeling vulnerable to bear attack at any moment. Thankfully, I was able to finish and get back in the tent without incident. I was worried that I may have to go again since it was only 11:30 and I had drank a lot of water, but I didn’t wake up until daylight, so that was good. I don’t know if I could have gone out again. So, I take back all my remarks about the crazy people from California. I’ve yet to see a bear out here, but I’m sure scared to death of the night right now.

We woke up pretty early and got packed up yet again. We headed north toward Yosemite. I think we take for granted our highway system in NC. Usually, everything is pretty well marked as far as finding gas stations and food. California is not quite as efficient. We had to just pick and exit and rely on the GPS to get us to gas and a biscuit. The biscuits out here a smaller and denser than back home. They need a lesson in biscuit making from some of the Linkers. They do have sweet tea at the McDonalds out here, which I found interesting. Usually you can’t find any sweet tea once you get out of Tennessee.

We got to Yosemite around 1:00pm and grabbed a campsite at Bridalveil Creek campground. We wanted to stop at the first one we got to, to make sure we had a place to camp tonight and ended up with a nice campsite out of all the hustle and bustle of Yosemite Valley. Our campsite backs right up against a stand of trees with a meadow on the other side. I feel this leaves us open to bear attack, but the middle campsites were occupied with a bunch of screaming kids, so I’ll take my chances with the bears. We set up our tent and ate a little lunch. We decided to take a trip up to Glacier Point, which is one of the “must see” viewing areas in Yosemite. When we got up to the top, we realized why. We got our first view of the famous Yosemite valley with its huge granite mountains carved out by a glacier millions of years ago. At Glacier Point you can see the whole valley and all three waterfalls. It is a vista that is hard to describe and I don’t know how much the photos do it justice. We mostly took photos of Half Dome. We also got our first look at El Capitan, the largest stone monolith in the world. It’s pretty famous for rock climbers. We ate a hot dog and had some ice cream while we looked around the souvenir shop.

After Glacier Point, we went back to camp and cooked dinner. We’ve invented a new dish called Chicken Helper. We take grilled chicken and combine in a pot with macaroni, pasta sauce and green peppers and onions. It’s pretty good, but has a hard time rivaling Hamburger Helper, which is one of my personal favorites. Unfortunately we’re out of that, so I’ll make do with chicken.

We decided to go back up to Glacier Point to watch the sunset, which is supposed to be one of the “must do’s” here. The valley is in the east so the sun sets behind it, but the sun’s rays make the rocks turn different colors as it goes down and it was a pretty good way to spend an evening. We worked on some post cards while we were there, and took a lot of pictures.

Right before dark, we got back to camp and washed up so we could be in the tent before it was completely dark. Needless to say, I was a bit dismayed when I saw people had left out food containers and garbage, which is what attracts bears. I’ll talk about the night in my next post.

That’s all for night one in Yosemite.

Sequoia National Park

2010-07-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

OK so here are the pictures from Sequoia. I didn't go through and put them with the corresponding text because I didn't have time. Enjoy!

I couldn’t get the pictures up for some reason tonight. I’ll go back in and edit this post to put our Sequoia pictures up as soon as I can. Sorry!

We woke up around 9:30am after out night out in Las Vegas. It was nice to have a bed and a shower that didn’t have a timer on it. We checked out and got on the road around 11:00 and headed toward Sequoia National Park in California. We stopped a couple of times and went on a bit of a goose chase looking for a grocery store to restock our supplies so we got to the park entrance around 7:30pm. That would have been fine, if it wasn’t over an hour to get from the park entrance to our campsite.

The entrance is at 1700 feet of elevation and our campsite is at 6700 feet, so you can imagine what the road was like though the park. It seemed an endless combination of steep uphill and 90 degree turns as we climbed up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We did manage to catch a great shot of the sun setting over the mountains as we were climbing. It was by far the steepest, curviest road I’ve ever driven.

As we were driving we began to pass into the Giant Forest. This is where the Sequoia tress start to grow. I have to say that they are one of the most awe-inspiring sites I could imagine. We couldn’t stop to get a good look at them because we were trying to get to our campsite before dark, but just driving through them makes you feel like you are in a prehistoric, Jurassic Park like environment. It’s not just the Sequoias that are huge, but every tree is massive. The pine trees here are the largest in the world. It’s like everything is magnified. Ironically, the Sequoias have really small cones while the Sugar Pine, the largest pine in the world, has enormous cones.

We finally made it to our campsite at Dorst Creek right as dark was falling. We got camp set up pretty quickly even though we were working in the dark. We’re getting pretty good at it. Apparently, in Sequoia and Yosemite parks, they have a lot of trouble with black bears coming into campsites and trying to get human food. Hey are very adamant about everyone putting their food and all toiletries in the bear lockers at every site. We made sure to do that, since we didn’t want an unwanted visitor in the middle of the night. During the night, I heard several car alarms and bear horns go off, so I don’t know if a bear was there or not. The campsite is really nice, but they are really close together so you can hear everyone’s conversations. A lot of people were talking about bears, but I don’t know how much of that was true. We’ll be sleeping with our bear spray just in case tonight though for sure.

We got up around 8:00am and fixed some breakfast. My sister Nicole’s mom Phyllis bought us some instant sweet potato pancake mix and it is absolutely delicious. We had that then headed down to do our first activity for the day.

Our first stop was the General Sherman tree. It is a giant sequoia and is the largest tree by volume in the world. Don’t confuse Sequoias with redwoods. They are not the same. Sequoias are bigger in diameter but a little shorter. The tallest known Sequoia is 311 feet and redwoods get upwards of 350 feet. Sequoias grow in the mountains and redwoods grow along the coastal region. Sequoias don’t’ die from old age. They die from falling over. The oldest known tree is 3,200 years old. Just wanted to pass along some of what we learned today.

Back to General Sherman. Walking along the trail to see the Sherman tree, you pass a lot of Sequoias, and they are all impressive. But when you get to the Sherman tree, you are blown away. The sheer size of it is hard to get your mind around and it’s really hard to capture that on film. The Sherman tree is 2,200 years old and still growing. The placard in front of the tree said looking up at Sherman is like a mouse looking up at a human. It’s something you have to see for yourself.

After Sherman, We drove to Tunnel Log, a downed Sequoia that you can drive your car through. Next, we did a hike up to Moro Rock. This was a 350 step climb straight up a granite rock to a viewing area that gave you a 360 degree view of the park. It’s a little strenuous, but definitely worth it once you see the view. We came down and went back to the campsite for some lunch. Hamburger Helper is an underrated meal.

On the way back to the campsite, we saw the park had named one of the hikes after me. Little Baldy. I like it.

After our lunch, we set back out to do another of the recommended Sequoia hikes to Tokopah Falls. It was about 3.5 miles round trip and was a good hike. The falls were definitely worth the effort. The water in the river is so clear that you can just about always see the bottom of the river. It’s very cold though because it comes from snow melt that is still happening right now.

After our hike, we got a quick ice cream and came up to the lodge to do some blogging. We’ll have dinner next them get ready to get up early to try to get the campground we want at Yosemite.

We don’t have any cell service anywhere in this park, so we won’t be reachable until tomorrow when we are on the way to Yosemite.

Las Vegas

2010-07-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

Coming from the east, Las Vegas rises like a mirage out of the desert. It is HOT here. The high today is 114 and it doesn’t matter if it’s dry heat or not, it is pretty hot. Our first experiences were strictly business. We needed to get the oil and serpentine belt changed on the Jeep. Then it was time to find some food. We listened to the advice of our friends and used the GPS to locate an In and Out Burger near the car garage. It was quite good. I would compare it to a Checkers or What-a Burger.

After that we checked into Treasure Island Hotel and Casino. We picked up a map of Vegas then made our way to the room. We hit the pool for an hour or so then headed back to the room to rest a little and Skyped with the Clines before hitting the strip.

After taking a glorious shower that didn’t involve shower shoes or a timer, we emerged from the room ready to see what Vegas had to offer. We headed toward the song and dance show at the Treasure Ship here at TI, but quickly left that because it was so crowded and not very interesting. We made our way down the strip to The Mirage where we saw their volcano erupt then to Caesar’s Palace and walked around the shops and hotel there. They had a lot of impressive fountains and the ceiling is painted like a sky. It’s so big and the way it’s laid out that it makes you feel like you are outside.

We ate supper at the Cheesecake Factory in Caesar’s. Don’t worry, it serves food besides cheesecake. Then we made our way down to the Bellagio to get a look at their fountain show, blown glass chandelier and conservatory. This was by far our favorite part of Vegas. The fountain show happens every 15 mins and we could have sat there and watched it over and over. The chandelier was amazing. It was huge and very beautiful. The conservatory was a huge garden with lots of plants and flowers. Kate liked it a lot.

We both took a dollar and played a slot machine in the Bellagio. Sadly, we didn’t hit it big, but it was fun to pull the handle and see what happens. I guess I can see how it would be addictive to some people but I knew I was going to lose so I never had high hopes. After the Bellagio, we made our way back to our hotel around 1:00am. We got into bed and slept until around 10:00am. We got packed up, checked out and headed out for Sequoia National Park in California.

I haven’t written a whole lot about Vegas simply because I wasn’t very impressed with it. The hotels were impressive in size and scope and we did really like the Bellagio, but other than that it seems like a town of excess. Too many people spending too much money on everything you can imagine. They also allow smoking inside so that was pretty gross. Overall, I’m glad we came to satisfy our curiosity, but I won’t be coming back if I have anything to do about it.

~Andy & Kate

Zion National Park

2010-07-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

Today we got up and packed up our Bryce Canyon camp and headed toward Zion National Park. It rained quite a bit overnight, so our tent was a little soggy. A little bit of water got in the bottom of the tent, but not much and given the amount of rain, we’re pretty impressed with our tent. We never got wet, just the bottom of our air mattress, so no big deal.

We got everything packed up and got to Zion rather quickly since they are only about an hour and a half away from each other. Once we entered the park, though, we had a hour ride down to the bottom of the canyon with very rough roads and road construction slowing us down. It would have been a pretty ride with all the cliffs on each side, but the driving was a little stressful with the bad roads and sheer cliffs. At one point on the road, we travelled through a tunnel through one of the cliffs that had to be at least a mile long. It was a bit disconcerting to be in a tunnel that long, knowing it would be hard to get out if you needed to.

We got down to the bottom of the canyon and found a parking place. We went to grab something to eat for lunch, then geared up for our big hike. Zion has a signature hike called “The Narrows” where you hike in the Virgin River up into the canyon as it gets more and more narrow. You can go all the way to the end of the canyon, but we didn’t have time so we only did a mile out and a mile back. The cool thing about the hike is that you are literally hiking in the river the whole time. At some points the water barely covers your shoes, but at some points it’s up to your waist. You have to be very cautious where you step because you’re fighting the current of the river the whole time. You almost have to have a walking stick to gage the depth in front of you and we were fortunate enough that our friend Andrew Logan let us borrow a couple of collapsible sticks. I wouldn’t have done it without them. We just hiked in our hiking boots and changed into different shoes when we got done. It was my favorite hike so far of this trip and maybe my favorite hike ever.

Zion park has a shuttle system that takes people to the trailheads and sties that everyone wants to see. They only allow parking at the visitor center and campgrounds. It’s a really good system and keeps you from having to worry about driving anywhere. The buses run every 6-8 minutes so you never have to wait long for one. We really enjoyed the convenience of it.

After the Narrows hike, we rode the shuttle down to another trail called the Emerald Pools. It was pretty short, but the ranger had recommended it. I’m not sure why because it see better puddles at home. Pools were not green and looked like a couple of large puddles. It was a mile walk for not a lot of payoff.

After the Emerald Pools, we shared a sandwich and some ice cream and then set up our campsite. It was nice that Zion is at low elevation and hot because it helped to dry out all our gear that got wet at Bryce. Thanks God! We met a couple that had been in the same campsite as us at Bryce and we talked with them for a while. They were from Oregon and told us the cool things to do there when we go in 2013! After we got set up, we went into town and did a load of laundry and then came back and cooked a quick dinner of roast beef sandwiches, new potatoes, green peppers and onions. Then we went to a ranger presentation on hummingbirds that was pretty interesting.

I always used to make fun of people that said 100 degrees out west was no big deal because of the dry air. I always thought that was stupid because 100 is hot no matter where you go. I think I have to eat a little crow. The high yesterday in Zion was 104. I never really got hot. The lack of humidity really makes a huge difference. So as all you North Carolinians are sweating it out in the humidity, just know that we feel sorry for you.

We woke up Monday morning after a fitful night. The wind was blowing like crazy. You could hear it coming through the canyon before it hit you. It kept the temperature down, but we didn’t sleep great. Think Lake Phelps Jim and Steph.

Our next stop is Las Vegas so we’ll see what we get into there!

Bryce Canyon Day 2

2010-07-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up later because there were no annoying ravens to wake us up at 5:00am. We didn’t get to sleep as late as we may have wanted because someone thought it would be a good idea to give their children a recorder and harmonica at 7:00 in the morning. Also, there are people in this world that talk very loudly for some reason that we can’t figure out.

We didn’t have to rush to be anywhere so we fixed a big breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast. We ate a half a pound of bacon and 6 eggs between us. I love a leisurely breakfast.

Today’s major activity was a hike into and through Bryce Canyon. A park ranger told us the best hikes to take so we got started on this adventure around 11:00. The temperature is perfect here during the days, topping out around 75 or 80. The first section of the trail was a little downhill and very beautiful. We stopped every 50 feet it seemed for a photo. This section of the trail is called The Queen’s Garden Trail. Photo of the Queen’s Garden is below.

The next section of the trail is called Peekaboo Loop. Here’s where it gets interesting. Somehow, this 3 mile hike is uphill both ways. It literally defies all laws of space and time. I told the ranger we were enthusiastic hikers when she asked me what we were looking to do and I now regret that statement. A normal 3 mile hike would be a piece of cake, but this one kept us walking essentially straight uphill for what seemed forever. We were both exhausted by the time we got finished with the loop. What made it worse was that a thunderstorm was moving in and we couldn’t move any faster to try to beat it because of the terrain. In the end, we were glad we did it because there were some views you couldn’t get anywhere else in the park.

We got to the last section of the trail called Navajo Loop. It is another set of very steep switchbacks up to the top of the canyon through these sheer cliffs. It was very beautiful and on a normal day I would have taken a lot of pictures. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm erupted over us and it began absolutely pouring rain. We put our rain jackets on, but didn’t have our pants with us and we got very soaked from the waist down. The trail became pretty treacherous as well as runoff began making it muddy and slippery. Then the hail began. Thankfully it was only pea size hail so it just stings a little when it hits your head. The lightning was a bit disconcerting as well, but we both made it out unscathed. It’s appropriate to mention that we ran into the thunderstorm just as we were passing the hoodoo called Thor’s Hammer. Thor is the Norse god of thunder, so I guess he wanted us to experience a little of his specialty. We finally got to the top and caught a shuttle back to the Jeep. By that time it quit raining so we were able to get out of out wet clothes at the tent without too much trouble. A good portion of the campsite may have seen me in my underwear since I changed outside the tent, but at that point I really didn’t care.

After that ordeal, we were both pretty wiped out, so I took a 2-hour nap and Kate read for a while. We got up around 4:30 and went to the general store to do some writing and journaling while enjoying some ice cream before we went back to the campsite to cook supper.

After supper we went to hang out at the Bryce Canyon Lodge and relax in their comfortable chairs while we read for a bit. We were waiting on a Dark Ranger program on Native Americans that turned out to be a bit boring. We left early so we could get to the parking lot that had all the telescopes. It turned out to be a smart move since we were some of the first people there. Clouds were rolling in, but we got to see some pretty cool things in these massive telescopes that cost anywhere from $1,000 to $30,000.

We saw the rings of Saturn, which was very neat. We also saw a few of Saturn’s moons. We saw a binary star (a yellow and blue star orbiting each other), a red giant (a really big star at the end of it’s life cycle), Vega (one of the brightest and closest stars to Earth, and a ring nebula.

With just our eyes, we got to see the International Space Station orbiting Earth and Venus so bright it looked like a headlight. It’s so dark at Bryce that you can see things with the naked eye that you can’t see many other places in the US. We saw the Milky Way and the rift in the middle of it. It started raining before we could see everything, but it was definitely a highlight of the trip.

That took us to 11:00pm so we both climbed into bed. It rained twice during the night and a little water got into the tent, but thankfully not much. We’ll be at Zion National Park soon and the average temperature there is 103, so we shouldn’t have any trouble drying out.

Kate just finished reading a book by Don Miller called “Through Painted Deserts”, our friend Adam Cline loaned it to us. One of the quotes from the book seems to perfectly describe how we feel about the stars in Bryce Canyon.

“I wonder at His beautiful system and how it is better than anything I could have chosen to invent for myself. I wonder as I gaze up at the night sky, this love letter from God to creation, this reminder that somewhere there is peace, somewhere there is order, and I think about how great His kingdom is, and is going to be, and I wonder in this rare and beautiful moment, how I could ever want to walk away from it all. There are so many stars I will dream of them. I open my eyes and see stars, then close them and see stars.”

I think Don said it better than I could have.

We’ve also been listening to a book while we travel called “13 Moons” by Charles Frazier, the author of “Cold Mountain”. There is a quote by the main character that I liked almost as much as the one above.

“I don’t think I want to live in a world without sausage biscuits.”

~Andy & Kate

Bryce Canyon Day 1

2010-07-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today we planned to wake up early and leave the Grand Canyon for Bryce Canyon. However, we did not plan on waking up at 5:30, but the ravens decided they wanted us to leave, because they wouldn’t be quiet. I now have a new least favorite bird in the world. So, we got up, packed up and headed north toward Bryce Canyon. By the way, Kate woke me up at midnight because some coyotes were baying to each other. It was pretty cool. They sounded like they were laughing.

The entire area between the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon is full of incredible geological formations. I think one could just stay in that area for a month and not get around to seeing everything.

We pulled into Bryce Canyon and went to claim a campsite since we didn’t have reservations. We passed through a thunderstorm on the way and were racing it to get our tent and campsite set up. We’re getting pretty good at it, and got the tent up in record time. We went for a little drive through the park to various overlooks and got our first glimpse of Bryce Canyon. It is an amazing array of rock formations called hoodoos. They are essentially columns of rock that have been eroded into designs that seem to defy the laws of physics. Look up Bryce Canyon hoodoos when you get a chance and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

We ran into the thunderstorm at the top of the mountain. Bryce Canyon is at about 8,000 feet of elevation so the weather is a bit unpredictable. Fortunately, we were in the car so we didn’t get wet. We came back down to the visitor’s center and hung out for a bit while it finished raining. Then we cooked a delicious supper of chicken, new potatoes, green beans and squash relish all from Stephanie’s garden (except for the chicken). We’re out of squash relish now, and that is a very sad thing.

After dinner we went to a lecture by one of the park rangers here at Bryce. They call themselves “Dark Rangers” because they specialize in astronomy and dark conservation. The program was very interesting. It talked a lot about how artificial light is very quickly eliminating all the dark skies in the US. This week is the 10^th annual Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival so that’s why there is a lot of emphasis on dark conservation. There are very few dark skies left in the US that will allow good stargazing to happen. He showed us a picture and the entire east coast is basically one big light. You can see stars, but not any of the really cool things that you can see in really dark areas. Bryce Canyon is the 3^rd darkest national park in the US, so it’s ideal for stargazing. During the festival, astronomers from Salt Lake City come down and set up HUGE telescopes for everyone to use. The night sky here is quite incredible and you can see a lot with just the naked eye.

As Kate and I were watching the program, I got a little cool, so I went down to the Jeep to get my jacket out. When I got to the Jeep, I realized that I had locked my keys in. Needless to say I was a little upset with myself. We are in the middle of nowhere so I figured that we were probably trapped for a while, not to mention that it was 10:00pm. Fortunately, I had Kate’s cell phone in my pocket and we have AAA. I called them and 30 mins later a towing company came out and unlocked it, free of charge. I was amazed and will always keep a AAA membership from now on.

We jumped on the park shuttle over to where they have the telescopes set up for everyone to use. As soon as we got there, lightning started so they had to break down everything before we could get a glimpse. While we were waiting on the shuttle to take us back to our car, it started raining, which apparently is the norm here. For a place that is so dry, it sure does rain a lot. They’ve already had over 100 inches of precipitation this year. We got off the shuttle and were running back to our car when we had to dodge a deer crossing the road. It scared the poo out of us because we thought is may be a mountain lion for a second. We rounded the corner to our parking lot and had to dodge it again and by that time I was ready to take my chances with it.

Thankfully it only rained a bit and we got into the tent and ready for bed around 12:30. We were both really tired since we had been up since 5:30am. It was cool at night, but not cold, and I slept really well. Kate didn’t sleep as well, but neither of us had a problem going to sleep.

That’s it for day one of Bryce Canyon. Tomorrow we’re going on a hike into the canyon so we’ll talk to you then!

Grand Canyon Day 3

2010-07-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

Our last day at the Grand Canyon was pretty low key. We planned on sleeping in, but we had a hard time with that for two reasons: 1) The sun comes up here at 5:00am because of crazy Arizona’s not observing Daylight Savings Time. 2) The ravens (the western version of a crow) at our campground are numerous and very vocal. They get going around 5:30am and will not be quiet. I know you’re not supposed to injure wildlife in the park, but I was pretty close to ripping his head off.

So, we got up at 7:00 and had left over Hamburger Helper and cereal for breakfast, which is a surprisingly good combination. We only had one thing in mind to do today and that was to ride our bikes up the Hermit’s Rest Road to see some different views of the canyon. I thin I know why it’s called the Hermit’s Rest Road. By the time you’ve been on it for 2 minutes biking straight uphill, you need a rest. The whole road is 7 miles, but we hadn’t planned on doing the whole thing. I will say that we cut it a little shorter than we had planned due to the uphill nature of the road. We ended up going about 2 miles up.

We stopped at a viewpoint called Hopi Point and it made us instantly glad we pushed a little further up the road. It was the best view of the canyon we had seen yet. You could almost see the whole canyon. We also saw three peregrine falcons playing with each other. They were so fast, it was like watching fighter jets diving and pulling up. They were too fast to get a picture but very cool.

We rode back down to the Bright Angel Lodge, and after sitting out a brief rain shower under a shelter, we had some lunch and sat in the lobby of the lodge to blog and get photos up.

We’re going to get a much needed shower tonight and get ready to leave tomorrow. We’re going to stop on the way out of the park to see the Watchtower at Desert View, then head to Bryce Canyon for national park number 2 on the trip. We probably won’t be able to blog again until Las Vegas which is Monday night, so check back in then.

~Andy & Kate

Grand Canyon Day 2

2010-07-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

Today (Wednesday July 9) is all about the mule ride. When I booked the mule ride, I thought we would be camping at the North Rim of the canyon. Unfortunately, when I went to make reservations for the North Rim campground, it was full. You may say, no big deal, just drive up there for the mule ride, but since there’s no bridge across the Grand Canyon, you have to go around it and that takes about 4 ½ hours.

We really wanted to do the mule ride, so we got up early and headed up to the North Rim. We essentially drove all the way around the Grand Canyon. The landscape on the drive was quite breathtaking. We passed the Vermilion Cliffs, which were a wonder all to themselves.

We got to the North Rim Lodge in time to eat a quick lunch and check in. We got on the bus to go to the corral when we were surprised with our riding companions: a summer camp for middle school girls. Yikes!!! Fortunately, the guides realized that we may not want to be surrounded by them, so they sort of separated us.

My mule’s name was Goliath and Kate’s was Watoba, which means “Long Way To Water”. The guide said that Kate has the prize mule. I can tell you that they only prize her mule would win is a passing gas contest. I was behind her the whole way and I got a constant barrage of mule gas about every 5 mins.

Even though the mule ride put us in the car for an extra 9 hours, it was well worth it. The rides from the South Rim are twice as much and you don’t even get to go into the canyon. Our guide, Rich, took us down the North Kaibab Trail along the same path you would take to hike to the bottom of the canyon. I was never really scared, even though we were traveling along some pretty rocky terrain and sheer cliffs. I figured the mule didn’t want to die, so I felt pretty good about my chances. The mules have done it so many time anyway that they could do it in their sleep.

We rode down for about 1½ hours to the Supai Tunnel and took a little break. I found going downhill to be a lot more strenuous that uphill. We got back up to the top and then jumped back into the Jeep for another 4 ½ hour trip back to our campsite. It was well worth it and if you ever go to the Grand Canyon, make sure to try to sty on the North Rim and do the mule ride from there. It’s a lot less crowded. The North Rim looks different from the South Rim as well. It’s a little more green with more ponderosa pines on the cliffs.

We got back to camp right at dark and cooked dinner then got into bed. We were both really tired and had no problem going to sleep at all. The temperatures at night are perfect for sleeping, so I don’t have any problem going to sleep.

That’s it for Day 2 of the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Day 1

2010-07-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

We left Gallup, NM Tuesday morning and headed for the Grand Canyon. We stopped for lunch in Flagstaff, AZ, which is the city that’s closest to the Grand Canyon. It reminded me a lot of Boone. Northern Arizona University is in Flagstaff, and they have a lot of tourism as well. It’s also situated in the mountains so I felt like I was in Boone.

We thought the GPS unit was malfunctioning because it was telling us that we would arrive at the Grand Canyon in an hour after leaving Flagstaff. We knew this couldn’t be possible since it was 120 miles away. Then, when we got to the canyon, our watches didn’t match any of the clocks in the park. We finally asked a ranger and he said that Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Savings Time, so it was actually an hour earlier in Arizona than New Mexico even though they are in the same time zone. Why Arizona doesn’t observe DST, I have no idea, but it really threw us off.

After getting to camp and getting set up, we went to the actual canyon to hike a bit of the Rim Trail. The Rim Trail goes along the South Rim of the canyon and gives you some pretty spectacular views. The Grand Canyon has a South Rim, where we’re camping and where most everyone goes and a North Rim, which is closer to the Utah state line and is less crowded.

You can see 1,000 pictures of the Grand Canyon, but until you actually see it in person, you have no appreciation for the absolute vastness of it. Of course, we took pictures and will share them with you, but if you haven’t gone to the Grand Canyon, go as soon as you can. The shear size of it is enough to humble you, but the colors and designs will take your breath away as well.

We hiked around the South Rim Trail for about 6 miles, then hiked about a half mile down into the canyon. We were going to take a longer hike into the canyon but we couldn’t find the trailhead, and when we did, we found out that you could only go there by shuttle and the shuttle only picked up at 5:00am, 6:00am and 7:00am. Needless to say we didn’t do that hike. You can see the trail that takes you down to the canyon floor and the Colorado River from the rim and we hiked down it a little way just to see what it was like. Going down isn’t that bad, but going up is pretty strenuous. I’m glad I’ll be on a mule for our trip into the canyon. We did see a very cool natural window and tunnel on our very abbreviated hike into the canyon.

After we got back up to the rim, we decided to sit down for a while and wait on the sunset. We got a little ice cream and struck up a conversation with a couple from England. They had been walking the rim trail and showed us a picture of a snake they saw. It was a 6 foot diamondback rattlesnake, but they had no idea what it was. I think they were probably pretty lucky they didn’t get too close to it. After we said goodbye to them, we found a good place to watch the sunset and I took a little nap while Kate wrote some postcards and drew some sketches. The temperature out here is great. Even when it’s around 90, it doesn’t feel like it because of the dry air.

One thing we noticed about the Grand Canyon is that we felt like we were a little out of place. At least three fourths of the people there are from different countries. It’s a little sad that so many Americans take vacations overseas when we have something like this here at home.

The sunset was beautiful and brought out a lot of different colors in the canyon. It looks different every time you look at it from the changes in light. After the sunset, we hoofed it back to our car and went back to our campsite. We were prepared for a cold night, since last year we almost froze to death on our first night in the Gran Tetons. We both got ready to bundle up if necessary, but it turned out to be very comfortable and we had a great night’s sleep. The only downside was waking up earlier that you want to because since AZ doesn’t observe DST, the sun rises at 5:00am.

That’s about it for day 1 of the Grand Canyon. Tomorrow is the mule ride so we’re very excited about that.

~Andy & Kte

Almost There!

2010-07-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

We left Marion, Arkansas (just outside of Memphis, TN) Sunday morning and just drove all day. Arkansas reminds me a lot of the foothills of NC. We drove through the Ozark Mountains, which are pretty much just hills. It looks a lot like Wilkes County. Then we crossed into Oklahoma. I always think of Oklahoma as wide-open prairies, but the first half of it is very similar to NC. Once you get past Oklahoma City, it looks a lot more like what you imagine it would. We stayed Sunday night in Canute, OK, which is about as exciting as it sounds. Oklahoma had flash floods Sunday night, but we were fortunate to miss pretty much all that rain.

Monday morning we left Oklahoma and headed west though the panhandle of Texas. It looked just as I imagined it would. Wide-open prairies as far as the eye can see.

The road kill is a lot different in Oklahoma and Texas. Instead of the standard possum that we have in NC, they have armadillos. I think they are just as slow as the possums since we saw a lot of them. We also saw a couple of coyotes on the side of the road, too.

We didn’t stay in Texas long as we passed into New Mexico around lunchtime. For me, this really feels like our trip has officially started. The landscape in New Mexico is so different form we have at home, that it feels like we’re in a different world. I remember feeling this way when we got into Wyoming last year. All the red rock formations and mesas are amazing. I love just traveling and waiting to see what’s going to be around the next corner. It makes the time go by pretty quickly. I don’t think I could drive 10 hours a day back home and be as content about it.

We arrived at our destination for the night, Gallup, NM. Our KOA campground is located on Historic Route 66 so we can say that we cruised down Route 66 now!

We went to the downtown are of Gallup to watch Native American dancing that the city sponsors every night during the summer. The dancers were from the Zuni tribe. They have a reservation in the southern part of New Mexico. Most of New Mexico is Navajo area, though. The dancers were very cool and did several dances, including an eagle dance, a turkey dance and a white buffalo dance. The ladies did a dance while balancing pots on their heads, which was pretty impressive.

One of the Zuni played the flute and he was very impressive. He would play a flute then sing a bit while pulled out another flute. He ended up playing like 5 different flutes that he kept pulling out of different places. He was like a Native American Flute Ninja. It was crazy!

We had dinner at a little café after the dances where I had a birthday éclair. Yummm!

We did some grocery shopping and laundry to end up the evening since we are starting the tent camping phase of our trip tomorrow. That’s about it for today. It was a really good birthday.

Tomorrow we’re going to the Grand Canyon, so I don’t know when I’ll be able post again. Good night from Gallup, NM!

Play Ball!

2010-07-03T18:17:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to an Atlanta Braves game. My sister, her husband, Kate and I met Kate’s mom, dad and granny at the ballpark. We had hot dogs and peanuts and had a great time. There was this really annoying guy in the seat behind us cheering for the Marlins. The Braves ended up winning the game with a hit in the bottom of the 11^th inning. It was very exciting. We were all jumping up and down giving anyone we could find high fives. I don’t really like baseball that much, but it was really fun to see the game in person. It was Kate’s first game, too and we all had a great time. The Braves have fireworks every Friday night so we stayed to watch those. Kate gave the fireworks show an 8 out of 10. I would have given it a 9, but she’s a fireworks connoisseur. We both still say that the best ones we’ve ever seen were in Oak Grove, MO on the way back from last year’s trip.

Today we said goodbye to my sister and her family and headed toward Memphis, TN. We made really good time and got to the KOA campground a little earlier that I had anticipated. We took a dip in the pool and just relaxed for a while. We brought a couple of DVD’s of the show Glee with us and watched a couple episodes. It’s kind of a weird show but strangely entertaining as well. We were in 5 different states today so that was pretty cool. Goodnight from Marion, AR (just west of Memphis).

Tomorrow we’re headed toward Canute, OK. Don’t know if I’ll post tomorrow since we’re just driving. You never know, though. We may see something really cool!

~Andy & Kate

FINtastic Friday!

2010-07-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

Our first day of our trip took us to my big sister, Nicole’s, house in Atlanta. We got there Thursday afternoon and played some Wii with my niece Marin. I’m pretty good at rhythm kung fu on the Wii fit. Then we went to the pool for a quick afternoon dip. We had a delicious dinner with Nicole and her husband Robert then called it a night.

Friday morning we went to the Georgia aquarium with Nicole and Marin. It’s the biggest aquarium in the world, so we were pretty excited. Nicole drove us there, which helped me to enjoy it even more since I didn’t have to drive in downtown Atlanta.

This aquarium was incredible. They have a pair of beluga whales that swim right up to the glass. We could have stayed and watched them for hours. They also have a pair of whale sharks that were pretty impressive. They had a giant manta ray and all kinds of other things. Kate took pictures of everything there. Check out the pictures on Facebook to get a good idea of everything we saw.

The beluga whales were my favorite, but Marin (my niece) said the penguins were her favorite. They had a little tunnel you could crawl through and stand up in the penguin habitat. You were still closed off from the penguins obviously, but it was cool to stand right next to them.

Tonight we’re going to meet Kate’s Mom, Dad and Granny and Turner Field for an Atlanta Braves game. We woke up to rain this morning, but it looks like the weather is going to be nice tonight. Kate is pretty excited because they have a huge fireworks show after the game. We’ll put pictures up of the game tomorrow. If you want to see all our pictures as we post them on Facebook and you’re not my friend, be sure to send me a request so you can view them.

1 Day To Go!

2010-06-29T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well, we never thought it would get here, but it finally has. Now we have a lot of stuff to do and one day to do it. We leave on Thursday for the first leg of our trip. If you're new to the blog, we're going on a trip this summer out west. We start in Atlanta visiting my sister Nicole and her family. We're going to go to the Georgia Aquarium and an Atlanta Braves game. Then we head out west. Here's where we're going:

Grand Canyon...Bryce Canyon...Zion National Park...Las Vegas...Sequoia National Park...Yosemite National Park...San Francisco...Rocky Mountain National Park

Whew! It's a big undertaking but we're pretty excited about it.

I didn't realize how much stuff we had. We learned a lot of lessons last summer that will save us some space. We're definitely not taking a guitar or a fishing pole or a laundry basket of hardback books this time. We're ready to go!

Our next post will probably be Thursday or Friday from Atlanta. See you then!

Coming Soon...Kate & Andy's Trip 2010

2010-05-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

Stay tuned. Kate and Andy will embark on an even greater adventure on July 1, 2010. This year we are headed west again, but this time we're headed southwest instead of northwest. We begin our trip in the Grand Canyon, and will end it in Colorado. In between we'll see 7 national parks and Las Vegas. We're very excited, so make sure you keep you computers on as we continue the adventures of Kate and Andy!

A Day on the Bike

2010-03-09T17:06:00.001-08:00

Check out these videos from our day on the mountain bike.

2010-02-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

A Day at the Pool

2009-08-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

Kate and I spent the day with our great friends Adam and Traci today at Traci's mom's pool. We decided that we wanted to try to walk on water using a combination of our agility and pool floats. We went though several configurations and hilarity ensued. We went from simply trying to run across to trying roll across then trying to shoot a water cannon at a target after rolling across. It was a fun day. Check out the video below.

Fishin' at the Lake

2009-07-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

How much do I love summer. I went fishing today with my father-in-law, Jim at Lake Tillery near Albemarle. It started out pretty hot but it turned out to be a very nice afternoon. The humidity went away and we had a nice little breeze. When we started fishing, we did really well. The fish jump out of water while they are feeding so you can see where to cast. I caught 6 large mouth bass in all. One of them got off before I could get it in the boat, but I had it out of the water so I say it counts. Jim caught a combination of bass and perch. We both did well. We didn't want to leave, because the fish were just starting to get really active again, but we thought a storm was coming and you don't want to be in the middle of a lake during a lighting storm. It was a great afternoon.

We're leaving for our mission trip to Costa Rica Saturday morning. We have to be at the airport at 4:15am so we're getting up at 2:30am. Gross! Hopefully we'll be able to sleep on the plane. I'm sure there won't be internet there, but we'll have losts of pics and blog it all when we get back.

~Andy

Some Video From the Trip

2009-07-07T14:06:00.000-07:00

I've finally got time and an internet connection fast enough to post some video from the trip. Sorry for the watermarks on the videos. I had to convert them to a different file type and the watermark is a result.

This is Hidden Falls in Grand Teton.

This is Old Faithful in Yellowstone.

This is a fumerole in Yellowstone.

This is the Brink of the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

This is the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone as seen from Artist's
Point.

More to come.

~Andy

The Badlands Aren't So Bad

2009-07-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

This post is from Friday July 3rd, so I'm going back in time a bit.

Today we got up early and Uncle John took out to Badlands National Park. It was only a short drive from his house. The Badlands were named because of the difficulty getting through that area during the days of wagon trains and cattle drives. They are beautiful rock formations, and certainly rival anything we've seen so far. Apparently, you really have to watch out for rattlesnakes. We saw one on the road that had been hit by a car, but that was as close as we got to one, thankfully. There was a teepee at the visitor's center for people to look at. We had planned on staying in a teepee in a Montana state park, but we decided not to since we were in rattlesnake country and the teepees don't go all the way to the ground to keep sneaky snakes out.

After The Badlands, we went to Wall Drug Store. It's a big tourist area outside of the Badlands. Not really our style, but interesting to see. Kate got a ride from a Jackalope, which is another wildlife sighting for the trip.

We spent the evening at Uncle John's son's house for a cookout. We had a great time eating a lot and playing some bean bag toss. Kate and I showed them how we play on the East Coast. We were playing against an 8 year old, but we sure showed him. Johnny and Cheryl were great hosts, and we had a good time meeting them.They have 2 labradoodles, which are a cross between a lab and a poodle. They were sweet dogs and they don't shed either.

Remember I told you that Rapid City, SD has statues of presidents on each corner of the downtown area? Below are the pics we took. Kate's with Martin van Buren and it looks like they're getting a little too cozy to me. I'm with President Taft.

This pretty wraps up the pics from the trip. I've got some video I'm to post soon and a lot of reflection on the trip so stay tuned!

~Andy

Almost Home!

2009-07-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

So we're almost home. We spent the past couple of days driving day and night to make it home as quickly as possible. We left South Dakota Saturday morning and made it to Oak Grove, MO which is just east of Kansas City. We stopped their because it has the last KOA campground until you reach St. Louis. We probably could have gone farther, but it was July 4th, and if you don't know, Kate is a massive fireworks fan. We looked online and found that Oak Grove does a fireworks show in their local park, much like many other small towns in America. We got there around 9:45 and invented a parking place. As it turns out, Oak Grove has an incredible fireworks show. I don't know if Missouri sells a different caliber of firework than we do in NC, but it was pretty impressive.

As you're driving up to the park, individuals are setting off their own fireworks. I'm not talking about sparklers. They were serious fireworks that you wouldn't be able to shoot in NC. Then the actual show begins. The fireworks were so loud and intense, that they were setting off car alarms. After a solid 20 minutes of fireworks, you got a finale that was so intense, it lit up the park like daylight. It was definitely the best fireworks show I've ever seen. Needless to say, my fireworks crazy wife was very happy. If you're eve in Oak Grove, MO on the 4th of July you should make a point to stop by Webb Park.

We got up Sunday and decided that we wanted to make it to NC. We knew it would be a challenge, but we thought we could do it. We aimed for my parents' house since it was about and hour and a half closer. As most of you know, I'm a pretty big tennis fan and the Wimbledon Men's finals were being played while we were on the road. We could have stayed and watched it, but I wanted to get going. As it turns out, it was the best match ever. Roger Federer beat Andy Roddick 16-14 in the 5th set after a 4 and a half hour match. I wish I could have seen it, but Kate's dad recorded it for me.

We made it to my folks' house at 2:53am and crashed hard. I remember now why I stopped staying up until 3am in the morning a long time ago. It will probably take a few days to get caught up, but it's good to be home. How did I stay up that late and still go to class in college? We'll be back in Concord this afternoon which will be nice.

Sunday was my birthday, and I must say that it didn't rank in the top 10. Driving all day is not a great way to spend your birthday, but I was with the person I most wanted to be with, so that made it a pretty good day any way. I'm officially into my 30's now (31).

I've got some more things to post about South Dakota, but all my stuff is packed up. I'll get it up tonight probably. Just because the trip is over doesn't mean the blog will end. Kate and I have some reflective thoughts and some top 10 lists to post as well. More to come later!

~Andy

Is It Me, Or Does George Washington Have a HUGE Nose?

2009-07-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

Today, July 2, we slept in and took it pretty easy this morning. It was nice to have a bed and bathroom and all the comforts of home again. I got to watch a little bit of Wimbledon this morning which was nice. We waited for Uncle John’s daughter Carol and her husband to arrive then we headed out toward the Crazy Horse Monument. We ate lunch at a little diner in the town of Hill City, which is really just a tourist area to support the monuments in the area. Kate and I had buffalo burgers which were good.

The Crazy Horse Monument is a privately funded monument that honors the Native American cultures of North America. It was originally conceived by a Lakota Chief Standing Bear. It would be a monument to all the Native Americans of America to “show the white man that we have heroes, too.” It was modeled after Mount Rushmore and will be, when it’s finished, the largest sculpture in the world, 563 feet high and 641 long . It was started in 1949, and is still in progress. It’s pretty amazing to see the progression that has happened so far. They have a museum there in addition to the monument and we got to see an 18 year old member of the Lakota Nation do a traditional dance which was very cool. His name was Robbie Yellow Hawk, which is such a cool name. I’m thinking of changing my name to something better than Highsmith. I’d probably be named Andy Head Like the Sun or Wind Not in His Hair, so maybe I'd better stick with what I’ve got.

Here’s the monument as it is today.

Here’s a model of the monument as it will be when it’s finished.

This is us with Uncle John and his daughter and her husband.

Next we went to Mount Rushmore. The two monuments are both in the Black Hills of South Dakota and are very close to each other. Mount Rushmore is a huge complex that culminates with the monument. You see a lot of pictures of Rushmore, but they don’t really do it justice. It’s a magnificent structure, and it’s hard to imagine thinking of something on that scale. The park has fireworks on July 3rd, but we're not going to go. According to our local sources, in order to go you have to get there early in the morning and you won't get out until 3 or 4 in the morning. We're a little disappointed, but it's OK.
After some photos and ice cream, we headed back to Uncle John’s for the night. We found a coffee shop that has free wi-fi and did a little blogging. Rapid City has statues of different presidents on street corners in their downtown area. Kate had her picture made with everyone's favorite president...Martin van Buren! I had mine made with William H. Taft. President Taft was so fat, that he got stuck in the White House bath tub and they had to cut him out of it. I'm sure he did something way more important than that, but that's all I know about him.

~Andy

On the Road Again

2009-07-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

Today was another travel day, so nothing really special. We left the KOA in Hardin, MT and headed toward Rapid City, SD. On the way, we did stop at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. (The Battle of Little Bighorn was the battle between Native Americans of the Sioux Nation and the 7th Cavalry of the American Army. You may know it better as Custer’s Last Stand.) They have a museum dedicated to the battle and you can take tours of the battlefield. We just visited the museum for a little while, but it was actually pretty neat. They had a lot of Native American and American military relics. The museum really focused on the conflict between the American government and Native Americans of the Old West. If you’re a history buff, you would like it a lot.

We made it to Rapid City, SD around 4:00pm and got settled in with Kate’s great uncle, John. He took us out to eat at Red Lobster, mmmmmmm cheddar biscuits, then we came back and took showers and slept in a real bed for the first time in about 3 weeks. We also got to watch cable TV which was a treat. That’s about it. Tomorrow: Mt. Rushmore

~Andy

Nothing Special

2009-06-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

Today (June 30) we packed up our campsite in Glacier and headed south toward Rapid City, SD. We drove pretty much all day until we got to a KOA in Hardin, MT, in the Crow Native American Reservation. We ate a quick supper at a place called Taco John's. It's a west coast version of Taco Bell. The power was out at the campsite when we got there due to a storm, so we played UNO for a while and Kate continued her utter domination. Why does she always get a Wild Card when I'm about to win? We'll never know, but she's up 22-12 now, and there's little hope of my coming back. That's about it for today, ergo the title "Nothing Special".

Tomorrow we'll arrive in Rapid City and spend some time at the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore. We're planning on being at Mt. Rushmore on July 3rd for fireworks which should be good. Don't know if Uncle John has internet so it may be a few days before I can post again. Hopefully I'l have some better stuff for you to view than today's soon.

~Andy

Iceberg Straight Ahead!

2009-06-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

After worship and a quick supper last night (June 28), we went back down to Fishercap Lake to see if we could spot a moose. We decided to walk to the other end of the lake to get a better view of an area where we thought a moose was likely to show up. Of course, as soon as we got to the end of the lake, a moose appeared all the way at the other end where we were to begin with. So, we started walking back toward the moose, who seemed pretty content to eat the willows on the bank. We think it was an adolescent bull moose, because he had a little bell hanging down from his neck. No antlers yet, but we’re 75% sure it was a bull. As we were waling toward the moose, he made his way into the water and started eating the plants off the bottom. The rangers told us that moose were excellent swimmers and could even dive up to 20 feet to the bottom to get vegetation. This lake is pretty shallow so he just had to stick his head down in the water, but it was still cool to watch. He kept coming closer and closer to us, and we got to see him up close. Apparently, we were standing where he wanted to go up the bank into the forest, so he stopped and rose up a bit on his hind legs. It wasn’t overly aggressive, but we got the message and moved off the bank into the woods and sure enough he moved right where we were into the woods. So the two times we’ve been scared of animals on this trip haven’t been by bear or mountain lion, it’s been buffalo and moose.

We woke up Monday and decided to go on one of the most popular hikes at Glacier National Park. It’s a 10 mile round trip hike up to Iceberg Lake. I know what you’re thinking: 10 miles Wow! It wasn’t that bad, although we were pretty worthless for the rest of the day. The hike was ranger led, so a ranger led us through the trail and stopped occasionally to talk about flowers or the geology of the park. It was very interesting. We met a couple our age from the Chapel Hill area on the hike, as well as a couples from Virginia and Tennessee that knew a lot of the same places that I have lived. A young boy named Dwight who was going to be a junior next year in high school attached himself to me about halfway to the lake and he was on my hip pretty much the rest of the hike. I gave him half of my sandwich at lunch and he followed us all the way down the mountain, too. He was a good kid and was pretty knowledgeable of the terrain, since he was from Canada and only about 2 hours away.

Back to the hike. The hike starts close to where we were camping and climbs 1,100 feet of 5 miles to Iceberg Lake. The start was pretty intense, but after that, it was a pretty gradual climb. We saw a lot of mountain wildflowers and even where a black bear had climbed up a tree. The only wildlife we saw were some mountain goats from pretty far away, but we could still see them with the naked eye, so we counted mountain goats in our animals seen list. There were a lot of areas the ranger showed us that were avalanche areas. It was easy to see where the trees had been knocked over. The flower below is a glacial lily. It only bloomed the higher you got. Kate got some great shots of it and a lot of other flowers. I’ll try to get pics of those posted later.

We got to the lake after about 4 hours of hiking. The trail was still covered by snow in several spots so we had to hike through snow for quite a bit of the last mile of the trail. The weather was gorgeous. It was about 78 or so and perfect. It was funny to me to be hiking over snow covered fields while wearing shorts and a t-shirt. When we got to the lake, it was amazing. It’s called Iceberg Lake because it has ice on it most of the year. It even has icebergs floating in it. It’s in a natural amphitheater that the glaciers carved out during the ice ages. The pictures of it don’t do it justice. It’s another one of those sites around here that you have to see for yourself. It took us about 4 and a half hours to get to the lake, but only 2 hours to get back down. We hiked down with a couple from Abingdon, VA and we were both setting blistering paces down the mountain. It was a really fun hike, but we were glad for it to be over, too. We had a little huckleberry ice cream to reward ourselves for a 10 mile hike.

We came back to camp and crashed pretty hard. I took a pretty long nap and Kate worked in her journal. Around 5:30 we went to take some long overdue showers. I really enjoy showering a lot more when I can only get one every 4 or 5 days. After showers we ate a quick supper then went back down to Fishercap Lake to see if we could find the elusive bull moose that we know is there but haven’t seen yet. We got down there but no bull moose. The same cow from the other day was there, but no bull. There were a lot of people, so we didn’t stick around long. We did see a porcupine, though, which we weren’t expecting to see on the trip so that was good. We came back to camp and played a little UNO. Kate is thoroughly destroying me now. She’s opened up her lead to 16-11 and I don’t know if I’ll ever catch up. After some writing we called it a night.

~Andy

Canada...Eh?

2009-06-28T15:39:00.001-07:00

Today we woke up and headed to a magical land. A land that flows with syrup and snow. The land of Canada. Glacier shares a border with Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park. We got to the border and got questioned by the Canadian customs agent, which was a little intimidating. I found myself stuttering and sweating a bit even though I obviously had nothing to hide. I guess I would never make a good secret agent. He was very nice and did give me a "Have a nice day eh" when he let us through. We went into the Alberta Province and found our way to the Waterton Village area. Canada looks a lot like Northern Montana. Weird huh?

Our first stop was the Prince of Wales Hotel. It is perched on a hill overlooking a lake and has a breathtaking view from the lobby. It is very British and would be great to stay in, although we assume it's pretty expensive.

We walked around some of the little shops and ate lunch at Zum's. I had a delicious cheeseburger, which is my first in 2 weeks, believe it or not. After lunch, we walked around a bit more then saw a Royal Mounted Police Station that we had to get a photo of. Unfortunately there were no Mounties readily avaialble for a photo, so we had to settle for the sign.

The best part of Canada was the fact the the American dollar is strong right now, so it was like getting a 20% discount everywhere you went. Pretty cool!

We headed back into the States and got grilled again by the customs agent. I liked the Canadian guy better, but I missed my homeland while I was gone. We headed into town to do a little blogging and that's where you find me right now. Tonight we are going to go to worship at 6:00pm and then back to Fishercap Lake for some more moose hunting. hopefully we'll be able to squeeze a shower in somewhere along the line. It's been a while for us. I probably won't post again until South Dakota in a couple of days. Until then.

~Andy

Yeeehawww!

2009-06-28T15:02:00.001-07:00

Today (June 27) started with our big activity for Glacier: horseback riding through the back country. We got to the corral around 8:00am and got underway around 8:30. My horse's name was Scar and Kate's was Snip. This was my first time on a horse, but I never really felt scared. I figured the horse didn't want to fall off the side of a cliff just as much as I didn't want to. You're not supposed to let the horses eat along the trail, because there are several plants that are poisonous to horses along the trail. My horse, Scar, wanted to eat about every 5th step, so I was constantly kicking and pulling him away from whatever delicacies lay on the trail. We rode for about 2 hours then took a break, which was good for my greenhorn legs, then rode back to the corral. The horses were Western neck reigned for you experienced horse folk, but you didn't really have to steer them. They had done the trail so many times that they just followed the leader automatically. Kind of like a horse cruise control. The trail was pretty rocky and steep in places and it did make me feel a little like The Man from Snowy River a couple of times. I had a lot of fun and wouldn't mind riding some more later on. Saddle up Rusty!

After horseback riding, we went back, walking very gingerly, to eat lunch and grab a quick nap. We then met a ranger for a nature walk around the area to Fishercap Lake. The ranger had been workign in the park for 15 summers and spent his winters in Indianapolis as a college biology professor. Needless to say he was very knowledgeable. I never know wildflowers could be that interesting. He knew every plant, flower and animal in the forest and could tell you everything about them. It was a good walk and we learned a lot. Some of the wildflowers we saw are below. I'm not going to label them, but Kate has them all in her visual journal. her journal is quite amazing by the way, so you should ask her to take a look at it if you get the chance. She's very talented, but we all know that already.

The ranger said that Fishercap Lake is a good place to see moose, which is one of the animals we really want to see more of, so we decided to come back later on. We walked back to the camp store for a little huckleberry ice cream, which is the local flavor of Montana. We also found some downed trees along the way that beavers had been working on so I decided to have a snack myself.

After our snack, we went back down to the lake to see if we could find some moose, but were unsuccessful. We weren't about to give up though. We went back to camp and ate supper, then headed back down to the lake moose hunting. We waited patiently for about an hour when we saw a mother moose and her twin calves come out of the woods to feed on the willows. The pics were too small to post, but they were worth the wait!

Tomorrow we are going into Canada, which will be my first international trip, so I'm pretty excited. We have our passports at the ready, and I'll let you know how the magical land of Canada is tomorrow!

~Andy

Laundry and Sheep

2009-06-28T14:44:00.001-07:00

Our first full day at Glacier National Park was pretty much a day to get caught up and take a breath. We slept late then had a nice breakfast. We headed into the town of St. Mary to do a little souvenir shopping and do some laundry. We found a little shop that had the internet, so I did some blogging. We bought some t-shirts and ate a little pie from a local cafe. Next was laundry, which we were badly in need of doing. We got that done then headed up to one of the hot spots in Glacier.

There is one road that goes across Glacier called the Going to the Sun Road. It goes up into the mountains and is incredibly scenic. It had just opened up today. Avalanches had washed away parts of the road and they just finished repairs. We took off up the road, and I do mean up. It is a narrow two lane road with no guardrails. Kate started out driving, but I took over pretty quickly. There are some great views of St. Mary's Lake and Jackson Glacier on the way up to Logan Pass.

As we headed up to Logan Pass, we saw more and more snow piled up along the side of the road. When we finally got up there, it was freezing and very windy. There were people skiing on the side of the mountain. They hike up to the top and ski down. It sounds pretty tiring to me. I think I'll stick with a ski lift. The snow was piled up high enough to cover the car. What season is it? Isn't it summer?

There is a visitor's center at Logan Pass where you can stop to use the restroom and admire the views, so we pulled in. We weren't expecting to be greeted by 3 bighorned sheep. They were patrooling the parking lot for food that people had left and a couple fo them rammed horns together in a disagreement. It was way cool!

After that, we headed back down to the campsite and bedded down for the evening. Horseback riding tomorrow!

~Andy