Today is July 18th. I am with Jakob, Sophia and Stephen. We left St. George yesterday and drive to Montana, making it as far as Anaconda, Mt.
This photo does not do it justice. It TOWERS for miles around over this little town.
We passed two really really long loads in the night. I asked the driver out checking his fluid - the shape should have told me but it was so long I could not believe it was not the supporting post but one fin of the windmill part of a wind tower. Wow!
Follow-up:
We had a super fun trip! We went to Glacier National Park and hiked to a beautiful lake. Then we went over the Going to the Sun road (beautiful!) Then we stayed in a Teepee on the back side, and the next day crossed the border into Canada. We spent a night in Banff and then picked up Brad at the Calgary Airport. We enjoyed a few days with him in Banff, and visited Lake Louise - we found a secret lake with help from a guy in the bike shop and loved our perfect single track backcountry trip to Lake ?? I will have to figure out what that tiny perfect lake was! He said Lake Louise would be a wall of people - it was! But then we got on this tiny little trail to the west of the hotel - sharing it shortly with horses - to find a Beautiful single track trail we think he must help carve, create, and maintain to this tiny little lake of solitude and quiet! What a beautiful detour!
The waterfalls are so abundant, one day we counted more than 100 and gave up keeping track! We loved hiking, biking, driving! We went to a darling little Branch Mtg on Sunday in Banff. There was a range of mountains they called the three sisters towering over Banff. What a beautiful sight!
Brad flew out from Calgary early Monday morning. That night Jakob's bike (only his - it was brand new just before we left!) was stolen off the back of our car as we were at the hotel.
Disappointed, we went on to Jasper. We counted blessings that we had taken Brad's bike and he was leaving so Jakob rode Brad's bike the rest of the trip. His was an XL and Brad's a XXL so it was a little big, but better than nothing! I admit it was a bit scary to continue on without Brad after the theft and our protector leaving!
We loved Jasper. Beautiful mountains! We drove over the Glacier mountains of Canada. Again, waterfalls so abundant they were countless! Tiny little blue lakes everywhere! The rivers were often white - from the glaciers melting and the sand coming down off the mountain.
We drove from Jasper over to Whistler. It was across the top of beautiful mountains! Jakob especially was excited to get to Whistler. Whistler has downhill mountain biking where you ride the lift up and bike down. I went with them for one day. The second day I stayed back, and the kids went without me. They loved it!
We left Whistler to Vancouver. On the way, we stopped and touched the water of the Pacific. As we did early that morning, a seal poked his head up to say "Good-bye" to us! We stopped outside of Seattle and picked Blueberries - Sophia's favorite part! This time they were tiny and not as fun as before!
We made it to our Vine Street Condo in one day from Whistler - it was long but we did it! Spent the night and came the rest the next day. I think it was Sunday and we went to church with Liesl and then headed home. :)
We were home for about four days before we got in the car again to go to Florida to see Chandler & Haley! We drove out through Denver then St. Louis. Spent a morning at the Gateway to Western Expansion. Then we went to Atlanta Georgia and toured a History Museum of Atlanta (It was not good! That place is scary! Headquarters of the Klu Klux Klan among all the horrible racial things they shared!) Then we went down through Mississippi and into Florida. What fun!
We stayed in Orlando at a Marriott resort which was beautiful! Chandler & Haley had just days ago moved to Gainesville - about 45 minutes North of Orlando. We stopped on our way and visited. Then we got to take Cassidy with us to spend the night.
Others joined us including Brad, Sara, Brinley, Liesl, Brian & Peter the coming days. While there we toured the Epcot Center. Then we did a Gator Tour in mud boats. We went to the Kennedy Space Center (Stephen's favorite) and spent time at a few beaches - yes the Atlantic Ocean within a week's time! One coast to the other via car!
During all these trips, Jakob joked that he was not going to pack any shirts - he was just going to get new ones along the way. It has been fun to interview their clothes since returning - often they are in shirts from these fun places we visited this summer!
It was a fun summer! We only made it to our house boat a couple of times. We spent the 4th of July there with most of our family - Not Chandler, Haley & Family or Sam & Mylei.