Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The West Coast Trip, finally!!

So finally I am going to blog the trip we did back in June/July to the West.  It's taken me a while because I don't really know where to start, there is so much to tell!!!  I guess I should start at the beginning :)
We flew from Norfolk to Portland and picked up the RV and a Suburban (the biggest SUV on the road) there.  From there we drove out to Yellowstone National Park, then back to the coast to catch a ferry across to Vancouver Island, then back down to Portland via Seattle.  Check out this map if you want to see how far it was, but basically it was about 2500 miles, or just over 4000 km!!  The girls and Jayden were in the Suburban and the boys took the RV :) 
The first 2 days were lots of driving, but very pretty driving along the Columbia river to start and then some very dramatic changes in landscape as we moved from Oregon to Idaho.  Our 1st night we arrived very late in La Grande, OR,  after a big shopping trip to walmart and then a huge drive.  We were very glad to get into bed :) The second night we arrived a little earlier at the RV park in Pocatello, ID, although still tired from the driving, but so excited to get to Yellowstone. 


Charlotte relaxing in the back seat of the SUV!!


The Babies in the RV at Pocatello, stretching their legs.


 Our Vehicles for the next 3 weeks and 2500 miles.

Day 3 we took off into Grand Teton National Park and then Yellowstone, I don't really know what to say other than Amazing!!!  It was funny because we were so blown away by everything and this is what the kids were doing.......




Somewhere along the drive we stopped for Lunch, the benefit of following an RV is that all the food and facilities are there :)  For most of us this isn't a big deal, but when travelling with a 3 year old having a bathroom in front of you at all times is Great!!!  When we stopped there was a cute little waterfall across the road that Charlotte wanted to see, it was so tiny compared to some we saw in Yellowstone :)



When Katie was driving and I was not, I was frantically trying to get photos of all the mountains and snow and great stuff we were seeing.  Some how I managed to get a photo of the one and only bike rider in Wyoming!!!


Here are some of the others I got :)






So that and the next 3 nights we stayed at West Yellowstone.  The RV park was pretty good here, a play area for Charlotte to play, indoor heated pool and some snow, in JUNE :)  It was freezing, one day it got down to almost 0C!!  The first day here Ted and JT went fishing in Yellowstone and Katie and I stayed put at the RV park, the kids needed a day out of the car, and we needed to do some washing.....what good house wives we are :)
The next 2 days we spent driving around the National Park, we saw so many things, but to see it all you need about a month I think!!  We saw geysers, fountains, paint pots, bison, a bald eagle, both a grizzly and black bear and elk, No Moose :(  Here are some photos, the bison were everywhere!!


 




This was at the Old Faithful Inn.


And this was Old Faithful going off!!
Ok, I'm going to leave it there for tonight, it's late and I have a big day at the Children's Museum with the girls tomorrow!!  Stay tuned for the rest of the trip, plus some photos from Katie, I promise I will do it real soon :)