Wednesday, September 12
We began today by driving into San Francisco so we could claim that we drove across the famous Golden Gate Bridge. Our other two days we had taken a ferry into the city and only seen the bridge from a distance. After the Bridge (which included a brief stop to walk a portion of the Bridge), we drove through the city and then across the bay bridge to Oakland and onto an RV park just outside of Yosemite National Park. Driving in San Francisco reminded me why we had taken subways and public transportation into other major cities. City driving with an RV is just a little more than my heart can handle. After leaving the bay area, you get into a desert. Temperatures are much hotter during the day and there is lots of wind, which is why they have a huge wind mill power generation field in the hills west of the bay area. I found it odd that there were tons of fruit crops in this area. Obviously irrigation makes it possible. I have noticed back in Virginia that some of the produce we buy is from Califronia, after today I understand why. The RV place here outside of Yosemite is on the site of an abandoned gold mine. They have a trough where kids can pan for gold. Levi and Seth were mighty disappointed they didn’t find any after 40 minutes of panning. Seth wanted to hike to the gold mine but the combination of a large sign at the RV park entrance stating that this was mountain lion area and the setting sun made me hesitate. I’ve heard one too many mountain lion attacks on this trip. The kids set a record for showers today needing three. The standard morning shower, one after playing in the sand pit before dinner and a third after playing in the sand pit after dinner. I keep forgetting to mention our evening entertainment during dinner. We have found that each time we eat outside, we are greeted with yellowjackets. I get a kick out of trying to trap them in tupperware that has food we have finished. I leave the lid off and shut them in once they go inside. Then I shake the tupperware like crazy and the bee dies. This provides dinner entertainment. Well, tonight I almost paid the price. I was using a box we had received from one of the meals in San Francisco. The box didn’t quite have a tight seal. I shook that box as hard as I could, but in shaking it, I flung a bee right on my upper lip. Thankfully, I’ve got plenty of hair there since I haven’t shaved in 70 days. I’m also thankful I didn’t have my mouth wide open or I’d have a stinger in my tongue. The bee quickly flew off and we all promptly went inside for the rest of dinner. Oh well, I’m signing off for the night. We will be out of internet coverage for a few days so check back in about 4 days for more updates.
Tuesday, September 11
Today was our second day in San Francisco. We began by touring the Boudin bakery. They had some pretty high-tech machines that did a lot of the tasks we used to do by hand in my high school days when I worked at the Bagel Bakery making dough and baking bagels. We finished the day by touring Alcatraz, which is a highly recommended tour if you are in San Francisco. They give you an audio tour which plays for about 45 minutes and tells you stories of escapes and other interesting facts about the prison. There were several escape attempts, but only one worked. 3 guys actually escaped during the night. No one ever figured out what happened to them. Some (fellow prisoners) believe they fled to South America, others (the government) think they drowned in the frigid bay waters.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Redwoods and San Francisco
Monday, September 10
We started the day with a trip to Muir Woods, which is a redwood forest near San Francisco. They had a great scavenger hunt for the kids that we all enjoyed together. We were fortunate to find an RV park within walking distance to a high speed catamaran ferry that took us right to downtown San Francisco (Pier 1). It’s a perfect system for RVers. We walked up to pier 39 and saw the sea lions. That is definitely a sight to see. There were about 200-300 sea lions sunning themselves and fighting over sunning spots. We also toured an old submarine. Did you know that the world war 2 submarines ran off batteries when submerged. They had to surface every night and run their diesel engines to recharge their batteries. Today’s nuclear submarines can stay submerged for months I think. We wrapped up the day having dinner with Talitha Green, Sheri’s childhood friend. We had a good first day in San Francisco and plan on spending tomorrow touring more of the city and Alcatraz.
Sunday, September 9
Today was started with a trip to the grocery store to restock. While we were doing that Sheri’s cousin went in to the hospital to be induced for labor. By the time we got to the hospital, she was only about 30 minutes away from having the baby. So Sheri hung out in the hospital awaiting the arrival of the baby, while the boys and I played card games in the RV. After seeing the newborn babe, we drove 4 hours to Petaluma, which is only one hour north of San Francisco. On our drive to Petaluma we saw more grapes than we could probably eat in a lifetime. Napa Valley is surprisingly dry. I guess grapes don’t need much water, or maybe they rely on irrigation.
Saturday, September 8
We had a nice visit through Redwood National/State Park today. The Redwoods are simply amazing. If you have ever watched Return of the Jedi, the Ewok scenes are filmed in Jedidiah Smith State Park, which is part of the Redwood park system. These parks look just like the movie. You feel like you are in the land of dinosaurs with ferns and massive trees. Although to really experience the redwoods your best bet is to see it in the Redwood National Park. Muir Woods National Park, which boasts the closest "old growth" redwood grove to San Francisco has some redwoods, but nothing near the diameter of the trees 4 hours north. After visiting the park we went to Eureka and saw two of Sheri’s cousins, one of whom was due to have a baby anyday. Couple of noteworthy things in California, there are a lot hitchhikers along 101. Sheri’s cousin says it is because there is quite a gathering of hippies in that area. Let’s just say we saw more peace symbols on stores and cars than an average drive in the east. We also observed our first wild harbor seal while we were on the beach seeing the pacific for the first time. The harbor seal was right near fishermen who were using nets to catch little surf fish. We actually took two home (given to us by one of the fisherman), but accidentally left them at Sheri’s cousin’s house.
We started the day with a trip to Muir Woods, which is a redwood forest near San Francisco. They had a great scavenger hunt for the kids that we all enjoyed together. We were fortunate to find an RV park within walking distance to a high speed catamaran ferry that took us right to downtown San Francisco (Pier 1). It’s a perfect system for RVers. We walked up to pier 39 and saw the sea lions. That is definitely a sight to see. There were about 200-300 sea lions sunning themselves and fighting over sunning spots. We also toured an old submarine. Did you know that the world war 2 submarines ran off batteries when submerged. They had to surface every night and run their diesel engines to recharge their batteries. Today’s nuclear submarines can stay submerged for months I think. We wrapped up the day having dinner with Talitha Green, Sheri’s childhood friend. We had a good first day in San Francisco and plan on spending tomorrow touring more of the city and Alcatraz.
Sunday, September 9
Today was started with a trip to the grocery store to restock. While we were doing that Sheri’s cousin went in to the hospital to be induced for labor. By the time we got to the hospital, she was only about 30 minutes away from having the baby. So Sheri hung out in the hospital awaiting the arrival of the baby, while the boys and I played card games in the RV. After seeing the newborn babe, we drove 4 hours to Petaluma, which is only one hour north of San Francisco. On our drive to Petaluma we saw more grapes than we could probably eat in a lifetime. Napa Valley is surprisingly dry. I guess grapes don’t need much water, or maybe they rely on irrigation.
Saturday, September 8
We had a nice visit through Redwood National/State Park today. The Redwoods are simply amazing. If you have ever watched Return of the Jedi, the Ewok scenes are filmed in Jedidiah Smith State Park, which is part of the Redwood park system. These parks look just like the movie. You feel like you are in the land of dinosaurs with ferns and massive trees. Although to really experience the redwoods your best bet is to see it in the Redwood National Park. Muir Woods National Park, which boasts the closest "old growth" redwood grove to San Francisco has some redwoods, but nothing near the diameter of the trees 4 hours north. After visiting the park we went to Eureka and saw two of Sheri’s cousins, one of whom was due to have a baby anyday. Couple of noteworthy things in California, there are a lot hitchhikers along 101. Sheri’s cousin says it is because there is quite a gathering of hippies in that area. Let’s just say we saw more peace symbols on stores and cars than an average drive in the east. We also observed our first wild harbor seal while we were on the beach seeing the pacific for the first time. The harbor seal was right near fishermen who were using nets to catch little surf fish. We actually took two home (given to us by one of the fisherman), but accidentally left them at Sheri’s cousin’s house.
Friday, September 7, 2007
September 7 - Crater Lake to Redwood Forests
Friday, September 7
Sheri got the raw end of the deal this morning…. She got the 4 loads of laundry, while I got to take the kids on a bike ride around part of Diamond Lake. From there we drove to a cheese factory near Medford, Oregon. The pamphlet made it sound like a great place to visit, but it wasn’t as impressive as advertised. They still had fantastic cheese to sample and a viewing window into the cheese factory, but that was about the extent of it. So after a brief visit we trotted over to Crescent City which is the north end of the Redwood forest in California. We reached California today at mile 8636 and were greeted with an agricultural inspector who went didn’t make us throw away our Oregon produce. I’ve finally uploaded some pictures from Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula so be sure to click the picture link to the right. Tomorrow is a visit to Redwood National Park.
Sheri got the raw end of the deal this morning…. She got the 4 loads of laundry, while I got to take the kids on a bike ride around part of Diamond Lake. From there we drove to a cheese factory near Medford, Oregon. The pamphlet made it sound like a great place to visit, but it wasn’t as impressive as advertised. They still had fantastic cheese to sample and a viewing window into the cheese factory, but that was about the extent of it. So after a brief visit we trotted over to Crescent City which is the north end of the Redwood forest in California. We reached California today at mile 8636 and were greeted with an agricultural inspector who went didn’t make us throw away our Oregon produce. I’ve finally uploaded some pictures from Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula so be sure to click the picture link to the right. Tomorrow is a visit to Redwood National Park.
September 5 & 6 - Crater Lake National Park
Thursday, September 6
Today started with some exciting outdoorsmanship. After putting the fire out with water last night, the boys were able to dig up some embers this morning and blow some life into the fire. I was surprised they could do it given the amount of water we used to put it out the night before. Before I knew it, they had a blazing fire going. This was pure excitement for the older boys, almost like being an Indian. After a relaxing morning we headed to Crater Lake National Park. The lake is by far the most pristine lake I have ever seen. The water clarity is better than any lake in the world – meaning that you can see down to a depth of 140 feet when the sun is at the right angle. No other lake can achieve that level of clarity. In fact moss has been observed to grow at depths of 500 feet. The total depth is 1,950 feet making it the 7th deepest lake in the world (the deepest in the US). They say that the lake water is very pure. It is only fed by rainwater and snow melt. There are no rivers running into it and no rivers that drain it. It is literally a deep bowl full of water at a very high elevation. Thanks to a volcano that caved in, the lake is isolated from everything else. It wasn’t even discovered until 1853 by the white man. The Indians had avoided telling us about it and kept it a secret. Indians used to come to the lake to drink the water and they claimed it had some special healing properties. Probably because it was cleaner than their normal drinking water. After taking in the views from some of the overlooks we went to listen to a ranger talk. The boys completed their Junior Ranger books and received their badges. We closed the evening by taking a short 2 mile bike ride to some rock formations caused by the volcano. They literally looked like pillars of ash-something I hadn’t seen before. The only thing we didn’t do is hike down to the lake surface. Because the lake is in a bowl, the only access to the water is by hiking down about 1 mile worth of trails. The elevation change is pretty tough so the mile hike back would have been more than the kids could have done. I’m certainly glad we didn’t leave this park out, it is well worth the visit. For those of you seeking comforts, they have a lodge here inside the park and other lodges here at Diamond lake. A vacation of these parts could include a visit to Olympic National Park, Crater Lake NP, Mt. Rainer NP, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and various other state parks that capture the beauty of the northwest.
Wednesday, September 5
After looking at our calendar and our new desire to get back home by October 20, we streamlined our trip a bit and cut out a short trek into Colorado to see Mesa Verde and a trek to see Big Bend National Park in Texas. This meant that we needed to stay in Portland only 1 night and get moving. So today we drove 4.5 hours to Diamond Lake, just outside of Crater Lake. We decided to break up the trip in two legs and took a 1 hour break at a park in Eugene. Of course I tried to let the GPS pick the closest park but they were doing road work which prevented our ability to get to that park. However, the second closest park was easy to get to and perfect for the kids. Tonight the kids enjoyed making a fire and seeing a movie. Every two or three weeks we splurge and rent a kids movie from the RV park
Today started with some exciting outdoorsmanship. After putting the fire out with water last night, the boys were able to dig up some embers this morning and blow some life into the fire. I was surprised they could do it given the amount of water we used to put it out the night before. Before I knew it, they had a blazing fire going. This was pure excitement for the older boys, almost like being an Indian. After a relaxing morning we headed to Crater Lake National Park. The lake is by far the most pristine lake I have ever seen. The water clarity is better than any lake in the world – meaning that you can see down to a depth of 140 feet when the sun is at the right angle. No other lake can achieve that level of clarity. In fact moss has been observed to grow at depths of 500 feet. The total depth is 1,950 feet making it the 7th deepest lake in the world (the deepest in the US). They say that the lake water is very pure. It is only fed by rainwater and snow melt. There are no rivers running into it and no rivers that drain it. It is literally a deep bowl full of water at a very high elevation. Thanks to a volcano that caved in, the lake is isolated from everything else. It wasn’t even discovered until 1853 by the white man. The Indians had avoided telling us about it and kept it a secret. Indians used to come to the lake to drink the water and they claimed it had some special healing properties. Probably because it was cleaner than their normal drinking water. After taking in the views from some of the overlooks we went to listen to a ranger talk. The boys completed their Junior Ranger books and received their badges. We closed the evening by taking a short 2 mile bike ride to some rock formations caused by the volcano. They literally looked like pillars of ash-something I hadn’t seen before. The only thing we didn’t do is hike down to the lake surface. Because the lake is in a bowl, the only access to the water is by hiking down about 1 mile worth of trails. The elevation change is pretty tough so the mile hike back would have been more than the kids could have done. I’m certainly glad we didn’t leave this park out, it is well worth the visit. For those of you seeking comforts, they have a lodge here inside the park and other lodges here at Diamond lake. A vacation of these parts could include a visit to Olympic National Park, Crater Lake NP, Mt. Rainer NP, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and various other state parks that capture the beauty of the northwest.
Wednesday, September 5
After looking at our calendar and our new desire to get back home by October 20, we streamlined our trip a bit and cut out a short trek into Colorado to see Mesa Verde and a trek to see Big Bend National Park in Texas. This meant that we needed to stay in Portland only 1 night and get moving. So today we drove 4.5 hours to Diamond Lake, just outside of Crater Lake. We decided to break up the trip in two legs and took a 1 hour break at a park in Eugene. Of course I tried to let the GPS pick the closest park but they were doing road work which prevented our ability to get to that park. However, the second closest park was easy to get to and perfect for the kids. Tonight the kids enjoyed making a fire and seeing a movie. Every two or three weeks we splurge and rent a kids movie from the RV park
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
September 4 and 5 - Olympic Pennisula to Portland
Tuesday, September 4
Today we drove to Portland, which took about 4 hours. We met up Laura Mayo (my brother’s wife) and went to an outdoor park that had biking trails. We let the older kids bike with Laura and we let Bailey run around on foot. My brother is on a temporary assignment to Singapore so we missed seeing him. Tomorrow we will drive to Crater Lake National Park and spend a couple of days there. We reached Oregon today at mile 8142.
Monday, September 3
I had told the kids that it would be really fun if we found a place that rented kayaks we could kayak on puget sound. Unfortunately, Port Angeles does not have as many attractions as some of the other coastal citites on the pennisula. However, there was a place that rented row boats on Lake Crescent. The only problem was that they would only allow 5 people in the boat. Bailey wasn’t really excited about getting in a boat so Sheri and Bailey sat out and watched. The kids did fairly well at rowing, but Brandon was bored with it after 15 minutes. After the row boat experience we decided to go on a hike to a waterfall. Somehow Levi got an upset stomach so he and Sheri stayed in the car while I took the other 3 to the falls. On the hike I saw a gentleman approaching the large trees and wrapping his arms around them. I thought this was some exercise to measure the circumference of the tree. However, his wife commented that he likes to hug "his" trees because they don’t get enough attention. I had heard of "treehuggers" as slang for environmentalists, but this guy was a real tree hugger.
Today we drove to Portland, which took about 4 hours. We met up Laura Mayo (my brother’s wife) and went to an outdoor park that had biking trails. We let the older kids bike with Laura and we let Bailey run around on foot. My brother is on a temporary assignment to Singapore so we missed seeing him. Tomorrow we will drive to Crater Lake National Park and spend a couple of days there. We reached Oregon today at mile 8142.
Monday, September 3
I had told the kids that it would be really fun if we found a place that rented kayaks we could kayak on puget sound. Unfortunately, Port Angeles does not have as many attractions as some of the other coastal citites on the pennisula. However, there was a place that rented row boats on Lake Crescent. The only problem was that they would only allow 5 people in the boat. Bailey wasn’t really excited about getting in a boat so Sheri and Bailey sat out and watched. The kids did fairly well at rowing, but Brandon was bored with it after 15 minutes. After the row boat experience we decided to go on a hike to a waterfall. Somehow Levi got an upset stomach so he and Sheri stayed in the car while I took the other 3 to the falls. On the hike I saw a gentleman approaching the large trees and wrapping his arms around them. I thought this was some exercise to measure the circumference of the tree. However, his wife commented that he likes to hug "his" trees because they don’t get enough attention. I had heard of "treehuggers" as slang for environmentalists, but this guy was a real tree hugger.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Olympic National Park - Days 63 and 64
Sunday, September 2
Olympic National Park has several different ecosystems, perhaps the most diverse of any park in the US. It has mountain terrain, glaciers, sea coast, lakes, and it is home to the only rainforest in the 48 states (Alaska and Hawaii each have one too). To be called a rainforest, there must be more than 200 inches of rain per year and the western side of the mountain range qualifies. This kind of precipitation creates some fantastic phenomenon: moss like you’ve never seen, trees that grow on top of downed trees because the forest floor is too covered to grow there, and creeks with green plants growing in the bottom. The 2.5 hour drive (one way) from our campground was worth the trip. We saw 200 foot tall trees where the base of the tree was on a tree that had fallen 100 years ago. The roots wrap around the fallen tree and when it finally rots it leaves a gap between the base of the tree and the ground. Some were so large you could crawl through the gap. If you are ever in Seattle, the rainforest is something to see, but it’s a 5 hour drive from the Seattle area. On our drive back we stopped at a lodge area to attend a ranger talk(one of the national parks with a lodge inside it for all you non-campers) . Once again, we were impressed with the ranger’s speaking skills and the facts. This talk was on birds and he had stuffed specimens for us to hold included the great horned owl and a red-tailed hawk. Two funny things happened today. As we were pulling up to the ranger check point at the rainforest there was a very long line of cars and the checkpoint was barely visible in the distance. Seth asked, "what are all the cars stopped for". I said "check-in". He said, "why are people stopping for a chicken, they have all seen that before". Then I restated that the line was for check-in not chicken, but it was worth a good laugh. The second came this evening. We picked up Bailey’s baby doll and noticed the mouth had food shoved in it. We asked Bailey if she had fed the baby doll and she stated she had fed her a banana. Then we said, "you can’t feed the baby bananas". Her reply was priceless, "I didn’t know bananas had milk in them". You see, Bailey is allergic to milk so we can’t give her anything with milk in it. Apparently, Bailey keeps the baby doll on a milk free diet also.
Saturday, September 1
After a brief morning swim at the hotel to work out some energy, we drove from Seattle to Port Angeles today – about 3 hours. Port Angeles is on the Olympic Peninsula which is very different than the city life of Seattle. Upon arrival we went to the Olympic National Park visitor center and they recommended we make the 17 mile drive up to the 5400 foot peak at Hurricane Ridge. Weather for the rest of the weekend was supposed to cloud the view. We made the drive and took a hike at the top. The views were pretty neat and we got close to a buck who didn’t seem to mind if we approached him.
Olympic National Park has several different ecosystems, perhaps the most diverse of any park in the US. It has mountain terrain, glaciers, sea coast, lakes, and it is home to the only rainforest in the 48 states (Alaska and Hawaii each have one too). To be called a rainforest, there must be more than 200 inches of rain per year and the western side of the mountain range qualifies. This kind of precipitation creates some fantastic phenomenon: moss like you’ve never seen, trees that grow on top of downed trees because the forest floor is too covered to grow there, and creeks with green plants growing in the bottom. The 2.5 hour drive (one way) from our campground was worth the trip. We saw 200 foot tall trees where the base of the tree was on a tree that had fallen 100 years ago. The roots wrap around the fallen tree and when it finally rots it leaves a gap between the base of the tree and the ground. Some were so large you could crawl through the gap. If you are ever in Seattle, the rainforest is something to see, but it’s a 5 hour drive from the Seattle area. On our drive back we stopped at a lodge area to attend a ranger talk(one of the national parks with a lodge inside it for all you non-campers) . Once again, we were impressed with the ranger’s speaking skills and the facts. This talk was on birds and he had stuffed specimens for us to hold included the great horned owl and a red-tailed hawk. Two funny things happened today. As we were pulling up to the ranger check point at the rainforest there was a very long line of cars and the checkpoint was barely visible in the distance. Seth asked, "what are all the cars stopped for". I said "check-in". He said, "why are people stopping for a chicken, they have all seen that before". Then I restated that the line was for check-in not chicken, but it was worth a good laugh. The second came this evening. We picked up Bailey’s baby doll and noticed the mouth had food shoved in it. We asked Bailey if she had fed the baby doll and she stated she had fed her a banana. Then we said, "you can’t feed the baby bananas". Her reply was priceless, "I didn’t know bananas had milk in them". You see, Bailey is allergic to milk so we can’t give her anything with milk in it. Apparently, Bailey keeps the baby doll on a milk free diet also.
Saturday, September 1
After a brief morning swim at the hotel to work out some energy, we drove from Seattle to Port Angeles today – about 3 hours. Port Angeles is on the Olympic Peninsula which is very different than the city life of Seattle. Upon arrival we went to the Olympic National Park visitor center and they recommended we make the 17 mile drive up to the 5400 foot peak at Hurricane Ridge. Weather for the rest of the weekend was supposed to cloud the view. We made the drive and took a hike at the top. The views were pretty neat and we got close to a buck who didn’t seem to mind if we approached him.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
August 30-31 - More Seattle Highlights
Friday, August 31
We took it easy today by spending the morning relaxing in the pool. Then Sheri, Levi, Seth, and I went up to the Boeing plant for a factory tour. It is amazing what Boeing manages to do with airplane assembly in the world’s largest building (by volume). Boeing is kind enough to let you see the 777 line, but it’s hard to really see the details because the viewing balcony is so far away from most of the action. Nonetheless, the tour is well worth the trip. Boeing is turning out an airplane every 3 days, and the 787 assembly will be even more impressive when it gets up and running next year. Tomorrow we leave Seattle and go to Port Angeles, which allows access to Olympic National Park. We had a funny GPS experience tonight. After deciding to do Mexican, we used the GPS to locate the closest Mexican restaurant. We turned left onto the designated street and the GPS proudly announced "arriving at destination on right". The only thing on the right (or left) were single family homes. Unless somebody was running El Charro Mexican Restaurant in their basement, the address in the GPS was totally wrong. So we promptly selected the next closest Mexican restaurant. This time, there were stores at the address, but again no Mexican Restaurant. Lucky for us, there was a Chilis in the same strip mall, so we could eat. The good old GPS seems to be best suited for directions, you can’t always trust its imbedded list of restaurants.
Thursday, August 30
If you didn’t know your history, you may not know that Seattle was put on the map in 1897 when 70,000 people came through the city to buy supplies for the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territory. Of the 100,000 people that rushed up to find gold, only about 300 made it rich. Bad news for many gold rushers, but great news for the Seattle economy. Without the Klondike Gold rush, Seattle might not be the same city it is today. This was all news to me, but we learned it all at the Klondike Gold Rush National Park in Seattle, which is well worth the visit. And of course, the kids completed another junior ranger program there. After our visit to the museum, we rode the Seattle monorail (built in 1962 for the world’s fair) back up to the Pacific Science Center, which is a nice museum. They had all sorts of great exhibits for the kids including a Virtual Reality soccer goalie game that the kids loved.
We took it easy today by spending the morning relaxing in the pool. Then Sheri, Levi, Seth, and I went up to the Boeing plant for a factory tour. It is amazing what Boeing manages to do with airplane assembly in the world’s largest building (by volume). Boeing is kind enough to let you see the 777 line, but it’s hard to really see the details because the viewing balcony is so far away from most of the action. Nonetheless, the tour is well worth the trip. Boeing is turning out an airplane every 3 days, and the 787 assembly will be even more impressive when it gets up and running next year. Tomorrow we leave Seattle and go to Port Angeles, which allows access to Olympic National Park. We had a funny GPS experience tonight. After deciding to do Mexican, we used the GPS to locate the closest Mexican restaurant. We turned left onto the designated street and the GPS proudly announced "arriving at destination on right". The only thing on the right (or left) were single family homes. Unless somebody was running El Charro Mexican Restaurant in their basement, the address in the GPS was totally wrong. So we promptly selected the next closest Mexican restaurant. This time, there were stores at the address, but again no Mexican Restaurant. Lucky for us, there was a Chilis in the same strip mall, so we could eat. The good old GPS seems to be best suited for directions, you can’t always trust its imbedded list of restaurants.
Thursday, August 30
If you didn’t know your history, you may not know that Seattle was put on the map in 1897 when 70,000 people came through the city to buy supplies for the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territory. Of the 100,000 people that rushed up to find gold, only about 300 made it rich. Bad news for many gold rushers, but great news for the Seattle economy. Without the Klondike Gold rush, Seattle might not be the same city it is today. This was all news to me, but we learned it all at the Klondike Gold Rush National Park in Seattle, which is well worth the visit. And of course, the kids completed another junior ranger program there. After our visit to the museum, we rode the Seattle monorail (built in 1962 for the world’s fair) back up to the Pacific Science Center, which is a nice museum. They had all sorts of great exhibits for the kids including a Virtual Reality soccer goalie game that the kids loved.
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