Sometimes life gets perfect and I think it's our duty to recognize these moments and treat them accordingly, with kindness and happiness. We were very close to perfection in our super vacation in Rocky Mountains/Yellowstone NP/Teton NP. We had 10 full days filled with adventure, fun and ... exhaustion.
We flew into Denver airport and set up to spend the night in a hotel near the airport. All good, just that the hotel was 30 min away from the airport... Tired, but excited we enjoyed a good sleep and next morning we started the first part of our adventure: Rocky Mountains exploration!
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| Road trip!!!! |
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| Stop at a nearby Walmart to fill up with groceries for the upcoming week. Catalina was full of smiles and good spirit |
We had to meet Petronela and the whole gang there. Due to some faulty communication (and almost no cellphone signal in the area) we tried 2 different camping sites till we found them. At the second spot, I told the lady at the front desk I am supposed to meet my sister and I was getting ready to give her name, details about their stay, anything that would help me see if the Foss clan camps there. Before I said any other word the lady said: you look like your sister. I thought she makes fun of me (ha ha, you're looking for your sister, how am I supposed to help you). But no, she was dead serious. She continued: She came here, she has like what, 3 kids? They were here this morning for breakfast so I remember them. Don't misunderstand me, that was not a small camping site. There were quite a few tents and cabins. So, when I can find my sister based only on physical resemblance I knew we were up to a good start for our vacation.
We went to their tent site and in less than 10 minutes they came from their short hike. And the awesome fun started. Some lunch feeding activities were attempted, but the kids were way to excited about smores and marshmallows. So, 4 soft parents said yes to loads of sugar. Smoke, smiles and yes, sugar, made for a great afternoon.
For this next part the Radu sisters deserve 100% credit! Horse back riding in the country's tallest mountains. Ok, we did not ride to the top, merely a relaxed trip on mainly flat surface. I never rode a horse before, and neither of the people in our group. I don't know how they felt, but honesty requires of me to admit that in the beginning I was doubting my decision to take Catalina on top of a huge, "presumably" friendly animal. Silly me...The trip was beautiful, everybody had so much fun. Catalina had a blast on our horse Mary. What are the chances, 2 Marias to ride a Mary :).
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| My gorgeous sister |
Next we obviously had to explore the mountains! Petronela did some homework for us and she already knew the best trail to take and how to get there. So, 4 excited kids and some equally excited adults hopped on adventure bus (RMNP shuttle actually)! We started the trail to Emerald Lake. The last shuttle was leaving in less than 3 hours so we had to time our fun. We did not have time to reach Emerald lake, but we did see two amazing lakes and the kids had so much fun! The adults just breathed in the fresh air and had some moments with their own thoughts.
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| Catalina asked Mikil to read to her about animals. And when he finished, she asked him again. Absolutely amazing this boy, the patience and care he shows towards his cousin! |
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| Funnest group in Rocky's! |
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| Cute butts :D |
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| Peace. Finally... |
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| Beauty seen through my husband's eyes (or lens) |
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| Tired? No way!!! |
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| I believe we can fly, I believe we can touch the sky! |
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| Grizzly bear seen from the RMNP shuttle |
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| Frog? |
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| Yes, Catalina climbs!!! Quite well actually |
Evening came fast, too fast. It was dinner time, and everybody was tired. And happy. Back at the tent site it was time for more smores, hotdogs and whatever each could grab. It was cold at night, but with our hearts content we woke up to beauty and fresh air. Breakfast, and it was time to pack up and go on to our next adventure.
Yellowstone National Park, here we come!!
Adults were excited, Catalina kept saying for the first hours of our trip that she misses her brothers already. We explained to her that they are her cousins, and she kept weeping and saying she misses them. And she kept calling them brothers, making mommy little sad as well. We promised her she'll see them soon, and along with many hours of movie watching, she let it go. Meanwhile, mommy and daddy had a very boring view. For hours and hours. And hours. This is how the road from Denver to Yellowstone looks like:
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| Look, a little mountain! How exciting... (NOT...) |
It all had an end and we started spotting the Grand Tetons. To say we were excited it's a major understatement. Marius was happy he can slow down from 75miles/hour as well. Apparently we were not paying attention to our surroundings as a police car stopped us. We were going 40m/hr in a 30m/hr zone. Oh, well...we were ready for a speeding ticket along with a bad attitude. The policeman saw Marius's scared face, checked his record and saw it clean as snow and let us go with a warning. No bad attitude either, just a friendly face. And this is how I knew that we'll be protected in our trip. Somebody was watching over us!
4 or 5 hrs later we finally arrived. Catalina fell asleep during dinner, so that pretty much explains how tired we were. 10 hrs of driving is no joke...
After a good night sleep in what proved to be a decent room (I expected Grant Village in the park to be a dump hole after reading the reviews) we were ready for some serious adventures. First stop was Old Faithful, as it was also the most famous. So...waiting for it to erupt, Catalina had some fun :)
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This was Catalina's favorite picture pose during the whole vacation. Quite cute if you ask me :)
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The trails, the nature around the geysers is beautiful and scary to say the least. You walk above a big pot of boiling water that comes from the Earth' guts and hope you'll not be cooked in scalding hot water.
We were impressed, Catalina was rather scared and kept telling us she doesn't want to see geysers anymore and she thinks it's not safe. As adults, we had the last word and dragged her and carried her to see nature at its best
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| Let's go back, mommy! This is dangerous! |
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| Cute little geyser sprouting water pretty much all the time |
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| Nice blue water, reminds me of Caribbean shores. Too bad the water is close to 100C... |
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| Happiness |
We were still tired so we had a nice relaxed lunch at Old Faithful Inn. Beautiful building, a very nice gift shop and a really good red pepper gouda soup!
We were almost ready to turn in, go back to our hotel. We decided in the end to gather our last bits of energy for another tour of the geysers. We were not disappointed.
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Morning Glory Pool. My favorite geothermal feature in the whole park. Beautiful, peaceful and scary at the same time
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By the end of the trail we were exhausted, so we headed back to our hotel. On the way there we took a short detour to see West thumb, another geyser basin close to our hotel. Maybe we'd seen too many beautiful geysers, pools and fumaroholes, maybe we were just tired, but we did not find it too exciting. So, back to our room for some sleep :)
We are greedy in our vacations and we want to enjoy the best in the first days. So, for the second day in Yellowstone we reserved a round trip of the whole park, with stops at Noris Geyser Basin and Mammoth Hot Springs. I was beyond excited! Catalina just wanted to watch movies on the portable DVD. Marius drove. and drove. and drove some more.
And here is what we saw. Amazing, breathtaking. Noris basin was like a deserted land with beautiful landscape that nobody can enjoy. Unless you are one simple, boring bacteria that can survive in highly acidic medium, at 90+ celsius. Yes, all these colors are due to some crazy simple and undeveloped forms of life.
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| Mommy's shoulders are strong!! They carried Catalina for most of the trail :) |
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| This stream was yellow yellow yellow...Way too similar to pee :D |
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| cute little geyser sprouting every 7-10 minutes |
After a loooooong trail (we took the longest one by mistake, but we were not disappointed) we hopped on the car for the next stopping point. Mammoth Hot Springs. I'ver heard that there are places where you can swim, so we all had our bathing suits with us. There was extensive road work on our way, we got stuck in traffic and we drove 20 miles in an hour and a half. Tiring AND frustrating. Once there, we stopped at the gift shop to sweeten our spirits a little :). Then lunch and ice cream!
With little energy we went ahead to admire more of nature's spectacles. We were exhausted!! The trail looked long, the sun was hot, Catalina was tired. So, little by little we took little steps and tried to enjoyed what I believe at this point to be among the 5 most dramatic natural changes I've witnessed in this vacation. Salt and bacteria and hot springs made for impressive structures.
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| Look mommy, it's like where polar bears live! |
Catalina was tired and wanted to be carried everywhere. Mommy took the first round, then handled Catalina to daddy. Somewhere between exchanging kids over cameras, mommy's camera fell off from the pocket. The next hour or so we spent it looking under the boardwalk, on the grass, everywhere, maybe we're lucky and we find it!
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| Is it there, mommy? But it was such a nice camera!! |
I wanted to go back, tired and upset I was in no mood to observe any natural beauty if I could not capture it for later. But Marius was the wisest of all this time, made us go all the way up and talked about all the nice cameras we'll get once we get back home. Catalina wanted a pink one with purple hearts, even though she did not loose hers :)
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| Catalina weeped for quite a bit because of mommy's lost camera, exhaustion and who knows what other drama was going through her cute little head. |
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| Top of the trail!! |
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| Squeezing in some smiles :) |
And, what do you know. Just when we had already decided what new cameras we'll get, how we'll order them and when, a nice lady asked us: did somebody loose a camera? They had found it at the bottom of the trail (where I handed Catalina over to Marius and he gave me his big fancy camera to hold). They recognized Marius from his Chicago t-shirt, and this way mommy got an enormous smile on her face! An old camera thought lost and then found is worth ten times any new camera!!
I had renewed energy. I was smiling, and laughing and ready for anything. I guess I was able to give some of my newly found enthusiasm to the rest of the gang that we all decided to go on a longer route home to see some wild life. Lamar Valley is a road towards the East entrance to the park, and this place is well knows for abundant wild life. We were driving in the evening, best time to spot animals and we were not disappointed!
Bisons, big and ugly crossed the road in front of us, looked bored at our car and minded their own trip up the mountains.
And, what do you think we saw on our way back from bison land...On the edge of the road there were some people staring far away, big cameras and binoculars. It was a grizzly bear!! Mommy could not see it as she was not tall enough, but daddy did and caught it on camera!
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| Far away, the best way I like to see bears :) |
On the way back, late at night we also saw a grey wolf and a bunch of elks, but we were tired beyond belief and not ready for any more pictures. So we drove through crazy bisons that kept popping in front of our car and finally made it to the hotel where we slept like babies !
Half way through our vacation we had seen most of the things we intended to, so the next we started slowly, decided to enjoy as much as we could. We headed towards the canyon, presumably the most scenic spot in the park. There were several waterfalls with hikes that seemed dangerous and definitely not recommended for little kids. So, we stopped at a point that did not look too steep to take some pictures. We did, and the we saw some people taking a trail down. We were hoping we can get a look at the bottom of the fall, so we started on the trail little by little
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| Silly on our way to the canyon |
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| short stop at a mud hole |
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| Beginning of the trail looked smooth and easy |
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| Crazy steep canyon |
We did finish the trail, but boy, it was no joke. Later on we realized it was considered high difficulty and not recommended for the elderly or small children. Catalina was amazing though, she walked the trail by herself, realizing that steep edges with no rail do encourage tantrums
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| At the bottom of our trail, a better look at the cascade |
Excited about what we saw we started planning the second part of the day. For Catalina this meant a good 2 hr nap in mommy's arms. When she woke up it was pouring outside! Heavy rain, thunder and lightening. We hopped on the car and headed to another famous point, Artist lookout. The rain stopped shortly, allowing us to take some beautiful pictures
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| Artist Point. The name doesn't get any more self explanatory than this picture |
With our retinas very pleased with the picturesque scenery, we headed back early, so we can enjoy our hotel as well. We were greeted on our way by a peaceful elk, just perfect for us to complete our wild life watching
Grant Village is probably the least desired lodging venue in Yellowstone, mostly because of its inconvenient location related to other points of interest. True, we had longish drives to see geysers and whatnot, but we enjoyed the setting by the lake, with pine trees surrounding us. Catalina loved that she has some time to make up imaginary stories and play with rocks. It was a beautiful evening.
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| Mommy enjoyed the different features of her newly found camera |
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| Some lovin' time while Catalina played tirelessly by herself |
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| Mommy's awesome camera! |
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| Peace |
We were content that night. went to our room early, rested a bit and did not plan much for the second day. We had seen all major attractions, we were happy and healthy. We started towards some new geysers and maybe a waterfall. Somebody, I can't remember who, said "wherever you go, go with all your heart". And this we did.
First stop, the Middle Geyser Basin. Lots of mud holes
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| geyser spitting mud |
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| right next to the mud volcano, this beauty! |
Next stop: Biscuit Basin. We stopped here mostly for a trail that takes to Mystic Falls.
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| Here we go!! |
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| This trail is easy peasy :D |
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| Mystic Falls |
Mommy wanted to go all the way to the bottom, where the people were washing their feet in water. Daddy thought it's too dangerous for Catalina so we headed back.
We were surrounded by beautiful yellow flowers, and Catalina had a yellow t-shirt. If you ask me, this is as pretty as pretty gets! Catalina delighted us with a complete photo shoot!
All happy, we headed 2 steps further, just to realize that we CAN dip our feet in the water. And this transformed into an hour long stop that ended with freshly cooled feet and very dirty pants and shirts :). So much fun, that NO pictures were taken.
It was nearing the end of the day so headed towards Old Faithful for a last stop and some more of the red pepper soup. Tired, dirty and happy, we ended our Yellowstone vacation where we started it: at the most famous geyser in the world!
A little nostalgic, the next morning we headed towards Teton National Park. Mommy especially was excited about a trail around Jenny lake that promised to take us to an amazing view of the Teton area.
Stopping at Jenny Lake was not without problems, as parking was hard to find. We managed somehow, and set up to a boat ride across the lake and then on to the hike to Hidden Falls and maybe partly to Inspiration Point. People at visitor center told us that the part from Hidden Falls to Inspiration point is very hard, very rocky, very steep and definitely not recommended for little kids. So we just started to see where we can get.
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| Grand Tetons |
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| A cute baby elk welcomed us on our way to the boat dock |
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| Ready?? |
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| On our way to Hidden Falls. Trail was easy but somehow seemed longer than the predicted 0.5 miles. |
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| Hidden Falls. Finally... |
The scenery was beautiful. We took it all in, then decided to start the hike to Inspiration point, to wherever we can make it.
Climbing down from Inspiration Point was tricky, but we look who did it!!
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| Mommy had the biggest smile after finishing the hardest trail yet that she did with her sweetheart! |
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| Further down from Inspiration Point to Hidden Falls |
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Cold, refreshing water!
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At this point, the happiest person in the whole universe was probably mommy. Catalina and mommy had achieved what mommy really wanted and what people said we cannot do. So, we hopped on the car and started driving towards Teton Village, a nice little place that had a big nice air tram. Unfortunately, big thunder and lightening stopped the airtram from running so we postponed our ride for the next morning, right before our final trip back to Denver Airport. Meanwhile we enjoyed some pretty shops and good coffee in Jackson Hole.
And it was time for our last day, the day when we had to drive 9 hours back to the airport. First, our air tram ride, that meant another hour drive in the opposite direction, making our final trip a 10 hr drive
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| On top of the world! |
And this was it. Knowing we have long long long drive ahead, we started. It felt never ending. Red desert after red desert. No exits and that was continuing a problem that we had all throughout this vacation, the lack of restrooms...Speed limit of 80miles/hr means that trucks drive 90m/hr, making us mortals, (who usually drive 60m/hr) feel quite uncomfortable. Catalina fell asleep 10 minutes before we got to the airport, in the shuttle. This made it so much harder for mommy to carry her through security. Or to board the plane, or to take the 2 trains home. Once we reached our home in Philly we had 24 un-slept hrs. We were exhausted, so we slept the whole morning. Around 1pm Catalina told me she's very hungry, so, half asleep, I made her some frozen raviolli. She told me she's very happy to finally eat real food. Frozen raviolli = real food?? And then I remembered that the previous day she only had chips and salsa and potato chips and lemonade. And I felt bad...but she was so so happy, and she kept talking about all the cool things from our vacation (which differ greatly from what we think were the highlights) that I decided that a day of junk food is worth an amazing vacation.
So now, a week after our big, awesome, super vacation we are getting ready to set on a new trip. Lincoln Nebraska, here we come! We'll have Peter's birthday celebration, and hopefully some peaceful family time.
Today is good. I hope tomorrow and next week is as good.
