Hitting the Wall

Luckily we did not hit a literal wall, but instead we have struck the proverbial "Wall"of our trip. Andy and I kept saying, "I'm still having fun...aren't you?" and I was. The weather has been all but perfect; the kids have been moderately well behaved, and the plans have been moving along flawlessly--until...the San Fransico apartment. At first, we drove right by it since we were on a four lane divided road lined with questionable business establishments. But if you looked very carefully between the hardware store and the dry cleaners, you could see a chained door with a padlock that lead to the "apartment." While we searched for the key, the boys waited in the car 10 feet away while a metermaid wrote us a parking ticket! Nothing says welcome like TWO tickets totally over a hundred dollars.
We never did stay in the apartment and instead stayed at a motel downtown for one night less than we had planned. We were more than ready to leave the "Filthy CITY" (which the boys said with disgust every time we mentioned it. None of them will be drawn to the big cities that's for sure.) We had high hopes for the beauty and peace of Yosemite but as it turns out....it was packed with a sea of humanity AND almost everywhere we went, a six inch high fine powder of dirt covered the ground. The kids would run around and a cloud of dust would float up and then settle on anything in its path. Allegedly I "yelled about dirt all the time" but I considered it encouraging them to stay clean. No such luck. I will have to post pictures of how bad it got. We kept saying, "This will be funny once we're clean."
Well, we cut two days off Yosemite and we are CLEAN. We are in Fresno, CA in a Hampton Inn with Pool and Laundry and will catch Sequoia National Park tomorrow and then ANDY has talked us into seeing Death Valley the next day. He was confused why I would not have planned it in the first place. I said, "It's called....
D e a t h Valley." So after four days of on-again off-again fun...we are OVER the wall and ready for the back end of the trip. Big trees tomorrow, blazing heat and sand on Wednesday, and Vegas on Thursday!!!!! Is that place even considered a city or more of a circus?

Photo highlights this week

Matthew does Crater Lake!







"Mom, they're not really that dirty.".







"You mean just wash them in here?"







Loved the Redwood Forest!








Sunset in Olympic National Park







Hiking in the Olympics








Mid-way up Mt. Rainier








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The Nines

Tonight my internet access is brought to you compliments of the Nines Hotel in downtown Portland, Oregon. I thought it would be funny to book a 5 star hotel in the midst of tent camping. When we were explaining to the kids a little about the hotel, Christopher said, "I don't get it. It doesn't have a pool AND it doesn't have a free breakfast? I'd rather have a four star hotel." For those who know me so well, I got it for $130 from Hotwire. Next time, I will get a Holiday Inn, with a pool, as a treat. It is pretty funny though to picture all of us showing up at valet parking, stumbling out of the minivan that we have been living out of for 22 days, unshowered for two days, sporting bulging backpacks, and all wearing the clothes we slept in because it was chilly this morning at Mount Rainier!
We left our cottage on the Puget Sound a few days ago and spent a day and night at Olympic National Park and then spent yesterday at Mount Rainier. We had been seeing the Raineir mountain looming in the distance for almost a week so it was exciting to see it up close. This morning it was foggy so we lost sight of the summit, but we stopped at Mount St. Helen's on the way here and we could see what was left of the summit of that mountain. We are STILL having fun though "car-schooling" has produced comments like,
"This is the worst trip I have ever been on, and I really thought that it was going to be fun!" (Matthew)
"I feel like Dad keeps manipulating the time so that we'll do more." (Michael)
"I still don't get it!" (Bryan)
"Actually, I was planning on starting that tomorrow..." (Christopher)
Just for fun....Google The Nines and then picture my four boys. Someone in the elevator with us said, "Are you guys staying here?"....(Stay tuned for a picture of Matthew cleaning his filthy feet in the granite sink in the bathroom.)

Home Schooling

- What fun the boys have had in ENglish, music, and science class depicted above!

Clean Enough

We have been sleeping indoors now for four nights, so I have enough distance to write about the tent camping experience more thoroughly. The above picture is actually one of our two "one night" tents. These come out when we are in a site for only one night. We sleep three to a tent - that's six feet. COZY! I've learned to have the boys go to bed before I come in so that they can tuck their feet deep into their mummy bags and let the air clear before I retire for the night.
We are at a cottage now on the sound in the Olympia, Washington area for three nights. Christopher woke up yesterday singing a song he made up in honor of our deluxe accommodations:

"We're not in a tent now.....no we're not in a tent
We're not in a hotel
And we're not in a motel
No....no
Cause we're in a HOUSE...
Yeah....yeah
In a HOUSE.
Dad's not saying, "Shhhhh boys! Cause no one can hear us
Cause we are in a HOUSE!"

I won't include all the verses, but it did have a country twang to it and he was doing a little dance around the place.

Before I forget, I wanted to explain the new philosophy that Andy I have adopted. It's called, "Clean Enough." We have applied it to many situations including the following:

If a good, deep sniff fails to differentiate whether an article of clothing has been worn three or four days, it is clean enough.

If a spoon some other family member has used, was licked clean and then swirled in a cup of water, it is clean enough.

If a shirt has been smeared with foam hand soap at a gas station dispenser then rinsed in the sink and wrung out, it is clean enough.

If a cup has had the pine needles and rogue ant picked out of the bottom and shaken vigorously, it is clean enough.

If Matthew's feet have been scrubbed with a moist towelette until it is no longer moist, yet remain black, covering them with clean socks makes them clean enough!

If you are out of underwear, but still have a dry bathing suit, then you are clean enough.

14 Days of Camping--DONE!!!

There is a crowd of eager convention attenders stalking this computer so I will be quick and to the point. The camping marathon is over, and we are safely tucked into the clean sheets of the Best Western Hotel on San juan Island outside of Seattle. Last night's hotel in downtown Seattle proved less safe than camping in the woods with bears, after a gas leak filled the hotel with fumes and we had to checkout and find a new hotel. Glacier National Park was without a doubt the most beautiful place I have ever seen...we took a number of hikes including the 12 mile Highland Trail which was successful in that only two of the kids cried and only one for longer than 20 minutes.We took so many pictures because I kept saying, "Now THIS is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!" Then we would go around a corner and it would happen again.
The weather was perfect except for the night of the windstorm--We were camped in a canyon that was advertised as "breezy"-- which to me meant soft, warm summer breezes to keep you cool in August. Apparently when a cool front moves in, that same canyon is a wind tunnel and we ALMOST lost the whole tent. It was shaking in on us for hours and we had a few stakes pop out that we had to go replace at 3:00AM...We heard the murmur of expletives that were floating over from other tenters who seemed to have lost more than a stake.
An elderly lady is looking at me with hope in her eyes so I will wrap up with the most repeated quotes of the week:

Matthew: "Can I pee over there?" (Strict bear rules limited Matthew's marking territory.)

Bryan: "I miss Basso...." (Endless refrain from the boy who we knew would be homesick first.)

Michael: "I need chicken nuggets...." (Poor kid continuously searching for a break from spaghetti and mac-n-cheese.)

Me: "Look boys, isn't that pretty!" (I was called out on this and changed the comment to just 'Look!'"

Andy: "Would you guys just cut it out--I mean it." (He means it!)

And the quote of the week which was a one time comment from Christopher that had us laughing, "I know. We can check the weather and if it looks bad then we can get a hotel.....and if it looks good--we can get a hotel!" Poor kid, we slept in a tent--AGAIN.

Off to Kayak for today and then a cottage in Olympia, WA to recover from post traumatic camping syndrome. It really wasn't that bad.

Heaven

Perhaps I should have waited until the beer I just drank has had time to digest, however, this may be the only chance I get to update for a few days. Coverage has been almost nonexistent. I am posting from the lobby of an amazing hotel on the banks of Flathead Lake in Montana right outside of Glacier National Park. After EIGHT straight days of camping, I cracked. We passed a sign that said, "Mountain Lake Lodge two miles ahead" on the way to our next campsite and I said, "Hey, we could see if we can find a hotel for the night." After one shower in the last week and ice on the inside of our tent this morning, I felt a twinge of entitlement. We deserved to sleep indoors. When I inquired about rates and amenities at the front desk and she said, "Yes, we do have guest laundry right on the premises." I told her, "You had me at Hello!"
So, tonight we have had a full meal that didn't come out of the trunk of our car; we have all been swimming AND showered and even used towels larger than a dinner napkin; I have done two loads of laundry; I trimmed all the boys' nails; and tonight we will be warm. Heaven.
It has been an amazing trip and I actually have LOVED camping. The bear precautions have been a bit tiresome and spitting toothpaste into a vault toilet so that bears would not be attracted to our site was perhaps the all time camping low. On the positive side, we have rafted on the Yellowstone River, bathed in the hot springs, hiked into the Yellowstone Canyon as well as a 6 mile hike in The Grand Tetons, and the boys have chopped and hatcheted their way to boy heaven.
It's late and I have a WARM bed that is calling me, but I wanted to close with a few quotes that I have collected these last 11 days from each of us:

Matthew: "If I have to eat that turkey sandwhich, I'm going to throw-up." (Matthew, the finicky eater, HAS eaten a whole turkey sandwhich and much more without throwing up since the threat of bears coming to attack him provided ample motivation.)

Christopher: "Are you serious, Mom? You don't know the difference between a pistol and a revolver? (Hiking conversation)

Bryan: "Oh my gosh! If that's the same waterfall, I'm going to die!" (After hiking the 5th different trail to see the same waterfall.)

Michael: "Dad, are we really cleaning disposable spoons?" (Commenting while drying the spoons we confiscated after our lunch in Gardiner, Montana)

Andy: "Where are we going next?" (Andy took a more passive role in trip planning.)

Me: "Stop wiping your nose on your shirt. We don't have laundry!" (No explanation necessary.)