VIEW NH

7/19/2009 - Day 10 (Sunday) - Seattle, WA

Today we drove South into Seattle, Washington for the day.   We found a parking space in Seattle Center and parked the MH and walked to the Space Needle.

 

 

I made reservations for Sunday Brunch at Sky City Restaurant in the Space Needle.  The Restaurant is really nice an rotates above the city so you get a 360 degree view while dining.  Kylie loved it because it was a really nice restaurant and the food was excellent!  I wanted to take the Duck Tour through Seattle to see the city but both Kylie and Eric thought that was pretty Geeky so instead we walked from the Space Needle to the Pike Street Market which was about 1.5 miles away. 

Here is Eric and I in front of the famous Public Market Sign.  You can see in the background the water.  It was an experience with a lot of smells, sounds, street performers and interesting people.  Kylie got her name written in Chinese (at least that's what we think it says) and we purchased a few small items.  It was very hot outside by this point and we needed water.

 

After the Public Market we made our way back to the Space Needle and the MH, passing Century Square (an area in Seattle where there is a lot of retail stores including Nordstrom's, Macy's, Columbia and Abacrombie & Fitch.  By the time we made it back to the MH Kylie and Eric both passed out and took a nap (they just couldn't keep up with me).  It was a fun visit even though we skipped the Duck Tour.

There was an event happening around the Space Needle and the police presence was large.  This picture was taken right outside the Space Needle at the end of the day, on our way back to the MH.  Kylie for some reason refused to go up and pose with the horses...somehow they lose their appeal when they have uniformed officers on them.

7/18/2009 - Day 9 (Saturday) - Anacortes, WA

• Anacortes, Washington is on Fidalgo Island and borders Puget Sound and is a gateway to the San Juan Islands. It enjoys milder weather because of it's geographic location.  We are only scheduled to be here for this one full day, tomorrow we plan to head south to spend the day in Seattle and then continue to Oregon.  I booked us on a Whale Watching Boat Trip in the Puget Sound on the Mysic Sea.  They guaranteed Orca sightings so we departed the Marina at 10 a.m. for the day trip.
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We started out wearing jeans and sweatshirts and Eric suggested we take windbreakers also (I'm so glad he did).  It was pretty windy immediately after we left the harbor and it only got worse when we hit open waters.  At one point we were in 5 foot waters and the boat was rocking and bobbing over the swells.  Some of us enjoyed the ride (it was like an amusement park) and some of us it made feel a little ill.  When we got back inside after the waters calmed someone had gotten sick on our seats (so we had to find a new place to sit in another section of the boat).  Because of the rough waters, we were unable to travel to the shores of Victoria BC where the Orca's were so, for the first time this season (since March), the passengers of this ship saw zero Orca's.  We did see the following;

Bald Eagle

 

 

 

 

 

 

Porpoise (Related to Whales & Dolphins)

 

 

 

Seals

 

 

Ann & Kylie on Mystic Sea (Kylie was having a bad hair moment)

 

 

 

 

 

Eric on the Mystic Sea - Below is just one of the breathtaking views from the water.

 

 

 

 

We were pretty disappointed that we didn't get to see the Orca's but because they guaranteed sightings we each received a voucher so our next trip is free!  That will be very handy the next time we are passing by.  It was a nice day anyway and we saw a lot of sights we would not have been able to see from the road or on land. 

 

 

7/17/2009 - Day 8 (Friday) - Northwest to Anacortes, WA

We made our way through the remainder of Montana and Idaho (Pacific Standard Time Zone) and then to Washington State (our next destination stop.

  We made our way through Seattle traffic at 3pm on Friday)...In this photo you can see the traffic and the Mountains in the background.  We reached our campground in Anacortes, WA (1.5 miles North of Seattle) at about 6pm.  This was a scheduled travel day.  The photo on the left shows our campsite at Fidalgo Bay Campground.  It's a small campgroud and our site overlooked the bay.  The sites are a little close together but it has services and a laundry room so we can wash the dirty clothes we've been accumulating for the past week.

  

7/16/2009 - Day 7 (Thursday) - Northwest to Montana

We left the campground at 11:30 a.m. and made our way to the Northwest Entrance, planning to stop along the way at some of the sites we missed the day before.  We took Firehole Lake Drive which has several Geysers along the roadside.  We stopped at Sheepeater Cliff and Golden Gate where the road cantilevers over the cliff edge.  We then made our way to Mammoth Hot Springs (which believe it or not was 20 degrees warmer) and then to Mammoth which is where old Fort Yellowstone stood and some buildings still.  It resembles a little town and in the center there was herd of Elk camped out.  From there we were only 5 miles from the Northwest Entrance and I was desperately trying to see some of the animals we missed.  I spotted a herd of longhorn sheep on the side of a mountain and Eric pulled over so we could take some pictures.   

There were only a few at first, then more started to emerge from the rocks above.  We must have been stopped for 20-30 minutes as we watched the sheep one at a time make their way down the side of the mountainside to the river below (right across from us) to drink and then climb back up the steep rocks again.  It was an amazing site.  We started a trend and soon there were cars parked on both sides on the road and people standing there taking photos.  Then just as we were about the pass through the archway out of the park, Kylie spotted a herd of antelope in the field.  We stopped for pizza at K-Bar (recommended by one of the park employees) in Gardner, Montana and we found a carwash that could fit the MH…all was good as we made our way out into Montana again until we reached Massoula, MT where we found a Wal-mart for the night.

 

 SEE PHOTO ALBUM ON RIGHT FOR YELLOWSTONE PICTURES

 

7/15/2009 - Day 6 (Wednesday) - Yellowstone NP

This was our only full day at Yellowstone…we took a lot of pictures and travelled to Old Faithful and the Midway Geyser Basin (which was one of the best sites which includes Grand Prismatic Spring).  The park is huge…and it took most of the day to travel to handful of sites.  The Bison stopping traffic didn’t help very much.  We visited the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and ate dinner at the Canyon Lodge (Prime Rib, Bison and Spinach Ravioli).  We had planned a 1 hour horseback ride but it was cancelled for reasons unknown but we all adapted well…some better than others.  On the way back to the campground there were lots of people stopped along the road trying to catch a glimpse of a wolf pack with new wolf cub.  We learned the next day that the cub came out and made an appearance that night…we missed it.

 

SEE PHOTO ALBUM ON RIGHT FOR YELLOWSTONE PICTURES

 

7/14/2009 - Day 5 (Tuesday) - West to Yellowstone NP

We left Rapid City for Yellowstone National Park…because we decided to call it a night and stayed in Rapid City on Monday night we knew we were in for a long drive.  We drove through the remainder of South Dakota and off the Interstate to a rural road through Montana.  The first section (which is quite a bit because of sheer size of the state) of Montana was incredibly boring with little to nothing to see for miles.  Montana is the Big Sky state and you could see why….there is sky everywhere and nothing much else.  After several hours we started to play a new game…counting the broken down cars on people’s property.  The scenery didn’t really change much until we hit Billings.  From there we headed towards Red Lodge which marks the beginning of the Beartooth Scenic Byway which leads directly to the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

When we mapped out the route we had no idea what we would expect to see.  The byway, which is only open a few months out of the year, is a steep climb up into the mountains on a windy road.  The maximum speed was 25 MPH and the scenery was amazing.  The pictures don’t do it justice because of the lighting but it was both scary and exciting.  We climbed to elevations over 10,000 feet where there was still spots with several inches of snow (we were at the spot on the top of the mountain where you can see snow in the middle of summer).  We crossed the state line from Montana to Wyoming and then back to Montana.  The View got the best gas mileage of the trip on this section with more than 26 miles to the gallon. 

We arrived at the Northeast Entrance to Yellowstone National Park about 8:51 p.m.  The one thing that we have noticed is that we don’t loose daylight until after 10:00 p.m.  We clearly underestimated the drive time for this section of the trip.  We quickly learned that although we had arrived at Yellowstone, it was another 1.5 hour drive to the campground we were staying at.  Almost immediately after entering the park we started to see the animals.  First a fox, then an antelope and then Bison.  We pulled over at one point and saw a black bear in the distance going into the tree line.  We were disappointed we didn’t get a better look and then less than ½ mile up the road there was a baby black bear walking down the side of the road.  We saw Bison and Moose even before reaching our campsite around 10:15 (we were very tired).

 

SEE PHOTO ALBUM ON RIGHT FOR YELLOWSTONE PICTURES

7/13/2009 - Day 4 (Monday) - West to Rapid City, SD

Our first stop in South Dakota was the Corn Palace (we never heard of it either so we had to sit through the presentation about the history of it).  It ended up to be a very interesting place to stop.  Apparently every year they allocate a portion of the corn crop to decorate the palace in corn murals based on a particular theme.  This year’s theme in 2009 was America’s Destinations. 

 

 

Our next stop was the Minute Man Missile Site (a national park site) consists of a main office and another command post with available tours of the missile command facility which is 30 feet underground.  Because we were not sure when we would be there we didn’t book the 1.5 hour tour and it was full.  So instead we watched a 12 minute film which showed the same information (a definite time saver).  We then ventured up the road to the missile site where they pulled back the cement cover and enclosed it in glass.  There you can see down into the silo the missile (without the warhead of course).  There is also a vehicle on site which was designed to withstand an EMP from a nuclear blast.  We didn’t stay here long because it the weather was threatening (see photo) and there was a tornado warning. 

 

We did make one additional stop at Wall Drug.  They posted signs along the highway for 250 miles telling us what a great tourist stop advertised throughout the world, so we had no choice but to stop and see what all the fuss was about.  The place was a huge maze of different souvenir and food shops.  It was really interesting and they had a lot of unique items and it took everything we had to resist the temptation to buy the bumper sticker advertising the place.  By the time we left the sky had cleared (we didn’t even hit rain…but the black sky loomed in the distance for awhile).

We drove through the Badlands (apparently Badlands means “bad land to travel”) West towards Rapid City, SD and Mount Rushmore.  We pulled off the highway to take a few photos and Eric ended up finding a $50 bill flying across the landscape (it was very windy)…he spent the next several days wondering about the person who lost their $50 bill, was it their last $50?  Did they have enough money to get home?

 

We hit the Rapid City area early and I had made reservations at a Western Dinner/Show.   The guests eat in an open air barn, when the dinner bell rang you took your tin cup and plate and proceeded through the chow line.  The meal we can only assume was an accurate representation on what the cowboys ate (they were just happy to eat and were not picky regarding taste or quality).  Eric had Bison (it tastes like pot roast), I had Beef and Kylie had Chicken.  After dinner some country musicians took the stage and entertained you.  It was pretty unimpressive, especially when they asked everyone to clean up the barn after eating.  We decided to take off before the show was over (when they started marketing every item in the gift shop one item at a time).  Then we were off to Mount Rushmore…

 

The plan was to visit Mount Rushmore in time for the lighting ceremony at dusk (8:30 p.m.)…when we left dinner it started to rain pretty heavy on our way there and it was looking really bleak.  We thought about turning back and trying again in the morning…it was pouring with big cracks of thunder and lightning.  We arrived at Mount Rushmore and it was still drizzling…by the time we made it to the entrance it had stopped raining.  The lighting because of the rain was amazing and we took a lot of great pictures.  We sat and waited for the lighting ceremony to start and the funniest thing happened….from down below the clouds began to rise up until all visibility was gone and you couldn’t see Mount Rushmore at all anymore….it was incredible.  So we waited….and just before the lighting ceremony was set to begin the breeze kicked up and the clouds were swept away and the mountain emerged…it was an amazing show and a once in a lifetime chain of events that created a very memorable experience. 

By the time we drove down the mountain it was pretty late.

 

7/12/2009 - Day 3 (Sunday) - West to Minnesota

We really enjoyed driving through Wisconsin (which looked a lot like the photo we choose to depict the landscape)

Then arriving in Minnesota, on our way to the Mall of America

Here's Kylie (LEFT) as we arrived at the Mall of America (our 1st scheduled attraction stop). We took some photos in the parking lot before we went inside. 

We decided to eat at Bubba Gump's (below) for lunch.  Eric had the fish sandwich (8 out of 10), I had the fish and chips (10 out of 10) and Kylie had the fried chicken dinner which we all gave the chicken a (9 out of 10);  It was really an experience

 

 

 

Kylie was very excited about the indoor theme park.  Eric and I agree that it was one of the best theme parks we've ever gone to.  Because it's in the Mall we didn't have to pay for 3 tickets just to walk around (like Six Flags or Busch Gardens).  Kylie dragged me on all the rides and tried to kill me.  The skateboard ride (whatever it was named) was the worst, so Kylie forced me to go on it 2x.  But not to worry, I found a ride I really liked and dragged Kylie on it again and again until she was ready to call it a day!  We also visited the aquarium where they had an underwater tunnel where we saw lots of sharks and other sea creatures. 
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For the most part Minnesota looks a lot like Wisconsin, with lots of farmland.  We ended up venturing off of I-90 and spent hours driving a back road.  We saw a lot of windmills in the distance (the most of the trip), not really wind farms but several windmills grouped together.  We ended up at a Flying J for the night just after passing into South Dakota.

7/11/2009 - Day 2 (Saturday) - West to Wisconsin Dells, WI

So our first scheduled stop was in Elyria, OH for breakfast - we arrived very early in the a.m. and got to catch a few hours of sleep in the parking lot while we waited for the place to open for their breakfast buffet.  - ATB

After leaving Elyria, OH on our way to Indiana we hit a huge band thunderstorms with lightning. After two weeks of non-stop raining in NH it was refreshing to see the rain.  Thankfully the storms were headed east and we were headed west so we ended up driving out of them.  We tried to take pictures of the lightning but have you ever tried to take photos of lightning? (it's not easy to click the button at the speed of light).  In this picture you can see the radar showing the storm on the computer screen, the picture was taken just before 11 a.m.

After Indiana (where Eric jokingly suggested that we stop in Gary, IN to see Michael Jackson's childhood home) we found ourselves driving through the Center of Chicago, Illinois;  Eric was trying to sleep so Kylie took a bunch of pictures as I drove us through slow moving traffic through the City.  We saw the Sears Tower (in the picture) from the highway and Kylie went online and read all about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Kylie's comments about the city was "it was big and it was really pretty but the traffic sucked".  Eric did really well, he was up and down during our very slow moving trip through the city and didn't let on once that he was nervous that it was me who was driving the MH in the middle of all of that and not him (he feels better when he's in control). It's important to note that I wasn't at all nervous and kept the MH between the little white lines that the city was kind enough to provide. 

Then off to Wisconsin ("America's Dairyland") where we stopped in Wisconsin Dells; Who knew that such an oasis existed in the middle of farm (cheese?) country.  There is a lot to do here if we had planned to stay but we ate dinner and took in a few sights.

We stopped at this place...they sold lots of different cheeses, candy, fudge, ice cream and souvineers.  Kylie came away with a one-scoop cone of vanilla ice cream and Eric bought some chocolate/caramel fudge.  Kylie had another "hot guy" sighting in Wisconsin and she's ready to pack her bags and relocate for good.

 

 

I found out about Monk's Bar & Grille on the internet while planning our trip and thought it would be a good place to get some dinner.  There was some talk when we got into town about maybe going somewhere else but we are glad that we didn't.  We had burgers and "monkey fries" which are crispy french fries smothered in bacon bits and fresh wisconsin cheddar cheese (they were very good!).

 

We had no reservations and had originally planned to stop at a rest area between here and our next stop but instead we found this casino a few miles off the exit where we parked in a back lot next to a small airfield and spent the night.  After 24 hours on the road and sleeping erratically it was a really good night sleep.  Even though it's mid-July it was cool outside (about 60F) and there was a slight breeze which made for a perfect sleep temperature.  

7/10/2009 - Day 1 (Friday) - Leaving NH

Left New Hampshire at just past 5pm (after a full day of work and finishing up all loose ends).  It immediately feels very weird without Calvin with us (he stayed at home with Grandma this trip).  We hit traffic in Massachusetts because of an accident but otherwise things went pretty smooth.  Eric drove until about midnight, then I got to drive for a few hours (I realized then that I hadn't driven the motorhome since Feb08)...Kylie slept a lot (but she can sleep through anything and riding in a vehicle is like giving her a sleeping pill.  Turns out Eric learned he can't sleep when the camper is bouncing him around and I found a perfect use for the stimulous money (fix the darn roads...they're horrible!)

5/15/2009 - 5/17/2009 - Normandy Farms, Foxborough MA

Eric found this place on the internet and the reviews were really great.  Since I never seem to be able to make reservations until days before a weekend it was good that it was pretty close.  We took Maleigha with us so Kylie would have company.  On first impression it was very service oriented, although we questioned our decision when we saw the site, it wasn't anything special, lots of sand,rocks.  The kids enjoyed the pool area, and there was a dance on Saturday night where the girls met some other kids.  They even had a dog show where Calvin won 3rd place in the "most unusual" category.  Check out some photos in the photo album.  Before heading home we went shopping at the Wrentham Outlet and saw for the first time Patriot Place (we haven't been in the area since the Patriot's played at Foxborough Stadium.  One note on the area...is it Foxboro or Foxborough - or are the two interchangable?

5/1/2009 - 5/3/2009 - Mohegan Sun, CT

So we decided to venture back to Mohegan Sun this weekend.  Mainly because the weather is calling for rain all weekend so we didn't want to spend money to stay at a campground in the rain.  Kylie is in FL for school vacation so Calvin came with us.  Eric likes the buffets here...they have the best breakfast buffet at Seasons Buffet.  I'm going to repost one of the pictures from our last visit which was only 2 weeks ago (partly because it's rainy and icky out but mostly becasue I forgot the camera bag at home).

4/17/2009 - 4/18/2009 - Mohegan Sun, CT

Ok ... so this was our maiden voyage of the season. We were supposed to go to NYC (5 hours) for the weekend, but Kylie made plans (as usual). Why waste a trip to NYC without Kylie...so we looked into going to Atlantic City for the weekend (5 hours), then Turning Stone in NY (5 hours) but they were booked this weekend (opening weekend). Then we thought we'd just run to the beach for the weekend since we were heading out 3 hours later than planned because of work...so we hit the road. Then Eric had a great idea...we could still go to NYC but we'd stop at Mohegan Sun on the way down and split the trip. So now we're here...probably won't make it any further south than this....learned we can live here for 1 wk at a time, how nice? And some people say we're inflexible???

7/15/2008 - 7/19/2008 - Washington, D.C.

This was the 2nd half of our vacation, after leaving Virginia Beach we stopped in College Park, MD at Cherry Hill Campground. We were travelling with Kylie, Ryan and Calvin on this trip. Our first day Ryan, Kylie, Eric and I took the Metro into DC for the day. The second day Ryan stayed behind at the campground. The third day both Ryan and Kylie stayed behind at the campground. This has been one of my favorite stops so far even though we spent most of the time on the go, leaving the campground in the early a.m. and not returning until 7-8 p.m. I would definately do this again but probably would plan to stay longer and spread out the visits more. The time we did spend at the campground was positive. There was a dog walker who took Calvin out while we were away. Kylie loved the pool area. We also had one of the best italian meals ever in the shopping plaza near the campground...I can't wait to return to eat there again (wish I could remember the name of the place).  

06/13/2008 - 06/15/2008 - Scarborough, ME

We spent this weekend at Bayley's Camping Resort in Scarborough, ME. Kylie didn't join us this weekend, it was just Eric, Calvin and I. We stayed on site #229 - after having to negotiate to get the office to allow us to stay in this area because we didn't meet the "minimum length" requirement for that area of the park. It's much nicer (and quieter) in this section.

4/19/2008 - 4/20/2008 - Salisbury, MA

We took the MH out to the beach this weekend, spent the night at Beach Rose RV Park in Salisbury, MA. There still isn't anything open yet, we took a drive up the coast into Maine. Calvin really enjoyed out stops along the way and running on the beach. It's still a little cool out but after the season opens we won't be able to find accomodations