Guest Blogger....

Hello all! This is Kelly and I'll be your VIP guest blogger today:
So today took us to Pinnacles National Monument for a day of hiking, sweating and infamous sit down strikes by the one and only Margie. We arrived at Pinnacles around 11am and began our accent to the peaks. About 10 minutes in Sophie, Margie and I were given the warning by Andy that the park ranger had advised us to be on the lookout for rattle snakes and mountain lions (something that would have been nice to know before setting out haha). The hike began at a nice pace and gradual incline and progressed to a slightly slower pace as the incline became steeper and steeper. About 30 minutes in Margie began "sit down strikes" which basically means she stops mid-trail to just sit down and refuse to continue....however with the promise of ice cream later in the day she was somehow able to pull through and continue. Sophie hiked like a champ and was our trail guide always leading us in the right direction. When we reached the highest part of our hike the views were stunning as the fog rolled in in the distance but blue skies stuck around all day for us. After our decent we ate lunch in the shade looking up at where we had just climbed. We then went on a shorter hike to the caves where we saw bats flying above us. After we got back home we met up with Katie and headed to In 'N Out Burger for burgers, shakes and fries. Overall it was a great day and even though we were (well at least I was) stiff the next day it was all worth it and a great day of memories!

Day 2 (back on June 2)

Happy Belated 31st Anniversary Sis and Kurt!

We continued the insanity of "seeing it all' on the second day of the trip. You gotta love hotels that provide hot breakfasts (esp when bacon is involved). It was a five minute trip to Mt. Rushmore. For $10 we can go back and see it as much as we want for a year (provided we are still in the minivan). We hooked up with a tour and ran off the path to give two mountain goats the right away (we saw some later by the side of the road too). Seeing the presidents is quite impressive (seeing how the workers actually did it was down right scary... esp hearing about how the cart broke one day). We also did some wildlife sightings at Custer State Park (great buffalo, pronghorn, birds and wild burros (Margie and Soph's favorites). We headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours of swimming and then into town for some pizza (something we could all agree on). The waitress told us we could make the Needles drive in enough time to be back for the evening laser show. The drive was a repeat of the one to Custer (great tunnels through the Black Hills with incredible views of Mt. Rushmore). We saw elk and the Needles formations were gorgeous (pictures won't do them justice). Really the only disappointment was the laser show... basically it is a soliloquy of a park service employee followed by the "lighting of the heads". A cool part was when they invited all the veterans in the audience to the front and took down the flag for the night. All heads were quickly asleep!

June something (it was a Thursday)

Margie is today's blogger (Sophie wrote about Yellowstone's geothermal features- her choice). So here goes Margie....

Today I went horsebackriding. It was fun. Sophie and Kelly, my cousin, went with me. I really want to go to horsecamp (I probably will). We also went to the beach and found a lot of shells. It really tired me out. We did see a ton of seals, sealions and sea otters.

Day 234

Hi! I'm going to talk about the geothermal features of Yellowstone. They are Mud pots, Hot springs, Geysers, and fumaroles. Mud pots are my favorites because they are mud that is so hot that it bubbles.Hot springs are pools of boiling hot water that is different colors because of bacteria.Fumaroles are vents that spew out steam. Geysers are cone shaped holes that shoot out really hot water into the air. Once when we were biking castle geyser erupted. It was cool because it dose it only every 14 hours. That's all about the geothermal features of Yellowstone.

Day 1 KC, the badlands to Keystone

Day one in the modern Conestoga wagon, we started early and this modern ark has at least four of everything including bikes! We made great time until we hit South Dakota. We saw pronghorn and buffalo. Dawdled at the Corn Palace (Carol you could really do a cool quilt design theme for the corn palace!) We finally made the badlands and dropped down into a loop to see the famed area. We thouroughly enjoyed stopping and exploring this whole area. We stayed a bit too long got very silly and stopped for food at a local restaurant and could not stop laughing at a show called Blind Date Wipeout! We wound up getting in to Keystone at 10:00 p.m. Day 1, 19 hours in ark!

Day 1

Well, since we are three weeks late in starting this blog, we may have some Negative Day numbers (IF we ever go back:)).

This weekend was incredible. It started on Friday with the adventure on the Point Lobos. The word was that it might be a bit rough (and the folks getting off from Thursday's cruise had greenish tints to them) so I was a wee bit nervous (didn't want to add to the Point Puke's lore on my first time at sea). Leaving the house at 5:30 was also a bit early. It was like a bit of a roller coaster ride to start. The hardest part was the thought process in the first 30 minutes (yikes, what have I got myself into, I still have 8 hours to go), but talking with some of the incredibly nice crew (and fellow intern), and remembering that the boat wasn't going to roll over (watching WAYYY too much Deadliest Catch), turned the corner. Watching the Ventura ROV deploy and sink to 1800m was like a dream. The "mission" was an engineering one, needing to release or fix an anchored, underwater buoy. One of the ROV pilots was kind enough to try explain how all the instrumentation worked, and life floated below the camera on it's way down and up. To sum it up, we returned by 4 and with A and the girls waiting, it was picture-perfect. The only down side was that the bonine I took, really kicked in when I got home and I could not stay awake if you paid me (pretty much out for the night by 4:30pm).

Saturday, we decided to hike at Pinnacles National Monument (http://www.nps.gov/pinn/naturescience/index.htm ). For the record there are two sides to the park (and they are about an hour away from each other). Of course, we went to the wrong side, but making the best of the situation (okay and not wanting to try and convince our two kids that they were going to be in the car for another hour) we decided to hike. It was worth it! Part two on the west side was equally impressive. So impressive, that I literally blew out my hiking shoes (of course they are 13 years old). The trail ended with a 0.4 mile section through a series of caves (flashlights required).

Today (and by the way Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there), we went low key... church where the second lector took a frightening tumble as he was walking up. Andy called 911 while nurses went to his aid. He regained consciousness and was taken to the hospital. Our prayers remain with him and his family. We took our "summer kayaks"... thank you George and family... out on the Elkhorn Slough. Sure we exceeded the weight limit (with Andy and Margie in one and Soph and me in the other). The highlight was floating through a whole school of bat rays that were feeding. Soph had the best take as she said in a flight attendant voice, "please keep your hands, feet and all other objects inside the boat", I'll admit there was a brief Jaws-like moment of panic when we saw their wings flitting through the water surface (really, they look a lot like fins). They do have leopard sharks in the estuary, but alas, we didn't get to see them.