July 4 and 5 Channel Islands National Park

La Brea Tar Pits and beyond....

Margie is blogging tonight.....

Today we went to La Brea Tar Pits. It was really, really, really cool. I found out that there are so many fossils that I couldn't count (over 400 skulls on display from just the Dire wolf)! I wanted to go here to see the tar. I even saw someone cleaning a camel skull (I bet it is going to take her more than a year)! I wonder if it was found in Pit 91. In Pit 91, fossils are still being uncovered. In just one pit tons of millions of ground sloths were found (ground sloths are extinct now). There were vultures and condors too. There was one bear that was the heaviest bear ever. I really liked the guy outside that was singing a song about the Tar Pits to Old McDonald Had a Farm (I can make a mammoth sound). My favorite part was when we saw the ground sloth (and remember he was almost as big as a tree).


Additions from Katie (in the mornings I think that Margie is a reincarnated ground sloth)

June 3 and 4 YELLOWSTONE

Ahh across the northern plains. Well once again we did not calculate how long we would actually be in the car before setting out. For those of you who complain about crossing Kansas, I give you Wyoming. Except for pronghorn now and then (and the terrible incident where Margie's Fluzzy flew out the window--but a happy ending on July 1-- it was rather uneventful. Well uneventful until we hit Yellowstone (and the mountain ride in). There was still lots of snow!

A bighorn sheep checked us out almost immediately when we entered from the East Entrance (which rangers later told us isn't really possible, they don't hang out there... so we showed them the pictures). Yellowstone Lake was still frozen over (which amazed us as we had just escaped the heat of the midwest).

July 2

Welcome to Hollywood

You did read that correctly... we are in Hollywood. Yep, last place I'd expect us to be either, but the hotel is only 4 miles from La Brae Tar Pits (http://www.tarpits.org/ )which is on Margie's list of "Places she wants to go while we're in California" and so here we are.

At one point coming into town, there were nine lanes of traffic each way (yep, that's 18 total). Crazy! Our hotel is really close to everything, but Soph and Margie both wanted to swim more than explore so we took pictures of the sign, went down to walk of stars for a bit and came back to swim.

Oh, perhaps I should mention that it is not a good idea to keep the kayak supports on the car and try to drive under low overhangs (it's not good karma to have multiple cars honking at you while your family is signing in AND you can't find an allen wrench).

Tomorrow, back to normalcy!

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.