A wonderful day on the mountain

The snow cleared out yesterday afternoon, and today was absolutely gorgeous. Jeff and the kids hit the slopes as soon as the lifts opened, and I met up with them at lunchtime. After they got back to it, I lingered for a while so I could see the kids make a few runs. When I was ready to head back to the apartment, Clay decided he was ready to call it a day, so we spent the rest of the afternoon building a snowman and playing in the rec room. It was a wonderful day!

A beautiful way to start the day!

These kids absolutely love skiing!

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the mountain

Leaving the slopes early doesn't mean the fun has to end!

Perfect end to a perfect day!

Grand Teton

This is the last of my catch-up posts. If you missed the others, just scroll through the last few posts to see what we've been up to the last few days.

Yesterday afternoon, we left Yellowstone and made the short drive down to our campground on the north side of Grand Teton National Park. After a short rest, we headed out on a hike on the Flagg Canyon Trail, along the Snake River. As Clay said, "It was a good hike, except for one thing: the bugs!" The mosquitoes were really bad. Consequently, what should have been a two hour hike was accomplished in an hour and a half.

Little waterfall in Flagg Canyon

Snake River

This morning, we got up early and drove through the rest of the beautiful Grand Teton park. Our goal was to get to Jackson Hole, WY by 9:00, take the aerial tram up to the top of Rendezvous Peak, and have waffles at Corbet's Cabin, and that's just what we did. Jackson Hole is a lovely ski resort town, and we wished we could have stayed longer. But, we still had several driving hours ahead of us to get to Park City, UT, so we left after breakfast and vowed to try to come back someday. We stopped for a mid-afternoon meal in Park City and then headed to our campground, where a playground and rec room were our reward for a long day in the car.

The Tetons at Jackson Lake

Buffalo herd in front of the Tetons

A curious onlooker

Jackson Hole

Corbet's Cabin

View of the valley from Rendezvous Peak

View of the Grand Tetons

Here comes our ride

Welcome to Utah

99 bottles of beer on the wall and a nod
 to Texas at Davanza's Pizza in Park City

Jasper and Banff National Parks

Yesterday brought us to the end of the Alaska Highway and into Alberta. Today brought us into Jasper and Banff National Parks, and they are absolutely gorgeous. We saw several Dall sheep and a couple of elk in Jasper, as well an incredible waterfall and so much beautiful scenery. In Banff, we stopped at the lovely Lake Louise, before heading to our campground inside the park.

Our first Canadian elk spotting

Tangle Creek Falls

A gorgeous reflection in Jasper National Park

Is this water even real?!

Athabasca Glacier

Lake Louise

Lunch at Lake Louise on a beautiful day

Killer views in Banff National Park

The rest of the cruise*

We got off our cruise boat this morning around 6:15, with sleepy and tearful kiddos. They made so many friends on board and had so much fun that they definitely weren't ready for it to be over.

After Juneau, our next port was Skagway. We disembarked but didn't spend a lot of time in the little town, because it was mostly just rows of souvenir shops. But getting back on the boat was perfectly fine with everyone because there was so much fun to be had.

Skagway Totem

A storefront completely
covered in driftwood

Ruth decided to get in on a statue pose

At port in Skagway

The day after Skagway was spent on the boat, cruising around Glacier Bay. This was definitely Jeff's and my favorite day. It was absolutely beautiful and possibly the most serene place I have ever been. The quiet was all encompassing and the fog made it seem otherworldly. We saw and heard the glaciers calving, which was such an incredible experience. We also saw sea lions, otters, and a couple of whales.  Since the whole bay is a National Park, we also had rangers on board all day to give talks, answer questions, and point out particular places and animals of interest. We could have easily been happy spending at least twice as much time there. That night, we had our second gala night aboard the ship, and everyone was excited to dress up again and dine in the dining room.

Glacier Bay

Icy sea shrouded in fog

Margerie Glacier

Captain Nice at the Lido Buffet

Gala Night, Round Two

The final day of the cruise was a sea day, and the ship had even more activities scheduled than normal, so we were definitely well fed and entertained. The kids spent almost every moment in their respective camps. Meanwhile, Jeff and I attended a tour of the kitchen, a couple of cooking classes, a couple of trivia games, afternoon tea. We also had a date night to the dining room, while the kids were tied up with their friends and activities.

Crab appetizers in the kitchen

A large quantity of whipped cream

This should be a scratch-and-sniff picture!
Everyone wanted to linger in the bread room.

America's Test Kitchen cooking class

This morning when we got off the boat, we boarded a scenic tour train to Anchorage. In addition to the beautiful scenery, we also saw a grizzly bear (spotted by yours truly), a moose, some eagles and artic terns, and a group of Dall sheep. 

From boat to train

View from the train window

The lighter brown spot just right
and down from center is a
gigantic grizzly bear.
Here are a few reasons it isn't the
 greatest picture I've ever taken:
1. It was taken with my phone.
2. It was quite a ways away from us.
3. We were on a moving train.
4. I was saying "BEAR! BEAR! BEAR!"
and wasn't able to fully focus.

I caught the back of the train
as we went around a bend

The foreground is all glacial silt,
which is left behind as the tide retreats
at low tide. The difference between
high and low tide is tremendous .

When we got off the train, we reconnected with Usha (our faithful and beloved little RV, who came to Alaska separately from us) and met up with Jeff's cousin, who lives in Anchorage, for a wonderful lunch. We haven't seen him in years, so it was delightful to have a chance to catch up. 

Our Alaskan cruise is definitely our favorite cruise we've ever done, and this state is such an amazing place. We are looking forward to exploring more of it in the coming week.

*For those of you thinking this seems to be picking up in the middle of a story, you're right! If you missed the posting about the first half of our cruise, check it out here.

Mount St. Helens

We spent the morning hanging out around our KOA--working out, doing laundry, eating doughnuts, and playing in the awesome club house--waiting for the rain to clear out. Then, we headed over to Mount St. Helens, where we got to watch a video about the 1980 blast and hear a presentation from a park ranger about the geologists who were working in the area at the time of the eruption. The clouds were low, so we couldn't see the blast site or the crater, but it was still a very cool experience. At the bottom of the volcano, we stopped for a late lunch at Fire Mountain Grill, where Weston attempted to eat the Bigfoot Burger -- 4 hamburger patties, ham, turkey, cheese, pulled pork, bacon, fire sauce, crispy onions, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles -- and a pile of cheese-covered chips, in 30 minutes, with the hopes of winning a free t-shirt. He polished off the burger but couldn't make his way through all the chips, so he didn't get the t-shirt, and he may have expressed a few other regrets at the end of the meal, but it was an experience he will not soon forget!

Mount St. Helens

Race to the top of the volcano playground

Fire Mountain Grill

Lunch time view of the Toutle River

Ridiculously awesome burger

Playing with the trees and other fun things

We left Napa around 5:30 this morning and headed northwest. We stopped for breakfast in Garberville, before pushing on to the Redwood Forest, which was some combination of  lovely, amazing, and awe-inspiring. We got out to examine some of the trees more closely and to snap some photos, and when it was time to move on down the road, Clay whined, "But I want to stay and play with the trees!"

Not even close to filling up the stump

Peek-a-boo

 My gang and me in a cool hideout

Majestic Monsters

Even our monkey couldn't climb the redwoods

Out on a limb

He just wants to play with the trees.
Is that too much to ask?

As we continued our journey, we came across Elk Meadow, which was actually a meadow filled with elk and not just a clever name for a wide spot in the road.

So many elk!

Many hours later, we arrived at Crater Lake in Oregon, only to find it almost completely obscured by fog. But the bigger adventure may have been tromping around in the substantial amount of snow, dressed for 90° Napa. We were quite a sight!

Inappropriate weather for mid-June, if you ask me!

Foggy Crater Lake

The boys loved the huge snow drifts
 and wanted to stay and play for a while.
It should be noted that they never once talked
 of putting on pants; they only wanted their gloves.

We finally made it to our campground in Crescent, OR, around 9:00 tonight, thrilled to have checked another state off our list but tired from the long day on the road.