Tuesday, June 7
The drive to
Can you guess what it means?
The southern part of the freeway was also called the Lewis and Clark trail which was pretty cool.
The road numbers are also in George Washington's silhouette, whereas in most states they're in an outline of the shape of the state.
Becky directed us on 405 N to 90 E, then near Bellevue to her house, where we heard about the women's world cup finals from her mom (Sharon) who went to see them in Vancouver, and then went to bed.
Tuesday morning we woke up and Becky mapped out the day for Meir and LeeAnn (she was going to spend the day at Lake Washington with Brent, her boyfriend).
We took 90 W, over Mercer Island , into downtown Seattle via 5 N. Our first stop was the Roasterie, where Starbucks beans are brought and made into the coffees they sell worldwide.
LeeAnn doesn't really drink coffee, and Meir doesn't really differentiate between different coffees, so getting a flight seemed like a waste, but it was fun just to see how the beans are roasted and the room itself was really cool. Everything was influenced by coffee. For example, the beams on the ceiling looked like stirrers, and more.
After walking around for a bit, one of the women who worked there gave us a recommendation of a camera store. LeeAnn had dropped her camera and needed a repair, so we went from there to a store quickly, that told us that the camera needs to be sent in. Looks like there won't be any more DSLR photos on this trip :/ (Good thing we're almost done).
From there we went to Pikes Place on the waterfront via a quick view of the needle. Who knew this city was so hilly? And they're steep hills, too! We found parking and started wandering.
We walked up the market and saw the first ever Starbucks. The line was absurd so we skipped it, but now we can say we've seen it.
After a bathroom break, we went into the actual market.
We had samples of different foods including chocolate spaghetti (Meir thought it was not tasty) and delicious fruits.
After seeing fish thrown around at a fish place, we saw a giants pig that we thought people sat on to take pictures. After a closer look we realized it was actually a huge piggy bank that people can donate money to the market place.
By then we were hungry and went to a cheese restaurant that Becky had recommended, Beecher's, (with a quick stop to try different truffle treats including oils and sauces) and got Mac n’ cheese and a sandwich which we ate on the grass right by the water.
Our meter was running out so we went back to the car and headed towards Kerry Park which has a great view of the skyline ofSeattle. We turned on the wrong 3rd Street (the guide book warned that the roads in Seattle get confusing) . We figured out our mistake and got to the park. We could see where the Seahawks play and other places in the city, and finished our lunch with the view.
We had a tight schedule to do everything we wanted, so got back into the car headed towards a huge troll. It was a bit confusing because there were two different bridges going the direction we needed and we finally figured out how to get onto one.
We picked up some gas and headed to the troll under the bridge. It was huge! The funniest part about it was a house a few blocks away from the troll had statues of Billy goats.
We walked up the market and saw the first ever Starbucks. The line was absurd so we skipped it, but now we can say we've seen it.
After a bathroom break, we went into the actual market.
We had samples of different foods including chocolate spaghetti (Meir thought it was not tasty) and delicious fruits.
After seeing fish thrown around at a fish place, we saw a giants pig that we thought people sat on to take pictures. After a closer look we realized it was actually a huge piggy bank that people can donate money to the market place.
By then we were hungry and went to a cheese restaurant that Becky had recommended, Beecher's, (with a quick stop to try different truffle treats including oils and sauces) and got Mac n’ cheese and a sandwich which we ate on the grass right by the water.
So creamy!
Our meter was running out so we went back to the car and headed towards Kerry Park which has a great view of the skyline of
We had a tight schedule to do everything we wanted, so got back into the car headed towards a huge troll. It was a bit confusing because there were two different bridges going the direction we needed and we finally figured out how to get onto one.
We picked up some gas and headed to the troll under the bridge. It was huge! The funniest part about it was a house a few blocks away from the troll had statues of Billy goats.
As we continued towards the water we saw blackberries which Meir picked a few for us to eat. We walked by some house boats and continued down the water where we took some photos of the peace man and made wishes for peace.
Houseboats
We walked down the river to Gasworks Park where we climbed up the hill and saw a beautiful view of the city with the lake between us. Apparently you can kayak on the lake... we'll have to save that for next time. We took some pictures, used the sundial that was on the ground, and were asked if we wanted a Polaroid (Meir thought he was offering the camera and not a picture).
The dark shadow of LeeAnn's hand is pointing at the right time!
We took the long walk back to the car, saw a man doing acrobatics and saw lots of cool art.
Waiting for the bus
Self declared Center of the Universe
The meter was up and we had one more stop we wanted to make. We'd heard about jumping fish and had to see what that meant. Thinking back, we should have been tipped off that it would be similar to the herring run. We got lost trying to find it, and asked a guy at a gas station where to find it, but he had no clue what we were talking about. As we started heading the other direction, LeeAnn decided to try one more place to find out where it was.
LeeAnn walked in while Meir stayed with the car, and the first sign she saw was:
Well that makes life easier. She called Meir to come, and went into a nearby building while she waited. The women inside said there was an informational movie starting soon, but LeeAnn said she had to find Meir first. Just as she left the building she found him, and we went in to watch. It was alright, but also a bit of a naptime. Informational movies are hard to stay awake in.
Then we followed the fish on the ground and got to the locks, where they hold boats. We crossed over the river, saw a beautiful heron, and saw some of the salmon jumping!
See the jumping fish??
Then we went underground to see the salmon migrating upstream. There was cool information down there, including the lifecycle of the fish and what seasons different fish migrate.
We got there in time for chips, guacamole, cheese, and beer. Becky’s friends Tammy and Lauren along with Becky’s boyfriend Brent (with his dog Sunny) were at dinner. We ate like the royal family: salmon, pesto pasta, vegetables, salad (with
Ice cream cake! What is it? Apparently west coast and east coast have different ideas of what the cake is. The west coast has ice cream and cake while the east coast has ice cream, fudge, and crunchies. LeeAnn’s mind was blown. Meir and Becky’s turn to see what east coast ice cream cake is.
After dinner Meir spent too much time looking for a flight back to
In the morning we had breakfast and packed up the car in preparation for our drive from Seattle to Glacier National Park Seattle we drove down a hill from Becky’s house where we saw the view of Belleview.
From there we went to Boehm’s which is a chocolate shop where Becky used to work back in high school.
After getting some chocolates and taking a tour of the grounds, we went to a nice view of Snoqualmie Falls . We struggled to find parking and then walked across a bridge and found the falls.
The last main stop of the day was at a rest stop where we ate lunch. Leftovers!!! MMmmm good! We got a parking ticket inPortland which we had been trying to call in about because the meter was broken and told us that paying for parking began the next day. We finally got to talk to someone during lunch and they told us what we needed to do so we will follow those instructions once we get back to New Jersey .
From there we went to Boehm’s which is a chocolate shop where Becky used to work back in high school.
The last main stop of the day was at a rest stop where we ate lunch. Leftovers!!! MMmmm good! We got a parking ticket in
The drive through Idaho was uneventful, but we learned that they get radio from Spokane, WA (which we spent much of the drive trying to pronounce) the whole way across the panhandle.
On our way to Glacier LeeAnn decided she wanted to zip-line for her Birthday! After looking at different zip-lining companies we found one that looked really fun. After making some calls to relatives and the zip-line company we set up to go the next morning.
Right when we entered Montana, there was immediately huckleberry everywhere. LeeAnn had read that Montana was known for huckleberries, and it was no joke. We stopped at a gas station and everything inside was huckleberry: jam, beer, you name it. We weren't sure what huckleberries even were.
After a long drive towards Glacier we did not know where we were going to camp but we thought it would be good to camp near the zip-lining place. We drove through a campsite but there were no empty sites. After speaking to a few people we found someone that told us to pitch our tent near them as they were in a large grassy area and they were put there because there were no more campsites.
We pitched our tent and got everything we needed for the next day out of the car. We began winding down to get a good night sleep before the long day tomorrow when we heard the train coming... We had not realized that the train track we passed right outside the campsite had trains running on it all night. It was a night full of loud trains!
In the morning we packed up our stuff and headed out towards the zip-lining. Meir told LeeAnn that he'd planned to get eggs for her birthday breakfast, but didn't want to get up that early. The thought almost counts...
We stopped to make reservations as they had told us the previous day to make reservations but we needed to call the day of. After finding out it was more expensive than anticipated we finally decided to go with it and do it anyways.
We got there in time to sunscreen and relax a bit before our group was going. We had to listen to some safety information and put on our equipment and then we began.
We started going to a small zip-line to get our technique down but the lines only got longer and higher. What a blast! There were 13 of us in the group. There was one guy who was towards the end of the Pacific Northwest Trail, but hurt his foot and was staying with a family until he recovered. Apparently he has done long trails all over the world! The family he was with had been zip-lining a lot. Apparently the last time they did it here, the youngest son got stuck on one of the lines because he was too small. We all cheered him on when he went on the longer lines, hoping he'd make it across, and thankfully he did every time.
Becky and LeeAnn
Becky and our guide
Meir and Becky
Meir, LeeAnn, and our other guide
Posing
Our guides were really nice. Fun to talk to and get to know a bit. We learned the starfish and laying straight. At one point, Meir got too into the selfies he was taking as he went and forgot to starfish. He came in for a rough landing. We all saw the look on his face when he realized how close he was and how fast he was still going.
After coming in too fast
Along the way, we walked between zip-lines, and at one point ended up finding these cute blue berries, turned out they were huckleberries! One of our guides went back to collect some for everyone.
Yummm
We were sad to the zip-lining came to an end, and wondered if they'd notice if we just joined another group. Instead we had lunch near the top and then drove into Glacier National Park and went to the visitor center to figure out our best options for the afternoon.
A girl being sworn in as a junior ranger
We decided to go to Logan Pass for a short hike where we heard we could see many animals including the possibility of seeing bears eating fish by the water. We also decided to camp near the entrance of the park so that the drive in the morning would be shorter (relatively),
We drove up the windy roads through the beautiful scenery of patches of snow covered mountains, waterfalls, a lake, and steep cliffs. We passed some of the park's highlights, including the weeping wall and triple arches. We got a bit confused as to where the hike began, and stopped at the wrong spot before finding the right parking lot.
This is NOT where the hike is...
There, we began our short hike through beautiful flowers with the sun on its way down.
Our first animals were mountain goats and baby mountain goats. The hike was beautiful, with flowers and snow and lots of sun. It felt like we were experiencing three seasons simultaneously. We continued to the end without seeing many animals but got an awesome view of mountains and river where the bears were supposed to be. Without binoculars we could not see bears but apparently they were there.
On our return walk to the car we walked by many more animals. We saw marmots which look like large squirrels playing/fighting (we thought they were groundhogs but someone corrected us). It was difficult to tell what the nature of the interaction truly was.
As we continued we saw mountain goats playing with each other. All of this was right off of the trail. It felt like a Safari minus the car or a natural zoo.
The only thing we were left disappointed about was not seeing long horned sheep. As we continued back towards the car, we were told that there was a herd in the parking lot. When we got there, they were all hanging out right around our car!
We spent some time looking at them and seeing what they were doing and one of them even jumped over a fence. They were beautiful to look at and it was strange to see animals wearing shofars on their heads. Everyone in the area was following them around the parking lot.
We finally decided to leave, and drove a little further down the road to snap a picture with the glacier in the background and then drove back towards the entrance where our campground was supposedly not so far away.
Us in front of Jackson Glacier
On the drive, we encountered a mountain goat in the road, which slowed us down for a while, and beautiful sunset views.
We continued on paved and unpaved paths for longer than expected. Supposedly it was a 45 minute drive, but it took much longer (maybe because our car was so weighed down so gravel roads were difficult) and in the dark we finally got to our campsite, set up camp, and went to bed.
In the morning we got up early in order to drive the long day and get to Yellowstone before Shabbat. On our way out it took longer because Meir drove extra slowly on the unpaved roads. We passed the 3 building town, and as we were headed towards the exit of the park we were driving up towards an animal crossing the road. The last few days we had talked about seeing a bear and how that would complete our animal seeing experience. We slowed down in the car only to get a few pictures of the black bear running across the road away from us.
The best way to see a bear
From there we began on our way towards Yellowstone. As we came through the town, we noticed a truck on fire and stayed away. We took the 2 to 83 to 200 to 141 to 12 to 90 to 359 to 287. The day before we realized that we were going to spend Shabbat (weekend) in Yellowstone during the summer which meant we might want to make a reservation. We made our first and only reservation of the trip the day before getting to Yellowstone so that we would have a campsite during Shabbat.
One of many anti-meth signs we saw
The same 15 we took to California!
During our drive we stopped at a place called Butte to buy some food for Shabbat. The city had a view of The Lady of the Rockies which was unofficially a statue of Mary on top of a mountain. We bought wine there for the weekend, but the guy needed everyone to have an ID, so LeeAnn had to trek back to the car for her wallet. Becky was smart and when she noticed she just left through another lane.
The drive in particular the last few hours was gorgeous because we were driving by a running river in between mountains and the clouds were so puffy.
False
Once we entered the park, we started smelling the sulfur and seeing smoke coming out of the ground.
Immediately when we entered, we were in a new state! (The sign was tiny since it was in the park, so we missed the picture and instead had to get it when we crossed the South Dakota border, turning around for a quick picture and somehow managing to get both states!)
Our first (and only) MOOSE! Perfect welcome to Yellowstone.
After checking in we went to our campsite, set up camp and made spaghetti with sauce and cheese. We had used our lighter maybe once but somehow it ran out of fluid and so we made friends with our neighbor and borrowed their lighter in order to make dinner. Our neighbors were a father and his two young sons, the older of whom decided it was fun to be a T-Rex and scare us away. They went to bed early, but until then were quite entertaining.
Washing dishes right after dinner was no fun because the water was so cold and the temperature outside was windy and cold. We bundled into our tent, played some cards, and went to sleep.
In the morning we slowly got out of bed to get to the visitors center in the late morning. There's a cool exhibit there all about Yellowstone. It talks about how it was created, and that it's actually a huge volcano. LeeAnn honestly thought it was pretty scary how much damage it will do when it erupts again. More than half the U.S. would see the effects!
We began our hike of the day around noon. We walked on the road in order to get to the north rim of the canyon and walked on the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
As we continued along the North Rim Trail, we decided to walk down the trail to see the waterfalls. The first overlook, Becky decided to wait at the top. Meir and LeeAnn walked to the bottom down tons of steps, and saw a view of the falls. It was beautiful. After climbing back up to Becky, we walked along, seeing osprey in their nests out on cliffs (apparently to keep the young away from danger). We then walked down to one of the waterfalls, and as we neared the bottom, it started raining. We weren't exactly prepared and hid under the few trees there for protection. They didn't provide much and we got pretty wet, but it was a great view once the rain lightened up!
We continued on the trail until we got to the end when we needed to walk back to our campground via the road. We began walking and realized there was a large traffic jam. We understood that since we were walking because it was Shabbat, we were moving faster than the cars and something must have happened. When we got close people began telling us that there was a Grizzly bear in the forest. We stuck around the area for a while looking at the bear (looked like a small/baby). When the bear walked farther away from us we began continuing on our way even though other people began following the bear a little bit farther into the woods.
As we continued walking on the road many people asked us why there was so much traffic and we had to continuously tell them that there was a bear. Meir at one point decided to make up an answer and tell someone that there was a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Further down the road we saw a few bison siting by the road which drivers began believing was the cause of the traffic. Little did they know that there was a bear sighting.
Bison butts
We kept walking and saw people walking in the brush. We thought there were interesting things to see so we went off the beaten path and went to see what was there. A man and his kids were sitting there with binoculars looking at an elk. He let us look through and we go to see the fuzz on the elk's antlers. Who knew they were fuzzy?
When we were close to the visitors center outside of our campground we walked through an area with cabins. We were talking and walking on a path when we all looked up and stopped in our tracks. No more than 10 feet from us were two giants bison. We all got very quite and began walking backwards slowly. One of the bison began rocking in a way as to say "I am getting up and you better move or I am coming for you". We quickened our steps and found a different path to take back to the campground.
We got back to the campsite had a bite to eat, and cut up some fruit to put in our sangria.
Creativity
We washed our dishes so as to not have un-welcomed bears in the area prior to entering the tent for some evening card games. When it got dark we stayed in the tent from fear of darkness.
In the morning we packed up and headed out towards The Grand Tetons. On our way we stopped at painted pots which were heated mud that boiled and exploded in spurts above the earth's surface. Becky was exhausted and slept in the car, but Meir and LeeAnn wandered around for a short while.
Then we stopped at Old Faithful to see the large explosion but we were not going to wait for over an hour so we took a quick picture and continued on our long days journey.
We left Yellowstone and enjoyed the middle ground of no National Park between Yellowstone and Tetons. We didn't quite realize we were in the middle ground, and got confused when we walked into a visitor's center, but we got enough information to know that the route we had planned would hit some highlights within our very short time-frame. We also crossed the continental divide multiple times, without quite knowing what it was.
The Grand Tetons were quite the sight to see like everyone had told us. If only we'd believed them a bit more, we would have planned in more time for it. It's definitely a place we should all go back to. We stopped a few times for pictures during the hour plus drive through the Tetons but had to make our way towards South Dakota and had a long way to go.
Despite keeping all our eyes out, we didn't see them!
Our journey was long but beautiful as there was so much land to look at. The following highways took us to our campground for the night: 287-26-25-259-387-450-16. About 30 minutes outside of Mt. Rushmore we camped for the night. We got to the campsite pitched our tent, made a fire, cooked some Mac'N'Cheese, cleaned our dishes and went to sleep.
In the morning we packed up camp and drove over to Mt. Rushmore. We saw the faces before parking the car and since the parking was a private lot for a National Monument (the irony!!) we decided not to pay as we could see it and take some pictures from outside.
Ahhhh but we didn't...
We continued on the 16 towards the 44 into Badlands National Park where we drove on the park's loop drive (route 240). We thought we were in the park, though there was no sign, but weren't sure if we were on the loop. We passed a sign that said to turn, but weren't sure whether to follow it because the road it pointed to looked iffy. After driving further, we realized we should have turn as we exited the park without seeing much. We turned back around and tried again. This time we saw much more.
Dead snake. Ew
We never found a place to pay... or any rangers. Good thing we had the free pass so it didn't matter!
There were so many beautiful views to look at and take pictures of. The land looked similar to the view there was of the lands in The Lion King so naturally we joked about people being raised in the area and their parents telling them that everything they see will be theirs while we listened to The Lion King soundtrack.
We saw many more mountain goats, and a whole prairie dog area! It's a shame we didn't have time for any hikes, but we stopped for a quick lunch.
When we got to the end of the loop we stopped briefly at what we thought was the visitor center for a map and to ask how the park got it's name. Meir went in and could not get anyone to help him so he thought how it seemed like a strange visitor center as they did not do a good job welcoming visitors. It turns out the visitor center was next door and we were at a different building.
We left the park only to run into some one way construction that took a bit of time to get through. We drove up to the 90 where we drove all the way to Sioux Fall, SD. When we got there we went to the downtown visitor center where we climbed to the top of the building to see a view of the city.
In the park there were some nice little waterfalls. We were told that on the main street art pieces were put on both sidewalks so we went to walk up that street and see all of the art pieces. Some were very nice and others we looked at and did not understand what the artist was doing or thinking. It was a contest for one to be displayed in the park, so we put in our votes.
Cheapest parking award goes to.... Sioux Falls!
Casting his vote
Last year's winner
We drove on over the border, and found a campground just inside Minnesota. There were warnings all over the campground not to drink the water, but other than that it was a good place to sleep. We got showers and played some cards, though the mosquitoes were abundant.
In the morning we were awoken by someone telling us we had to pay, so we stopped by to pay on our way out, and got a free jug of water.
LeeAnn had read about a mini church nearby, so we checked it out. It was just around the corner.
It was incredibly tiny, and we weren't quite sure who goes there. Apparently there are small churches all around the U.S.
We made another quick stop to check out the Jolly Green Giant! (Right behind a Dunkin Donuts)
From there we continued on 90, and stopped at a Mexican place for lunch. The lady there mixed up Becky's order, but apparently the food was good. Unfortunately, when we got back in the car, it started making strange noises. We were pretty sure we had a problem with the brakes, since it happened mostly when we slowed down. LeeAnn refused to drive, so Meir took the wheel, staying as far away from other cars as possible, and coming to stops very carefully.
Once we entered Wisconsin there were cheese signs everywhere!
In the meantime, Meir gave us a tour around Madison, where he'd gone to university. We went to State Street and saw the capitol building (though we skipped going inside this one), checked out the chocolate shop Meir used to work at (and got a free candied apple from one of his old co-workers), and sat at the top of the street to eat it.
Meir's friend, Hannah, who we were staying with, joined us as we continued our walk, and we saw the outside of the Hillel building (very big and beautiful), and the co-op where Meir lived for a bit, which had burned down. It was right on the water, with a beautiful view. Some of the people who lived with him happened to be there, so we said a quick hello before heading off. By then it was time to go to the Chabad house for dinner.
Meir had a great time catching up with Mendel, Henya, and their three kids Hershel, Shlomo, and Levi, while LeeAnn and Becky had fun meeting them. They were kind enough to let us borrow a car, and we picked Hannah back up and drove over to meet the JLIC couple (Shlomo and Ora Geller) and catch up some more. Then we headed back to Hannah's, where we saw some jewelry and paintings she'd made, and then all went to sleep.
The next morning, after some trouble with pickup times, we finally got the car loaded onto a tow truck and LeeAnn and Meir hopped in and went to the shop, while Becky slept in. Unfortunately, since the truck didn't come when they said it would, and it got lost on the way, by the time we got into the shop they had a pretty long wait time. We left the car and walked to Beth Copelovitch's house who Meir had worked for in Madison. We went to her house for breakfast with Beth's kids and another family (Elana Mathews-Needleman) from the synagogue (Meir taught two of the kids - Micah and Lily), as well as someone else Meir worked with named Lily. It was a very lively group and a fun breakfast.
After we ate, LeeAnn got a call that the front breaks were worn through and had to be replaced. In the meantime, Elana drove us and Lily back towards campus to wander around while we waited for the car. Becky was already around, checking out the food-trucks on Library Mall, so we joined her and then all took some food to the Terrace, a popular spot overlooking Lake Mendota.
LeeAnn, Becky, and Lily
We got a local beer, but sadly they were out of cheese curds, so we packed up, stopped by the famous ice cream place (which even LeeAnn's dad, who had visited University of Wisconsin back when he'd been in school, recommended), then went to State Street Brats (a bar). The cheese curds were great! And the signs were pretty funny as well.
When we'd had our fill, we decided to go to the Chazen Museum of Art until we got picked up again, since it's free. On our way we stopped and quickly got some free Kit Kats from the Catholic Center (we saw a sign advertising outside) and found a very creepy telescope that seemed to be pointed down the street to people watch...
What are you looking at?
Go Badgers?
We piled back into the car, just as we found out that our car was ready to get back on the road. We said our goodbyes and continued on our way.
Our original plan had been to have dinner in Chicago then drive another couple of hours to make our drive back to NJ the following day more manageable. Unfortunately, we left Madison much later than we'd wanted, because of all the car trouble, so we asked around to see if we could stay with friends in Chicago.
As we drove, though, we realized that we weren't too tired and could probably keep driving, and if we avoided Chicago traffic we'd be able to make it further. So sadly we cancelled all potential plans with our Chicago friends, and only saw the city's skyline from afar. We drove back and forth between routes 90 and 80 into Indiana, saw signs for Indianapolis and just kept going.
Most of the way through Indiana, we decided we were tired, so we pulled off at a state park to sleep.
Indiana's got it right. When we pulled up, we figured it was late enough that no one would be there and we could just go find a place to sleep. Turns out, they had a guy at the gate, but he asked if we were just dropping by to sleep, and when we said yes, he said he'd call for the security guard who would lead us to a place to pitch our tent, and as long as we were out by 9 a.m., we could stay for free. What an easy agreement. The guard came, told us he couldn't put us at the campground because he didn't want us disrupting people who were already sleeping, and brought us to a picnic area with a port-a-potty. The bathroom part was gross, but the ground was exactly what we'd been hoping for anyway. Finally a REAL free campground. It was all we needed.
The next morning we got back on the road, with no time for real fun stops, and just drove on 80 through Ohio and Pennsylvania.
