No More Roughing It!!!

Its Saturday at 5:00 PM Mountain Time. As opposed to swatting deer flies, mosquitoes and being saddle sore, we’re sitting in a pool-side cabana at the incredible Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. We are “drinking Mojitos and making great decisions” as my husband says. We’ve been doing that a little too long I think, as he’ll only answer to “El Cubano Grande” now.
I’ve lost track of how many times Berkeley has gone up and down the water slide, and I note as I’m typing this that, because of the time I’ve spent in the pool today, my fingernails are cleaner than they’ve been in a month. The incredible luxury of this hotel is of course the complete opposite of the rustic surrounds we’ve had for weeks now, but I can honestly say that I prefer the latter. Although I haven’t asked Bill yet, I’m sure he’d disagree as he appeared panicked when the mint in his last drink wasn’t properly muddled.

Our dog Ally has been staying at Grandma’s house as the hotel frowns upon critters that are having intestinal issues - as she is right now. Otherwise, they happily allow dogs! Grandma spilled the beans this morning and admitted they’ve been feeding Ally table scraps, Bill's pet peeve. When he heard the news, he turned a color I’ve never really seen before- but managed to calm down as luckily the cabana girl was delivering his beef satay at that moment.

We’ve shipped Berkeley off to Grandma’s as well this evening so we can enjoy “date night” (Berkeley wasn’t fond of the notion however). After what I’m sure will be a great evening with the most charming, handsome, intelligent, sensitive man I’ve ever met, (warning: El Cubano Grande dictated that last part) we’ll hit the road again tomorrow. Only 800 or so miles left back to the west coast. I wonder how many stops at McDonalds that is?

A Glacier in Colorado?

Yes, there are glaciers in Colorado! I was quite surprised. I have been coming here for years and never knew they existed. We took a trip with our good friend Kitty (who moved here last year from Manhattan Beach) to St. Mary Alice Glacier near Idaho Springs. What an amazing place! It was beautiful. There were even some teenagers hiking their skis up. Imagine, skiing in July! The hike up was not terribly long but it was a bit tricky. There was lots of unsettled rock, so you really had to watch your ankles. When we made it to the top we were very surprised by a beautiful alpine lake that was filled with glacial runoff. It took about two seconds for Ally to realize there was water…SPLASH…she was in!

Kitty’s niece McCall was visiting, so in preparation for the hike I ran out the prior day and bought a couple of kid-friendly GPS devices to get the kids excited about the hike and finding a treasure. Thank goodness it didn’t take much! Berk and McCall turned the devices and we were off! We discovered the first cache was only 2500 feet ahead of us. It was quite fun to watch Berk. Here was my little one (who has been complaining about hiking since we left Lake Tahoe) running ahead of all of us following the GPS. She wanted to be the one to find the treasure! It took a little bit of searching but we did it…we found the cache. Berk was ecstatic! When opened we discovered all sorts of trinkets and an interesting log. This cache was hidden almost 4 years ago and has had people from all over the world discover it – England, India, Australia, etc. There were many international coins left from these folks, so that was a point of interest. In the end McCall decided to trade a rope bracelet for another one and Berk left a band-aid for a little plastic whale! They were both very excited. Who knows, maybe I can get Berk to enjoy hiking a bit more with the “treasures” as an incentive.

Do you have any idea what Geo-Caching is?

Well, I didn’t either until 6:30 this morning. My sister Elaine and I went on a hike through the Black Forest (NE of Colorado Springs). It was beautiful, but that was not the fun part. There is a web site called http://www.geocahing.com/ that tells you where “cache’s” are buried for anyone to find. What a fun way to get the kids in to hiking. In fact it was so much fun that I ran over to REI and bought two GPS devices that have more than 500K pre-programmed geo-cache sites. Literally, all you do it turn on the system, the satellites find you and tell you how far away the first cache is. You then follow the arrows and distance indicators until you find the treasure.

The treasures are quite fun. You never know what you will find. Most of the time they are Tupperware-like boxes full of little trinkets. The rules are that you can take something from the treasure – if – you put something in as a replacement.

More to come on geo-caching later. We have a date with our friend Kitty and her niece tomorrow for another hike. This time its to a glacier near the town of St. Mary/Idaho Springs.

My Sister – The Deer Whisperer

My sister Elaine and her husband Rob own a beautiful home in an area outside of COS called the Black Forest. They were fortunate enough to find an amazing home (with lots of additional acreage) on the edge of a beautiful forest. The views of Pikes Peak from their decks are incredible! Berk has been fascinated with Aunt Elaine’s garden. She planted all sorts of vegetables a few weeks ago, and they have really started to grow in. Unfortunately, the day before we arrived, a hail storm hit and destroyed a good portion of the garden. Elaine was thoughtful enough to grab a handful of the falling hail and froze it. They were easily larger than a quarter. Berk has been playing with them for two days now. I don’t think I have ever seen hail that large either. I am surprised that the only damage done was to the garden.

Another surprising thing is Elaine's new friend...an outcast female deer that visits the yard every morning. It has become so accustomed to seeing her that Elaine has been able to feed it by hand. One of the deer’s favorite foods…nectarines!

The Push is On

Our time is winding down unfortunately. We only have one major stop left, and that is Colorado Springs to visit my parent s and sisters family. We need to get to COS by the end of the day, which means a full day of driving (apx. 12 hours). I hope the GPS system sends us on a populated route vs. the scenic ones. At this point we just need to get there.

We stayed at another KOA last night after the Moose run-in, but unfortunately Berk did not like it as much as the others. It seemed to be more RV focused, so there were not a lot of kids playing on the grounds, which means that Mom gets to be the primary source of entertainment! In addition to the KOA, they also ran a whitewater rafting business on the Snake River. I am sure this is where they made the most money. We ate a quick dinner and went to bed. Our Kozy Kabin (as they call it) was right on the river. It was nice to go to sleep to the sound of running water, but is did get cold. Thank goodness for our REI sleeping bags! They are the best!

A Close Encounter - of a Moosey Kind

We have finally left our new “best stop” – the Covered Wagon Ranch – and driven the short 130 miles south to the Grand Tetons. Yes, for those of you who are even slightly wondering, the name was derived from the French. The literal translation is “Three Grand Breasts” and if you have ever seen them in person it’s hard to disagree. What you may not know is that the Tetons were originally one huge mountain. About 1.5 billion years ago two large sections (on the left and right hand side of the peak) broke off and fell down in to what is now a valley. The last ice age also helped out by forcing the debris even further down the mountain, so what you now have are three peaks vs. only one.

We drove in to the southern entrance to Tetons National Park through Jackson Hole. It’s a small park by most standards, but none the less breathtaking when you get in. We slowly drove a couple of miles in to get a feel for the area when the paved road narrowed and turned to gravel. It was difficult to get two cars through without someone giving the right of way. Luckily we were neither in front of nor behind any other car when we made a sharp right hand turn around a blind curve – and BAM – there they were – two HUGE moose about 12 inches from the right side of the car. Thanks goodness I was only travelling about 10 MPH! As soon as I made the turn the poor moose literally must have jumped out of his skin as his reaction was to try and donkey-kick the car to protect himself. My heart stopped, Berk yelled “look out”, her jaw dropped to the ground, and I tried to speed up to get past him in hopes of avoiding the local body shop. Luckily it worked! I stopped about another twenty feet up the road to see if all was OK and then some knucklehead in a Jeep, travelling much too fast, drove right off the road to avoid the same moose. If there was anyone who deserved a little driving wake-up call it was him. He recovered from the near miss, got back on the road and did his very best to pass me within about 30 seconds of all this happening – all on the same gravel road that could barely hold two cars. Berk summed up the close encounter quite well when she said “I never knew moose’s were THAT big” – and neither did I.

Rider of the Week

As the afternoon wore on we realized we had better get back to the Ranch as it was going to be BBQ night. Dinner is promptly at 7:00 PM each night, and is not to be missed. The food is amazing. We all met down at the clubhouse where the kids played pool and foosball, while the adults got to know each other a little better around a bonfire. After dinner everyone (not just the kids) got “ropin” lessons from the wranglers. What fun! I must admit it’s not an easy task! The kids then got to head down to the corals and feed the horses. Berk finally made it back up from the corrals at about 10:00 PM! She is living the night life on this trip since it does not get dark until so late in the evening. She walked up the trail with Ally in toe (who was even dirtier that Berk), and promptly announced she needed to go to bed – so off we went. We had hoped to go to bed a little bit earlier tonight since we planned an early morning trail ride in to Yellowstone. Oh well, maybe tomorrow night we will get more sleep.

Before the night was over little Berk was given a wonderful award – she was named Rider of the Week! She received a "real" black horse shoe with has her name on it and a pretty pink bow. The person who gave her the award is Valerie, one of the main wranglers. She and Berk bonded over thre trip and I can see why. Valerie is terrific and really has a way with kids. She is SO proud of the award – and so am I!

Lions and Tigers and Bear – Oh My!

What an amazing place! Berk and I decided to leave the ranch today and go to Yellowstone National Park. We drove about 35 miles in to the town of West Yellowstone to enter the park. There is definitely a reason they call this Big Sky Country. The views are amazing, even just driving down the highway. We were heading to see Old Faithful first and have a picnic. We were fully expecting to see wildlife along the way in to the park, but what we did not expect were traffic jams. The park is not that crowded, but they are doing major construction throughout, so you can be held up by as much as 30 minutes at each major intersection…painful! What I also did not expect was to see our first grizzly about a mile from the Ranch! We literally turned right out of the property and drove for a minute or so when I saw a number of cars pulled off the side of the road and a few folks taking pictures. So, of course I had to pull over too. And to my amazement we were staring right a grizzly about a quarter mile away. He was hunting for fish in the trout stream that runs through the Ranch. Berk was so excited she was taking a mile a minute. I never knew this little girl could come up with so many questions about grizzlies.

While we were actually in Yellowstone we were lucky enough to see just about every type of animal in the park: Wolves, coyote, elk, deer, buffalo, geese, etc., and we were about to see Old Faithful erupt.

The Covered Wagon Ranch – Big Sky, MT

Well, we made it through the storm! Thank goodness. We pulled in to the Covered Wagon Ranch in Big Sky, MT at about 6:00. The skies were sunny and not a trace of rain was seen all day at the ranch. I did not really know what to expect having never been to a ranch before, but I think I could get used to this. There are only about 8 guests in total at the ranch this week, so we literally have the pace all to ourselves. There are 15 employees, so right now we only have to wiggle our toe for something and it appears. Berk and I have been given a cabin that was built in the mid-1800’s. Old beams and chinking combined with a new wood stove and bathroom. It’s a good combination. The location could not be better either. We are literally three miles from Yellowstone. There is also an amazing trout stream that runs directly through the property. I think this will be fun! Great food, horseback riding at any time of the day from one of their 50 horses, and Berk has met Braden and Chase. Braden is six (almost seven) and Chase is three (almost four). She has playmates! They are the most polite and respectful children I have ever met. They say “please”, “thank you” and “yes Mama / no Mama” every time they speak. I am amazed and am going to make it a point to tell their parents. Braden and Chase’s parents just recently began managing the ranch, so the move has been a big one for the whole family. The kids even have their own horse, which has given Berk all sorts of ideas about getting one too. But every time I mention that she will have to clean out their stalls, she gets a little nervous. Maybe she is not totally convinced – yet.

A Little Hanging Around Time

The next day was a great deal better, especially when I broke out the DVD player. Mom had an hour or so to actually read a book and enjoy the forest. Berk watched Nemo again for the umpteenth time. After a little while we decided to go caving. We drove down to the Oregon state caves and went on a tour. By the time we hit the lowest level of the care we were more than 250 feet below the surface. I had no idea you could go that deep on a tour! It was quite amazing and we really enjoyed it. When we made it to the surface we exchanged all sorts of BIGFOOT storied with some local Oregonians. They are really in to the whole Bigfoot lore in this area! It actually gave me the creeps going back to sleep that night. To top the day off, we signed up for a nighttime tree climb with the owner of the tree house B&B. We learned how to climb ropes to get up in to a tree. We were lucky enough to have Corky Segal (the musician I discussed earlier) take a bunch of pictures of Berk and I while “hanging around” – so to speak.

Next stop: Picking up Dadu in Spokane, WA for a long weekend in Glacier National Park, Montana.

Up Up and Away

“Up, Up and Away” is about the best way to describe where we are for the next two days! We finally made it up to Cave Junction, OR and have checked in to Vertical Horizons Tree House B&B. What a treat this is. We are staying is an amazing tree house (heavy emphasis on the word house), that is actually has a tree right in the middle of it. Its in two levels with a central ladder that allows access to a two bed loft area. The grounds are amazing: not only are there tree houses but we are in the middle of a forest. Deer, elk, and all sorts of wild creature are just out the front door. The woman that owns the place is also an animal rescue person, so there are parrots, iguanas, horses, dogs, cats, etc. all living on the property. That, in combination with a greenhouse for orchids and organic greens, there is lots to see and do. It’s a very unique place. We are taking some tree climbing lessons tonight at 7:30 PM, using ropes to scale up to the canopies. Should be lots of fun.

This is a small B&B, only 3 tree houses plus the main house for the owners. Consequently you do get to know some of the other guests. We have been able to spend some time with a couple from Chicago. Corky Segal and his wife flew out for a 90th birthday party of a good friend. You may know the name Corky Segal if you are in to Jazz/Blues and Chamber Music. He is a famous Harmonica and Piano player. He has played with many musical greats such as Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops as well as the CSO and others. While at breakfast this morning his wife pulled up his web site on a new video iPhone. We got to listen to him play the harmonica with Arthur Fiedler. It was amazing! I am definitely going to try and find a CD to use on the road, as radio stations are sometimes hard to find where we have been driving.

The only drawback so far with this stop…bugs! Specifically big black tree ants. Berk is not a fan and unfortunately they like to visit the tree house. I hope Berk can get over the fear tonight! We cried for a long time last night as we were falling asleep. In fact, she was so scared she gave up her “right hand side” loft bed and slept with me. Being a young lady of great prowess, she loves being “right”, or more specifically any thing that has to do with being “right” – all of the time. What a girl!

My Bucket List

Another hike was on tap for us today on the Pacific Crest Trail. This trail is very well known in that it stretches from Canada all the way down to Mexico. People from all over the world travel to North America to hike this trail from end to end. Hiking only on a few miles of it today was a thrill…it was definitely on my “bucket list” of things to do before life ends. I checked the box (sort of). Now I want to go back and hike a much longer distance and maybe even camp.

I am beginning to realize a few new things about my big girl on this trip. Unlike her mother, I am not convinced that she is really an “out-doorsy” person. After begging her to come on this hike today, and having only hiked about a mile or two, Berk could not wait to turn around and start back down the trail. We hiked with Ruby (one of the Steele kids and Berks buddy) in hopes of keeping our motivation up again…but it did not work as well today. The trail was full of mosquitoes and HUGE ants that freaked both Berk and Ruby out. We also took Ally on the trail with us this time and she could not help but stopping at every puddle, stream or trickle of water. Not only did she have to drink, but she also had to lay in it, so she ended up full of mud. A happy, muddy, excited dog can only mean one thing to the hiking companions sharing the road…muddy dog shakes all over everyone! Needless to say, when we did turn around everyone was quite happy and dirty!

By the time we made it back down both Berk and Ruby bee lined for the car, asked for the air conditioner to be turned on and promptly sat in their chairs (Ally was quarantined to the back of the van) and began either texting or playing the Leapster game. I may be the only tree-hugger in the family…except for Ally that is!

Five Hidden Lakes

The Steele family is wonderful! Not only are they letting us stay with them while they attend all sorts of wedding activities, but they are happily allowing Berk and I to tag along for the fun. The couple getting married is heavily involved in ultra-marathons, which means they can run 100 miles! Needless to say this is not a group of people that sit still for very long. Today we went on the longest hike little Berk has ever been on…five miles on a trail called Five Hidden Lakes. I am so proud of her! She actually made the whole trip up under her own steam. The Steele kids did wonderful job of keeping her motivated. We were rewarded with an amazing view of an alpine lake. I have never seen anything like it before. The lake was surrounded by pine trees and on the back side nestled up against the base of a hill. The snow was still melting so the kids got to throw some snow balls in 70 degree temps! We hunted around for a little while, but never found the other four lakes. Maybe next time.

I have never been to Lake Tahoe before and I must say I am smitten! Awesome activities for this self-professed tree hugger – in both summer and winter! This is where we should retire!!! Maybe on the Nevada side…no state income tax!!! They do have a great golf community too, which is a requirement for our household.