Mount Rainer, Washington State

Hey Everyone,

Sorry we haven’t written much, yesterday night we stayed in a rest area parking lot, and obviously there wasn’t internet! Yesterday we saw Mount Rainer, and it was so beautiful, let me tell you! After leaving our rest area around noon we drove for about 45 minutes to Mount Rainer. Now, we were a bit disheartend after driving  45 minutes through the rain and finding out that part of the road was closed in the park. We had gone to bed in the rain, listened to the rain on the roof of the RV all morning while we did school while Dad worked and drove through the rain.  To make matters worse, it was also cold, yes, a cold  50 degrees for us Georgia folks. We drove to the first Visitor Center in the park, which was quite small, picked up Daniel and Anna’s Junior Ranger booklets and headed out.  As we were driving through the park, the weather got a bit better.  As we were looking up into the sky, we saw it.  Mount Rainer. It was so beautiful, even with all fog. It’s hard to describe! The peak of the mountain is totally covered with snow, below the snow-covered peak are paths where glaciers cut through the hardened lava. We learned that Mount Rainer is actually a dormant volcano, meaning that it could erupt any time.  After seeing some breathtaking views of the mountain, we went to the Paradise Visitor Center, watched a movie about the park, went to a Ranger Talk and Daniel and Anna got their 10th Junior Ranger badges (they have gotten their Junior Ranger badges at every NP that we have been to!) mom and dad decided to get Daniel and Anna each a Junior Ranger vest.  They are so excited about those vests!! Here are some pictures:

Mount Rainer, before the clouds cleared!

After they mostly cleared.

Junior Ranger Daniel and Junior Ranger Anna

Maritime Museum, Astoria Oregon

Hello all of you It’s me, Ben,

We were out crusin’ in our big rig down the Oregan coast when we saw this really cool looking maritime museum. And it was cool! So we walked through the cold rain and into the building. we first saw a 20 minute video about the Columbia River bar. The bar is where 2000 ships of all shapes and sizes were sunken.  The bar is a place of extremes it is where the mighty Columbia rapids collide with the waves of the Pacific Ocean. The bar is so intense that special bar pilots are needed to sail the ships through the 17 mile stretch of terror. We also learned about the coast guard and all of their missions to make the Columbia bar a safer place. 

Daniel and Anna playing in a life size control room

Coat Guard bunk!

The Dining room, anyone hungry?

Finally, the Coast Guard Galley

Hiking the Sand Dunes, Reedsport Oregon

Hi All,
Annie again because no one wanted to do the post on the sand dunes. The boys, mom, dad and I went to the sand dunes yesterday. Daniel and I found some treasures: shell dishes! We went to the point Jetty and there were large waves crashing up on it! Daniel, Mom and I went on a walk on the beach while the boys and Dad hiked on. Gabrielle didn't come on the hike with us, because she had a sore throat. Here's some information about the dunes from the brocure: The dunes are like no others in North America, they extend for 40 miles along the Oregon coast. Here are some pictures mom took:

The 400 foot dunes!

Standing on the Jetty

Seal Rock, Seal Rock, Oregon

Hi Everyone,

It's Annie again. We went to Seal Rock yesterday and saw "Elephant Rock" and waves crashing up against all the rocks. As we were walking I scraped my foot against Mom's shoe, and then it scraped against pavement. It was an awful strawberry! It hurt really bad.  I got a piggy back ride from dad back to the RV, we cleaned it out and headed away. Here are some pictures of Seal Rock:

The waves crashing against the rocks

Isn't that a neat view?

Ben and Daniel running to the water

Surfwood RV Park, Reedsport Oregon

Hey Everyone,

Gabrielle here, we stayed in Surfwood RV Park in Reesport Oregon on Saturday night, after lots of driving leaving   Crater Lake National Park. Now when we got to the park, we decided that we had to shower.  We headed to the bathhouse, which was quite nasty.  After getting somewhat clean we went back to the RV to watch some Andy Griffith, which we do almost every night! It's a good family time. We woke up smelling dead fish and hearing rain.  We packed up and headed out, up the Oregan coast. We stopped a couple of times, to eat a picnic lunch and to sight see. Last night we got to Kampers West Kamground (and yes, I'm homeschooled, and YES, this is the way they spell it!), showered, had some blackberry pie that I made, had our time "camping in Mayberry" and went to bed!

Blackberries!

Hi

It’s Daniel! We were headed towards our campground near a beach in Oregon after going to Crater Lake. We pulled over on the side of the road so we could cook and eat dinner.  While Mom and Gabrielle whipped up a batch of spaghetti, bread and salad; Dad and I went for a little walk.  We found bunches and bunches and bunches and bunches of blackberries! They tasted so nummy, I ate about two dozen, and I’m not sick yet! We collected about 5 cups of blackberries, and Dad’s going to make his famous blackberry cobbler when we get to a campground with a fire ring….I know it’ll taste yummy!!
Here's Dad's thoughts on the blackberries!

Good news and Better news
The blackberry picking that we did along the Oregon coast was a tremendous amount of fun.  We had better than a gallon of incredibly sweet juicy wild blackberries.  Daniel asked if it was illegal to be picking all these berries.  I assured him that since these were growing wild on public land, the only folks that would get sideways with us would be the bears.  And seeing how he is one, and that he was not at all upset about it, we had nothing to worry about.
Now for the good news.  Of all the blackberries that I have ever picked, chiggers have always been a byproduct of such an outing.  I am happy to report that the state of Oregon has outlawed chiggers on blackberry bushes.   NOT A SINGLE CHIGGER!!  So remember this tip - Next time you are in Oregon in late September, keep your eyes open and plan on gathering a mess of delicious free blackberries.  
And the Better news.  Gabrielle made a Blackberry cobbler that was just fantastic!  I wish I could have taken a picture of it, but it was gone so fast after it came out of the oven, that my camera was not fast enough to get a shot.

Here are some pictures that Gabrielle took:

Dad picking blackberries

Josh filling up the third bowl

I'm sitting in a blackberry patch

Want some?

SNOW, IN SEPTEMBER!!

Hello its Annie here with important news update.

Breaking news: there were 658 inches of snow in Crater Lake National Park this winter. Some was left-over from the great snow, yesterday so we played in it. The leftover snow was really icy so we slid down it on our feet. Some of us climbed up the snow with ice-axes, while others just climbed up the nearby loose rock and slid down. And then we got really cold(and Daniel got a shoe blowout) so we packed up and went off to lunch. We're going to conclude this breaking news with some pictures.

Dad and Gabrielle helping me!

All five of us getting ready to slide down!

Me, Gabrielle and Daniel sliding down

Josh and Ben hiking up!

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Hi,

After driving all day Friday we got to a casino on an Indian Reservation where we spent the night. Josh here(again) to tell you about our fabulous day yesterday, Saturday, September 24th, at Crater Lake in Oregon. We departed from our campsite in Sothern Oregon in the RV and headed to the Lake.  After 30 min. of driving we were at the park gate.  After gaining admittance to the park, we started on the 33 Mile loop road around the rim of the lake.  For 33 miles we drove around the loop with amazing and breath-taking views all around the lake.  One of the main attractions in the lake is a island with the name Wizard Island the island gets its name from its shape which is said to look like a wizard hat.  After completing the loop we hopped back in the RV and headed for the coast of this great state. Here are some of the breathtaking views:

One of the beautiful views of Crater Lake

Isn't that water blue?

It's just breathtaking!

On the Pinnacle hike, see the lava formations?

Touring San Francisco, CA Afternoon Session

How 'ya 'doin?

Josh and Gabrielle here, fixing to tell ya about our second half of our day in SF.  After we left Ghirardelli we embarked for the Golden Gate Bridge. After a series of near vertical climbs and descents, we made it to the bike part of the Golden Gate. Now, the day was clear, but the bridge was encased in fog, really thick fog.  Now mind you, it's about 1:30 in the afternoon and there's still fog around this bridge! We biked across the bridge, stopping at each large support to gawk at the tremendous height above the water. At the end of the bridge we turned around, went back over the bridge, went to the gift shop. After a stop by the gift shop we departed for Chinatown and some late lunch. On our way to Chinatown we stopped by and biked down Lombard Street, a very steep, windy street.  Some of us had trouble getting down the hill, but we finally made it without any scrapes! We got to Chinatown and it was terribly busy, people all over the place! School had just gotten out, so there were kids too.  Now, 7 of us trying to maneuver through the people was no easy matter. We finally found a place to eat, had a nice early dinner/late lunch and headed down Grant Street, the main tourist drag of Chinatown.  Now by this time it was about 5:00 in the afternoon.  We headed back down towards the wharf. We went back to Ghiradelli square to get some chocolate (we had not bought any earlier, on account of not wanting to lug it around SF.) We got to Ghiradelli, bought our chocolate and headed back to the piers. As we were headed back to the pier we had to cross the cable car tracks, and we had a bit of an adventure there. First, well, I'l let Annie tell you what happened:

Annie here, we were going to cross the cable car tracks to get back to the pier, and Gabrielle was behind me on her bike. Whoosh, my front wheel got caught in the tracks, Gabrielle stopped and her bike fell on top of me! My poor water bottle took 90 percent of the beating! I have a big bruise on my knee and an awful sore on my wrist.

After our little adventure we headed back and were biking along the piers. The sidewalks are really wide, about twice the width of a normal sidewalk. These sidewalks were so crowded that a few times we had to almost stop. Anyway, as we were riding, a lady waked by and said "Why do they have to ride bikes on the sidewalk?" Her friend who was walking with her said "look at the bike lanes." Now these bike lanes are in the shoulder of the road and not very wide.  Serious road bikers ride on the lanes are are very rude, they come up very fast and quiet, so you almost run into them. Anyway, these bike lanes aren't really used by tourists. I guess this lady didn't know this. Some guy near the lady said "Dum Kauf" and threw up his hands. Supposedly this statement means dummy in German. We made it to the ferry without any problem, got seats inside and headed back to the RV and bed.

The Golden Gate Bridge

The San Francisco Bay

Riding down Lombard street

Eating dinner Chintown

On the ferry on the way back!

Touring San Francisco CA, Morning Session

Hey Everyone,

Well, we just realized that three weeks from tomorrow, Saturday, September 24^th, we will be taking the RV back to Rome GA! So in other words, we only have less than three weeks left on the road; the time has gone by so fast, I mean, it seemed like just yesterday we were telling ya'll good-bye and packing up!! Anyway, aside from that, we toured San Francisco CA yesterday, Thursday, September 22.  We got up around 6:00 AM, had a quick breakfast, and headed to the ferry.  Josh, Ben and Dad rode their bikes the two and a half miles to the ferry while Mom, myself, Daniel and Anna drove our bikes over in the van.  We took the 7:45 ferry across the San Francisco bay from the Vallejo terminal to the San Francisco ferry terminal, right near pier 1. We got our bikes on the ferry, by the time we had gotten them on the bike racks, there weren’t any seats left for 7 people all together.  Commuters sit down in one seat, set their newspaper, briefcase or other junk on the seat next to them and when asked if someone is sitting there, they say yes, it’s quite annoying. Also, they don’t sit right near each other too, there’s a seat or three between their stuff and someone else’s.  We were finally able to find 7 seats together, on; you guessed it, the deck. We sat there freezing for about 30 minutes until we finally got smart and headed in and sat on the floor, hey, a least it was warm! We got to the terminal, headed off the ferry and tried to decide what to do and see first.  On Pier 39, our first stop, we saw sea lions just sitting and sunning themselves on the docks. Some slid   off the docks into the water to swim a little, then got back on land.  After Pier 39 we headed to Fisherman’s Wharf, a few blocks down.  At Fisherman’s wharf we saw street venders and even went to a museum where there are arcade games from a hundred years ago. At the museum we saw mechanical farms, player pianos (not like we haven’t seen one of those before!), Laughing Sal (a mechanical lady that laughs really creepily!), we saw 3D photos of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire and many other games! After the museum we went to see a WWII submarine. I had never toured a sub before, and found it quite interesting! After the sub we went to Boudin Sourdough Bakery, bought a loaf of bread and, feeling a little 11 o’clockish, had a snack. After we had a nice snack we went for something we all wanted to do: Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory.  Ghirardelli was really interesting; we biked up the road, and smelled the Chocolate in the air. We got to see the old process of chocolate making. We even got to try their new for this fall season: Pumpkin Pie Spice! It was so amazing!! That's about the first half of our day, I'll do the other half in another post!

On the ferry to SF

Sea Lions!

 

For Grandpa Torre: this lifeboat is named OTTO!

The Barbershop Quartert

Jelly Beans Galore!

OK, so ya'll might be wondering why I titled this post "Jelly Beans,"  well let me tell 'ya! Today, September 21st, on our way to our campground we stopped by the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield CA.  This place was so cool, outside the gift shop and tour area is a VW Bug, with the paint job of jelly beans on the outside!! You are walking into the area and you smell the sweet air!! When you walk into the gift shop, the whole place is decorated with jelly beans, and other candies, also the place smells of chocolate!! We shopped in the gift shop for about 20 minutes before the tour started.

We got to go on a tour of the Jelly Belly Factory, and it was really interesting! We got to see how those yummy little beans are made thorough a series of videos.  Here are some interesting facts that we heard about on the tour:

It takes 7 to 21 days to make a single Jelly Belly jelly bean.


The original eight flavors of Jelly Belly beans introduced in 1976 were Very Cherry, Root Beer, Cream Soda, Tangerine, Green Apple, Lemon, Licorice and Grape.


During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Jelly Belly beans were served in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. A holder was designed for the plane so the jar of Jelly Belly beans would not spill during turbulence.


Here are some pictures we took, sorry they wouldn't let us get any pictures during the factory tour!!

The Jelly Belly bug!

Standing in front of the Candy Corn wall

In the yard laying on the logo!

The Jelly Belly Factory!

Tide Pools Along the Beach

Hither All You Happy Americans,

It's Daniel again. We went to the tide pools at a state park Wednesday morning. We saw some mollusks, snails and anemones in the tide pools. We got to see the different animals in their natural environment, which was pretty cool. The tide pools were not on sand, they were carved in rocks.  Here's a few pictures:

Looking at tide pools

Standing in front of a natural bridge

Daniel chasing the sea gulls

The BEACH, again!

Hey All,

Yes, we stayed at the beach Tuesday, 9/20/11, night.  It was cold, but a beautiful view on Tuesday morning.  Anna, Daniel and Mom walked down about 200 yards to a pier and here's what Annie has to say about what they saw. 

Hi there, Annie here.  We saw seals and dolphins at Seaside State Park in the Monterrey Bay. It was so cute to see their tiny little heads pop up and down. There were maybe 5 seals and 10 dolphins out there, all WILD! It was so amazing! They were so cute!!

Gabrielle here again, this morning we woke up to a very thick layer of fog, we couldn't very far in front of us! We made the best of it though, Josh, Ben, Daniel and Anna made some forts along the beach, here's some pictures!!

Josh and Ben making 'modern art'

Daniel and Anna in the sand

Eating out front of the RV to watch the sunset

We had a nice fire in our BBQ grill after it got cold!

Washing the RV!

Yo Everybody,

It's me, Ben. So we was out the day after Yosemite at our campground, Yosemite South, a KOA. And we looked at our RV and figured out that it was pretty dirty. So we decided that Dad, Josh, Daniel andIi to wash the RV. This was all fine and dandy, except for the tact that none of us is 11 feet tall. So one of us, Josh, climbed on the roof and scrubbed the top portion of the RV. The rest of us, being the shorites that we are, scrubbed the lower portion of the Recreation Vehicle.  We used our water connection hose to rinse down the RV after it was all sudsy.  Once it was rinsed off, we would move to another section and so on. Mom was inside vacuuming the floors inside while we were washing the outside.  After the RV was all soapy (and us too) we decided to shower. We hitched up or britches, and headed west, towards the Pacific Ocean. So here are some awesome pictures from us washing the RV.

Reach Ben Reach!!

Daniel hard at work!

There's Dad!!

Don't fall off Josh!!

Day 2, Yosemite NP, California

Hey All,

Yes, we were in Yosemite the other day, Monday, 9/19/11 also! Dad had to work the night before (Sunday into Monday) so we didn't get out too early. It was about 11 before we finally headed out.  When we got to the park around noon we headed to some lookouts over the park.  The first lookout we could see 1/4 of the whole park, not much of the 1200 square miles, but a good amount. After that we headed to Glacier Point where we had a late lunch around 2:00 (mind you we are still on Pacific Time, three hours behind all you Georgia people). After lunch we walked up to Glacier point where Josh, Ben, Dad and Myself, Gabrielle, decided to go on 4-mile hike.  4-mile hike is a hike down to the valley floor, when we asked a man who worked at the park how long it took to go down the trail, he said that it would take about an hour and a half for a physically fit person.  We started out, the terrain was steep, and when I say steep, I mean REALLY steep. There were rocks all over the trail and there were remnants of asphalt that had loose gravel, which made us slip. We had read that the view was amazing, and it really was! We saw down sheer rock faces, waterfalls and even Yosemite's famous Half Dome. While we were on the trail Mom took Daniel and Anna to get their Junior Ranger Badges, which they have been getting at every National Park we have been to. We got done hiking, it took us an hour and 43 minutes, picked up by Mom, Daniel and Anna and headed back to the campground. It was dark by the time we got back, we had burritos for dinner, showered and went to bed.

A family picture with a beautiful view in the back

Daniel propped up by half dome!

This little ground squirrel wanted our lunch!

What a view!

Before the hike

After the hike