Over the Hill

Yes, on Friday I turned 35! I'm not sure how I feel about turning 35, but luckily I haven't yet slid into a mid-life crisis. At least I'm not showing any symptoms-- I haven't bought a convertible, or taken up sky diving, or gotten collagen injections, or gone to the ice skating rink and demanded to drive the Zamboni. No, it's pretty much life as usual.

However, I did have a wonderful Birthday. At work I celebrated with my colleagues and Andrea made a delicious ice cream cake (my favorite). In the evening, I went with my family to the Olympic Sculpture Park and then ate a terrific dinner at Restaurant Marjorie. As an added bonus, August 24th turned out to be the only nice weather this whole week and we were able to dine outside and enjoy the sun.

Thanks to everyone for the kind birthday wishes!

P.S. Best wishes to Bob and my prayers for a speedy recovery

Yellowstone or bust!!!

I have neglected my blog this summer and it's time to catch up. I'll start by writing about my summer road trip.

My travels this summer were a family affair. I travelled with my brother and parents to the national parks of the northern Rocky Mountains: Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton. The primary objective of the trip was to visit the grand-daddy of the National Park system, Yellowstone. For years I have wanted to return to Yellowstone NP as I have such fond memories of my childhood trip to the park when I was 5 years old. It turned out to be just as wonderful (and other-worldly) as I remembered. We spent four nights camping in the park and had time to get around to most regions. We saw The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs, Old Faithful, Norris Basin, Artists Paint pots, Roosevelt, Yellowstone Lake and more. We did lots of hiking, swam in Boiling River, and spotted LOTS of wildlife including hundreds of bison.

On our way to Yellowstone we toured Glacier, a park I had never previously visited. The scenery in Glacier was perhaps the most breath-taking of the three parks we visited, particularly on the Going to the Sun Highway. We also hiked to Victoria and St. Mary's Falls and toured Many Glacier Lodge, which had terrific views of...well, many glaciers. Our third park was Grand Teton, which also awed us with unbelievable views of those jagged alpine peaks.

Throughout the parks, we had great wildlife sightings. We saw the "Rocky Mountain Big 5" (bear, bison, moose, elk, and mountain goats). We also got up close and personal with some of the smallest critters in the woods. While camping in Grand Teton, Keith had a chipmunk that got into his motor home. Luckily, he was able to shoo him out in thirty minutes. My parents were less fortunate. On our last night camping in the Tetons, they got a mouse in their motor home at 3AM. It took them 5 hours to chase the rodent out!