Day 14, 2 weeks in and the end is in sight!

Day 14, begin Phase 3, the final stage of our grand adventure.

Pilot Alex!

First time on a plane!

Today's spectacle started at 4:00 am, our wake-up call in Eugene. The taxi showed up at 4:30, and away we went to Eugene Airport, which is slightly smaller than Manchester, but not by much.  Everything went swimmingly, and we landed in San Francisco right on time.  A short layover later, and we were in Orange County/Anaheim/John Wayne/Santa Ana airport.  Alex was a true champ about everything, from the early morning to the nerves and excitement of his first plane ride.  He got to sit in the pilot's seat and meet Jen the pilot, and thought the window seat was just so cool.

Passed out on the shuttle bus.

From there, we took a shuttle bus (the Disneyland Express) to our hotel, which was awesome.  Huge coach bus, few people and air conditioned. Alex liked it so much that he fell asleep!  It's was a long day, and it wasn't even 1 pm.

Alex's private room.

Luck being in our favor, our hotel had our room ready for us early, and we were able to get in immediately.  Surprise surprise, but we ended up in a mini-suite!  Alex has his own area, separated by a sliding door, with bunk beds AND his own TV.  DJ and I have a king size bed, which had a very cute towel Dumbo on it to greet us.  Overall, this room is AWESOME.  We can see the back of California Adventure from our balcony, which also gave us prime viewing for the fireworks and laser show.  Again, just awesome.  Thank you Groupon. (Note: we did a secret Groupon where it said "3 star hotel within 1/2 mile of Disney" but we didn't know the name of the hotel. It paid off.)

We made it!

Fireworks from our hotel room!

The rest of the day was spent exploring Downtown Disney, grabbing lunch and resting. DJ and Alex checked out the pool, then dinner in the hotel.

So, nothing totally exciting, but everything super exciting because of planes! Bus! DISNEY!!!!

Day 13-End of Phase 2, Olympic Trials & Oregon

Alex trying out javelin

I can't believe we are heading into week 3, which won't actually be a full week, but still!  We headed back to the Olympic Trials today, Alex still riding high from meeting Emma Coburn and getting her autograph.  After a quick brunch stop, we made it into Eugene well before the Trials started, but the fan fest had opened up. This time, DJ accompanied us as Alex showed off his skills in high jump, long jump, sprints, hurdles (sort of), shot put and javelin.

Jen Suhr, leading American pole vaulter,
warming up.

Naturally, DJ instantly became engaged in a conversation with a pole vaulting coach who works closely with Stacy Dragila. Olympic gold medalist in that event.  Their goal is to introduce kids to pole vault in a safe and healthy way,  free of charge to schools.  Being both a teacher and a coach, DJ was fully on board. It also turns out that the star pole vaulter for Massachusetts high school, who is a North Andover resident, has also trained in this same program.  Small world, as always!  When we did head into the stadium, we had a fantastic view of the women's pole vault which was incredibly surreal to watch. How they launch themselves is beyond me!  Some of their coaches sat right in front of us, and those exchanges were fun to watch as well.

400m Hurdle semi-finals were
contested in a light rain

As the Trials were in the Pacific Northwest, the fact that it rained came to no surprise to anyone in the area. However, the rain got so bad that they actually had to postpone high jump and pole vault for the safety of the athletes, the distance races and discus continued though.

Women's 1500m semis were held in a downpour
Go Mary (Cain) GO!

Kristi Castlin

After a bit, Alex and I took another lap around the fanfest, just to discover that the kids area had closed. He did get more buttons though, and a reward sticker for finishing the kid's events.  Go Alex!

The last few events of the day were men's steeplechase finals and women's 100m hurdles, plus the semi finals for the men's 200m.  We saw 2 high schoolers have amazing performances, beating Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay in those rounds-can you even imagine? Oh, and we saw Allyson Felix in the prelims, she's just superhuman. Seriously.  Alex again went down to the coaches area and managed to snag 2 of the 3 women who will represent in Rio for 100m hurdles and get their autographs, including Nia Ali, who was carrying her infant son around.  Again, just superhuman.

Nia Ali

After the conclusion of the Trials for the day, we had an unexpected surprise! My sister and brother-in-law who live in Oregon but were in New York and Connecticut for the past few weeks flew back to Oregon and made the trek to Eugene to treat us to dinner.  Sis had found the Oregon Electric Station restaurant and given the family traditions, thought it would be fitting.  The main eating areas in this restaurant are in 3 refurbished passenger cars from an earlier time.  That part of the restaurant was really cool-the food though, totally over hyped. Oh well, the good conversation and catching up with more important anyways.  Alex loves his Aunt A and Uncle D, and DJ and D had a fantastic time discussing the ins and outs of the sports they coach and referee.  A and I rediscovered that we are in fact related, as judged by our inability to calculate tips, our fascination with trip advisor and our freakishly long lived flexibility, as we compared which side splits were stronger for each of us.  (Yes, I'm in my 30s and she is...older than that. :) ) A and Alex also had a fine time discussing each of their martial arts in detail, as A is a black belt in Taekwondo and also does MMA, while Alex very much enjoys karate.  A also bequeathed to Alex a pair of kid's boxing gloves to practice with, which made his entire life thus far.

Good company, good decor. Food-eh.

Overall, a very very LONG day, but a wonderful conclusion to Phase 2 of our trip; finishing off with some overdue family time. PS-thanks A and D for following DJ to the airport the return Van Dodge the rental van, even though we could have returned in in the morning.

Fare thee well Van Dodge, you did good.

A very tired Alex wearing his pins and autographs

Day 12: Olympic Trials

Today was the official start of Phase 2 of our extended vacation.  We took off from Sandy, hugging AJ and HJ and said goodbye to the peacocks and cats.  The 2+ hour trip to Eugene, OR was nothing compared to some of the longer hauls we completed recently, but there was way more congestion than any place since Illinois.

Tracktown USA

Ducks for the Ducks

When we did arrive to Eugene, we found ourselves at Autzen Stadium, home of the Oregon Duck's football team.  This place is enormous!  A quick shuttle bus ride later, and we were at Hayward Stadium, also known as TrackTown, USA.  DJ was in his element, surrounded by people who enjoy running, watching running, and discussing running.  Like gymnastics, there are multiple events going on at the same time, but we had a great view of the track itself,  javelin and discus. Further off was shot put and triple jump, but still within sight.

Finding the qualifying list.

After a bit of watching, Alex wanted to hit the kids' zone. This place was awesome!  He got to create his very own bib with his name, make pins of his favorite athletes, and try out some of the events. He had a blast!  He discovered for himself that hurdles are not quite his thing, sprinting is fun, long jump is fun, but high jump is even better!  He didn't get a chance to do a longer run or the javelin, but that's his goal for tomorrow.  He was just so happy to be there!  We also took a lap around the extravaganza and scoped it out. Then, it was time to return to the trials, where DJ was still taking it all in.

Huge

Naturally, being in the Pacific Northwest, it started to rain.  I volunteered to purchase some warmer clothing for Alex and DJ, and ended up exploring the U of Oregon campus. This place is gorgeous.  I've seen many college campuses, but this might win for awesomeness. (Sorry, UConn.)  I love how bike friendly it is, and it's relatively flat.  Flat!  DJ concurs with the awesomeness.

When I returned to the trials, hurdles, discus and shot put where taking place.  That was fun to see!  The last event of the night though proved to be its highlight-the women's steeplechase finals.  I'm not sure who came up with the idea of steeplechase, but it's rather amusing. Run in a circle, occasionally going over hurdles that are more like balance beams, and then jump on and into a puddle of water, then keep running.  We'd managed to see the prelims of this event on TV, but the finals were intense.  The expected leader, Emma Coburn, easily cruised to the finish, but the real battle was between 2nd, 3rd and 4th.  The runner in 4th started to make her move, but fell over the final hurdle bar, not making the team.  I can't imagine the heartbreak of coming so close, but falling in the last seconds.

Steeplechase winner Emma Coburn & Alex

After this, the trials were technically over for the night, but the best was yet to come for Alex. He asked if we could go to the bottom row and wait a bit to see if the steeplechase winners did a victory lap.  Luckily for him, they did!  Even luckier, I had a sharpie AND Alex is pretty cute. Emma Coburn signed her autograph and shook his hand, making his day and DJs.  Alex is now hooked on the idea of autographs, and has many plans for tomorrow. On a side note: watch out for Michelle Carter in the shot put.  She is fun to watch and has such a great smile and spirit about her.

Opting to skip the shuttle and walk back to the football stadium parking instead, we managed to burn off some of Alex's excess energy. Then, it was hotel time and sleep for all, so we can go back to Eugene in the afternoon and see more athletic achievements, followed by dinner with my sister, who is now back on her original coast.

Day 11, all caught up and ready for phase 2

AJ, AJ and Beaver

I know that I have gotten behind in blogging, but this quick post will catch me up fairly well!  Yesterday was our last full day in Sandy, and this time we were joined by AJ and HJ, otherwise known as the 3rd and 4th in my collection of nieces and nephews.  (There are 5 total).  It also
occurred to us that all 5 of us in the house have middle names starting with J, and 3 of the 5 are Joseph.  The other two, Jane and Jeanne, are variations of the same name. In other words, my side of the family has little creativity in middle names. Actually, it's more that we all use family names as middle names and these all happened to start with J.

Wildwood

Fun with rocks

As AJ and HJ recovered from their flight from NY, Alex, DJ and I took off to one of my favorite Oregon places; Wildwood Recreation center. Located a mere 10 minutes from Sandy, it has trails and the Salmon River, which is nice and shallow, perfect for a relaxing few hours.  DJ opted to do some running on the trails, continuing his goal of running in as many states as possible.  Alex and I first set up shop on a rocky area on the river, where we enjoyed skipping rocks, throwing rocks, and checking out the baby fish as they headed upstream.  When DJ returned, we moved down the river towards a sandier beach and enjoyed more of the same.  It was a perfect way to just relax and have fun, and the scenery can't be beat.  Regrettably, my other favorite Oregon place is Oneonta Falls, but you have to cross a log jam to get there, and Alex just isn't ready for that quite yet.  Hopefully by the next trip out we can do it.

Leaving Wildwood, we again stopped to do some letterboxing, and then headed back to Sandy.  Alex enjoyed my sister's training area and practiced his karate, while DJ and I relaxed and hung out with

AJ and AJ again

HJ, AJ and Alex

AJ.  (AJ lived with us for a few years, so we always have a lot to discuss.)  Alex feels especially close with AJ, so he was beyond thrilled to have some quality time with her, most of which was spent in sending odd SnapStories to various people.  When dinner time came, we headed out to Van Dodge and enjoyed some family time. . We hadn't seen HJ in 6+ years, so it was nice to catch up with him, and of course, tell some stories of AJ from her days with us.  A highlight of dinner was the waitress thinking that AJ was HJ's mother.  That didn't go over too well!
That about wrapped up our night, and sleep beckoned.  Later today we head off for Phase 2 of the trip: the USA Track & Field Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR.

Days 9 & 10: The end of the Oregon Trail

We woke up in Boise and prepped for the last stage of our journey, which coincedently was also America's Independence Day, July 4.  Luckily for us, Boise is not a popular place to celebrate the nation's birthday, so avoiding parades and such was not a problem.  We also chose Boise as a stop for DJ, so he could check out Boise State's famous blue football stadium.

From Boise we headed to our final state of Sturt-a-squad goes cross country, part 1: Oregon.  Fortunately for us, Oregon is where my sister and her family live (minus one nephew in California), so we had a place to stay.  Unfortunately, Oregon is a large rectangular state and they live near Portland, around 350 miles from the Oregon/Idaho border. It was a long, long drive with very few towns and cities on the way.  It's easy to imagine the pioneers, after all their hardships, finally reaching Oregon territory and seeing deserts with high mountains in the distance and wondering what on earth they got themselves into.  O Pioneers!

A quick lunch at a travel plaza and a few hours later had us approaching Mt. Hood, where we opted for the more rural route. If we could fly, this part of the trip would have taken mere minutes, alas, we cannot fly, so we had to circumnavigate Mt. Hood from the back.  The Columbia River gorge is very beautiful and a welcome relief from the monotony of the desert.  I'm sure those same aforementioned pioneers had mixed reactions to the river, seeing as both the end point but a treacherous one at that.

Columbia River and Washington state

Mt. Hood in the distance

Mt. Hood itself is pretty spectacular, and the view never gets old, despite the amount of times that I have seen it. Alex was super surprised to see how big it was and all the snow on it, and driving the scenic back way allowed us to see some very awesome looking vineyards and alpaca farms.  One of my favorite parts of my visits to Oregon is the drive from Mt. Hood to Sandy, where my sister and family reside. Highway 26, which includes part of the Barlow Toll Road, offers up some incredible town names that can't be beat.  First, you have Government Camp, followed by ZigZag, Rhododendron and Welches.  (You have to travel through Sandy to get to Boring, Estacada and Molalla).   For the history buffs, there are 2 sections of the road of particular interest. First is Lolo Pass, which I refused to take, though I've been on it. It's windy, sharp and utterly frightening in a car, let alone a prairie schooner or conastoga wagon.  The other is Laurel Hill, where wagons were lowered down by chains and gouge marks can still be seen.

Peacocks!

Buddha, our new friend.

We finally arrived to the house, and Alex thought that the barn was the house.  Getting into the house, we met Buddha the cat, then met the 5 peacocks who live outside.  The rest of the evening was spent organizing, doing laundry and investigating the peacocks.

The next day found us at a new point on our adventure-no place to go!  We all explored the yard, checking out the various plants, finding yet another cat (Beaver) and discovering the horse next door.   Later in the day we checked out a local park, did some letterboxing, went to a scenic vista, found dinner, and headed home.  I should add that no one was with us for these 2 days,

as my sister's family was ironically, in CT and NY, visiting my parents.  A total fluke of events that had us on opposite sides of the country at the same time. Such is life!

Beautiful view

Day 8-heading into the homestretch of vacation, Part 1

Day 8-Idaho!

Contrary to popular belief, Idaho is not covered in potatoes.  There are potatoes, yes, but there are also huge farms with corn and wheat crops, and massive ranches with horses and cows.  On our way from Idaho Falls to Boise, we discovered something else huge that is in Idaho-2 things, actually!

Snake River dam

Mormon Temple

To begin our day, we hit up a very cute 50's style diner in Idaho Falls.  The food was good, the atmosphere was awesome, and the jutebox in each booth kept Alex very occupied.  I haven't seen a diner like that at all in Massachusetts, and sadly, the Parthenon in Branford, CT removed their jute boxes a few years ago.  DJ's day began even earlier, as he got up to run as he does most days. He ran behind the hotel to a very cute bridge & dam area of the Snake River, checking out the geese and ducks on his way.  He later took Alex back to see the ducks and geese, because why not?  It also turns out that Idaho Falls has a huge LDS population, which was another unknown fact for us. BYU actually has a campus here.

INL land

Anyways, after our brunch stop, we headed off for another action packed day.  Again opting for the more scenic route, we chose to forgo the highway in exchange for a faster by milage, slower by speed, state road that took us through Craters of the Moon National Park.  Highway 20 was most interesting, and DJ and I learned more about this route in Idaho than perhaps we wanted too.  As we drove through very picturesque ranch land, we encountered a huge sign; now entering the INL.  Being rather curious people,  DJ had no objections to my googling this sign. (Yes, he was driving this leg!)  The INL is Idaho's National Laboratory, which has been home to a nuclear research center that continues to operate today, and is also home to the most tragic nuclear meltdown on US soil.  (Though nowhere near in comparison to Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl).  Just that bit of research made the entire open area seem just a bit more ominous than before, but we were just getting started.  On our large map that accompanied us, we spotted a sign for Atomic City.  We thought it was just a clever name based on the INL.  Atomic City though, is an authentic ghost town, though not in the wild west way.  It has been mostly abandoned since the 1960's, shortly after the aforementioned meltdown.  The reactor that melted was buried somewhere across the land through which we were traveling.  Though there was a museum, we felt no need to go.  I've always been fascinated with ghost towns, but this was not one that I wished to explore!  Instead, we settled for driving through and googling what we wanted to know.   After a quick, successful letterboxing stop in Arco, we soon entered one of the strangest landscapes I've ever seen....

Pumice

Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon National Park.  Way back when, this entire area was volcanic and active.  What has been left behind over the millenia is a terrain that truly does resemble the surface of the Moon-desolate, rocky, eerie, magnificent.  For anyone who is a volcano or geology enthusiast, this is the place for you!  There were a number of scenic pullouts, which we used to our advantage. We clambered over some of the huge pumice stones (legally) and gawked at what lay before us.  DJ's thought was that it rather resembled a post apocalyptic world as portrayed by Hollywood. Alex's thought was, volcanoes? Here?  Will there be lava and will we explode?   The visitor's center had a very fun interactive exhibit detailing the history of the region and its geology, and Alex began to settle down.  It was just so bewitching and surreal to see!

Leaving Craters of the Moon, we made our way to Boise.  Initially, our goal was to get to Boise, eat and relax.  However, our stomachs' let us know that food was required before Boise.  A quick tripadvisor search led us to Smoky Mountain restaurant in Mountain Home, Idaho, which is really only about 30 minutes away from the capital city.  First off, Mountain Home is 100% adorable.  Big enough that it has grocery stores and its own schools, small enough that there was no traffic.  This was probably the best food stop we've had all trip.  The pizza's were amazing, the desert and beer selection, fantastic.  Plus, it being my birthday, my meal was on the house!  Pizza in this area of the US can be dicey, especially for those of us who come from the New York/New England area and are spoiled.  In fact, my family who lives out this way refers to it as MBP-more bad pizza.  Smoky Mountain though exceeded our expectations. Seriously, it's right up there with Pizzeria Regina, Willington House of Pizza and New York style pizza.

Our last stop was Boise, but that's a story for later!

Stats thus far:

States crossed: 14 (MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD, WY, MT, ID
License plates found: 48, plus some Canadian
2,500+ miles

Day 7, the day that DJ fell in love

First off, sorry for the delayed post.  Last night ended in a LONG drive and I was just tired to write anything.  Why so tired?  Well....

We left Billings and made our way down to Yellowstone, opting to take the very scenic Beartooth Highway.  It is indeed scenic, it's a bit reminiscent of driving up Mt. Washington, with one small exception: Mt. Washington is 6,289 feet in elevation.  Beartooth Summit is 10,947 feet in elevation.  That extra 4,000 feet makes for a hairy ride!  I had the honor of driving for two main reasons. 1: I'm a control freak who has a hard time being a passenger while looking down switchbacks with intense cliffs. 2: I get carsick riding in the backseat driving to the store. (Don't believe me? There are numerous people reading this blog who can attest to that fact.)

Isn't this view amazing?

Very friendly and hungry chipmunks

The drive itself had amazing scenery, and as a geography teacher, it was so riveting to see the vegetation changes from high desert/steppe to forrest, to alpine wildflowers, to nothing.  We hopped out of the car a few times to take in the vistas, and at one notable stop, we met some very tourist friendly, gigantic chipmunks and one large groundhog.  Someone had a huge bag of birdseed which was being sprinkled all over. It's easy to see why these chipmunks were a) huge and b) too comfortable with humans.  I had a hard time with that, but it was exciting nonetheless.  On the down slope over Beartooth, which is part of the Rocky mountains, Alex insisted on stopping to touch snow in July.

Snow in July

The very hungry groundhog

Learning how to skip rocks

Our next stop was in Yellowstone proper, which we entered through the northeast entrance, which was a smart move. It's not nearly as crowded as some other ones, though we ran into crowds later.  A scenic stop at Soda Butte creek including skipping stones into the creek (DJ and Alex were most successful at that) and misjudging a leap across to a grassy bank and landing in the creek itself. (me.)

Buffalo!

As we continued our drive through Yellowstone, realizing that Yellowstone is MUCH larger than we had ever anticipated, DJ's dream came true. Yes, he fell in love.  See, DJ had only 2 major goals on the cross-country portion of our adventure: go on Notre Dame's field, and see buffalo.  Yesterday, his dreams were fulfilled.  There were buffalo!  Lots and lots of buffalo!  When I asked him why he liked buffalo so much, he informed me that they are the dachshunds of the wild.  Lazy, slow (ish), and like to eat all the time.   Others like Yellowstone for it's beauty, bears, elk and geysers. DJ liked it for the buffalo.

We made our way to the Norris Geyser Basin and checked out the museum and ranger talks. Then, it was geyser time!   Steamboat geyser was really really magnificent, though we only saw it do it's little eruptions.  It hasn't had a big one since September 2014, so our odds of seeing it go were slim to none.  The Emerald hot spring was also on the path, which I greatly enjoyed. DJ and Alex on the other hand, couldn't quite get past the sulfuric odor that permeated the area.

Emeral Hot spring

Lots of thermal vents!

We did a loop of the Norris Geyser Basin, gaping at the clearly brittle ground with all of its steam vents, geysers and hot springs. Alex was a bit leary that a new geyser could pop up at any time, but that didn't happen.  We did of course see tourists totally disregarding the huge amounts of signs telling people to stay off the fragile ground, just to get a good selfie.  Really people?

Of course, no trip would be complete without heading to Old Faithful.  We got there, finally found a parking spot, headed over to the geyser to find that it had *just* erupted.  Figures!  The rangers' best guess was another 75-90 minutes later, so after looking at Old Faithful steaming for a few minutes, we realized that we were starving and the Old Faithful Lodge was conveniently located just behind us, and they had a cafeteria.  How opportune!  We ate, rested, shopped, and ambled back to Old Faithful.  She was expected to go off at 6:57, give or take 10 minutes. At exactly 6:47, she spurted a few times, then at 7:03, thar she blew!  It was breathtaking and we are so glad that we stayed!  Not a great picture here, because I was too busy watching her.  (I'm not sure why I am calling Old Faithful a her, but I am.)

Old Faithful!

White Dome, a build of minerals

Shortly after she blew, we headed back to the parking lot and managed to escape the hordes of humanity also exiting the area.  The map showed a one way loop called Firehole Lake Drive, which had more geysers, hot springs and vents.  (If you are interested, DJ will give you the full run down on the differences.)  I was able to see Great Fountain, but she wasn't predicted to go for another 12-24 hours, which we didn't have.  However, I can imagine that it would be spectacular!  White Dome was also really interesting, but really just the whole experience was surreal.  From creeks to buffalo on the plains to geysers and hot springs, it's wonderful what the Earth has to offer.

Pickle Ice Pops?

After 6 really fast hours, we departed Yellowstone, and after a quick bathroom and refuel break in West Yellowstone, off we went.  Incidentally,  I discovered this in the convenience store, which clearly merited it's own picture. Yes, those are pickle flavored freeze pops. No, I didn't get any. I have to draw the line somewhere.

 I lost track of how many times we went between Montana and Wyoming, but we soon crossed into Idaho, which was the last new state for both DJ and I.  When I say that we straggled into Idaho Falls, I mean it. Everyone was tired and it was time to go to bed.  Our hotel was right on the Snake River, which immediately made me think of Oregon Trail.  So, off we went to bed, Alex in one bed with his stuffed animal, Christmas bear, and DJ in another, with his new friend Kordell the buffalo.  Another national park and natural wonder of the US, and another very busy day!

Meet Kordell, DJ's new friend.