5/26/14 -- Salt Lake City to Denver

Dear Valerie,

I know how much you like road trips… and letters.  And so today you get a second letter (this time from Emily!) of our road trip back to Denver from Salt Lake City.

The day began early(ish) in Salt Lake.  I slept on the couch in Aidan’s friend’s apartment, and Aidan slept on a giant blow-up air mattress that the cat (Sage) absolutely LOVED.  I am so thankful I was not on the air mattress; otherwise we might not have had a cat in the morning…  About every 10 minutes pretty much the entire night, the cat would run across the mattress and cat-apult (haha) himself off the other side.  About 5 minutes into the night, the cat managed to puncture the air mattress, which we then fixed with duct tape.  But this was no match for the cat; who relentlessly clawed at the tape until he had successfully pulled it off.  Aidan woke up in a taco with the sides of the air mattress enclosing him, and rolled over to the floor for the rest of the night.  As a cat owner, I’m sure you, Valerie, can relate.  I will never own cats.

In the morning Aidan and Troy made a delicious breakfast of potatoes, bacon, and scrambled eggs.  I can’t believe how much food they ate… Although I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  We will need to buy lots of groceries when we make it to Glacier.  After breakfast we cleaned up and drove out for a little hike in the hills up to a Waterfall Canyon.  It is Memorial Day so Troy has off work, along with everyone else in Ogden.  Thankfully we got there early enough to park near the trailhead, before all of the large families of Mormons showed up in SUVs…

…They were not far behind us.  Before long the trail was swamped with people.  It is so wonderful to see so many families outside enjoying the beautiful day!  People of all ages were out in the sunshine and up to see the waterfall.  The hike down was tricky because you had to watch out for running children tripping over roots and rocks, but we made it without too many issues.  I am thankful Alaska has fewer people, and more room to play outside.

Waterfall Canyon

Troy and I made it!
(Aidan did too but was taking the picture)

After the hike we stopped for lunch at a little pizza place in Ogden.  The pizza was really good!  Unfortunately I had left my wallet in Aidan’s car, and he had as well, so his friend Troy bought us lunch.  From there it was time to head east again.  I like road trips, but this is quite a bit of driving in a short amount of time, and no offense to Wyoming, but there isn’t really a whole lot going on there in terms of what to look at…

Wonderful Wyoming...

We live in such a beautiful world :)

Most of what we drove through was relatively un-remarkable (that is, I have no remarks to make of it).  And so one would think the drive uninteresting and tiresome.  Not so.  You see, we each had the company of the other, the radio to sing along to (primarily country, I do hope you forgive us), and “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” to keep us thoroughly entertained.  Between that and the usual road trip games (cow poker, I spy, and the license plate game) we kept engaged and made good time.  I contemplated teaching Aidan the “read-every-sign-in-the-voice-it-is-written game,” but didn’t want to scare him too much by randomly bursting out with THE MALT SHOP!!! Or the like anytime we drove by a particularly inviting sign.  Ah well, there will be other opportunities for that I am sure.

I spy pronghorn! (Antilocapra americana)

... And bugs on the windshield (this was actually a rather
clever one that kept Aidan stumped for quite a while)

About every 5 minutes through Wyoming we passed a billboard for “Little America.”  Which I guess is a popular truck stop/small city with fancy hotels, entertainment, and food.  Even when we passed the actual location of the establishment, the signs continued to come and point us backwards!  We did not stop, although the all you could eat pancakes sounded quite inviting…

Eventually we made the turn off I-80 (that we had been following since San Francisco) that would take us back to the wonderful state of Colorado!  We each called our moms to let them know that we were heading back, and 8 hours after we pulled out of Ogden we arrived back in Aidan’s driveway.  After 19 days, 11 national parks, 4111 miles and countless wonderful adventures, we were thankful to be back to warm home-cooked meals and a roof over our head.  I will sleep well tonight!  (Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Carroll for waiting up for us with dinner to arrive home!)

Colorado!

All the gear we pulled out of the car the next morning.
Lots of work still to do!

We now have two short days to recuperate, clean our gear (and clothes!) and pack up to head back out again!  This time with you, Rachel, and Jess!  I am looking forward to some adventures in Glacier and yet another road trip to get there.  I hope you are having a wonderful day.  Have a safe flight to Denver!

Your friend,

Emily

5/25/14 -- San Francisco to Salt Lake City

Dear Valerie,

Emily and I are currently working our way back east towards Denver (I bet you thought this letter would be from Emily, but this is Aidan writing). Today or tomorrow will be one of our longest days of driving, so preparing yourself for a thrilling letter filled with… well not a whole lot interesting really happened so I will try to add some flair to parts when I can.

In a pleasant change from our usual routine of packing up the tent and making breakfast on the propane stove, all we had to do this morning was check out! We took advantage of the complimentary coffee in our room and Emily took advantage of the complimentary coffee in the lobby. Maybe that is why we have had to make so many bathroom stops… As we checked out, the concierge asked us how many cookies we would like. Thinking that asking for a dozen might seem excessive, I paused to decide between two and four. Before I could answer, the man behind the desk asked me how far we were going. When I told him that we planned on driving to Salt Lake City, he immediately gave us four cookies and wished us luck on our journey.

Thankfully, the drive from San Francisco to Salt Lake City has fewer turns than a game of tic-tac-toe, we got on Interstate 80 and stayed on Interstate 80 for the rest of the day. After navigating onto this road, it was smooth sailing. As we drove over the Bay Bridge, we got one last glimpse of San Francisco before setting our sites on places east. We lucked out and did not have to pay a toll for crossing the bridge. Unfortunately, we did have to pay a toll at the next bridge. Traffic in the toll plaza was flowing slower than molasses in January in Boston (which isn’t really saying much since there was a terrible molasses flood in Boston way back when). Emily suggested that your solution to traffic would be an impromptu dance party, but this did not take place… Traffic on the other side of the toll plaza was not bad at all.

Leaving the Bay area!

As we drove east, the road rose towards Tahoe and Reno, and I consumed the first of many of the Double Tree’s famous chocolate cookies. We stopped for gas outside of Sacramento. Breakfast at the Del Taco seemed like less than an ideal solution so we continued on. The drive actually became somewhat pretty as we climbed towards Lake Tahoe. We stopped again, this time to empty our tanks rather than fill them, near the Donner Pass. This is near the location where the Donner Party turned to cannibalism in an attempt to survive the winter. I don’t remember whether they made it or not… The further we got into the mountains, the fewer radio stations were available. Pretty soon it was a Sunday morning sermon, a country station, or NPR fading in and out. We chose to listen to NPR as it aired Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me. This is one of my favorite radio shows.

Once across the Sierras, we descended into Nevada. I think that not stopping for all we could eat pancakes for $2.99 in a casino in Reno would be my second biggest regret of the trip (my first would be failing to bring inner tubes to Zion and Yosemite National Parks). We chose instead to stop in Sparks, a Reno suburb, in hopes of finding someplace for a quick lunch. We found a large shopping center with too much traffic that looked very promising but didn’t have a single fast or quick food place open. There was a storefront with a Qdoba sign, but the interior was nowhere near finished. We settled for a lunch at Target, which consisted of a prepared ham sandwich and a walnut-cranberry-chicken salad. While this made for a hodge-podge lunch, it did provide a wonderful opportunity for another pint of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream! 

With Emily driving, it was my turn to see if I could stab her in the mouth while attempting to feed her (Emily had gotten me pretty good with a spork on the road outside of Vegas). I wasn’t as successful as she was. We managed to finish lunch as we continued east, being sure not to try to eat while passing semi-trucks on the highway.

We kept swapping driving duties as we crossed the nearly empty state of Nevada.  The roads here are quite boring. Flat and straight.  You could drive for miles and not even know you ever left the road. About half way across the state and in a lonely spot of cell service, we alerted my friend of our estimated arrival around 9 o’clock to Ogden. This wasn’t far off.

I got the joy of driving from Elko, Nevada to Ogden, Utah. When I crossed into Utah, I took advantage of the new 80 mile per hour speed limit. This was a mistake as I-80 goes down hill right across the border. The state patroller did not take kindly to my decision to go 89 down the hill… I saw him whip a u-turn in the rear-view mirror and told Emily to put down the corny joke book. For some reason, I don’t think he would take kindly to us asking where a penguin stores his money, or where cows go on dates (the snow bank and the moooovies). Thankfully, after some creative rounding (“89 is close to 90 and that is way too close to 100”) and a warning that they don’t give two warnings, I was let off with a warning.

I don’t know what the Mormon’s must’ve thought when they reached the promised land of Utah, but to me it looked like a whole lot of flat nothing. The most exciting thing west of the Great Salt Lake was honestly this obscure sculpture tower thing. As we got closer to the lake, it began to rain bugs (or maybe it was manna from heaven… – the windshield was a mess). We passed the Morton’s Salt Factory as we rounded the lake.

Salt Flats

Strange tower thing

Aidan driving the exact speed limit

Manna...?

The Morton Salt Factory!

Great Salt Lake

A beautiful sunset!

With the sun setting behind us, the lake didn’t look half bad, but the smell was quite terrible. I should’ve realized that a salt lake would probably smell a bit fishy… Unfortunately we were too tired to see the sights in Salt Lake City, such as the Mormon Temple. We were thankful to turn off I-80 and head north on Interstate 15 towards Odgen and sleep. We pulled up to my friend Troy’s apartment right on time.

Somehow Emily got the apartment number wrong but the giant Colorado flag clued me in. I am looking forward to seeing you for more road trip fun north to Montana.

Your sorta friend, more of an acquaintance,

Aidan

5/24/14 -- San Francisco!

Dear Meghan,

Hello from San Francisco! Today has been quite an adventure in a completely new part of the country! Aidan and I are nearing the end of our road trip in the southwest, so we decided to come out of the woods and spend a day in the city. Aidan has been here a number of times before but it is my first time. I wanted to write you a letter because my only knowledge of San Francisco is from you.

San Francisco skyline in the distance!

This morning Aidan and I left Yosemite National Park or the forest near there where we had set up camp. We ate granola for breakfast because by this point I was sick of the oatmeal, packed up our camp, and continued west like the gold miners. When we got near San Francisco, the traffic got terrible! There were so many turns; states with more than three highways are confusing! Thankfully Aidan is a pro-navigator and got us into the city no problem! We came in over the San Mateo Bridge. We decided to take the BART into the city to avoid driving downtown. We grabbed a couple carrots and dashed for the train. We both have a good bit of experience navigating the subway system in Boston so we figured San Francisco would be no problem. Little did we know that you had to pay per stop. Thankfully we had enough nickels to reach our destination (there is a song in Boston about a man named Charlie who didn’t have enough nickels to get off the train so he had to ride it for ever and ever, and that’s why the subway ticket is called a Charlie card – I’ll show you sometime when you come to Boston). We were actually quite impressed by the luxurious BART system; the wide trains and forward facing seats were a nice change Boston’s rickety old system that makes me carsick. Dutifully, the BART dropped us off right in the center of town.

We got off at the UN/Civic Center and walked around the block to see city hall. Lots of people were out enjoying the sun and taking naps in the grass. Our plan was to walk down Market Street until we hit the water, but the carrots wore off too quickly so we decided to stop for lunch. We ate delicious hamburgers at the Super Duper Burger place and continued to the water where we joined throngs of tourists mulling about the market.

City Hall

The sun came out in the late afternoon and we spent most of the day by the water, which provided fantastic views of the bridges and city skyline. A few piers down we found the Exploratorium! There were lots of hands-on sciency activities, which clearly I would love and so we did all of them. There were wheels demonstrating the characteristics of sediments of varying clast sizes in the bay and model bridges that showed how San Francisco managed to build the world’s longest suspension bridge of the time. My favorite was an Aeolian harp humming in the wind. From there we continued walking and found Pier 39 with crowds and crowds of people. We skipped 39 and walked down 40 where we could observe the sea lions and tourists and Alcatraz from a distance.

Forever a child at heart...

How gravel moves through water

The cement block in this suspension bridge essentially separates
the bridge into two smaller suspension bridges, which allows
the bridge to withstand stronger wind and earthquakes as the
maximum amplitude of movement is decreased, making the
bridge more sturdy and safer to travel on!

A pretty skyline of the city

LOVE THIS

An Aeolian harp.  The wind vibrates the strings and the
disks amplify the sound!

A human sundial.  It actually was 2:30!

Sea lions on Pier 39

Alcatraz

After walking around the water, Aidan told me that he wanted to show me some bread so we went to a giant bread company that made lots of goofy looking sourdough bread. After that we went to the real store of interest: the Ghiradeli factory. Aidan and I got a cookie crumble sundae to go (I just made up that name) and then waited in line eating free chocolate samples for half an hour. Eventually we got our obscenely sized sundae and walked down to a park by the water to eat it.

The fancy Sourdough Bread company

Chocolate... yum.

I don't think he could actually fit it in his mouth...

By now it was nearing dinnertime, though both of us were thoroughly full of ice cream so we decided to walk up to Lombard Street and watch all the crazy cars drive down. From there we continued to Telegraph Hill to look at the Coit Tower and the scenic surrounding San Francisco area. We then came down the hill for a culture walk down Grant Street. We started in North Beach with all the cute little Italian tratorias and boutiques and then continued south through China town. I kept my eyes open for the giant bags of flat fortune cookies you always bring home, but unfortunately did not find any. We did find some interesting items including a kite store, fireworks, and tights that were 3 for $10, but didn’t purchase anything.

Lombard Street

The Golden Gate Bridge!

Coit Tower

A view of the city

Chinatown!

A really cool map.  Though missing the most important state!

Anxious to get closer to the train stop before dark and with our tummies still full of ice cream we continued down Grant Street until we were just a few blocks from the station. There we found a restaurant called New Delhi with delicious Indian food. They had a sign outside talking about how they made their special bread. They slapped the dough right on the oven and if we asked we could see a demonstration. Of course we asked, but unfortunately they were busy and unable to let us see. Regardless, we still had a delicious meal and enjoyed an evening with real food and no dishes to clean by a campfire.

After dinner, we hopped back on the BART and caught the shuttle to our hotel. After a week and a half since our last showers in the Grand Canyon, Aidan was really stinky! The showers at the hotel were much anticipated and enjoyed. I am now ready to fall in bed exhausted. Tomorrow we are planning to drive a third of the way across the country, all the way to Salt Lake City. Hopefully there are some good radio stations on the way. We really enjoyed the day in San Francisco and already have a list of things to do if we ever go back.

I hope you are enjoying your summer and that I’ll get to see you sometime at home. Take care and God bless.

Your friend,
Emily

5/23/14 -- Yosemite Valley

Dear Alex,

I hope that you are enjoying Europe with your family or with Salim. I don’t remember if you are still travelling in Europe or if you’re on your way to places further east. Emily and I have been greatly enjoying our trip west. We are nearing the end. After tomorrow in San Francisco, we will head back east towards Colorado. I think we are both about ready for a break from living out of the trunk.

This morning, Emily woke up before me and cooked breakfast for us. It was kinda nice to have breakfast made for me for a change. We packed up a still wet tent from the rain last night, hopeful for an opportunity to dry it later. Leaving Wawona, we headed north within the park towards Yosemite Valley. This was a rather curvy drive so Emily took the wheel. I only get to drive the fun roads if Emily is asleep otherwise she has a tendency to turn a little green. I try to avoid that. We stopped in a packed parking lot just after the tunnel to take in the view of the valley from above. It was worth the hassle.

Yosemite Valley

Our first stop was Bridalveil Falls. Again, the parking lot was full of tourists, but we weren’t lucky enough to find a spot so we parked a little ways down the road. The falls is on the southeast so the lighting wasn’t ideal for pictures. The best spot was looking through a gap in the trees. So many people in the park have equipment that matches your dad’s or might even make him jealous. We don’t. Neither did the hundreds of middle schoolers. They also lacked hiking manners.

Bridalveil falls

We then drove to the visitor center. The entire valley is stunning. It was just about time for lunch so we picnicked in the shade. An inquisitive crow had apparently become trained that the throwing motion usually preceded loud noises and danger. All I had to do was bluff and he would flutter back a few yards. We put the food back in the trunk, hoping that any bears in the area would be scared away by the constant flow of people. Our car was not damaged. Emily walked very determinedly away from the way to the visitor center. After a few yards, I asked her where she was going. Her response was that she didn’t know, “the visitor center?” I got her turned around and we walked directly to the visitor center. I don’t know what she’d do without me. Probably take a lot longer to get places.

On the drive to the visitor venter

Yosemite Falls (I think)

Half Dome in the distance

We took the shuttle to the Happy Isles stop to hike to Vernal Falls. Even though we both were still a bit tired from our time on Whitney, we passed a bunch of tourists on the way up. We also saw a couple more falls in the distance. The Mist Trail is the way to Vernal Falls, but it also continues to the cables route up Half Dome. This is probably one of the most popular hikes in the park and requires a permit. We couldn’t get one. The Mist Trail is also the start of the John Muir Trail, which ends on the summit of Mount Whitney. We didn’t go that far this time.

This would be a great future trip!

Vernal Falls was well worth the climb up 600ish granite steps. It is wider than I expected. The mist off the falls reminded me of Rivendale (I threw that in for Ryan, but it really did). I’m not sure we needed to hike to the top of the falls. We were greeted by a Stellar’s Jay that was quite interested in our snack; not nearly as interesting as the man who assured us that “I’m not taking a pic of you. There is this really cool bird behind you.” Emily took a pic while I threw a rock at a squirrel. The dumb mammal thought the rock was food even after I hit it on the back…

On the hike up

A pretty (but dangerous) river

Below Vernal Falls! 

A Steller's Jay

The river is falling!

Emerald Pool

Going down

We managed to rest long enough to fall behind the middle schoolers who raced past us about 20 steps down. It was far safer to let them slip and slide down in front of us than behind us. At the bottom we hiked over to Mirror Lake by a little travelled trail. On the trail to the lake, we ended up behind a group of French students. One girl didn’t have a problem stepping in horse droppings. “It’s only ‘orse.” “Vell it is still ‘orse shit!” She wasn’t fazed.

I’m not sure we ever found the actual Mirror Lake. It has been filing in with silt recently and is now more of a pond. Wading across the sandy-bottomed stream was refreshing at first but quite cold by the time we had crossed. The hike offered awesome views of Half Dome. We tried to use the binoculars to see some climbers but weren’t successful.

Looking up at Half Dome

Crossing the "lake"

Half Dome

A beautiful reflection

Lupine

Surprisingly exhausted, we drove out of the valley as the sun was dipping lower. Emily drove the winding road to the Big Oak Flat entrance. We were stopped on the way out to show our pass. We thought it was locked in the glove box so we shut off the car to open it. The ranger let us get away with just knowing that the pass cost $80.

Heading out of the park

Highway 120 leads out of the park towards Groveland. It runs through a burn area with a ton of standing dead trees. Emily took this road to the campground. Our campground still had standing, living trees. We thought this was a blessing but it meant there were mosquitoes and poison oak.

The last campsite!

Compared with last night, starting a fire was simple. It lit itself! All I did was put some pine needles and small sticks in the fire ring. A few minutes into dinner, it was smoking. It leapt into flames not long after. Dinner of grilled Swiss cheese sandwiches and chicken sausage gumbo with shrimp ramen and green beans was followed by campfire brownies. Half a box of Ghiradeli brownie mix was too much. They may not have looked like “ ’orse shit,” but they had a strong resemblance to some kind of excrement. Thankfully, they tasted delicious.

Dessert!

Well, the mosquitoes are bad and the fire is dying. I should close. Enjoy your adventures further east. Try to avoid mosquitoes in the Philippines and the heat in the UAE.

Take care,
Aidan