Yellowstone! July 28- After our worst camping night thus far (the campground, which was the only one in the area that had any spots available, lost our reservation and thus put us in a parking lot next to the fish cleaning station with an extension cord-- fortunately this didn't set the tone for this leg of the trip), we headed into the Park. First stop- Old Faithful. In part to experience it, in part to get it out of the way. Yes, I really did overhear a w...

July 25 - Seattle. We left the Olympic Peninsula this morning and headed to Seattle. We parked at a light rail station a little way outside of downtown so as not to have to drive and park in the city. First stop was Chinatown, which isn't as nice as San Fran's but we did have a traditional dim sum lunch at the Jade Garden. Traditional as in, the kids were disappointed that there was no lo mein on the menu, and traditional as in, I'm not really sure what a couple ...

July 24- Having done the coast and the rainforest, today was mountains day in Olympic. First we did a short hike to see a lovely little waterfall near Crescent Lake. Then we drove up to Hurricane Ridge, which gives fantastic views of Mt. Olympus and its glaciers, and the other mountains in the Park. We did a nice little hike up along the ridge behind the visitor center, with great panoramas of the mountains and also the Juan de Fuca sound, all the way to British ...

July 23- La Push, Washington. We are on the Pacific Coast at a campground owned by the Quileute Tribe— and we are at the farthest out point of our trip. We still have three weeks and lots of plans, but from now on, we will be headed towards home. We've had a fairly relaxing couple of days, taking advantage of the day we gained by skipping Lassen. Yesterday we drove from near Mt. St. Helens out to the Olympic Peninsula. We stopped along the way in Aberdeen, whic...

July 21- A quick one tonight, while waiting for the last of the laundry to dry (housework never rests). We had a nice morning yesterday in the Mt. Hood area, we did a 3-mile round trip hike to Mirror Lake, named for the reflection Hood casts on a calm day. Then we drove out of the national forest and had a nice stop in an adorable little town called Hood River. Clearly everyone there is independently wealthy, or deeply in debt, because we must have seen 200 peopl...