It was cloudy with some sun poking out when we landed. It hasn't been too hot, but it's definitely humid. We didn't have any plans for the day, so we talked about it for a bit and decided to rent a car for a day or two to explore and figure out where on the island would be best to try and find a spot. We drove around and walked around quite a bit, but we still aren't quite sure of where to be. We know where we don't want to be, but that's about it so far.
It was only 7 last night, but we were tired from traveling all day, so we finally found a hotel that wasn't insanely expensive and got a room for the night. This morning Joe went to see if they had a continental breakfast. It cost $10... We only wanted cereal, so that's a bit steep. He bought a couple of those travel cereals and a small box of milk instead. He's been looking into places to stay. It would have been super handy to be able to use the phone here for the local calls, but apparently they charge you for local calls, 800 calls, collect calls, phone card calls and credit card calls.. . . . Huh.
We'll probably head out once we get a plan on where to go. It's pouring and windy right now (enough so that even the power in the hotel was out for about 5 seconds). Sounds like it's going to rain all day. Oh well. Perfect day to find a place.
-Miranda
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We're starting the first leg of our long term international trip. My parents dropped us off at the Amtrak station in The Cities Thursday night. The train was over an hour late. We got a sleeper room for the trip, since it was a 23 hour trip. The train was very relaxed and fun. The meals were included (since we had a sleeper room.) Unfortunately, since the train was late, we had to wait for any other trains that were coming the other direction on one way tracks. This put us 2.5 hours late. We ended up shaving half an hour somewhere along the trip, so we arrived in Whitefish, MT 2 hours late.
We're going to stay in Kalispell, MT for a few days, then fly out on Tuesday for Hawaii. The hope is to skiing while we're here. We'll see.
-Miranda
Joe and I at the Amtrak station.
Our room. It' was super tiny.
The view of North Dakota from the train. The entire state was basically like this.
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We're home! We got home yesterday, late afternoon. It's definitely nice to be home. The cats have been having a blast running all over the house.
We worked on unpacking the RV today. We still have some stuff to put away in the house, but it's mostly done any taken care of.
The blog will be pretty quiet now since we'll be home and basically just working.
Oh, and here are the photos I promised.
-Miranda
Julie and Emma in the caves at the Lava Beds.
Emma coming through one of many tight spots in the Catacombs. Unfortunately it's fuzzy because the lens was fogged up. I didn't get any decent photos of her after I cleaned off the moisture. :(
Craters of the Moon National Monument. So many cool formations. This is just a view of the landscape.
Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.
A very neat area in one of the Geyser Basins in Yellowstone.
A steamy part of Yellowstone.
An amusing sign by all the trails that go by hot springs and geysers.
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We apparently decided to keep with the theme of adventure, so on Wed. we headed out for a hike from the campground towards Schonchin Butte. Schonchin has a hike to the top of it and a lookout tower. We bushwhacked through behind the campground a bit seeing if we could find any caves. This landscape was impossible to get lost in, but we still brought extra stuff with us just to be safe.
We ended up walking about 10 miles. It was fun, but tiring.
On Thursday, we took a break in the morning, but in the afternoon we headed to the cave loop and did a few caves. Once we got to the end of the loop, Joe's knee started acting up, so we headed back to the RV.
On Friday, Julie and Emma showed up. We took them in a bunch of the easier caves. They had lots of fun. The plan was to leave on Sat. but we wanted to do the Catacombs with them. So, Sat. morning, we got up, got ready to go and headed up to the Catacombs. Wow it was tiring. There was so much more belly crawling and just plain crawling than I remembered. We all made it to the very end and signed the book! After we finished, we headed back to camp and packed up and made lunch. Julie and Emma headed back home. Joe and I headed south and east.
We did stop in the National Forest south of the park. We let the cats out for an hour, then headed out. We were going to stay longer, but then Curly wondered off farther than we were comfortable with, so we gathered them up and headed out.
I'll try to get photos up from the lava beds once I get them uploaded.
-Miranda
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We spent a week hanging out, working and relaxing in Ashland,OR with cousin Emma Durbin. It was a good time. Ashland is pretty cool for small population. 20k? 2 indian buffets, 3+ Sushi joints, great coop.
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