We stopped at the flagship REI store in Seattle, a place I've always wanted to go.  Jessica was sad that I didn't buy her a new pair of Chaco's, but the kids had fun running around in the little tree house inside the store.I had thought about taking the ferry across the Puget Sound to continue, but instead decided to just drive around it.  My most anticipated area of this whole trip was Olympic National Park and it did not disappoint.  The weather was fantastic and we really enjoyed every sight and hike.  Kiara even found a cheapie CTR ring in the snow of the parking lot at Hurricane Ridge.  There was no likely owner in sight, so we let her keep it and she is very proud of it.

We stopped at Forks, WA, the town made famous by the Twilight movies.  It really seemed like Twilight is a new driving force and focal point for this little logging town.  Everywhere we went, businesses were trying to capitalize on the fame.  We went into one store on the main drag and they even had an adults only section.  Our kids were getting restless in that store while Jessica shopped and Kiara actually body slammed Dallin (a first).  I got very mad at her and within a few seconds we had two screaming children and promptly exited the store.  Must have been the dark forces in there.  Jessica was disappointed that we didn't have time to hang out in La Push with the werewolves.

We stopped at Rialto Beach, the infamous driftwood beach.  The tide was high enough that we couldn't walk very far along the beach between the water and the driftwood, but saw other people traversing a trail amongst the pile of driftwood.  That was quite an undertaking with 3 small children, but we eventually made it.  We played in the tide pools for a bit, but it was starting to get dark.  Rather than deal with the driftwood, we decided to take our shoes and carry children across the beach to outrun the tide.  At one point, I retreated  into the rocks to escape the waves and slipped on a rock and cut my big toe open...blood everywhere.  At the water's edge we saw starfish and other tide pool animals.  The kids thought those were pretty cool.

I think a lot of people would declare us insane if we told them we were headed on a 4200-mile road trip with 3 children under 4, the youngest being only 7 weeks old.  But we did it and lived to tell the tale...even had a litle bit fun.  I bought a Nintendo DSi a few weeks before the trip and loaded up games.  I wondered how a two-year-old would even be able to play Nintendo games, but Dallin picked it up pretty quick and Kiara and Dallin ended up battling over the DS throughout the trip, though it was a good sharing experience.  We had the Leapster and the headrest DVD players to keep them occupied as well.

Our first stop was in St George to visit the Baileys and they took us crawdad fishing in Vail.  We had a lot of fun and then I cooked them up for all to share.  It was pretty tasty if I do say so...like freshwater shrimp.

Our next stop took us to Brigham City, Utah to meet up with my mom and family en route to the Munro family reunion.  We took a picture at the temple that is under construction and relaxed for a bit.

We camped at the Montpelier KOA that night and met up with even more family.  The next morning we attempted to drive up Mount Sherman, which turned out to be quite an endeavor.  Most of the caravan was driving in minivans up an unimproved road that could be described as a jeep trail at best.  I was nominated to lead the way because I had looked up the route on Google maps, but I was leary the whole way.  We actually got up to the top and there was snow but I was trying to find a way closer to the top and end up going around the other side and down a road until we passed a point where we could get back up.  My brakes were burning and this bad road was taking its toll on our van, so I just pressed on and went down the mountain while the others stopped at the top to play.  It was quite an adventure, but one that I won't attempt again.

Since we had to wait for the others to get down off the mountain, we stopped at Arctic Circle and then went to check out the mighty Soda Springs geyser.  The kids were terrified at first, but then eventually warmed up to it.  We also visited Hooper Springs to make some carbonated Kool-Aid for the kids and let the play on the playground. 

Our next stop was the Munro family reunion and we had fun at Indian Springs RV Resort with family.  We played a lot of games and Kiara had fun in the little creek that had a bunch of little fish.  Dallin had fun playing Nintendo with the cousins.  The kids ended up getting good and grubby.

The next segment of our journey was very long as we traveled from American Falls to Seattle, staying the night at the Ellensburg KOA.  Along the way, we stopped at the Twin Falls, Boise, Columbia River, and Seattle Temples.  We barely survived this portion of the journey and we had a kid crisis at the Columbia River temple.  Better days to come though.

Sticking with my tradition of picking the top 30 photos of the year, I've whittled them down.  Every year I select my the top family 30 photos from our adventures.  These are usually the pool from which we select 8x10 prints and also we like to use them as our screensavers on our computers.

Top 30 Photos of 2010

I went deer hunting this weekend with some family and friends in western Arizona south of Quartzsite.  I headed out early Friday morning with a bit of a map and my GPS to find our hunting group in the Arizona desert.  About five miles from camp, I wound up on the wrong road and went a few miles before telling myself that these guys would be insane to go along that road any further because the road was so bad.  I had just been going off of the general path of the road while keeping an eye on the GPS coordinates of camp that I had obtained from zooming in using Google Earth.  However, there were dirt roads offshooting from the main road all over the place in this area.  Fortunately, I had brought my laptop but unfortunately I had forgotten to load my detailed Topo program.  Using Streets & Trips, I dragged my cursor around and figured where I had gone wrong and turned around and found the right road and eventually found camp after a 90 minute detour.

We unfortunately didn't see any deer that we could shoot at (no bucks), but I learned some good techniques and had fun with the guys.  Alan's truck broke down and he had to cut short his hunting trip, which was a real bummer.  I was amazed at how many quail were out there while we were walking around.  It made me want to buy a shotgun and return to the area.  On Saturday, we were walking a line and they flushed out a group of deer.  I was over a ridge when I saw 8 deer come running over the ridge.  I had my gun ready but scoped no antlers.  They stopped when they saw me and bolted to the east.  I counted three does and five fawns.  Just a few minutes later, another group of three came over the horizon and headed straight for me.  I had them in my sights as they came over the ridge, but again no antlers.  They didn't even see me until they were about 20 yards away and they skidded to a halt and just watched me.  Since I couldn't shoot them, I fumbled for my camera and this startled them to put some distance between me and them.  They jumped to about 30-40 yards and then paused while I took the above picture.

Here is Alan getting pulled back and revving up for Dukes of Hazzard attempt to clear the wash in his rig:

We got together with the family to do some pumpkin carvings.  Kiara always gets so excited about her pumpkins and we get her a little one.  She likes to carry it around with her and this year Dallin added to the mix by throwing it and dropping it.  Fortunately it survived long enough to be carved.

Last year after halloween Jessica picked up some wizard of oz costumes for the kids for cheap, so this year we were all Wizard of Oz characters.  Kiara was Dorothy, Dallin the tin man, Jessica the wicked witch, and me the scarecrow.  Kiara didn't know who Dorothy was, so Jessica showed them the movie a few weeks ago and Kiara started getting excited about being Dorothy.  I don't think the kids were very entertained by the movie except for the few parts, but at least they had some idea.  I think they both looked great.

Dallin hated wearing the costume as soon as I put it on and he tried to rip it off, but he eventually gave in.  Getting him to keep the hat on was a battle too, but he started to chill out when he saw he could put candy in his bag and run around like a crazy kid.  He even won the award for the cutest costume.  That's my boy!  Except next year we'll have to work for scariest costume or something with a better title.

Day 10: Venice
The breakfast buffet at the Bologna hotel was leaps and bounds better than anything else we’ve had in Italy.  I stuffed myself and then waited a bit in hopes I could fit more.  It’s the type of breakfast that would easily fetch 15 euros per person on the street.  Even though we got a good jump on the morning, we barely missed a regional train and the next Eurostar train was sold out, so we ended up waiting almost 2 hours to catch the next train and still didn’t get to our Venice hotel until 2 PM.

Venice is a unique city and as you learn about its history, you just wish you were there to see it in its hay day. We took a vaporetto boat down the Grand Canal and that was cool.  Once you get off a boat though, the water everywhere makes it difficult to get around on foot.  It was neat to see the gondola guys, though it quickly became too cold for them to just be in their gondolier shirts.  Jessica wasn’t dead set on a gondola ride and I wasn’t eager to shell out for one.  We still had fun watching the gondolas with singing guys and accordions.  It started to drizzle while we were in Venice and it was amusing to watch people lifting and lowering umbrellas and they tried to squeeze through walkways that were barely wide enough for two people without umbrellas.  By the time we made it to Saint Mark’s square, the cathedral was closed.  We wandered around and checked out shops as we made our way back to the bus station in the rain.

Day 11: Venice

The weather forecast showed even more dismal weather for this day, with the temperature being colder, windier, and more rain.  I had planned to visit Murano or Burano, but I decided to just go with no backpacks and bundle up with our rain jackets for outer shell.  We actually had more fun in Venice this day.  Because of the weather, there were fewer people on the streets, but we were ok.  We watched people fight the wind with their umbrellas and many of the trash cans were filled with umbrellas.  Again, there was no shortage of Indians hawking umbrellas around every corner…no doubt the same umbrellas that made it only a few blocks before finding their own trash can.  In the course of our Venice wanderings, we crossed all four bridges that span the Grand Canal and ended up exploring quite a bit of the city.

We spent the bulk of this day at St Mark’s cathedral.  We visited the museum portion before the cathedral opened and were able to watch the Catholic Mass services from the upstairs.  We caught up on a few of the audio tours that we hadn’t listened to yet, and those actually gave me a much better appreciation for the city and the sights.  I think two days was just about right to get our fill of Venice.

Day 9: Bologna
We barely missed a train out of Vernazza and had to wait an hour for the next one to arrive.  This day ended up being a 4-5 hour travel day on four different trains.  For our Florence – Bologna segment, I gave in and went with the Eurostar train just to see what it is like.  It was pretty cool but definitely overpriced.  It was amazing what a difference in people there was between the Regional trains that we had been using and the Eurostar train.  Once we got to Bologna, we made our way to the hotel as it started to rain.  I had been planning to use the hotel’s free bikes to cruise around the city, but decided not to with the weather.  This hotel was a steal of a deal and very impressive.  They clearly cater to the business crowd and we happened to need a room on a weekend night.  Our room was only 59 Euros and I am sure that it generally commands a price triple that during peak season.
     

We rode a bus into town and walked around while it rained.  We had our rain jackets on, so it was no big deal.  Bologna is a very different city than the ones we have visited so far.  All the shops are very high end and the people on the streets reflect that.  It quickly became apparent why Bologna isn’t in the guidebooks.  It is a big university town with high end shops.  We wandered around until it got dark and then headed back to the hotel.  The internet connection at the hotel was extremely fast and I was able to upload all my remaining pictures before we hit the hay.

Day 7: Vernazza & Monterosso
Cinque Terre is closer to the classic Italy that we Americans tend to imagine that Italy is like….before the modern world corrupted it.  There are very few cars or vehicles and the primary links between the towns are either the hiking trail or the train line.  Each town has its own personality.  We stayed in Vernazza and rented a room from a local for two nights.  Our first day there, we hiked to Monterosso, which is a rather strenuous hike over the mountainous coast, but has some fantastic views.  We enjoyed the beach in Monterosso and the sea water was surprisingly a good temperature.  We chilled on the beach for a while before walking further into town.  Fortunately we hadn’t gone too far when I realized that I had lost our room key.  We hurried back to the beach and managed to find it.  We hiked back to Vernazza as sunset was approaching and the vistas were amazing.  We stopped at an overlook of Vernazza to try to replicate the most well-known photo of Cinque Terre.  It was here that got me wanting to upgrade my camera, as my best shots were only half-decent and could have been much better with the right equipment.
           

 
Day 8: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza
We took our time getting going this morning.  By the time we got to the train station, the train we planned on taking was also 20 minutes late.  We eventually did make it to Riomaggiore and started a very enjoyable day.  Each town had its own personality and I was continually marveling at the terrace gardens.  In Manarola, I found it ironic that the school and playground was just 30 yards from the cemetery…you start almost right where you end.  The trail between Manarola and Corniglia was closed, so we had to wait for a train.  The trail from the train station at Corniglia to Vernazza was rather strenuous but had some great views.  We polished off the day with a swim in the sea.  I was surprisingly a decent temperature.  Jessica was so hungry that she ordered a 12” pizza for herself and I had one as well.  She took home a box with a few slices and I polished mine off.  Our time in Cinque Terre was very enjoyable and definitely memorable.

Day 6

While in Florence, I scoped out our arrival in Pisa to figure out what buses we would need.  Google Maps had the public transport for Pisa and it made a nice little route for us, including telling us to walk 71 meters this way, then 62 meters that way.  Taking public transport saves a lot of money over taking taxis, so we’ve only used a taxi once as a last resort when I was too tired to deal with the buses.  In Florence, I had saved our Pisa directions as a PDF and copied the file to my phone so that I would have a handheld guide.  When we got off our city bus in Pisa, it took us a little while to find our hotel, Santa Croce in Fossabanda.  All the streets on my Google directions PDF were not named, but we eventually found it.  Our hotel here is a converted monastery, and the rooms were very basic, except when you step into the bathrooms and land in this century.

We rented bikes from the hotel to cruise around the city because it was a decent walk to get to the main attractions of Pisa.  Renting the bikes was a good idea and we got to see more of the city that way.  The lawn near the leaning tower is called the best lawn in Italy and they apparently have city ordinances protecting it.  Policemen shooed off people who ventured onto the grass.  Oddly enough, in late afternoon the police must be on siesta and people went on the grass.  When we arrived there, there were absolutely hordes of people everywhere.  Everyone was trying to get their goofy tourist shots of holding up the tower.  We probably took more than our fair share.  We got tickets to climb the tower and though I balked at the 15 Euro price, I was glad we did it.  It was a cool experience.  It was interesting to see the big wear in the middle of the marble steps, all 620 of them on the way to the top.  At the top, you really get a feel for just how much the tower leans and some of the people were a little freaked out by it.  We did some shopping at nearby stands before heading back to our hotel on our bikes.  We stopped at a little kebab shop.  Eating in Italy, we more or less just follow our stomachs and noses, picking a few of the many shops as we go. 

Day 4

We didn't get to Florence until 2:45 PM because we waited a long time for our bus into town and then we took the slowest train, but it was also dirt cheap.  It was kind of fun to just watch the countryside and people watch at the small town train stops.  Florence is definitely a special city.  There were hordes of people walking the streets day and night.  It is a walking city.  Our lack of internet access in Rome made it difficult to plan for our Florence arrival and figuring out buses.  I ended up buying a bus map for the single bus ride from the train station to our hotel.  We took a piccola bus and marveled how it made hairpin turns onto streets that barely fit the little bus!  We weaved in and out of the foot traffic as was dragged our suitcases to our hotel, where we were met by the nicest little Italian grandma.  She was so nice and didn't speak a lot of English, but took to us like a grandma helping her grandkids.  She described distances in terms of walking and told us about the most beautiful walks, but said we could take the quick route and grab a bus.  Walking to the center of town was a mere 50 minutes in her words.  The room key was old-school and looked like it would open any door in the building.  After we got situated in our room, we headed out for some adventure and attempted to get into the Accademia museum without a reservation.  We were fortunate and got in.  Most of the museum was so-so, but it had the classic centerpiece David statue.  I must say it was rather impressive with its size and detail.  Jessica learned that it was David of the Old Testament...apparently she didn't know that before? 

After that, we took to the streets to be a part of the walking masses.  As night descended, another interesting note impressed me.  The narrow streets and ample lighting makes Florence a bustling glowing city at night.  The streets were very crowded until late in the night.  We strolled by the river and I think I took some of the best nighttime pictures I have ever taken!  Artists lined the streets with their wares and some were doing amazing replicas right on the street surface.  Jessica got her daily gelato fix and we enjoyed the evening before walking back to our hotel.

We tried to get reservations for the Uffizi the next day in the morning because it is closed on Mondays, but Tuesday was all full.  Today we made multiple walking loops around the city.  Autumn was in full swing here and the falling leaves in the park made for a great sight to enjoy.  I wanted to walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo but we took a less common route, dubbed as "the most beautiful jogging path in the world".  We didn't jog and surprisingly saw very few other pedestrians along the way.  The view from the terrace at the top was phenomenal, so much so that we bought a decorative wall hanging of the view at the top.  Jessica has been scarf shopping ever since we got to Italy and there were some good deals at the piazzale, but Jessica wanted to keep shopping.  We walked down to the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge. It turns out that the bridge is the site of all the expensive jewelry shops in town.  Jessica was in shopping mode still and we checked out one of the bigger markets in town.  It became apparent that the best deal on a scarf was back across the river and up the hill overlooking the city.  Along the way, we stopped to eat.  It was here that I learned what real lasagna tastes like and Jessica had some spaghetti. 

Rain was in the forecast, so we came prepared with our rain jackets and in early afternoon is started to drizzle.  We trekked up with the hill and most of the stands had closed, but fortunately the one with Jessica’s favorite scarf was still open and we secured the prize.  We went back down into the city and checked out some unexplored areas and stopped in to check out the cathedral.  I had planned on climbing the tower near the cathedral but I was so impressed by the sight at piazzale Michelangelo that I decided I didn’t need to spend the 6 euros a head and walk another 1000 steps.  Jessica decided that we just had to find a magic goodies shop that we had seen the previous day...so we wandered around until we found it and then started heading back to the hotel.  By the time we made it back to our hotel for the evening, we had pretty much walked three big circles around the city during our stay.  We had a LOT of walking in the Walking City.