Fri, 21 Sept: We headed across the Bighorn mountains to Thermopolis, WY, for the night. Jayakar was impressed with the size of the mountains- though the Tetons the next day were where he went, "Wow!" We enjoyed a hike that evening around some very active hot springs (they turned out to be much better than Mammoth in Yellowstone).
Sat, 22 Sept: After a day in the Tetons, including a hike that, for us city kids, was a real killer, we headed for a night in Cody, WY. On the way we saw our first-ever grizzly! He was a big guy- and was snoozing in the bushes till 30 people looking at him made him move. For a moment we were all pretty ready to leap into our cars, but he just moved further into the riverbank shrubs, and was lost to our view. Still- we got a good look at his head and size- I'm really glad he was content to stay in the bushes!!
Sun, 23 Sept: This was the day we spent at Yellowstone, seeing all the major sights- blue pools, geysers (among them Old Faithful), mud pots, fumaroles, Yellowstone Falls, Mammoth Hot Springs (which was almost completely inactive), and several bison and large elk to boot. (None of the wildlife in the park compared to the three huge bison we saw in a little town as we started our day. They were great- snorting, running, and playfully challenging each other, all within a few feet of our car. It was quite exciting!) It became quite cloudy and rainy as the day wore on, and Yellowstone is clearly remembered as the place that we froze. We enjoyed it, but were quite happy to reach our hotel in Bozeman, MT, that evening.
Mon-Tues, 24-25 Sept: On our way to Aunt Sue's for a couple days we encountered snow on a pass by Bozeman. Now, this was Jayakar's first time, so we pulled over and he had a lesson in how to make snowballs from Dad. (No one had to teach him how to use them, though .) When we got to Sue's, the weather was right to go out on Flathead Lake. Jayakar got a lesson in deep-sea fishing, and he caught us two good-sized lake trout (which we had for supper the following night); Jayakar did the fishing, Dad did the netting! The next day we just 'hung out' with Sue, relaxing and enjoying a day of NOT being in the car! I was excited that things worked out so well, because within a couple weeks, Jayakar had met all my Dad's immediate family members. How special!
Wed-Fri, 26-28 Sept: We had another long day in the car, but reached Tacoma, WA at a reasonable time. For the next three days we relaxed with Ellie and her family, enjoying the boys. Since Ellie is pregnant with their third, and is due only one month before me, we compared notes on being pregnant- a first, and something quite fun to finally be able to do . We were also very happy that Lena could join us.Sat-Sun, 29-30 Sept: We took our leisurely time getting started from Ellie's but finally got off. We had planned to spend the next couple nights camping on the coast- but it turned out we had arrived to experience a very COLD North Pacific coast. We ended up getting hotels in Florence, OR, and Fortuna, CA. In between those two nights, we drove the Old Redwood Hy. What amazing trees! (By the way, we didn’t camp once the whole trip- just hauled all the stuff around!)
Mon-Tues, 1-2 Oct: En route to San Francisco, where we spent time with Jayakar's Uncle Solomon, we stopped and toured a vineyard. That was so much fun, seeing all the manicured grapevines, and tasting the grapes (hard to believe that wine comes from such sweet things). We had a fun lunch in Sausalito before proceeding to Solomon's house, where we received a warm welcome. We spent the evening talking about the Lord and important matters, and meeting Solomon's son, Darwin. The next day we did all the Frisco stuff- cable cars, subway, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, etc. Then we spent the evening at Nazarene's (another cousin) house.
Wed-Thurs, 3-4 Oct: Since we were headed to see Jayakar's sister Joanna, we left fairly early. It was really fun, because Jayakar's parents, Prabhudas and Samadanam, had just arrived from India to see their daughter and her new baby boy, so we had a good time visiting them, also. It gave us the perfect opportunity to tell them in person that we also are expecting a baby. They were very excited. Joanna looked very good, and little baby Vijay was doing quite well also. It was so fun to hold a tiny baby! It was a quiet couple days around their apartment, other than a quick trip to meet Jayakar's boss, Rob, at the Pasadena Cramster.com office. We really enjoyed our time in LA.
Fri, 5 Oct: Originally we were going to head from LA to Tucson. Jayakar has lots of relatives there, but as the final days of the trip progressed, I became more and more exhausted, and we finally decided to let visiting the SW wait for another trip. We left Joanna's late, since we only had to make it to Las Vegas for the night. We did some brisk walking that evening to see the lights, and were surprised at how cold it was. (To the very end of the trip we were all still friends- and kids at heart!)
Sat, 6 Oct: We were even more surprised when we encountered a snow storm in southern Utah the following day. Jayakar got to see a real blizzard for a bit! Thankfully the roads stayed good, and we reached Grand Junction, CO for the night without a problem.Sun, 7 Oct: Dad was a bit worried about what weather we would have going over the big mountains of Colorado, but God gave us a beautiful final day with blue skies and decent temps. We spent the evening with Aunt Gaynelle (now Jayakar had met all the immediate relatives on both sides of the family). As the evening progressed, the decision was reached to drive through the night to get home. So about 11:00 pm, we headed off on the long drive to Iowa. Every one of us was extremely glad to reach home after 21 days and 6520 miles of vacation!
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