It's been awhile since I've gone on a family vacation, and even longer since my family has travelled with another family for a vacation! A trip to Yellowstone was suggested because it was a place nobody had visited before, and it was relatively close.
The initial plan was a road trip there, but that option was nixed because we couldn't agree on the vehicle to take, among other things. A camping trip was completely out of the question because one family was all for being outdoors while the other was not. Taking a plane to Yellowstone National Park and staying there for a few days was also vetoed because there was disagreement over how much time we wanted to spend in the park.
Thus, the final decision was to have all family members meet in San Francisco, California, take a bus tour to Yellowstone and Las Vegas, ditch the tour and stay in Las Vegas for an extra day, then fly back home.
Let's start with Day One. On Friday, September 5, I got off work and headed to the airport with my parents. Since I take the flight between Vancouver and San Francisco pretty frequently, I sort of have a simple routine of parking my car, having dinner, and then boarding the plane. However, tonight, there was no food at the airport. For some strange reason, almost all the fast food restaurants were closed or out of fresh food! And the flight was delayed. Oh well, at least we had each other for company, and we did manage to land in SFO before midnight.
Day Two was much better - our tour bus picked us up from our hotel (or motel) and we began our journey! One pretty funny incident happened shortly after we got on the bus as we were driving through the city: as the bus drove under an overpass, we saw fire on the side of the road. Rather nonchalantly, our tour guide announced, "... and if you look to the right, you'll see there's a bus on fire. No need to panic though, there seems to be no one in the bus... and don't worry, our bus won't catch on fire." Apparently, we were in good hands. After we collected all our passengers, we headed to Sacramento - the California State Capital. There, we stopped to have a look at California's State Capitol Building and even caught a glimpse of Arnold Schwarzenegger's office!
The rest of Day 2 was spent on the road, driving east to the state of Nevada, finally stopping in the small town of Elko.
When we got our wake-up call for Day Three, it was still dark outside. We had to drag ourselves out of bed and clamour onto the bus before it left us stranded at around 6:00 am. Luckily for us, the bus was nice and warm... or not. That was the other tour bus. Our bus was freezing and everyone was trying to get a bit more sleep while bundled in jackets and other cold weather accessories. By the time the sun came up and it was time for a photo stop, we were in Twin Falls, Idaho. Here, we enjoyed some sun and the Snake River Canyon - yes, the same canyon that Evel Knievel attempted to jump across in September 1974.
As we made our way across to the state of Wyoming, we passed the town of Jackson, WY in the Jackson Hole valley of Teton County. This was a particularly interesting pitstop because of the elk antler arches decorating the entrances to the town square.
From Jackson, we drove through Grand Teton National Park, admiring the majestic mountain ranges that are actually part of the Rocky Mountains.
Finally, after hours and hours of driving, we reached Yellowstone National Park! The first thing we noticed was the devastation from the fires that raged through huge areas of the park in 1988. Trees that were burnt to a crisp stood tall and grey, almost like skinny graves amongst the healthy green upstarts.
Our tour guide let us explore a bit when we reached the West Thumb Geyser Basin. Here, we saw our first geysers, pools, and springs... all surrounded in warm steam from the high temperature of the water.
As we headed back to the bus, our guide explained that we should all quicken our pace because he wanted to show us the most famous geyser at Yellowstone: Old Faithful. Why the odd name? Geysers erupt differently - some erupt constantly, spurting small amounts of water 24 hours a day; while others erupt at intervals that may be estimated at a few hours or perhaps a few days. Old Faithful was given this moniker because its eruptions are extremely predictable, with one happening every 90 minutes (give or take 10 minutes). Peter, our guide, told us that since the next eruption was predicted to happen in just under an hour, and we were 40 minutes away from the geyser, we had perfect timing.
Except, while he was talking to us, the bus driver had gone the wrong way. For 15 minutes. A short geography lesson: the road around Yellowstone Park is essentially a ring, so if you go the wrong way, you have to turn around or you'll spend hours trying to reach the destination from the opposite direction.
At this point, everyone on the bus was doing mental math, and gradually arriving to the same dismal conclusion. Peter was more optimistic. On a sign we had just passed, the distance to Old Faithful was marked as 17 miles. If we drove slightly faster than the speed limit and encountered no traffic, there was a slim chance that we would make it. As the minutes ticked by (there was a digital clock mounted at the front of the bus), you could see people on the bus start praying as others began to lose hope. When the geyser came into view, Peter instructed us to turn our cameras on and get ready to run because it seemed as if the geyser hadn't erupted yet. The bus came to a screeching halt, everyone poured out of the bus... and boom! No more than a few seconds later, the geyser erupted.
After all that excitement, it was time for bed. Whew.
The initial plan was a road trip there, but that option was nixed because we couldn't agree on the vehicle to take, among other things. A camping trip was completely out of the question because one family was all for being outdoors while the other was not. Taking a plane to Yellowstone National Park and staying there for a few days was also vetoed because there was disagreement over how much time we wanted to spend in the park.
Thus, the final decision was to have all family members meet in San Francisco, California, take a bus tour to Yellowstone and Las Vegas, ditch the tour and stay in Las Vegas for an extra day, then fly back home.
Let's start with Day One. On Friday, September 5, I got off work and headed to the airport with my parents. Since I take the flight between Vancouver and San Francisco pretty frequently, I sort of have a simple routine of parking my car, having dinner, and then boarding the plane. However, tonight, there was no food at the airport. For some strange reason, almost all the fast food restaurants were closed or out of fresh food! And the flight was delayed. Oh well, at least we had each other for company, and we did manage to land in SFO before midnight.
Day Two was much better - our tour bus picked us up from our hotel (or motel) and we began our journey! One pretty funny incident happened shortly after we got on the bus as we were driving through the city: as the bus drove under an overpass, we saw fire on the side of the road. Rather nonchalantly, our tour guide announced, "... and if you look to the right, you'll see there's a bus on fire. No need to panic though, there seems to be no one in the bus... and don't worry, our bus won't catch on fire." Apparently, we were in good hands. After we collected all our passengers, we headed to Sacramento - the California State Capital. There, we stopped to have a look at California's State Capitol Building and even caught a glimpse of Arnold Schwarzenegger's office!
The rest of Day 2 was spent on the road, driving east to the state of Nevada, finally stopping in the small town of Elko.
When we got our wake-up call for Day Three, it was still dark outside. We had to drag ourselves out of bed and clamour onto the bus before it left us stranded at around 6:00 am. Luckily for us, the bus was nice and warm... or not. That was the other tour bus. Our bus was freezing and everyone was trying to get a bit more sleep while bundled in jackets and other cold weather accessories. By the time the sun came up and it was time for a photo stop, we were in Twin Falls, Idaho. Here, we enjoyed some sun and the Snake River Canyon - yes, the same canyon that Evel Knievel attempted to jump across in September 1974.
As we made our way across to the state of Wyoming, we passed the town of Jackson, WY in the Jackson Hole valley of Teton County. This was a particularly interesting pitstop because of the elk antler arches decorating the entrances to the town square.
From Jackson, we drove through Grand Teton National Park, admiring the majestic mountain ranges that are actually part of the Rocky Mountains.
Finally, after hours and hours of driving, we reached Yellowstone National Park! The first thing we noticed was the devastation from the fires that raged through huge areas of the park in 1988. Trees that were burnt to a crisp stood tall and grey, almost like skinny graves amongst the healthy green upstarts.
Our tour guide let us explore a bit when we reached the West Thumb Geyser Basin. Here, we saw our first geysers, pools, and springs... all surrounded in warm steam from the high temperature of the water.
As we headed back to the bus, our guide explained that we should all quicken our pace because he wanted to show us the most famous geyser at Yellowstone: Old Faithful. Why the odd name? Geysers erupt differently - some erupt constantly, spurting small amounts of water 24 hours a day; while others erupt at intervals that may be estimated at a few hours or perhaps a few days. Old Faithful was given this moniker because its eruptions are extremely predictable, with one happening every 90 minutes (give or take 10 minutes). Peter, our guide, told us that since the next eruption was predicted to happen in just under an hour, and we were 40 minutes away from the geyser, we had perfect timing.
Except, while he was talking to us, the bus driver had gone the wrong way. For 15 minutes. A short geography lesson: the road around Yellowstone Park is essentially a ring, so if you go the wrong way, you have to turn around or you'll spend hours trying to reach the destination from the opposite direction.
At this point, everyone on the bus was doing mental math, and gradually arriving to the same dismal conclusion. Peter was more optimistic. On a sign we had just passed, the distance to Old Faithful was marked as 17 miles. If we drove slightly faster than the speed limit and encountered no traffic, there was a slim chance that we would make it. As the minutes ticked by (there was a digital clock mounted at the front of the bus), you could see people on the bus start praying as others began to lose hope. When the geyser came into view, Peter instructed us to turn our cameras on and get ready to run because it seemed as if the geyser hadn't erupted yet. The bus came to a screeching halt, everyone poured out of the bus... and boom! No more than a few seconds later, the geyser erupted.
After all that excitement, it was time for bed. Whew.
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