It turns out, you can go home again.

Posted by Scot

Oh, Canada.  Thanks for taking us back.

In North America, there are one or two nations that are a bit more vocal than the others about calling themselves “the greatest country on earth.” (OK, one.  It knows who it is).

I certainly don’t pretend to be qualified to be the judge of something like that.  I’m not even sure how you could objectively measure that kind of thing.  Oh, sure, I suppose you could look at things like education, health care, life span, income, poverty levels, etc., but really, what would any of that prove?

But I digress…

My point is, whatever nation is the best on earth, as we sailed aboard the Black Ball Ferry into Victoria Harbour, it was immediately clear to us that this was by far the cleanest and most beautiful city harbour we have seen anywhere.  Driving north on Vancouver Island towards my parents place, we couldn’t help noticing how incredibly green everything was.  How calm and pleasant the traffic was.  How clean the city streets were.  All the things that we used to take for granted stood out in stark contrast to everything we have been exposed to in the last year.  Greatest country on earth?  Like I say, who knows?  I haven’t been to every country on earth.  But I can say without a doubt, I am sure glad I live in this one.

Log booms.  A sure sign we are back in B.C. ...

...and another one.  Not only have we not seen any logging trucks since we left Canada, in most places we haven't really seen trees.  Hopefully they'll remember to leave some in our forests for us to enjoy.

We’ve had a great time visiting my folks for the last few days.  The day after we arrived, we went back in to Victoria to take in an IMAX and tour the legislature, which is something we never did when we lived here.  We were really proud of the great tour the guide gave us at the parliament buildings.  The tour guides here could teach a thing or two to some of the guides we had on tours in the states.

Hanging with some of the local Canadians at the IMAX.

We have also been trying to keep ourselves fit in anticipation of some hiking we plan to do when we get back to the mountains.  We took a morning and climbed up Mount Tzouhalem just outside of Duncan, which is right behind our old house.  We also hiked out to the Kinsol Trestle, which at one time was the biggest train trestle in the world.

The Kinsol Trestle Bridge.

Enjoying the temperatures in the low 20s.  Now we can really do some hiking.

The U.S. doesn't have the market cornered on gun culture.  Although maybe this sign was mocking that culture.  Not exactly sure.  Pretty funny, though.

Today, we hiked down to the ocean and watched boats battle their way through Dodds Narrows.  This thin gap between Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands channels a lot of water through a small space in a hurry.  The current was running somewhere around five knots when we were there today.  Still, a couple of boats fought their way through, despite the rapids and eddies that had built up in the channel.  Great fun to sit and watch. 

Working through the rapids in Dodd Narrows.

Taking a lunch break next to the ocean.

The other cool thing about the hike down to the narrows was that someone had taken it upon themselves to add a little wildlife to the environment.  For the first half of the hike, there were toy dinosaurs posed at various spots throughout the forest.  Some of them were really small, and you could easily have missed them all if you weren’t looking.  Fortunately, Christopher spied the first one, and then we kept our eyes open and found a bunch more.  Pretty great way to make the  hike fun for the kids.

Aauugh!  Dinosaurs!

And more dinosaurs.  What a great way to make our walk fun for the kids.

Best of the USA

Posted by the whole crew

Our route, corner to corner from the Atlantic to the Pacific

Based on extensive media research, we here at moving mountains have come to the conclusion that people like lists.  Top 10 celebrity nose jobs, favourite bar-b-cue ribs recipes, greatest kitten videos.  Lists rule the internet.  So, after travelling corner to corner and back again, in honour of the 4th of July, we sat down and put together a list of random things we liked  (and a few things we didn’t like so much) about our great neighbour to the south.

To start with, for posterity, here is a list of all 27 states we have travelled through on this trip: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Maryland, Delaware, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington State.

Best City

We’ve seen a lot of major cities on our trip.  Some (like New York, New Orleans, and Las Vegas) were pretty much what we expected, without too many big surprises.  They were victims of their prominent public images.  Still, it was fun to see all the famous sites in person.

Christopher, helping out with the refurbishment going on at the Washington Monument

Our favourite city overall was Washington, D.C.  While it gets a lot of bad press for both politics and crime, the downtown area where we stayed was clean and welcoming.  The history displayed in the  monuments and the Smithsonian museums could have kept us busy for a lot more time than we had.  Generally speaking, as a family, we don’t tend to have as much fun in cities as we do in smaller towns and rural places.  But D.C. is a city that would be worth going back to and exploring some more.

Taking a bike tour of the D.C. Monuments was a great way to get an appreciation for the city, and some American history.

Best Museum

This was a tricky one for us.  The museums at the Smithsonian are incredible, and impressive.  And Christopher loved the Kennedy Space center in Florida.

But the overall winner was the World War II museum in New Orleans.  This was an unexpected surprise, and is really well done.  If you ever go, shell out the extra bucks to see the Tom Hanks movie.  The submarine adventure is also pretty good, but if you want to save a few dollars you could do without it.

The World War II museum was really well done.  They even had some exhibits showing the Canadian contribution at D-day.

Best Restaurant

Finding good places to feed a family when you are living out of hotels is a real challenge.  Fast food is   ubiquitous, and cheap, but it is hard to find a place where you can feel that what you are giving your kids is nutritious in any way.  More formal, sit-down restaurants tend to get pretty expensive when you tally up meals for five.  And we found the portions in the U.S. were usually too huge to contemplate (we often tried to beat both these problems by sharing meals, but then we could never know for sure if we would have enough).

Despite the “huge meal syndrome”, the Olive Garden gets an honourable mention in this category.  A few times, when we were really starving, the all you can eat salad and bread helped to quell a real-life hunger games from breaking out.  One of the proudest moments of our trip was navigating from New York’s Central Park directly to the subway station adjacent to the Olive Garden in Times Square, without poking our heads above ground once.  Pretty good for a family from a town of 3,000 people.

The clear winner for best restaurant, though, goes to The Whole Enchilada, in Ft. Lauderdale.  This place perfectly hits the middle ground for food which is relatively inexpensive and prepared quickly, but is still fresh and healthy.  The help-yourself salsa bar has 6 different types of home made salsa which you can add at will to your burrito or chips.  The mango salsa was a particular favourite.

The whole enchilada, winner of our favourite restaurant award.  The cheque and trophy are in the mail.

Having said all that, the family vote for our favourite meal goes to the Hot Pot and Sushi restaurant where we had Sara’s birthday dinner, in Portland.  This was one of those pleasant surprises that are the best part of travelling. 

Our guilty secret is this.  Sometimes, in an effort to get a cheap, but decent meal, we have resorted to eating at the nearest Ikea, where we know we won’t break the bank (heck, some of them feed kids free on Tuesday), but will still get an actual meal involving vegetables and everything.  So, on the night of Sara’s birthday, we found ourselves in Portland, not too far from Ikea.  We were headed there for dinner (I know, big birthday celebration, right?) when we spotted the Hot Pot and Sushi restaurant nearby.

Watching the sushi train, at Hot Pot and Sushi in Portland.

On the west coast, we are used to having cheap, high quality sushi.  In the rest of the States, sushi still seems to be a pretty high end specialty food, so we haven’t eaten much recently.  Since we are all fans, we decided to forego Ikea, and indulge in sushi instead.  It turns out that it was one of those sushi restaurants where you all sit next to this little conveyor belt, and just pick out the plates that interest you.  At the end of the meal, they count the plates, and that is how they charge you.  The kids loved the conveyor belt idea, and it was great fun to watch the dinner options go by, and just grab what looked interesting.  30 plates later, we were as full as could be.  Sara says it was her favourite birthday dinner ever.

Best birthday dinner ever!

Best Hotel

Our favourite hotel chain was the Marriott Residence Inn, since we could generally get an extra bedroom and a kitchenette for a reasonable price.  For a single overnight on a road trip, they provide a pretty comfortable stay for a family.  But they are fairly standard, with nothing too exciting about them, so when we are talking about the best hotel overall, none of the Residence Inns make the list.

The runner up award for the single best hotel we stayed at goes to the Hilton Vacation Club hotel in Orlando, Florida.  Because we hit it in off-season (October), we got a huge, fancy, two bedroom suite with a full kitchen and living room for less than the cost of a lot of the basic hotel rooms we stayed in during the summer.  The massive pool, where they projected a movie in the evening helped to launch this place into our top two.  In a way, it was almost a shame that our hotel in Orlando was so great, since most of our time there was spent at Universal and Disneyworld, so we didn’t really get a chance to enjoy it.

Taking time out from our awesome hotel to enjoy Hogwarts at Universal Studio.

The winner in this category actually suffered a bit from our off season timing.  We arrived at the Glacier Canyon Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells exactly 5 minutes before they shut down most of the fun stuff for the winter.  From the registration desk, we watched out the window as the last go-karts of the year made their way around the track.  As we carried our luggage into our room, we could see them turn off the fountains at the outdoor water park for the last time that summer.

Still lots of fun at the indoor portion of the water park at in the Wisonsin Dells.

Ropes course at the Glacier Canyon Lodge.

Even without those things, though, the indoor water slides, arcades, and rope course made this place a legendary family stop.  The kids are still talking about the Hurricane, and the giant bucket of water that dumped on their heads.  And being there in the fall meant no people, and no line ups.  Add in a good sized room for a reasonable off-season price, and this place gets the award for our best hotel stay of the trip.

Best National Park

The rocks and views at Zion were incredible.

The vote here was split between Zion and Carlsbad Caverns.  In then end, though the Caverns get the nod, due to their unique environment.  And the fact that it wasn’t 40 degrees C out while we were enjoying them.  Where else can you spend the day hiking underground, looking at incredibly huge caves and crazy formations.  Definitely a must see if you are in New Mexico.

Descending into the depths at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.

Best Public Restroom

This is a pretty critical category when you are travelling with kids.  Without a doubt, Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas is the winner.

The losers in this category are too numerous to mention.  Suffice it to say, our bladder control has improved significantly along the highways of America.

Ummm, Mom, all this water.... can we go find a bathroom?

Best Pastry

We’d like to sound all classy, and say the Beignets in New Orleans were the winners here.  These light and flaky deep fried pastries covered in powdered sugar were definitely a highlight of our trip to the Big Easy.

However, the real winner here was the Cinnabon Cinnabites that we had at a Taco Bell in Biloxi, Mississippi.  These were like warm, crunchy sugar donut Timbits with a sweet creamy custard filling.  Mmmmmm!

Mmmmm, Cinnabon.

Best Town Name

Bunkie, Louisiana.  Made us think of the McJ’s place at Gambier.

This one is a test to see if Shakey has read this far. 

Bryce Canyon

Posted by Sara

After Zion our minds turned to thoughts of home.  We stopped at Bryce Canyon National Park, an hour and a half from Zion, for a short 1 hour hike around the famous Queen’s Garden’s/\Navajo Loop and Wall Street.  The famous Hoodoos were truly amazing.  Then we started to put in some miles.

Hanging out above the hoodoos.

Hoodoo gurus.

The hike we did in Bryce has been called the "best 3 mile loop in the world."  I'm not sure about that, but it was pretty spectacular.

When you're a teenage boy, hiking alone is not enough exercise.  So you add in a little gymnastics.

Exiting the canyon along a trail called "Wall Street", where the walls close in tight.

We bid the Canyon lands good-bye and started to make time toward the Pacific Northwest.  Through Salt Lake City, Boise Idaho and on to Portland, Oregon through the picturesque Columbia Gorge.

The famous Columbia River Gorge.  A bit further along we came to the town of Hood River, the windsurfing and kite boarding mecca.  Too bad we were trying to make time, or we could have continued our kite boarding lessons.

There is a fair bit of freighter traffic up and down the Columbia River.  They have to navigate the bridges, which raise like this one.  They also have several sets of locks they need to go through at various dams.

Freighter traffic on the Columbia.

Mount Hood, one of the several volcanic mountains to be found in Washington state.

Hood River, windsurfing mecca.

We stopped for a day in Portland.  Feeling the need for a bit more exercise, we took the kids to a trampoline warehouse.  Well, the kids and Scot.  In this picture, Scot is actually landing from a jump.  He is not that heavy when he is just standing there.

From Portland, we headed up the Olympic Peninsula to catch the Coho Ferry to Victoria.  As we went the gray clouds rolled in, the rain started drizzling and we all pulled out our Hoodies for the probably the first time in 8 months.

Waiting for our next ocean voyage, on the Coho Ferry to Victoria.  This point in our journey marks our arrival at the Pacific, having crossed the entire continent from the Atlantic!

Can't wait to be back in Canada!

Real Life on the Road

Posted by Sara

Enjoying life on the road.

We have seen some amazing things on this trip, but it’s easy to fill the blog with all the sights and skip the day to day experience of driving 7000 km, staying in hotels and eating on the road.

These are definitely ‘first world problems’ but after 17 days on the road, we are all getting tired of squishing 5 of us into one room hotels and struggling to eat healthy meals for a reasonable cost. 

We use a combination of old technology and new technology to get us where we're going.  We haven't gotten lost ... so far.

Our favourite family hotel is Residence Inn by Marriott.  They are the only hotel we have encountered with a 2 bedroom suite which costs only a bit more than a standard hotel room.  We get 2 bedrooms, each with a queen bed and en-suite, a living room with a pull-out couch for the third kid (don’t have to lug in the blow-up mattress & pump) and a real kitchen.  We also get 3 TVs, one in each bedroom and one in the living room, so we can all watch our own show instead of trying to find one show that all 5 of us like.  In addition, they serve a fantastic complimentary breakfast with the traditional continental selections as well as hot food, oatmeal, muesli, fresh fruit and make-your-own waffles.   We always grab a banana each for the road.  With breakfast for all five of us, we pretty much make up the difference in the cost of this hotel and one that doesn’t have breakfast.

A man enjoying the freedom and independence of the road.  And Scot.

Many of the National Parks we have visited haven’t had a suite hotel nearby so we have had to make do with a traditional 2 queen bed room with one kid on the floor.  Not that we can really complain while having a good roof over our head but it does get tiring after a few nights of us all sleeping in one room what with a  few snorers and a few restless sleepers (you know who you are).   We all need to go to bed at the same time and there is only one bathroom for all 5 of us to share.

The mornings get a bit crazy.  For some reason the kids have vetoed sharing the bathroom to expedite our getting on the road.  “No, I will not brush my teeth while you are going to the bathroom.”   Picky, picky.  Why not?  For the nights we stay in standard one room hotels, our favourites are Holiday inn Express and Hampton Inn & Suites.  Mainly because the rooms are all neat and clean and the breakfasts are good.

Eating on the road is a challenge.  It’s hard to avoid the pop and the deep fried food choices unless we are willing to pay a lot more.  Often better choices aren't available, even if we want them.   It’s also hard not to get lured into eating more just because they offer us big portions.   Psychologically, it’s hard to walk away from 1/2 a plate of leftover food that we have just paid for.  We made a couple of family rules to help us out.  Only water or milk or lemonade while on the road and we push the plate away as soon as we are feeling full – no eating more just because it is there.  Of course we break the rules occasionally but at least they help us to stay a bit on track.

Taking a break from the road to hike in Bryce Canyon.

Breakfast is easy as we always pick a hotel with complimentary breakfast.   The breakfasts are really great.  We usually do some form of fast food for lunch.  Our favourites are Subway and Mexican food as they offer the healthiest choices but we are often limited by what is nearby at noon every day.  We try to do a sit down dinner most nights but have to be careful of our menu choices.  Luckily most restaurants in the States have a kids menu so that helps with the costs but they mainly offer the same 4 items.  Katie has been eating mac and cheese at least 3 times a week.  Christopher vacillates between the kids’ menu and the adult menu.  Luckily he has really expanded his food choices this year so he can usually find something besides his standard chicken fingers & fries.  Pizza is an easy, cost-effective choice that everyone likes so we end up eating pizza a few times a week.  We usually average about $100/day on food - $35/lunch and $65/dinner. 

Hiking Bryce Canyon.

Our driving days vary greatly depending on what there is to see on the way.   We find anything more than 5 hours/day of driving is definitely pushing it.  The kids spend a lot of car time on their DSs and i-pods.  Scot and I call out every time there is something interesting to see and they all pop up their heads for a quick view.  We also listen to pod casts (mainly CBC Laugh out Loud, and three NPR shows – Car Talk, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and Freakenomics.)   We all enjoy them.

DS's make the miles go by.

At any rate,  the trip has been amazing but we are certainly looking forward to getting home to our own beds, being able to cook our own food, and having a bit of space from each other.

Angel’s Landing

Posted by Scot

(If you're just here for the pictures, this time I decided to put them all in a slideshow at the bottom of the post).

We left the craziness of Las Vegas behind with relief.  Maybe it would be a great vacation spot for a wild weekend sometime, but when we are travelling with the kids, that`s not how we roll.  Our next destination, Zion National Park, was more our speed.

As we drove through the desert, the traffic from Vegas gradually fell away.  By the time we entered the park gates, it was just us, and other families in mini-vans and RVs.  The day had been smoking hot, so it was nice to feel the air cool off a bit as the sun fell closer to the tops of the high, red canyon walls all around us.  The town of Springdale is a welcoming small, outdoorsy community, with lots of hiking stores and good restaurants.  It reminded us of home.

After a quick dinner at the local pizza joint, we weren't ready to head back to the hotel.  Instead, we hopped in the van and drove up the road, through the mile long tunnel blasted right through the mountain.  On the far side of the tunnel, we all piled out of the van and enjoyed the 45 minute hike to the canyon overlook.  The 2000 foot drop to the canyon floor was unnerving, despite the chain link fence holding us back.  Still, the views were incredible.  Little did we know, this was but a mild introduction to what was coming
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Temperatures for the next day were forecast to crest 40 degrees Celsius (105 Fahrenheit).  We got up early (for us) at 6:30 to try and avoid the worst heat of the day.  At breakfast in the hotel lobby, it was clear we weren`t the only ones with this idea.  Lots of people were awake, keen to get out in the relative cool of the morning.

We took the shuttle in to the park, and again, it was clear that pretty much everyone had the same idea.  The bus was full of hard core looking hikers.  We thought it was really great how Zion has instituted a mandatory shuttle bus to check out the upper reaches of the canyon.  This cuts down on vehicles and emissions, and helps to protect the national park.

When we got to the stop for the Angel`s Landing hike, about half of the shuttle emptied out.  We knew from reading the park brochure that this was one of the most popular hikes in the park, so we weren`t too surprised.  Most of the other hikers set off at a blistering pace, though, so after a quick bathroom and water stop, we were out of the thick of things.

Once we had everything ready, we started up the steep switchbacks that hugged the canyon walls.  Sara and I both come from hiking families, and we learned the same hiking style when we were kids.  Slow and steady.  It is remarkable how effective it is to just keep plodding along at a relaxed and gentle pace.  In the first 45 minutes, we were constantly being passed by people moving at mall-walking pace, puffing away and sweating hard.  As always happens, though, after about 45 minutes, we started to pass the same people, taking breaks in the shade and filling up on water.  Sara calls it her “all day pace”, meaning she can hike 10 hours that way, if she needs to.  It works really well with the kids, who never get tired, no matter how much climbing we do.

When we got to Scout’s Landing, we were glad that we had some strength left in our legs.  The last mile of the Angel’s Landing hike is famous for it’s intensity and exposure.  We were going to need a little strength, and a lot of courage to make it to the top.

Angel’s Landing was apparently named by early Mormon settlers, who figured that when and if angels ever came down to earth, this was the spot they would choose to land.  It is a pretty spectacular summit, and I can see why they might have thought that.  In order to get to the landing, though, you have to climb up over a mile of narrow trails that fall dramatically off to either side, over 2500 feet to the canyon floor.  The ground is all smooth rock, which looks like it could be extremely slippery, especially when it gets wet.  Up here, there are no chain link fences guarding the edges.  There are chains bolted to the rock to hang on to at the worst points, but other than that, it is entirely up to the hiker to make sure they don’t plummet to the valley floor.

We had heard it was an intimidating hike, and there were lots of signs warning that anyone scared of heights should not attempt it.  But given the number of tourists heading up, we figured we could make it.  And we were right.  We all got up the crazy pitches, even Katie.  But it was pretty intense, and a couple of us were none too happy with the exposure.  It boggled my mind that this was a National Park sanctioned trail.  In fact, it turns out there have actually been several deaths on the trail.  It’s not clear whether they were from falls or heart attacks from climbing the steep pitch in the heat.

We didn’t spend too long at the top.  We took just enough time to check out the view, then we turned around to head down.  None of us wanted to wait too long to make the trip back, since we weren’t sure if going down would be easier or harder than going up.  Fortunately, we managed to work our way back down the narrow trail to safety.  We were back at the hotel by the time the heat of the day really kicked in, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool and the A/C, as the outside world became a blast furnace.

If you’re ever in Zion, and heights don’t bother you, this is a hike you pretty much have to do.  The best time of year would probably be spring or fall, though, when temperatures are lower, and crowds are less.

Here is a short slideshow showing some of our hiking in Zion.  If you want to get the full effect, make it full screen, hop on your stair master and turn your heat up to about 37 degrees while you watch this.