Month: May 2015

Today we spent the day at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah.

 

We drove up to the fossil quarry and learned all about the dinosaur bones that were discovered at the site.

Some of the bones you were allowed to touch!

We earned our Junior Ranger badges and learned that the ranger on duty is really passionate about the program. She even designed a patch for one of the parks and worked on their Jr Ranger book too.

Then we drove the tour of Tilted Rock and saw more petroglyphs and learned how the mountain was carved by the Green River.

We hiked in Box Canyon and even saw some wildlife for a loud as B and I were being.

We left Dinosaur and headed back towards Vernal to visit the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum. B and I were actually getting along most of the day. Even holding hands…

 

 

I explored in the mock dig pit and uncovered dinosaur bones. We learned how to tell true dinosaurs from mammals, birds and reptiles.

I was a pro at the identification game.

The skeletons were awesome. I really liked the stegosaurus.

The outside Dinosaur Garden was fun. The same artist did most of the sculpture. One of them took him 4 years to complete.

We worked on a neat book and earned a Junior Scientist patch for our hard work in the book.

 

We played some putt putt at the campground in the afternoon and had an early dinner.

We spent the entire evening whining about writing in our journals and did absolutely nothing. Mom and Dad made us go out for a walk hoping we would unwind a bit but it backfired and we just got more grumpy. The storms are rolling in and we continue to fuss. Somedays are grand on this voyage and some days are just rough. We do miss home, friends and our routine. But we love the adventure and exploration. Sometimes we just wear out and need downtime to do nothing or need to take a walk alone to clear our heads.

Goodnight. Another day tomorrow in the area and then we depart for Yellowstone!

 

We got to Great Basin late in the afternoon and Dad dropped the three of us off at the Visitors Center while he went and got a campsite at the park. We explored the visitors center and completed the Junior Ranger books, they were short. We took our pledge and received our badges.

Out back they were doing a Bio Blitz on aquatic critters in the Lehman Creek. We helped sort through a bucket of river water and picked out all the critters with tiny tweezers. We then sorted them into trays for the scientist to study. This helped indicate water quality in the river.

Dad picked us up and we explored our marvelous campsiteint he woods. For only $6 a night       ( no hookups) we had a site right on the creek.

We explored and TRIED to stay clean and dry but failed miserably, especially me!

Crossing the river on log or rock bridges got my shoes a BIT wet.

The entire area was just spectacular. Dad got some great panoramic shots.

I dragged Mom down into the river and across the bridges. She wouldn’t admit it but she had fun exploring before dinner. Mom was promoted from fire watcher to fire maker. She is now in charge of building and starting all campfires.

We ate chicken nuggets warmed on the grill while Mom and Dad had steak and salad. Since we are basically boon docking (no hookups) propane is our source of heat and cooking. The battery on the camper doesn’t last too long if you have to run the water pump and the heater at night.

The fire was going well and warming is nicely as the cool evening air settled in making us slightly chilly.

We roasted marshmallows for S’mores. Like normal I burnt mine and stole the marshmallows from Mom .

We attended an evening astronomy program and learned more about Dark Skies. We also got to look through telescopes at Jupiter, a few star clusters and Saturn. You could even start to see the Milky Way the area was so dark! I kept crying that my foot hurt and I could not walk. I have had a sore foot a few times this trip but usually it is days when I am diving off rocks and jumping off everything I see. I was only jumping off a small wall a few times today. Mom checked my foot out and figured it was just that my socks and shoes were soaked from he river playing and the temperature was now down near 35F. My toes were just cold! I still cried for a while longer and made Mom hold me for the rest of the program. After back at the camper I got changed into warm dry clothing and zonked right out never mentioning my foot again.

In the morning we took the Grand Palace Tour at Lehman Caves. We had a great tour guide named Dustin. He was really smart and funny. We loved exploring the cave and seeing all the features in the cave.

A new feature for me was called a shield. It is when water flows over an area and creates like a waterfall. They were really cool.

 

 

Today we broke down our fort we built in Uncle Matt’s backyard. 

I used the clippers and a saw to help cut the logs and branches into smaller pieces so they would fit into the truck for a dump run. Matt and Uncle Matt went to the dump and I stayed and helped Mom with laundry and making lunch.

We cleaned some of our cool new rocks for the quartz mine with a neat machine Matt owns that  blows air and crushed walnut shells to clean the dirt off of rocks and gems.

We got a quick tutorial from Uncle Matt and then he let us take turns cleaning some of the rocks.

I was apprehensive at first but quickly took to liking the task.

After we finished with rocks we went up to the summit in search of snow. We found just enough for a few snowballs.

We fiddled away the afternoon on iPads and then enjoyed showing Matt our games. We will miss California and visiting with Grandpa John and Uncle Matt. Maybe next time we come out we will go learn to ski or snowboard!

Our journey east begins tomorrow after we fetch Daddy from he airport tonight.

 

After the aquarium we zipped an hour up the coast to Santa Cruz for some exploring. We visited Natural Bridges State Park to see the tidal pools. He hiked out the rocks and stayed away from the edges so not to get swept away.

The pools were beyond amazing. We saw all sorts of anemones, crabs and kelp.

Natural Bridges is basically where the water carved out a hole in the giant rocks.

 

I wanted to go out and touch the Pacific Ocean but it decided to touch me instead.

 

We wrapped up at the beach and then headed to Steamer Point to see the surfers. We got more than surfers in our view. We got to see more harbor seals, sea lions and even a few sea otters! Suddenly someone shouted WHALE! A mama and baby grey whale went swimming past the point beyond the kelp forest.

 

We walked the boardwalk but it was closed for the day. It was weird to be in an abandoned place.

 

We finally zonked out around 10pm. This was the first night i didn’t curl in with Mom. She wanted the bed to herself!

 

We visited The Sam Cowell Redwoods in the morning. They were also so big around but super tall compared to the sequoia.

 

 

 

This may have been the widest and tallest tree I have ever seen.

 

 

 

We got into Monterey in the evening and walked along Cannery Row. We stopped at the Chart House for LAVA CAKE. I have been obsessed with lava cake lately and we finally found the best lava cake. It was fresh made (took 30 min to make), topped with vanilla ice cream, covered in homemade hot fudge and then sprinkled with Heath bar crunched up. I ate almost the entire thing!

We wandered down towards the aquarium and looked into windows.

We are only a few blocks away on foot so it will be an easy walk in the morning from the hotel.

We looked out at the Pacific Ocean from the overlooks near the hotel.

We called it a night and were up early for breakfast and then some walking before the aquarium opened at 10am. Before it opened we saw a beach covered in rocks and on closer inspection we saw that it was covered in harbor seals!

We got into the aquarium shortly afterwards and Mom talked to a few people at customer serve and managed to get us a private behind the scenes peak into the jellyfish store room. This is were the back access to all the display tanks is located. They also have lots of extra jelly fish in case some die, they are really hard to keep alive. 

These ones were only in the back room and none of the species were on display.

 

We got to see the moon jelly breading tank. This was very neat. 

 

After our AWESOME sneak peak we explored the jellyfish from the guest side. 

 

The jellyfish were so amazing. They have a special designer who makes the tanks and I think they did a great job.

The sardines were amazing when they were in their school zipping around.  We checked out the overlooks and looked for animals outside.

 

We watched the Open Tank feeding. The tuna in the tank were gigantic!

More jellyfish…

The cuttle fish were still my favorite. I have always loved cuttlefish.

The even had PENGUINS!

I loved the touch tank. I touched quite a few animals in the tank.

I made friends with the docent and she led me around and showed me lots of cool things. The abalone shell was pretty cool.

What an amazing trip to the aquarium!