While I wrote a post about our families’ experience renting an RV and driving through Grand Teton and Yellowstone, I wanted a chance to also write about the incredible vacation we had in the parks themselves. I think they are two of America’s greatest treasures and if possible, something everyone should see.

We started off our vacation by flying from the east coast to Salt Lake City, which was a great option because our flights were very reasonable and the drive from Salt Lake to Jackson was beautiful. The first night we headed out of Salt Lake, had a fun pizza dinner in Park City at Main Street Pizza and then drove up and spent the night at Bear Lake. If we weren’t headed to Grand Teton and Yellowstone, we could have spent our vacation at Bear Lake. Bear Lake is stunning and is often called the “Caribbean of the Rockies” for its bright blue water.

We then headed to the charming town of Jackson, WY. Highway 89 is one of the most beautiful drives I have ever been on. The first stop along the way there was the Snake River. My oldest asked, “Why is the river named that?” I answered, “It was, of course, named the Snake because of the way it winds.” We then saw not one, not two, but THREE snakes sunning themselves!

The first day we spent at Jackson Lake, we went on several hikes, listened to ranger talks and then rented a 16 foot skiff and did a little fishing. My kids were dying to swim in the lake, which was in the low 70s! There was no one out on the lake and the views of the Tetons were spectacular.

The second night we were celebrating an anniversary and had dinner in the Mural room at Jackson Lake Lodge. The food was fabulous and the view unrivaled as we looked out on one of the most photographed mountain ranges in the world. After dinner we walked out in front of the lodge to the willow flats and spotted a cow moose and her calf about 200 yards out. My husband was the first to see the calf and was quite proud to point it out to others. A great set of binoculars is a must for this trip.

Knowing that it can get very crowded, we headed out bright and early to drive into Yellowstone to see Old Faithful. Having the RV was great, the kids stayed asleep until we were almost there. When we arrived we were almost by ourselves, we spent a few hours walking along the geyser trail and visiting the Old Faithful Inn. When we left at noon the park ranger said they were expecting 7000-9000 people to view the next Old Faithful eruption!

We then headed to the Madison campsite and stopped at every turnout along the way and saw amazing geothermal displays. Madison turned out to be our favorite campsite, we spent the afternoon where the Madison and Firehole Rivers merge. The Firehole has many thermal areas along the bank that warm the river nicely and the Madison is one of the top trout streams in the country.

Quick story, my husband waded across the Madison River and went for a short hike. From across the river, he held up a recently eaten elk leg to show the kids and I (gross!). We had a good laugh. A man fishing came over to me and pointed up at the ridgeline and explained that there was probably a cougar up there guarding the rest of her kill she couldn’t finish. I waved my husband down from across the river, held my two hands up like claws, grabbed myself around the neck and pointed up to the ridge line. He quickly came back (amazing after 17 years of marriage, he instantly knew what I meant) and the kids will now tell you how their dad almost got killed by a cougar for trying to steal her food.

As we left the next morning we stopped at the Artist Paintpots and then at the Obsidian Cliffs roadside exhibit, both were well worth the stop. The town of Mammoth Falls was really charming. It was very nice and orderly in a park service kind of way.

Neither of us had ever been to Montana and so we went into the town of Gardiner for lunch and a quick look around. It was a true wild western town on the edge of the park right at the Roosevelt Arch. The Arch is the only entrance to the park open year round. After a great lunch at the Sawtooth Deli, we happened upon the Wagon Wheel Trading Post. My kids loved the store. It was full of all things from the”Wild West”, including pelts, fossils, leather goods, and Native American Craft items. Where else can you buy a bison jaw and get a picture of your littlest holding her doll with a coyote pelt hat on?

That night we stayed at the Mammoth Campground. The view was amazing and we hiked down to Lava Creek, which may be one of the coolest (actually warmest) things from the trip. Lava Creek flows above ground for only 100 feet through a crack in a rock. The massive flow goes into the Gardiner River right below the Mammoth Campground. The 140-degree water flows in the river making it one of the only inviting rivers to swim in. The area open to the public has a crude rock wall surrounding the warm water and keeping the ice-cold water at bay. The parking lot for the short flat hike is right on the WY/MT state line.

The next morning we went back to Gardiner to go whitewater rafting on the Yellowstone River. It was a great experience with a wonderful river guide named Sam. I think some days my husband might abandon us all to trade lives with Sam. He lives his life with his dog as a guide in the summer and running cattle over the winter. He was the epitome of the Marlboro man.

The last night of our trip we went to Hayden Valley and passed hundreds of bison on the way to the overlook. The night before a pack of wolves were spotted hunting elk in the Hayden Valley. At the overlook, there were probably 50 people looking for elk and wolves. Some of them had massive spotting scopes and binoculars to reach out over the 1-2 mile vistas searching for game. Everyone was very kind about showing each other and especially children what they were seeing. We were so sorry we did not see the famed Yellowstone wolves, but we did see many elk and either a beaver or an otter. The “roadside experts” agreed that it was likely a beaver. I only wish we would have had night vision goggles at Yellowstone.

This was a trip of a lifetime for our family. I knew when I planned it that it might be. I was only seven when I went as a kid and remember the trip clearly. Where else can you watch things explode out of the ground in an amazing assortment of colors, stand on a mega volcano, enjoy a natural hot tub, see hundreds of elk and bison and possibly see a bear, cougar, wolf, bald eagle, or (my favorite) wolverine?

It’s time for the fall migration of hummingbirds. While not all hummingbirds will head south for the winter, those in the northern climates will.  The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird flies up to 2,000 miles every fall when they migrate from northern climates east of the Rockies to their wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America.  This amazing distance includes a 600-mile crossing over the Gulf of Mexico.

A Few Facts:
Hummingbirds are among the smallest of birds, and include the smallest living bird species, the Bee Hummingbirds.  Hummingbirds can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 12–90 times per second.  They can also fly backwards, and are the only group of birds that are able to do so. With the exception of insects, hummingbirds in flight have the highest metabolism of all animals, a necessity in order to support the rapid beating of their wings.  Hummingbirds drink nectar, a sweet liquid found inside flowers. Like bees, they are able to assess the amount of sugar in the nectar they eat; they reject flower types that produce nectar that is less than 10% sugar and prefer those whose sugar content is stronger. They also consume more than their own weight in nectar each day, and to do so they must visit hundreds of flowers daily.

The National Audubon Society has their annual Hummingbird Migration Celebration in mid-September. You can join with other hummingbird fans and celebrate the birds as they begin their long journey. If you are lucky enough to be in the southwestern pat of the country, you may have these jewels all year.  But, no matter where you are, now’s a great time to get outside, stroll around a park and look for hummingbirds.

My husband and I make it a point to stop for lunch somewhere on long drives so the kids can stretch their legs and get a bit of energy out. We pack a big picnic lunch to carry with us in the car so we have the flexibility to stop anywhere that we want.

A few months back we were in the middle of an 8 hour drive, and we stopped at Falls Lake, a North Carolina State Park. I was testing out A Day’s Outing’s iPhone App when it was in development and found the park as we were driving down the road.

Falls Lake is quite large and offers camping, boating and fishing. We were just at the park for lunch and headed to one of the picnic areas. If we were fisherman, we could have made it a long lunch break and caught something wonderful for dinner. Instead, we ate under a tree and watched kayaks and motorboats make their way around the lake. It was wonderful to have lunch somewhere so beautiful and unexpected.

On the way back from a family visit to my mom’s, I made a last minute decision to follow a state tourism sign to the Montebello Fish Hatchery. It was a beautiful day and I usually like taking these kind of unexpected side trips. I now realize that I should have pulled out my trusty iPhone and check my own app for A Day’s Outing to see exactly where the sign for the fish hatchery might be leading me, but I didn’t.

Instead, we turned at the sign and started our journey down a lovely country road. I began to have doubts when the lovely road began to narrow and we started to climb the mountain. How far away could the hatchery be? Turns out it was miles and miles away. Twenty-five minutes later, we ended up at the very top of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

When we finally arrived, I realized that the Montebello Fish Hatchery is near Crabtree Falls, an amazing place to hike with the whole family. Since we had never been to a fish hatchery before, we didn’t know that there would be separate holding pens for the different species of fish, as well as the different sizes. This hatchery produces and stocks streams around Virginia with 150,000 Brook, Rainbow and Brown Trout each year. The fish are stocked in public waters from October to the end of May. During these months, the water is cool enough for the fish to survive the transition and adjust to their new environment.

My favorite part of the whole adventure was watching the kids jump out of their socks when they tossed their first handful of fish food into a pen. The trout exploded into a swarm as they all raced for the food. The kids screamed and I laughed. That was certainly worth the curvy roads and the extra time.

There are fish hatcheries all across the nation. Here are a few:

Thompson State Fish Hatchery, Manistique, MI

Makah National Salmon Hatchery, Sekiu, WA

Montebello State Fish Hatchery, Montebello, VA

NYS Salmon River Fish Hatchery, Altmar, NY

Nimbus Fish Hatchery, Rancho Cordova, CA

Orangeburg National Fish Hatchery, Orangeburg, SC

Wells Dam & Fish Hatchery, Pateros, WA

Earlier this summer while off Daufuskie Island in South Carolina, we came across a treasure trove of sand dollars on a sand bar. There were literally hundreds of them bleaching in the sun after a very low tide. We carefully picked some of them up to bring home with us. And yes, we only choose sand dollars that were dead. Below is a YouTube time-elapsed video showing the way a live sand dollar moves that my kids enjoyed.

Once we got our sand dollars home we gently rinsed, cleaned any sand or mud off of them and set a few out on the deck rail to bleach a little longer in the sun. Mix 1 part bleach with 2 parts water and soak the sand dollars for no more than 20 minutes or they will become to brittle. Place them carefully on a towel to dry.

After they are completely dry, mix 1 part white glue and one part water. We then dipped each of our sand dollars in the glue solution and sponged them smooth after we took them out. Place them on a smooth surface with the back down to dry. Once they are dry, you can decide if they are hard enough for your project. If not, just repeat the process.

Last week while visiting Hilton Head Island, we took a tour by zodiac to visit a sandbar off Daufuskie Island and watch the local dolphins. On our way out from the Sea Pines Marina the dolphins immediately came up to the zodiac, they seemed to enjoy swimming with us as much as we liked watching them. We then headed out to a huge sandbar that sits between Sea Pines and Daufuskie Island. The tide was very low and as we walked out there were hundreds of sand dollars lying on the sand, there were also beautiful cat eye shells, starfish, and tiny horseshoe crabs. The kids and I were in heaven!

Even if this had been the end of our tour, it would have been great. As we got in the boat our guide asked us to hurry and he would take us back into the tidal creeks and see if we could catch dolphins “Strand Feeding”. As we pulled into the creek, dolphins once again came right up to the zodiac. The creek was narrow and shallow and we loved being that close to the dolphins. As the dolphins swam in front of us, we could see large schools of bait fish scrambling to get away from them. There were also 3-4 foot sharks swimming close to shore and birds that seemed to know what to expect next.

Our guide, asked us to watch for the dolphins to start to head bob and begin to circle. As they began to circle the school in tighter circles, it trapped the 6-inch fish into a tighter and tighter ball. Then they created a powerful bow wave that rushed the prey out of the water and onto the muddy bank of the creek. The dolphins actually came all the way out of the water onto the bank and ate as many fish as they could. We then watched them wriggle back into the water, cruise around until they found another school of fish, and repeat the process. The two sharks that followed along with us waited with the birds until the dolphins finished eating and then ate everything that was left.

Bottlenose dolphins in Mexico and Portugal have also been observed strand feeding, but only the dolphins along the low-country coast of South Carolina and Georgia strand feed daily. Strand feeding is apparently a learned behavior and not instinctual. Young calves pick it up by observing their mother. No one knows why, but the dolphins always land on their right sides when they come up on the bank to feed. It looks like a synchronized trick.

So sorry my pictures of this are not better, I could not stop watching.

We went out with Commander Zodiac and our guide was Heath. The trip was amazing and something none of us will forget.

Our RV trip was by far my family’s favorite vacation. It was all of the fun of camping, without any of the hassle and comfortable beds to sleep in.

We flew to Salt Lake City, rented an RV and then drove to Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Driving through and camping in those two huge national parks was perfect. I would not recommend traveling long distances in a rental RV unless you are certain you are getting a newer RV. Our RV was very nice and clean, but was built on a very old F350 drive platform. I would also rent the shortest RV you think you can get away with, they are tough to maneuver and I would trade a few feet of extra comfort any day. The RV we rented for our family of four was 23 feet and we could have had one more adult or two small children easily. Be ready to spend the first 30 minutes seeking out LOUD rattles and shakes. We ended up using rubber bands to hold the cutlery secure, a towel over the slamming screen door and paper towels between the cereal bowls and inside the microwave.

The trip would have been a whole lot easier if we could have rented the RV locally and packed it with our own things right in our driveway. Linens were provided, but I had read that they were sparse. Before leaving home we used vacuum space bags and packed sleeping bags for the kids, a nice blanket for us, kitchen towels and pillows. We were glad we had them. This is the one time in your life you want thin towels, they dry much faster. In Salt Lake we did end up also buying a toddler bed rail so we felt more comfortable with the kids sleeping and playing over the cab. They LOVED being over the cab.

If you are traveling during the summer and want to stay were there are hookups for water and electricity, I would book my campground stays in advance. We wanted the freedom to decide as we went and ended up spending a lot of time on the phone. Arrive at campgrounds early in the day, before lunchtime, and you will get the best choice of spots. Very few campgrounds allow you to reserve a specific spot.  The photo below was taken from our beautiful camp site near Mammoth in Yellowstone.

I would consider getting to my first campground with plenty of daylight to spare to give you time to figure out your hook ups and get settled.  The electric hook up is easy, you just plug in. The water is simple as well, you connect a hose and then all water for toilet and sinks comes from the campground and doesn’t deplete your on board holding tank.

As you leave the campground and go to empty your black water tank is where the fun comes in. If you saw the movie, RV, remember Robin Williams… If you aren’t going RVing anytime soon, feel free to skip to next paragraph. It is gross, but with some smarts and rubber gloves (buy a pair at the grocery store before setting out), you only touch a bit of dirty water. After hooking up the hose and putting the business end into the hole in the ground, my husband would open the toilet valve first and let that empty and then open the grey water from the shower/sink to wash down the line. He would also close the grey water line after that first flush of the system and even fill up the grey water tank half way (to flush with clean water) before unhooking the hose and moving to the next campsite. I must admit the first time he did this, the kids and I were watching through the window, cracking up and waiting for a horrendous disaster to happen. By the way, never drink the water from the tap in a rental RV.

I will write a follow up post to the about the unbelievable natural beauty of these amazing national parks. This was a trip of a lifetime. I hope we can do this again soon and travel through Alaska with an RV.

We’ve all heard of a swarm of bees and a team of horses. But would you have guessed at a parcel of pigs or a mischief of mice? Well, my brother got me thinking about these fun sayings recently, and I simply had to find a few more. Here are some ….

Parliament of Owls
Mob of Kangaroos
Creep of Tortoises
Pod of Dolphins
Troop of Gorillas
Bed of Clams
Exaltation of Larks
Pride of Lions
Herd of Swans
Float of Crocodiles

The origin of these collective nouns, as they are really called, is uncertain but there is a bit of logic to them, they are often based on animal behavior. On a trip to the Virginia Safari Park I was thrilled to rub the noses of a flock of camels that all gathered around searching for treats. So the next time you are hiking through the woods and see a murder of crows, take a look at their behavior and see what you think.

Here’s a photo of a float of crocodiles from Cathy’s trip to Costa Rica-

I wonder what you call a group of hermit crabs?  I’d call them a scatter of hermit crabs!

Last week we were fortunate to spend time along one of South Carolina’s many beautiful beaches with our good friends.  While the weather was a little hot, we had a wonderful time.  One of our entire groups favorite things to do was getting up bright and early and heading over to beautiful Huntington Beach State Park to go shelling and hunting sharks teeth.

We found if you went early, it was much cooler and you could look before most of the people got there.  Huntington Beach is stunning and many people come to enjoy it, especially on summer weekends.  The kids were in heaven hunting for their treasures.  They were running up and down the beach showing everyone what they found.  I was lucky enough to find a treasure trove that included two pristine tiny red olives, tiny welks and numerous augers.  I like the tiny shells because it is easier to make things from them.  An artist in our group also found beautiful architectural pieces she can use in the jewelry she makes.

We were also very careful to make sure we did not disturb any live shells or sand dollars, or shells with hermits in them.  Those hermits always pick the prettiest shells!  The welk below let us know he was very angry with us for picking him up by shooting water us.

My littlest and I are now looking to see what we can make from our treasures.  We are hoping to make something as fabulous as this!

I had a new experience finding shark’s teeth at the beach this morning. Last year, I learned to look for shark’s teeth at the water’s edge as the waves washed up, as well as in the tiny piles of shells left by the receding tide. My son has the eagle eye and can find the tiniest teeth imaginable.

Today, I found the largest tooth I have ever found in a tide pool.  I didn’t know I should be looking there and was shocked to see the tooth about 6 inches below the edge of the water. I wasn’t even sure what it was, but the shape made me reach in and pick it up.  My daughter also found a shark’s tooth as large as mine in another tide pool 50 yards away. Her tooth was crystal white and was so new that it had sharp barbs on either side of the main tooth.  Sadly, she insisted on carrying her treasure herself and dropped the tooth in the sand on the way back to the car.

While there were some tears on the way home, we learned a few new things about finding shark’s teeth, as well as how to make sure they make it back home.