Traveling

Balderrama’s Back East – Phase 1: New York

Romey

After months of waiting, my girls and I are on our long-awaited trip to meet up with family back East. This post covers our first leg of the trip: Binghamton, NY.

We booked the flight with Frontier Airlines, which is always more than you’ve bargained for. In this case, our departing flight got rebooked twice and had us leaving Denver before 7am. This resulted in our original airport shuttle being canceled, and the other airport shuttle moved us up another hour. The girls and I had to be out of the house by 2:30am. We luckily got on the shuttle and got to the airport in time. We were grateful for the extra hour, as the DIA security line wrapped all the way to baggage claim. We made it to our flight, although bleary-eyed.

We got into Binghamton and got picked up by Tony, my brother-in-law, and spent the rest of Wednesday getting settled and acclimated to our new home for the next few days.

For me, this was also a working trip, so I spent the day working remotely during Phase 1, while my daughters went out and enjoyed parts of Binghamton. Everyone spent Thursday at Animal Adventure Park and seeing different animals. Clara and her cousin, Sonia, got to hold some parrots. The girls also witnessed a first-hand lesson on turtle procreation.

On Friday we took in a little Americana by watching a Double-A baseball between the Binghamton Rumble Ponies and the Somerset Patriots. During the 7th inning, a massive rainstorm moved in and despite only lasting about twenty minutes, flooded out the field. The teams concluded the conditions were too dangerous to keep playing and called the game. However, they proceeded with an amazing fireworks show that actually made up for a canceled July 4th display from the prior week.

Our last full day in Binghamton was spent at Beer Tree Brew, where they had a cute craft fair and some great food. There’s a slow stream near the brewery where the girls waded and swam – the perfect way to cool off during a hot and humid day!

The rest of our time in Binghamton was filled with quality cousin time, play, and enjoying our family’s home and hospitality. Sunday was spent packing and heading out for Phase 2: the Poconos Mountains.

Yellow Leaves at Hermit Park

Enjoying Fall Colors

Romey

We took advantage of Clara and Bethany having an aligned three day weekend and headed up to the mountains to catch some fall colors. When we heard in September that the leaves were changing early, we got nervous, but luckily things held out and we got to see some great contrast in the leaves.

We went up to Hermit Park for the second time this year, renting a rustic cabin that has no electricity or running water. The weather was a beautiful mid-70’s, with the nights dropping into a cold 40’s. Luckily the cabin had propane heat, but we didn’t need to turn it on.

I can’t say enough good things about Hermit Park, especially when social distancing is so important. The cabins are very spaced out where you can’t see your next-door neighbor, and while the bathrooms are outhouses, they are actually very clean and well ventilated.

As soon as we got there we took a bunch of family photos that turned out pretty well. The girls were good sports about it, especially with the number of shots I took.

Friday couldn’t have been better. Then came Saturday…

We ventured out to Rocky Mountain National Park and started out at the Alluvial Fan. We snapped a few pictures then made our way up to see the water fall. We were crossing a 3-foot-wide stream when the rock I stepped on rolled and caused me to fall, with a 12 centimeter gash in my knee. This forced us to cut our trip short and go to both urgent care and eventually the Emergency Room for further examination.

The good news is that there doesn’t appear to be any bone fractures or ligament damage, but there was a lot of debris that made it into my knee and there is still concern for lasting damage and the possibility for further infection. Luckily I’m not in much pain and I’m taking it easy. I am wearing a knee immobilizer and need to use crutches to get around. My knee also currently has 13 stitches in it and a little drain for any excess fluid.

“But otherwise, did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”

I did have a nice time and am still very glad that we went!

More Balderramas in Yellowstone

More Balderramas in Yellowstone

Romey

This is part 2 of my Balderramas in Yellowstone post.

After two busy days of driving around the west end of Yellowstone, we opted for going low-key for day three and do things a little closer to the west entrance.

Our first stop was a cute shoreline along the Madison River, where we enjoyed some time in the stream and a picnic over by the river.

Next up was a quick stop over at the Fountain Paint Pot. In terms of number of features, this was probably the best stop we had. In addition to the “Mud Pots” that would boil over, there was also a cave that spewed out smoke and sounded like a dragon was living in it. There were also the multi-colored pools, similar to what we saw in the Grand Prismatic, as well as a geyser.

We headed back into the West Entrance town and enjoyed some brews at the Slippery Otter.

We had originally planned to go back home on Sunday, making a long day of driving, but the drive between Rock Springs, WY and to Island Park took a lot longer than we expected, due to road construction and going through towns. We opted to break the drive into two days and just go back to Rock Springs on Sunday. This created the opportunity to drive through Yellowstone on the way back and stopping to see the West Thumb Geyser Basin.

We also continued to drive through the South Entrance (which was much smaller than the West Entrance) and drive along the Grand Tetons. We were told by multiple people that it would be well-worth the drive – and they were right! We just made a quick stop at a pull-off and grabbed some beautiful pictures.

Our trip concluded back in Rock Springs with some rest and swimming! With as much fun as we had, we’re glad to be back home.

Balderramas in Yellowstone

Balderramas in Yellowstone

Romey

After stopping at home for a few days after South Dakota, we packed everything back up to go explore Yellowstone with our Balderrama family.

This time our home base is in Island Park, Idaho, which we made after two shorter travel days, staying in Rock Springs, Wyoming. The drive took us through Jackson during lunch and took a bit longer than expected since you’re driving through so many small towns. The 12 of us are staying at a beautiful cabin that goes three stories tall. We’re well stocked with good food and drink and have yet to eat out since we’ve arrived.

Island Park is about 30 minutes from the Yellowstone West Entrance, that takes you into Montana for all of 10 minutes before you’re back in Wyoming. The drive is really pleasant and we’ve been lucky enough to have encountered short lines when getting into the park.

I’ve never been to Yellowstone and wasn’t quite sure what to expect. After spending two days here, I would equate our experience to “Wilderness Disneyland” – it’s an incredible place filled with a lot of pretty sights, but there are a lot of lines everywhere you go. While we haven’t encountered too many traffic jams (and those are typically caused by a wildlife sighting), every big attraction has people everywhere, and we’re finding ourselves navigating big crowds.

The other surprise was just how accessible everything is by car. Every big attraction has a parking lot with a short path that leads you right up to it. I was expecting more long treks and hikes to view some of these things. With two young kids, I am grateful just how accessible all of these features are, but at the same time it does make every attraction feel like a Disneyland ride, again with people everywhere.

The scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and as someone who has been to Rocky Mountain National Park many times, I still am in awe at the marvels that are at Yellowstone. Grasping the size of the park has been a surprise, as I wasn’t prepared for as much driving as we’re doing. It’s a beautiful drive, but you are likely to spend the majority of your time in the car. Next to driving, we’ve spent the most significant amount of time at the bathroom lines. With four young kids, we’re always finding ourselves in the dozen-people-deep line of people waiting for the outhouses.

Over our two days at the park, we’ve experienced some great highlights.

Grand Prismatic Spring

This has been my favorite feature, by far. This (non-swim-able) hot spring is basically a boiling lake that runs off into the river. When the wind picks up, you can see (and feel) the hot steam blow off the water. At one point when we walked through it, my glasses were completely fogged up and there was no visibility.

There’s a big elevated walkway that you take as a one-way loop. It wasn’t until I was half-way through the loop when I realized the auto-focus was off on my lens, and I debated taking another quick solo loop with the focus working. I was so glad I did.

Old Faithful

This famous landmark was at the top of our list when we set out for Yellowstone, but we heeded the advice of the ranger that told us to go later in the day. It was still incredibly crowded, but we lucked into great timing and arrived just minutes before it was set to go off. It’s amazing just how much water shoots out, and how little contrast there is between the water and the clouds.

The Falls of Yellowstone

We spent our second day venturing to the Upper and Lower Falls of Yellowstone, showing off the start of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone as well. The falls were impressive and made for some incredible photos. We were looking forward to taking Uncle Tom’s Trail which would take you down 300 steps, but that was closed due to some hazardous conditions.

Artist Point made for some awesome views, but at that point our girls had enough and were pretty tired, shortening our visit.

Other notes

There is lots of wildlife that can be seen. We have driven by many Bison herds, but haven’t taken many great shots of them just yet. We also did find an elk hanging out on an island in the middle of a river as well. Our goal over the next day is to get some more shots of wildlife.

With four young kids, we’ve tried to keep our agendas relatively open with lower expectations. This has maintained a lot of space for fun with the family.

We’ve got one more full day in Yellowstone before we head back. We’re again trying to temper expectations and make things a little less structured, in hopes that we’ll have another fun and memorable day.

South Dakota

South Dakota

Romey

Hello from South Dakota! We ventured up north for a few days to spend time with family, see some sights and relax up north a bit. We’re up here near Custer, about 4.5 hours from our home in Windsor. I was really surprised just how short the drive felt, especially with a 5 and 3-year-old in the car. The girls were champs, Clara was particularly excited about a camera that is new to her (our last point & shoot camera we had before our smartphones overtook it) and proceeded to take pictures out the window for most of the trip, as well as a dozen pictures of her tray table.

We’re staying at a beautiful house that is next a pond and a pasture, nestled between two hills.

The weather has been cool, a bit rainy, but also beautiful as well. This has been a nice escape of the summer weather that reached Colorado last week.

After spending Saturday getting settled-in, we ventured out to Hot Springs to see the Mammoth Site. I’ll admit that I didn’t really do much research beforehand and had assumed that they uncovered the remains of a single mammoth, but found out that the Mammoth Site actually houses the remains of at least 61 mammoths, as they fell into a hot springs trap long ago.

The girls got to take part in a Junior Paleontoligists dig, where they got to dig up replicas. They really enjoyed playing in the dirt and making their discoveries.

We picked up lunch at the Daily Bread Bakery and Cafe and had an awesome buffalo chicken sandwich, then spent the afternoon swimming at Evan’s Plunge. We actually didn’t realize that the hot springs aren’t all that hot (at least those have been to Glenwood or Steamboat). The water is definitely warm and clear, and we had a lot of fun swimming.

On the way there and back, we drove through a Buffalo pasture, where we got to witness the beautiful animals up close. Bethany took this photo from the passenger window.

On Monday we ventured north to Mt. Rushmore. The day turned out to be rainy, but the rain let up just long enough to get some beautiful shots of the mountain sculpture.

We managed to get a little closer through the scenic path, snagging a better shot.

Between the time we viewed it on the scenic trail and when we got back to the observation point, the clouds and rained rolled in, preventing it from being viewed.

The rain squashed our plans for the rest of the day but gave us the opportunity to stop back in Custer and eat at The Burger and Bun Co. It was highly recommended from friends and definitely lived up to the hype!

The rest of our day was spent relaxing back at the house and resting up. We’re gearing up for full day on Tuesday before we head back to Colorado on Wednesday. More to come!