Crumpled Home

Grandpa Jeff took a few days off work to play with us! First was a great trip to the Baltimore Aquarium with the cousins. It’s much bigger than the aquarium back home. We really enoyed seeing the Australian exhibit that was on while we were there, and even recognised most of the animals.

The next day we went hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Grandpa Jeff tracked down some geocache coordinates and brought his GPS so we could find them. We ended up finding three!

Finally, he took us into a commercial cave. He would have preferred a ‘real’ cave, but Mum and Dad were a bit uncertain about RJ disappearing off down one of the side tunnels when no one was looking.

There are these great bubble tubes right near the entrance to the Baltimore Aquarium.

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After our first few days in Shepherdstown, we took a quick road-trip down to Charlottesville and Nelson County, Virginia to catch up with some old friends. We only had a few days, so we didn’t get to catch up with everyone that we wanted to, and it’s something we unfortunately have to get used to (until we become ridiculously wealthy and can extend our vacations to months at a time). After getting back, we had some more fun with Grandpa Jeff and had some more cuddles with Baby V.

We drove down to Nelson County, Virginia to visit Jimmy & Jane, great friends of ours. The customary cookies and hamburgers were very popular.

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We sadly left Wyoming and flew to the East Coast where we were greeted by warm, humid weather… We definitely weren’t in Perth anymore. We arrived at the house to find a pool AND our cousins all ready and waiting for us. Time to have some fun!

We had some great times splashing around in the pool, hunting frogs down by the pond, picking veggies in the garden. Grandma Wendy and Aunty Grace took us all to the lake one day, and Dad took the four kids for a huge play at the park while our new cousin arrived. The next day we went off to the hospital for our first visit!

We finally arrived in Shepherdstown to warm weather, cousins, and a swimming pool!

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The hot springs, geysers and other exciting geological activity isn’t confined to Yellowstone. Thermopolis, a small town not far from Cody, WY is home to numerous hot springs (it’s actually located in the creatively named “Hot Springs County”). The locals were quick to take advantage of a few of the springs by directing their output into swimming pools and water slides. We enjoyed a relaxing morning there, splashing around and having a great time.

The streets of Cody are filled with real cowboys (fully decked out with real cowboy boots, real cowboy hats and really large belt buckles), so no trip to Wyoming would be complete without going to see cowboys in their natural habitat — a rodeo. The events were pretty exciting and did a good job of convicing us that the competitors were all quite insane. An Australian was competing in the bronco riding and we think he won… We yelled out a hearty, “Ozzie ozzie ozzie! Oy! Oy! Oy!” for good measure.

We had such a great time in Wyoming — it was pretty much non-stop activities and entertainment — most of which wouldn’t have been possible without the hospitality of our friends DD. and C. Thank you so much guys. It’s just amazing how much we got done; it really was terrific.

RJ takes to the warm, hot-springs fed pools at Thermopolis!

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QUIET! We’re pinching net access from the local library at the moment, so things are going to be very quiet around here until we reach another branch of civilization (where the tubes for teh internets are plugged in right).

More to come soon!

P.S. The people around here have VERY large belt buckles — we’re talking dinner plates here. The best thing is that they’re wearing them with shorts. I love this crazy place.

Cody, Wyoming is home to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, a marvelous set of museums which we spent a while exploring. Out front, a blacksmith worked a historically accurate forge and anvil making nails by hand (a job that I do not envy), while someone cooked up some buffalo stew over a campfire. The smells were delicious!

We also had a great time watching the Fourth of July Parade, complete with cowboys, horses, skiiers, cowboys, hamburgers, horses, cowgirls, poodles, horses, Shriners in little zoomy cars, cowboys, marching bands and horses!

We visited the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. It houses several museums in the same building.

With both our children being dinosaur obsessed and planning to become future palaeontologists, one of the big attractions to the Cody, Wyoming area was the dinosaurs.

Eighty million years ago, this place must have been absolutely infested with the creatures, because the area was littered with fossils, both above and below the ground. The place is still crawling with dinosaurs though, as shops and museums dedicated to the extinct creatures have sprung up everywhere.

We stopped in one of the local stores, which sported several large fossils (as well as a bizarre selection of South American jewelery and African trinkets). We also spent some time at the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre where they have an active dig site, a lab to work on the fossils, and an amazing museum full of complete skeletons and reproductions. Finally, we were taken on a fantastic fossil hunting expedition of our own through the middle of nowhere by John, a local paleontology enthusiast. Thanks John!

The dino shop had a full sized T. Rex skeleton on display. It took up most of the room!

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Just days after we arrived, we set off on our Yellowstone expedition. After driving about an hour, we entered the foothills and were treated to stunning mountain views, rock walls and cliff faces — but there was no time to stop! We pressed on and entered the park.

Yellowstone was teeming with bizarre and wonderful wildlife of all sorts. We delighted in spotting something new around each corner: bison/buffalo, elk, pronghorn antelope (SPEEDGOAT!), coyotes, foxes, rabbits, marmots, beavers, eagles, black bears and even one grizzly bear (suspiciously, dad was the only one who saw this). As we travelled, little crowds of photographers by the side of the road gave us plenty of clues as to where to look.

There were lots of tourists around, but we were generally impressed by the state of the park — not pristine, but well taken care of and healthy.

The kids even had a chance to play with some snow! It was pretty grotty, mostly melted and covered in black dirt, but it was magical for them.

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