One of my favorite stops so far has been the Sistine Chapel. The audio tour that we listened to was interesting, plus the chapel was much cooler than the rest of the Vatican museums and we could find a place to sit down. Lindsey took that as the perfect time to take a quick nap!
Today we went to Hearst Castle. We went on a tour that seemed very short. We only got to go into 4 of the 115 rooms! I wanted to see more because I love looking at fancy, old houses like that. It was so interesting seeing how they lived back then and wishing I could live there. I told Mom that if I moved in to that house she could live in the smallest of the three cottages in the backyard (it was 8000 square feet). Here it is:
We also found out that our entire house could have fit in the living room of the main house! Also, when Mr. Hearst lived there he had a zoo in his backyard. On his very huge property he had many exotic animals including zebras (they still roam there wild today) and polar bears living there so that his guests (there were always at least 12 guests staying there at a time) could see them as they drove up the long, winding road up to the castle. I thought it was funny that when Mr. Hearst wanted to start building a home he said he just wanted a 7 or 8 room bungalow that would only take two or three years to build. It ended up having 115 rooms and taking 28 years and not even being completely finished (he died). This was one of my favorite parts of the vacation so far but I wish we could have seen more inside the house. Here are some more pictures:
There was an outdoor pool…
Later, we drove to Aunt Sue’s house. We went down to the pool that was in her neighborhood and had a nice homemade dinner at her house. It was nice to see Aunt Sue and her cats. She has two nice cats named Mulligan and Cody. But, she had a foster kitten that she was just keeping for a few weeks. Link, the kitten, didn’t understand how to use a litter box yet so she had to keep him in the bathroom but we still got to play with him. He was so adorable! Lindsey didn’t like the name Link so she just called him Little Mister. We wanted to take him home with us but of course our parents said no. 😦
This morning we went to a forest of redwood trees. They were very big and tall. It was fun to climb on some that had fallen down in the path. Also, we saw a sign that said that in the gift shop they sold snacks, t-shirts, water bottles, and leather stuff. We thought this was pretty odd and funny. Here is a picture of us “holding up” a tree:
Next, we drove to a place to kayak. It was really fun but we got pretty wet. We brought a lunch and had it floating out in the middle of the slough. We also saw lots of animals including sea otters, sea lions, seals, and pelicans. One sea otter swam under Lindsey and Dad’s kayak and came up right in from of them. It surprised them and Lindsey screamed. That was one of the funniest parts of the day! Here is a sea lion floating upside down in the water:
After kayaking and changing out of our wet clothes, we drove to our hotel right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. But, it was foggy and cold so we didn’t really get to enjoy the view.
Today was one of our San Francisco days. We started off the day with an insane amount of stairs (I can’t believe my mom made us go up all 447!) just to see a tower. 
Then, we had lunch at an Italian restaurant. The pancakes there were fabulous!
Next, we went to Pier 39 and saw some sea lions. They were really cute. 
After this, we went to a Ghirardelli store and got free samples of chocolate and some ice cream. That was a really good afternoon snack! 
Next, we got to ride on a cable car into Chinatown. In Chinatown we went to a cute, small fortune cookie factory and got free samples of the rejects (today was free sample day!). Mmmmm! 
We also got some tea there to help us warm up. It got really cool when it got cloudy! We met up with Jessica and Jeff and had dinner with them. It was nice to see them again!
We drove into California today and stopped to visit with my dad’s cousin and her family. They have an almost-two-year-old boy named Elliot and a six-month-old girl named Lillian. Both children are adorable. We had a great time sitting in their backyard talking and having snacks. Elliot loved showing us the lemon tree they had growing in the yard and Lillian was perfectly happy just being held and adored.
After this we stopped at Stanford University, where Unc lived last year. His office mate showed us around and we even got to see his office! After, we got Jamba Juice (deeelicious!).
Next, we drove to my mom’s cousin’s house. Jessica and her husband, Jeff, made us dinner and my mom’s other cousin, Brad, was there for dinner as well. We had fun meeting their cats and walking down to the frozen yogurt place near them after dinner (not as good as Pinkberry, but who doesn’t love frozen yogurt with delicious toppings?)
Today we drove to Salt Lake City and went to a few different places there. First, we stopped at the place where the Olympics was a few years ago. There was a video and some pictures plus you could see the structure that was lit by the torch and the stadium. It was a lot smaller than I expected.
Then, we went to a church and looked around for a while. This was soooo boring. When we finally got to our hotel we went to dinner. On the way back we saw these orange flags by the side of the road. We asked my dad what those are for and he didn’t know so he just said jokingly that you have to take one across while you cross the street and leave them on the other side. As we got closer we saw the sign and saw that he was actually right! We had lots of fun waving them as we went across the street! When we got back to the hotel we went in the pool and hot tub. It was very fun and refreshing even though it was a little cool out in the dark.
We drove to the Grand Teton National Park. We got to ride horses through the park, including through a few little streams and up a mountain. It was really fun! My horse was Tony. He was black and he was a very nice Mustang. As we were just getting back to the camp, it started to rain. It got pretty foggy and we didn’t really get to see a lot of the park (or any meese 🙂 ).
We got to our hotel which my mom said was supposed to look quaint and charming but to me it just looked like an old lady room. Everything was in terrible prints and faded colors- not very pretty to say the least. But, I survived staying the night! We went out to dinner at a local brewery and we took some funny pictures:
Today was Lindsey’s birthday. We woke up and went for a walk around a few hot springs and geysers. Some of the hot springs had really beautiful colors! We went to see the Steamboat geyser, the biggest geyser in the world, but it doesn’t erupt very often so we didn’t see it.
For lunch we drove to a small town outside of Yellowstone. This way we could add Montana to the list of states we visited on this trip. We went to a restaurant there and then walked around. Lindsey got a Yellowstone t-shirt in one of the shops there. I got one later in the park. After all that walking and shopping we were so tired that we just HAD to get ice cream. There was this really small homemade ice cream place. It was really good! Here is a picture of my dad trying on a silly hat in one of the shops!
After this we moved all our things to a new hotel that was at a different end of the park. Our new hotel was near Old Faithful, the famous geyser that erupts pretty regularly. Our hotel room didn’t have air conditioning so it was really hot inside. But, it was a very nicely decorated hotel room. We went to watch Old Faithful. It was really cool to see it go so high. Here is a picture:
After we watched Old Faithful we got dressed up and went to a fancy dinner at the Old Faithful Inn in celebration of Lindsey’s birthday. The pizza there was delicious! It was also fun because we surprised Lindsey by telling the waitress that it was her birthday when she wasn’t at the table. It was great to see how surprised she was when all the waiters and waitresses came over to sing, “Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam, where the antelope play. Happy birthday to you from the Old Faithful crew, and we hope you enjoy your big day!” She even got a birthday candle in her dessert (a chocolate lava cake…mmmmm!).
A funny thing happened this morning! We were driving down the street and I wanted to take a picture of the place where the rodeo that we saw yesterday was so I put the window of the car down. All of a sudden, a sprinkler hit me in the face! I was really surprised and very wet.
When we got to Yellowstone National Park we went to our teeny-tiny cottage. It was very cute but not as nice as our one in the Badlands. We went on a few hikes. We saw a “mud volcano” that had lots of hot springs that smelled horrible! Also, we went down hundreds of stairs to see a beautiful waterfall. We even saw a rainbow and a nest of baby birds there. But, it was very tiring to walk up so many stairs. Here are some pictures from our hikes:
That night we went up to the lodge to play cards (Dad and I beat Lindsey and Mom in Hand and Foot) and when we came out of the building there was a buffalo right in the middle of the road on a patch of grass. It wasn’t even bothered by any of the people or cars going by! We didn’t get a picture because it was so dark out.
Hammond Adventures 