Herrold Family Tour

Glacier National Park

herroldfamilytrip — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:19:56 +0000

Hello and welcome to the last post!

Thanks for all the fun comments and feedback–it has been so fun sharing our adventure with all our family and friends and I hope you have enjoyed it as well. It really was a trip of a lifetime–one we will never forget!

Glacier National Park in Montana was our last official stop–what another treasure of a National Park we have here in the U.S.!! We saw the most wildlife we have seen yet there: big horn sheep, mountain goats, black bear and the elusive moose–finally got a glimpse of one of them!! We saw a ton of beautiful butterflies and birds as well. We took a boat tour of St. Mary’s Lake and learned a lot about the history of the park. It is hard to believe, but scientists now predict that by 2020 ALL of the glaciers in Glacier National Park will be gone due to the climate shifting warmer. This is not to say that glaciers will stay away forever–the park has had periods of time like this, but it may not ever again have glaciers in our lifetime. We also enjoyed the Going to the Sun Road–yes, that is the name of the main road that cuts through the heart of the park! It is a fairly famous road, taking 11 years (or was it 14?) to build in horrible working conditions all so that people could access the park by something other than horseback. It is a GORGEOUS drive and we really enjoyed it. We also enjoyed a beautiful hike near Logan’s Pass and ran into a mountain goat on the trail–I’m not sure who was more scared–him or us!!

Enjoy the Glacier photos and hope you all have a great fall!!

Love,

Kelly

Wonderful Wyoming

herroldfamilytrip — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:24:23 +0000

We were fortunate to take in both National Parks in Wyoming–the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. We have seen many National Parks this summer and they keep impressing us. They are all so beautiful in their own ways. We saw a lot of wildlife as well as gorgeous mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, geysers, mud pots (boiling mud–literally), steam vents and hot springs. Animals we saw: bison, elk, deer, grizzly bear and tons of chipmunks and different birds. The one animal that eludes us is the moose and we hope to see those at Glacier National Park!! Again the boys took part in the Junior Ranger programs at both parks and have collected now quite a variety of patches!! They do enjoy the programs and they are so educational–the boys can tell you why a “fed bear is a dead bear” and why it is so important to protect our National Parks. Zachary has now added park ranger to his list of future occupations!

Enjoy the Wyoming pictures!

Love,

Kelly

Chicago and Mt. Rushmore

herroldfamilytrip — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:24:08 +0000

Hi Everyone!

It seems like it has been forever since I have updated our blog–and we have done a lot since I last posted Niagara Falls–we are now in Missoula, MT an overnight stop on the way to Glacier National Park–where we are headed tomorrow. So, we have traveled quite a bit!!

We were in Chicago for one full day and did as much as we could in a day–we took the train into the city, grabbed Chicago style hot dogs for lunch and they were SO GOOD–hopped on one of the city’s free trolleys to the Field Museum of Natural History. This was part of the trip that I think Michael was most looking forward to as this is the museum that houses “Sue”–the most complete, best preserved T-Rex in the world! It was just really unbelievable to see her up close and personal. Her skull is actually so heavy (around 500-600 pounds) that the head on the fossil is a reproduction and her actual skull is encased elsewhere in the museum! But that wasn’t the only cool thing to see: we saw tons of other dinosaur skeletons and skeletons from the Ice Age animals, etc, lots of Native American artifacts–some several hundred years old (the pottery was amazing), and MUMMIES!! The kids thought these were pretty cool, too. After a long day taking in the museum, our Chicago visit was ended with what else…Chicago Style Pizza–so delicious and the day really ended well as the pizza place we frequented was having half-price martinis!! WOO HOO!!

Mt. Rushmore–wow, has THAT Monument changed since I was a kid. This is about the only part of the trip that I have done as a kid (we did Disney World when I was a kid, too, but they were BUILDING Epcot when I was there if that gives you any idea of how long ago that was…). They have added so much and we really enjoyed it–there are new trails–the Presidential Trail is just awesome as you get to view the faces from many new angles, the museum housed there discusses how it was actually built–you can watch video and see the tools, etc–very interesting and the flags lining the entrance are just beautiful–one for all 50 of the U.S. states. The boys completed yet another Junior Ranger program there and they were quite intrigued with how this piece of art came to be. We enjoyed checking out all the Harley Davidson motorcyles too as we were there at the start of the annual Sturgis Bike Rally. Our visit to the Black Hills ended with the kids doing a western style sepia-toned picture in Keystone–it is so funny–Michael and Jacob are bank robbers getting ready to bust out of jail, while “Sheriff” Zach has fallen asleep on the job!

Check out the Chicago and Mt. Rushmore pictures!!

Kelly

Meanwhile…back at the Herrold Household

cfreiburger — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:52:23 +0000

Herrolds – We wanted to make sure your beautiful outdoor room didn’t go untouched this summer!
~your Oregon friends!

For a few more photos, click here.

Niagara Falls, NY

herroldfamilytrip — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:35:52 +0000

Hi folks,

Our pictures will do the talking. Niagara Falls was just plain amazing. We got to “explore the roar” by taking the Maid of the Mist boat tour which takes you right to the base of the three falls–it was so loud and WET–they provide ponchos and you need them! The largest fall–Horseshoe Falls, dumps 650,000 gallons of water every SECOND! Awesome! About half of that leaked through my poncho! At least it was sunny today!

We are off to Lakeside Marble Head, OH and then to Chicago. We have a little less than 3 weeks left of our 8-week vacation.

Take care,

Kelly

D.C. is “Darn Cool”

herroldfamilytrip — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:35:33 +0000

Hi Everyone!

After our three days in NYC, we took the train back to D.C. and took in the sights there. Our highlights were: Washington Monument, WWII Memorial (very moving tribute), Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Air and Space Museum, National Art Museum, White House, Capitol Building, Library of Congress, National Archives, home where Abraham Lincoln died, Boy Scouts Monument and the Navy Memorial. Some interesting things we saw/things we learned: we saw the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian, we saw the Apollo 11 (the Apollo that carried the three astronauts who landed on the moon first), the “Thinker” and Degas’ Dancers. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world with over 125 million articles for check-out (with your library card, of course!). Jason’s Ph.D dissertation is there along with millions others. We also got to see the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution (yes, the actual ones and you have to go through a TON of security to see them).

It was especially moving seeing the WWII Memorial and looking up our grandfather’s names in the database. Two days before seeing it, we learned that my Grandpa Umshler died. He was a WWII vet, Silver Star recipient and a very patriotic man. I looked up to him very much. Knowing how much he would have enjoyed seeing everything we were seeing and especially the WWII monument…it was a very emotional moment for me. The boys learned a great deal about government, WWII, how America came to be and the men who formed it. And, I have to admit, I learned a lot as well. We did a lot of walking, but it was so worth it.

Enjoy our D.C. pictures!

Kelly

Start spreading the news…

herroldfamilytrip — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:35:17 +0000

…we loved New York City!! It was exactly what I thought it would be–chaos, people everywhere, sirens all the time, great sights, more food and shopping to pick from than you can even imagine and rude taxi cab drivers! Woo hoo–what fun! Seriously, it was a blast and we fit in a TON in only three days. We arrived at Penn Station (right underneath Madison Square Garden) via Amtrak and we stayed right across the street at a great hotel called the Affinia. We were within walking distance to all the sights we wanted to see (except the Statue of Liberty which we took the subway to see). We spent our first evening dining at Ellen’s Stardust Diner–home of the famous singing waiters. It was great–they noted that they have former employees in every single Broadway production in NYC–so they are good–folks looking to break into the big time. After dinner, we took a stoll through Central Park and Times Square.

Speaking of Broadway, on our first full day there (and Zach’s 9th birthday), we saw Mary Poppins on Broadway and it was…AMAZING!!! We all loved it. We also went to the Empire State Building and the GIGANTIC Toys R Us. We finished the day with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe with the entire restaurant singing Happy Birthday to Zach!! Day two was an EARLY morning with the Today Show–it was cool to see how they do the show and we are told that we did make it on–our five seconds of fame! Did I look FAB?!?!? We also went to the Statue of Liberty and enjoyed that immensely as well.

Hope you enjoy the NYC pictures as much as we had taking them!

Kelly

Charles Towne Landing–History is Fun!

herroldfamilytrip — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:03:35 +0000

Hi Again!!

Today we spent a few hours at Charles Towne Landing–one of the earliest settled colonies in America (before it was America). This was very interesting–we learned about how archeologists have discovered the remains of the settlement and how they find their clues (know where to dig) and artifacts and how those pieces help us today learn about them. You can learn more online if you just google Charles Towne Landing in Charleston, South Carolina. The boys enjoyed learning about life more than 300 years ago (you mean they didn’t have running water, electricity, and DVD systems?!?!?!?). We watched a costumed ranger show us how they shot muskets and they were LOUD! We learned about what they ate, how they traded goods, how they defended themselves and how brave they had to be to travel from England to this unknown world. It was cool. Hope you enjoy the pictures! [Trip Photos - EASTERN US]

Don’t forget: this Monday (July 21) is the day we are going to TRY to get on the Today Show–so set your DVR’s and VCR’s and whatever recording device you use. I can’t make any guarantees that we will make it, but we have a loud sign and matching shirts and hats!!

Bye for now!!

Kelly

Disney World Rocks!

herroldfamilytrip — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:52:44 +0000

Hello everyone! We are now in South Carolina–heading to North Carolina on our way to D.C. We spent 5 days at the Disney Parks and we had just the best time. Even the rain couldn’t keep us down–hey, we’re from Oregon!! There are just too many fun Disney stories to write right now, so I will keep this brief and let the pictures do the talking. Michael and I did run into (and I mean practically did run into!) Kobe Bryant at Magic Kingdom–we were walking with our heads down since it was raining and when I looked up, I was into his security detail and there he was right beside me carrying his child! Funny! The kids did not want to leave and really neither did I, but my feet and legs were crying for relief–we should have had a step counter with us and it would be interesting to know how many miles we walked. One interesting fact: Disney World Parks alone have 65,000 employees! Whew! No wonder everything is so expensive–that’s a lot of people to pay!

Later, guys!!

Kelly

p.s. Karen–we are at 5000 miles!

p.s.s. If you click on an individual picture, you can see it larger and read the description–Courtney should have the Disney photos up soon–they are in your flickr account, Court. There are a lot of them!!

[LINK TO PHOTOS]

Deep South = Serious Humidity!!

herroldfamilytrip — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:38:39 +0000

Woo-wee! It is HOT down here, ya’ll!! We have entered “serious humidity” zone! Actually, most of Texas was this bad, too, and we are just not used to it. To be honest, I am not sure how people DO get used to it! The NASA Johnson Space Center was awesome. We all enjoyed it. There were so many things for the kids to do–we stayed all day and played. I really enjoyed the air conditioning!! There are a few pictures posted from that outing–thanks to Courtney (my sister) for getting the photos up via her flickr account. For some reason, when I tried to post pictures, they were gigantic, but through her flickr account, she can make them smaller-so I put them into her account and she loads them for me. She posted a few today (Tuesday) and I just put a couple more into her account to post–so even if you saw the space pictures, there are a couple new ones to see. I also had her post a photo of a photo we had taken at Roswell. We had to perform an “alien autopsy” and man, was that interesting!! Other than the heat and humidity, all is well with the Herrold crew. We are now in New Orleans–drove over a few swamps to get here. Tomorrow we will try to hit the French Quarter on our way out of town. Tomorrow we are off to Tallahassee as an overnight stop on the way to Disney World in Orlando for six nights! I am excited to be staying put for a little bit! I am sure that we will have a ton of great photos from Disney, so be sure to check back.

Until then, stay cool!

Kelly