We had a wonderful summer break! Last year, we blogged from the road – but we even took a vacation from the blog, it seems! We’re back in Kazakhstan now, getting ready for the new school year. Here’s a summer summary:
We started out in Europe, taking our friends, Cathy and Brock, to Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It was their first time to Belgium, a country we travel to often (we have close friends there), so it was fun to show them everything we loved about the place. Cathy loves chocolate and Brock loves beer, so Belgium is a the perfect place for them to go, ehe?! They’re some of our favorite people and we travel/spend time with them often. They’re moving to another QSI school next year, which will mean that we will miss each other for a while. But I’m sure we’ll see them again soon!
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| Washington, D.C. |
Next, we flew ‘home’ to the USA. We stopped for a week in Washington, D.C. (Michael’s home turf) to see Michael’s dad and some other friends. We celebrated the 4th of July downtown. It just so happens that the Smithsonian was having an exhibition about the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps, which included demonstrations of different projects happening in Peace Corps locations around the world. So, we were surprised to be looking at a Kyrgyz carpet-making exhibition in Washington, D.C., having just seen the same thing in Kyrgyzstan last fall! Small world.
Now, for a Road Trip! Here's a map of our journey:
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| Our Summer 2011 roadtrip route |
We started our trip in Las Vegas, where visited more family and picked up our car – on the road to the San Francisco Bay Area to see friends (former co-workers). It was so nice to be in Oakland again! We had Vietnamese sandwiches and street tacos, visited our old school campuses, dropped by our favorite book shops and cafes. It was great to see everyone.
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| Crater Lake, Oregon |
On to Oregon! We visited Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States – deep blue water filling a volcano crater. There was still a lot of snow up there, so it was surprisingly cold, but well worth the trip. We headed north through Bend (cute town) and up to the Columbia River valley, which is the route Lewis and Clarke to the Pacific and also a piece of the original Oregon Trail (two things we studied in my class this year, so it was fun for me to be here after teaching the kids all about it). We crossed over to Washington and went north to Olympic National Park, a very green and lush place which lived up to its reputation as the rainiest region in the continental United States! Of course we drove through Forks (no, we didn’t see any vampires or giant wolves) on the way to Port Angeles, where we took the ferry to Victoria (Vancouver Island, Canada).
Vancouver Island is a nice little spot, and we enjoyed exploring Victoria, Nanaimo and the surrounding regions. We visited a dairy farm in Nanaimo and got to see the full workings of the place, watching the cows getting milked and then tasting the cheeses (I love that kind of stuff!). We took another ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver, staying with some friends there before heading further east to Banff and Jasper National Parks.
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| Lake Louise, Banff National Park |
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| glacier-fed waters, Lake Louise |
If you’ve never been to Banff and Jasper National Parks (in Alberta, Canada), GO. Now. I’ll wait. :) Okay, maybe you can’t go now, but you should at some point. It’s one of the most beautiful places in North America, in our opinion. The tall mountains cradle majestic glaciers, which melt into the lakes below. The glacier silt turns the lakes a dreamy color of opalescent turquoise blue, set amongst tall, fragrant evergreens and snow-capped peaks. One place I’ve always wanted to go is Lake Louise, which is famous for being a perfect example of the scene I just described. It’s gorgeous. We hiked around the lake (wearing sweaters, since we’ve been stuck in some crazy cold front since San Francisco – even while the other side of Canada was in temperatures above 50 C/110 F). We also took hikes to neighboring waterfalls and saw all kinds of wildlife, including the sweet, wild rose of Alberta, their state flower.
From Banff we went to Osoyoos, British Columbia to spend some time with friends (who also work at the school) at their lake house. Finally, we got some warm sunshine! We swam in the lake and hiked in “Canada’s only desert”, with the orchards in full bloom and heavy with peaches, nectarines, cherries and other fruits. We ate fresh salmon and just enjoyed being in a beautiful place with no schedule to keep.
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| Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park |
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| Sapphire Spring, Yellowstone National Park |
From there, we went to Yellowstone National Park – another of North America’s most beautiful and unique places. I hadn’t been there since I was 6 years old, and Michael had never been before. What a sight! Hot, steaming geysers, water boiling in the ground. Scalding blobs of mud bubbling up from steaming pools, flying into the air like an exploding lava lamp. Minerals and bacteria in the water making red stains, green streaks, mustard stripes and lavender shadows on the ground. Pools and springs were not the average water colors, but orange, turquoise, red, yellow and creamy blue. Some places announced their presence before we could see them, with copious amounts of steam, overwhelming hissing noises much louder than an industrial extractor fan (hot air rushing from the earth), or the familiar smell of volcanic sulfur. Our favorite place was the Grand Prismatic Spring, which can only be seen in its entirety from the helicopter, but can still be enjoyed from ground level. It is a massive spring as bright as a sapphire, surrounded by a crusty rusty red-yellow-orange ring, swirling off in different directions with the water. I’ve never seen it’s equal.
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| Alishya |
We then left Yosemite and arrived in Salt Lake City just in time for the birth of our lovely new niece, Alishya Margaret (Alishya is the Indian/sanscrit transliteration of Alicia). We spent a week just admiring her and watching her grow.
Summers go so fast! It’s already time to start thinking about our lesson plans for the first days of school, and I need to go in and get the classroom set up. Fortunately for me, I have an awesome co-operating teacher (like a teacher’s aide, but better!) and I know we’ll get it all done. Until then, I have a week to enjoy our neighborhood here. Nice.
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Photos by Brooke and Michael,
map screenshot from Google Maps
