They did it!! Our FLL team has just one the best project award at their first round FLL competition at Google. They invented a “Spider Cast”. It is a brace that allows you to walk without putting weight on your lower leg. They are moving on to the regional level competition on either 12/4 or 12/5. We’ll see where it goes from here. They are trying to improve for the next competition.
Margaret has finished her first season of running cross country at her middle school. She ended up getting 9th in her group at the league championships. She was able to go to the Silicon Valley championships as well. Her times got better and better each meet. She got most improved. I think she would have done better if the distances had been a little longer as well. All of the meets were about 1.5 miles.
Because we had planned a quick trip, we didn’t have much time to spend in Yellowstone. I think we saw a lot in a short period of time. We managed to see lots of big animals (Buffalo, Elk, Deer, and a Moose), lots of thermal features, and the Tetons.
We got up early and were on the road around 7am. We made our way to Norris Geyser Basin. We came up over a hill and there it was a huge field with steam rising from everywhere. Margaret made the comment that it must be hard to tell if there is a forest fire because of all the steam always rising from everywhere. It turned out that we were pretty much the only people in the basin while we were there. After we had been there a while, a few other families showed up. Here we saw a few geysers spewing from time to time, and lots of hot springs.
After that, we made our way to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Again, we were there before it was crowded at all, so we got to wander around Artists Point without too much distraction. We made our way further into the park stopping and seeing various things along the way. The thing I was most interested in was the Grand Prismatic Spring. It was about as I expected really cool, but you need to be about 100 feet above it to get a really good picture. The springs are varying in color because where they are hottest, no bacteria can live, as the water cools down, bacteria of different colors live in the water.
As we made our way further into the park, it got later and we had to deal with more people. By the time we got to Old Faithful, it was pretty crowded. But all in all not as bad as it could have been. After spending a little time around Old Faithful, we made our way down by Yellowstone Lake and through Grand Teton National Park and spent the night in Jackson, WY. A very full day, but very enjoyable.
After Missoula, we made our way to Yellowstone. The first stop was Mammoth Hot Springs. We stayed in the old hotel there in the park, saw some elk, learned a little bit about the thermal features of Yellowstone. The biggest hit was something called the Boiling River. It is a place where a pretty sizable hot spring flows into a river. With the river water being very cold and the hot spring being very hot, you can sit where they merge and find exactly the right temperature that you desire. It is a hot tub without the chlorine. If you ever make it to Yellowstone, find this. It was the highlight of the day.
After a few days in Spokane, we moved on to visit my cousin in Missoula. My mom was there and it was great seeing her as well. Missoula was nice, but by far the most remembered and talked about place was The Big Dipper. We made a point of going there every day.
After Multnomah Falls, we detoured by the Grand Coulee Dam. It was impressive. We ended up not going in because there was a huge wait on 4th of July weekend.
Day 4 of our trip was the drive from Portland to Spokane down the Columbia River Gorge and by the Grand Coulee Dam. We made a quick stop at Multnomah Falls.
Day 3 of our trip was Portland. We started at OMSI because of course it was raining when we got there. OMSI was great, it is the only museum of that sort that comes close to the Exploratorium. In some ways, it may even be better.
After the OMSI, we went to the International Rose Test Garden. After that we checked into our fancy hotel in downtown. We ended up walking around downtown, getting supper, going to Powell’s Books, riding the trolley for free. All in all, we enjoyed Portland very much. It is on the list of places to return.
The next morning we went to Voodoo Doughnuts. Sam got a doughnut with a mustache on it. We got cereal doughnuts and lots of others. We all had too many that day, but Pokie took the title at 7.
We tried to hike to the waterfall. The hike was nice, but we ran into snow shortly after we crossed the bridge on the Tahoe Rim Trail and lost the trail, so we didn’t actually make it to the waterfall. It was a good hike though, we got to walk over some snow and the dogs had a good time.
Margaret finished 5th grade. They had a ceremony to commemorate the event. Next year she will be at the middle school. Margaret was one of about 5 students that read their essays during the ceremony. Margaret is excited about going to middle school. She has qualified out of math 6A and into math 7A, so she will have one class with 7th graders. Next year we will have a child in 3 different schools.