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Travel

Seattle Summer Vacation with Kids

by Monte R. July 27, 2021

written by Monte R.

We had planned an RV trip across West Texas to New Mexico for spring break earlier this year. That plan went bust when the RV we planned to rent wasn’t working, which I’m now learning is commonplace with RVs. There is something always broken on the dang things – just too many contraptions to maintain.

The kids, especially Miles, really wanted another attempt at an RV road trip. So for their 2021 summer vacation, I hatched a crazy plan to fly to Seattle, Washington and rent an RV. Then drive it to one of the national parks (Olympic or Mt. Rainier) in the area. I figured summer in Seattle would be mild weather. I do love the Pacific northwest scenery, too. We all needed a long break after a year of Covid lockdown.

It wasn’t easy given the reopening travel madness. RV rental prices were crazy high. I found a reasonable priced RV to rent on RVShare (it turned out to be problematic rental, unfortunately, but it still worked).

Julie went along on this trip as I thought it would make it all easier with the kids. I’d been to Seattle two times before many years ago.

We spent eight days in July using some cheap seats I found on Alaska Airlines – three days in Seattle downtown at the Hyatt House Seattle, which was next door to the Seattle Center/Space Needle Park, then four days renting an RV. Hyatt House is a great concept hotel with small kitchenette and large rooms – highly recommended.

The first three days went pretty good: weather was nice, there was lots of things to do and see. The kids loved the park with the water fountain, elaborate jungle gym. I liked the Space Needle and Museum of Pop, which were on my bucket list of places to visit. The Pacific Northwest sunsets were stunning.

Pike Place Market was just a tourist zoo. While it was nice for some pictures, it was too crazy busy for my liking. I really didn’t enjoy it much – long lines for everything. The Seattle Aquarium was ok, but I’ve been to better. We also did the Seattle Great Ferris Wheel. The Asian food was a highlight – fusion, Thai and Vietnamese.

Seattle had some interesting things to do. I like the scenery on the waterfront. Many of the city business skyscrapers were still was noticeably shuttered due to the pandemic. There is a noticeable homeless problem. The inflation on food was noticeable. Many stores remained shuttered or at limited capacity.

While we had some initial problems with the RV rental. It was an older 31ft Class C and it looked better in the pictures online. At last minute, we decided to head to Mt. Rainier National Park, as it appeared closer than Olympic National Park.

Mt. Rainier National Park is vast, like maybe the largest national park I’ve ever visited. The scenery is nice. It was packed with tourists. The parking lots in that place were built for far fewer cars, so that was an issue. The steep mountain roads were rough on the RV engine. We had some nice hikes.

We happened upon some really nice RV parks, which were trip highlights. The kids loved being in the RV (the ‘house on wheels’) so it all went fine. We had a mishap with another driver hitting the RV (not our fault) but those things happen. I did really love scenery with the rolling hills and tall trees, with mountain lakes and vistas everywhere.

Except for the RV mishaps, everything went well. The kids loved their summer vacation.

July 27, 2021 0 comment

Family

Southern New Mexico/West Texas Road Trip

by Monte R. March 31, 2021

written by Monte R.

For our kids’ spring break, we had planned an RV road trip across West Texas to New Mexico. But, as luck would have it, the RV rental was not working. Instead, we hopped into my Nissan Pathfinder and set out on the journey. The kids were totally disappointed the RV wasn’t available but, in the end, it all worked out. You just have to roll with it, maybe that was the lesson the trip.

I was happy the kids were finally getting a trip after being locked down for over a year from the Covid pandemic.

This was my first time in Southern New Mexico, although I’d been to the Sante Fe decades ago. I have good memories of the area and the state.

As we were driving across West Texas, which I consider one of the most god-forsaken dystopian areas in the USA (on the ugly side with all the oil well pump jacks), we hit a giant dust storm. It was something else – a giant blanket of red hue filled the sky, visibility was very low. We had to slow down and drive until we got out of it.

We spent the first night in Roswell, New Mexico, which is famous for being one of the first places in the USA where “aliens” supposedly landed. I could care less whether it was true or not, it’s just fun pretending that is is true. The entire town goes all in on the alien themes, even some the fast food restaurants are designed with space ship/alien themes. The UFO Museum was about what you expect – and it was a fun place to visit for a day.

We then ventured into Ruidoso, New Mexico, where we rented a cabin for three nights. The area driving into Ruidoso was pretty – rolling hills and valleys – the kind of scenery you think of when you hear “Southwest USA”. Ruidoso was ok enough, a bit touristy and too many people. We found interesting things to do every day from hikes to snow tire sledding.

We then hit up White Sands National Park, which is about an hour south of Ruidoso. That was the highlight of the trip for me and I think the kids, too. I really loved that place. A giant white sand mecca with stunning vistas. The magic hour sunset was incredible.

The next day, we drove through the small mountain town of Cloudcroft, which I wished we had spent some time seeing instead of driving through so quickly. I visually liked that area much better than Ruidoso (less touristy and over populated).

We ended the trip going to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, a place I’ve wanted to visit my entire life. Like so many other things, it wasn’t easy to get to. It’s way out in the middle of a desert with nothing around. We got lucky getting reservations given the Covid limitations and due to limited capacity, it was almost like getting a private tour/visit of the caverns, something that’ll probably never happen again post-Covid. It was really cool to see and visually impressive – lots of walking inside as the caverns are massive. I wished I’d just taken the elevator down instead of the long walk at the cave entrance.

March 31, 2021 0 comment

Family Other Stuff

My Mom’s Travel Notes: London 1986 (Found!)

by Monte R. October 21, 2019

written by Monte R.

The following was transcribed from hand-written travel notes from my mom, Virginia, made during our trip to London & Switzerland in 1986. I found the notes stuffed in a drawer at my parent’s house while cleaning up this year.

It was one of those things that in life gets forgotten, stuffed in a drawer and forever lost thereafter, if not for serendipity.

As I recall, I initiated the trip. For some reason that I can’t remember, neither my dad or my older brother went along with us on this trip. It was only my mom, my younger brother, Barry, and me.

I vaguely remember – out of the blue – telling mom we needed to go to London. It just sparked in me for some reason. I got very excited about it and insisted we go. At the time I would have been about fifteen (15) years old.

My mom took me up on my crazy idea and booked us a flight to Europe. That would be my first international travel experience. I’m forever thankful for my mom for taking us. It opened up a new appreciation of the world to me.

What I remember most about the trip was deplaning at London’s Heathrow airport and smelling the air – and it was déjà vu. Like I had been there before – I’ll write more about that experience later. This post is about my mom’s memory of the experience.

The notes are incomplete – they end about halfway through our trip to London, and I’ve been unable to find other notes. Also, apparently, my mom’s camera was broken during the trip, so no photos of us remain, unfortunately.

The notes begin at JFK Kennedy airport in the futuristic TWA terminal building that was recently turned into a retro airport hotel themed after TWA Airlines. All punctuation, sentence construction left as-is to capture the moment.

July 21, 1986 – Notes

4:30 – Well, we made it to Kennedy. The TWA terminal alone is huge and filled with people – people – people and this is only one of the many terminals here at Kennedy.

Definitely, this is the age of people running to and fro.

How they keep it all coordinated is a miracle itself. All the planes, people coming in, people going out, all the employees – everyone moving about doing something and it all seems to work – Relatively few mishaps, accidents or fights!!

Everything is exceedingly overpriced. The Columbus airport offers a $5 hamburger. After a lifetime of McDonald’s, a $5 hamburger sounds gold plated.

The kids have taken off to see the front of the airport. I can see I’ll be sitting alone a lot on this trip. I really wish another adult was with me. Kids live in a different world.

The plane to London leaves in about an hour – time to write while sitting in a restaurant. Can’t eat because we will probably eat on the plane. Anyway, who can afford it?

I hope I run into some friendly single adults?

Lord, can you hear me?

Running??

What’s interesting is the myth of the perfect person.

As you watch so many people of all sizes, colors and ages you wonder which is the way we are really supposed to look and of course the answer is none and all.

The individual uniqueness of each person is essentially a human trait.

However, God can take the same features and come up with so many variations on a [theme] is truly amazing.

Animals, although, also individual, lack such differentiation of difference. It is hard to tell one from another, but people are quickly identified. Few people look like someone else.

Hell, writing is getting very boring –

What to do? One hour at best till boarding time.

In every model type perfect person there are 100 members of a motley crew.

This is my first effort at writing a daily note on our trip to London.

So far, it’s New York, New York with miles to go before I sleep.

Thank you!
Robert Frost

Notes on TWA –

Yuk! Any illusions that plane travel is comfortable or pleasant can be ended –

The seats are small and cramped. Little legroom – too many people all stuffed into this enormous sardine can – 400 of us –

No place to stretch out or sleep – Earphones for the movie – bored and uncomfortable – I’m ready to go home.

Kids are holding up very well.

Plane left Kennedy 1 ½ hr late –

Is amazing such an enormous metal object can move through space without falling.

7/22/86 – London, here we are!

What a city! So huge and full of interesting buildings and people, people, people – from everywhere. A lot of them seem to be tourists.

Windsor Castle is a wonderful, stone, huge arrangement – how did people ever build it w/o power equipment? It puts modern architecture to shame.

On one side one can see far away the towers of an ancient cathedral and the 3 towers of a nuclear power plant, which explains England.

The very old and the new in a strange marriage – highways speeding, econy cars racing beside fields of sheep and horses. Eating scones and tea along with someone eating a hamburger. The British Royalty and the punks – the socially in and the socially out living, how beit together. Wendy’s across from old established pub.

Other than driving being absolutely horrendous – scary, fast and confusing. He who hesitates is lost. So far we have made it. Yet I marvel there aren’t more accidents – the British must be excellent drivers – yet most of them seem to be young, and one wonders if they older don’t drop out of driving as soon as they are able.

Thank God for Holiday Inn – I wouldn’t like to have to hunt for a place to stay.

7/28/86 – Sunday

Plymouth – We arrived about 8:00 after a stop at Glastonbury. I was disappointed Joseph was not buried there, although I guess he died there. Evidently figures into the lives of the Tudor ___ of the Throne.

Strange spirits seem to permeate my room and attempt to overcome me with evil as though this whole hotel is filled with them. I pray for the Holy Spirits protection for me and my children. I want nothing to do with their hidden work which they seem to want to force on me.

I pray for wisdom and protection from evil – the battle is the Lord’s.

Still I love London and England. The scenic rural areas are wonderful. The sheep, cattle, and horses are plentiful, the grass very green, and there is much empty space.

I hope I get my camera fixed for tomorrow.

Rainy today – spent several hours walking by the sea, looking for restaurant and a camera shop. Ate in a penthouse – Walked along sea coast at nite. Kids played game machines – tomorrow we move to Merlin Hotel. Cheaper rates.

Gentlemen in restaurant suggested London – Swiss Center –

Swiss Travel and names in inexpensive hotels –

Rainy tonight: lots of rain this summer. Hope it’s nice tomorrow.

[The End]

October 21, 2019 0 comment