Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Salt Lake City, Amtrak

The vacation we were so.......looking forward to for last 2 months came and went. My first line sounds sad only because I am depressed that we wont have this long a vacation (11 days)anytime soon. We had such an amazing time that returning back to grind of life seems just that - grind ! May be talking about it would cheer me up. We started on 3rd morning at 4 AM. Even though we went to bed at 8PM , no one really slept through except Neev. Avi kept going back and forth between his and our bed, asking,'is it time yet?' Finally at 3AM we jumped out of bed, showered, gave David a wake up call (Anurag's colleague who was very sweet to insist that he would drop us off at train station). Yep, we did not fly, we took train - Amtrak, something we had been wanting to do for years - a long train trip. It was half the excitement of our vacation, not only for us but also for our friends who are still asking 'how was the train trip' instead of 'how was the vacation'. Avi and Neev had watched the train trip episodes of 'Cailou' and built a volcano complete with bubbling lava with their daddy and were all set for the train trip to Yellowstone.

Their experience was not much different from what was on TV. A courteous attendant helped us board on California Zephyr's sleeping car with our luggage, showed our cabin and offered coffee and juice. We could not wait to explore but first on the list was breakfast in dining car. Sumptuous omelets filled with vegetables and cheese, hash browns and warm croissants, french toast and hot oatmeal was what we picked. Friendly staff made the experience even better. They asked Avi to draw train on the table cover which he duly did with lots of smoke fuming from the engine. Meanwhile we checked out the passing by city, factories and walls full with graffiti. Not much different from India in that respect, I thought.

Stuffed with breakfast , I did not think I could be back in dining car for lunch soon. We made our way to the lounge car , also called observation car. Seats on both side overlooking the wide windows stretched on the ceilings , it offered a great view and scenery most of the way. On the speakers, the driver filled us in on all the historical places and told stories as we passed through them. Kids loved passing through the tunnels, specially the one which was about 2 miles long. They covered the whole length of the train several times by going up and down, pushing the buttons between cars, Neev waiving 'how u doing' to every single person he met and saying 'yeah' and nodding when people said how cute he was. There was another young and lovely Indian couple traveling in train and we found a lot of 'we too' things with them such as they moved to USA at the same time as us, they moved from SoCal to Bay area also the same time as us. Geeta has a degree in child psychology and no wonder she hit it off very well with the kids. Her husband Vicky lost $100 to her on the bet that they would not find another Indian family/person traveling in Amtrak. I had to console him that the money was still in family. They were also getting off at Salt Lake City and our arrival time there was the only thing that sucked. 3 AM was too early to wake up two days in a row . Our car rental was scheduled at 7 AM and we had to kill 4 hours in the waiting room (we kept that much of margin, given we are used to Indian trains getting late all the times). Well, Amtrak surprised us, not so pleasantly in this case by getting there EARLY. I am so thankful for Geeta and Vicky's company and warm weather, the time did fly off at the train station. Geeta and Avi played hopscotch , rescued mommy from bears and sang 'boom chick a boom' and several other versions of it. Avi and Neev climbed on the metal luggage attached to the rocks (I think that was a great idea to beautify a train station), kicked pebbles , watched other big trains and basically had fun. Thankfully those 3-4 hours did not seem too long. At 6.30 we took a cab, went to airport and the nice lady at Hertz upgraded us to a spacious minivan. We settled, put Neev's Cd's in and buckled up for my husband's dream vacation - Yellowstone (another one is South Africa) ! The kids drifted off as soon as Anurag put the key in and I wanted to do the same but sipped my caffeine instead so I could give my hubby company and have some uninterrupted talk with him which we seem to have only when the situation is exactly like this - long drive, kids sleeping . Salt Lake City is HUGE and surrounded by mountains. We have become so used to seeing atleast 5 Indian faces at every stop light in bay area that it felt different traveling in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana and not spotting anyone from India. That's why we were very surprised when we reached the West Yellowstone and checked in our hotel to see that it is run by an Indian family based in Reno. We asked very hopefully if there was any Indian restaurant too but there wasn't any (Lake Tahoe, CA had an Indian restaurant, Las Vegas had one too so I had high hopes). West Yellowstone is at the west entrance of Yellowstone, a typical small tourist town. While Checking out the town we realized there was s huge crowd of Indian visitors so my suggestion to Indy Johal, manager of our hotel - open an Indian restaurant as well and I bet it would be a smart business decision. I know Neev could not get his favorite 'khichadi' there but some 'dal chaawal' would have been soul warming to him. He ate poorly through out the week and survived on oatmeal, cereal, milk , yogurt and multi-vitamins. Avi thankfully was adventurous with food and enjoyed whatever the place offered.

The afternoon we reached Yellowstone, the agenda was to just shower, eat, rest and sleep , in that order but the kids just wanted to jump on the beds. Last two days of train excitement and erratic sleep did not keep them for long (thankfully) and we all retired to our beds early before waking up in the morning to step in Yellowstone National Park.

Our annual pass allowed us to bypass the long lines of cars waiting to pay the day tickets and we saved a great deal of time. As we entered inside the west gate, begun our amazement at the enormity, natural history, wild life , serenity and the beauty of it all. We were able to see and enjoy most of the attractions in both south loop and north loop during our stay but hiking and camping was not our plan this time simply because of the children. Other than the natural attractions we also enjoyed the lodges that we stopped at. Made of wood and stone, they were a perfect place to take a beak and relax in the evening and still feel all the amazement at the beauty of Yellowstone because they are designed to do just that. Huge timbers, logs, stone fireplaces and antlers are among the few things that left us mesmerized. Old faithful Inn's porch was a perfect place to sit on rockers and watch old faithful geyser erupt 150 feet high. Its definitely some sight. Our other favorite in south loop was Midway Geyser basin with hot water falls and grand prismatic spring. The colors of the spring are just spectacular. 

Hot Mammoth spring in the north loop is not to be missed. Years of water erosion has formed steps like structures and the colors of bacterial mat are just amazing. Its a beautiful landscape of terraces sculpted by travertine limestone. This area’s unique scenery is created by hot, acidic water ascending through ancient limestone deposits — resulting in the travertine terraces.The view of grand mountains and the spring from the lodge side is majestic.

South and North loop are different. South loop has lot of thermal activity, fumaroles (steam vents), huge waterfalls and beautiful vistas packed with herds of bison, deer , moose , coyotes and wolves and it has charming Hayden Valley where you just want to pull up your car at a turn out and look at the beautiful vista of this national park.

In the bginning of North Loop lies the caldera of Yellowstone , also refered as Super Volcano and you feel amazing putting your feet in the very middle of the same ground which exploded 650,000 years ago. At Yellowstone, the caldera is so big that it includes a fair amount of the entire park. In fact, it is so big that scientists confirmed that the region had a caldera by looking at photographs from space.

North loop also has the view of grand canyon of Yellowstone , mammoth hot springs and towards east is Lamar valley with most concentration of Grizzlies. Lamar Valley is characterized by huge boulders which look like they are all strategically placed all over this area. We got a chance to see a pack of spotted deer very close to us in the valley. Speaking of wildlife we got to see LOT of bison , deer ,coyotes and bald eagle. We did not encounter a grizzly and did not want to return from Yellowstone without seeing one so last day of our vacation in National Park was spent watching the 'Grizzly and Wolf show' and learning a a few things about them. Avi and Neev loved running inside the Bear trap put on display (a tunnel like thing used to trap bears). They could not care less about watching the Wolves and Bears but climbing up and down on the made up mountains and going inside and running outside of the teepee tent was fun.

Anurag and I hope to return to this delicate ecosystem that is home to Old Faithful and two-thirds of the world’s geysers; where grizzly bears, wolves and other abundant wildlife roam freely. This is again one of those places where you lie on the ground (careful with staying on tracks because thermal activity is everywhere and you never know where your feet can sink in with acidic fluid capable of burning through your boots) look at the sky above and contemplate your existence in this world, in this universe. You think about natural history, your ancestors, evolution and the future of it and you think about the true meaning of hardships, passion and discovery. Without anyone telling you, you educate yourself because your imagination goes wild. You need those thoughts to put everything in perspective- that's what vacations are for. So you can come back relaxed, ready to focus on whats important. 

On the last day we drove through the Grand Teton National Park , located in north western Wyoming. We witnessed a spectacular landscape rich with majestic mountains and pristine lakes.The scenery is different from yellowstone and we were captivated by the abrupt vertical rise of the jagged Teton Range contrasts with the horizontal sage-covered valley and glacial lakes at their base. Anurag and I kept debating if the white part on top and in between the mountains was snow or something else. As we got closer it became clear that it was snow. The lodges in Grand Teton were again lovely and warm.

We exited Grand Teton to Jackson and said bye to the national Parks. The next 300 miles of Idaho and Wyoming were open space, ranches with beautiful wood fencing, animals farms, huges bales of hay and a travel through a canvas of beautiful painting. After spending a week out there the entry to Salt Lake City's was flashy and my feeling was 'why couldn't we just stay back'. The only thing I looked forward to was Indian food. Thankfully there was Ganesh Indian Cuisine only 2 miles from our hotel. First time in the week, neev opened his mouth wide for rice,paneer, raita and naan, dosa , papad and biryani. Now all we needed was to crash in the hotel.

The next day's agenda was sightseeing in Salt Lake City. We went to the temple square and took a tour of the famous Mormon temple and visited Salt lake Tabernacle. The famous organ at the front of the Tabernacle contains 11,623 pipes, making it one of the largest and richest-sounding organs in the world, and the building was constructed so that even the drop of a pin at the front of the building can be heard at the back. Unfortunately the choir rehearsals were not on but we were able to see a singer rehearsing for a recording . It was a nice experience. 

North Visitors Center of Temple square is home to an impressive, 11-foot statue of Jesus Christ known as The Christus and the blue sky painted on the sides and ceiling of spiral ramp is grand. We took the kids to the family history building where they dressed as shepherds and colored for a while. Outside the building there is a small cottage and the lady who showed me said it belonged to her great great grandparents where they raised 4 children. She said she was very proud and I could understand that. The cottage is now preserved with all original furniture and pots& pans , barrels and other things necessary to live. Its surrounded by pumpkin patch and my little pumpkin Neev matched pretty well with it. 

Then we roamed in the downtown Salt Lake city and really, it all belongs to the temple. They have a number of buildings surrounding the main temple and they are BIG. In the afternoon we took the kids to Clarks Planetarium where Avi and Anurag enjoyed a 3D show in IMAX theater while I watched Neev as he took nap in the stroller. 

It was time now to return the car and head to the train station to catch California Zephyr back to San Jose. After dinner we boarded the train . Our beds were made and we were ready to dive in. Neev and Avi were pretty tired and fell asleep in no time. Surprisingly all those swings of train movement did not work to put me to sleep and I was up all night. You can see the raccoon eyes in the pictures we took the next day in the train. We were home at 7.30 PM the next evening and I was so glad that I scrubbed the house sparkling before leaving (even made the beds). This is one thing I know- leave your house all clean before a vacation. There is just no feeling like returning to a warm welcoming clean home when you are bone-tired. A shower and hot moong dal khichadi with dahi was a combination proved to make us feel relaxed and at home. After the shower I could barely keep my eyes open through dinner and that night I did not wake up even once. The next morning I woke up all fresh and relaxed and to a pleasant surprise of realizing it was Saturday and not Sunday. We had lost the track of days and dates and for some reason thought that we only had a day before hitting Monday madness. Anurag was ecstatic over the good news. One whole weekend at home after a long vacation -thats all he needed.

Some interesting things about our vacation-

We forgot to pack the hair brush , did not buy one, did not feel the need for buying one. We just blow dried for a minute and were all set.

Our Armenian taxi driver in Salt Lake City was a fan of Bollywood music, did not understand the language but played 'Veer-Zara' for us. Yep - he had a collection of Hindi music CD's.

We need to treat Avi like he is not 4 but 14. At 'Dragon's mouth spring', we could not convince him that the 'dragon firehole' had a real dragon. He simply said, 'come on, its just the hot gushing water sounding like a roar'.

And then we changed our minds back again when he got on all fours and jumped like a frog to amuse Neev.

Avi and Neev got into a verbal fight of 'stop it' and 'you stop it' and a spitting competition and Anurag and I ignored it completely (not a parenting tip from us, just a memory of our decision of playing deaf)

In Salt Lake City downtown we visited the Jesus Christ's temple's children's museum area where Avi got friendly with a lady and her son, started coloring with them and then began telling them, 'you know my jeans got torn on the knees my mom cut out a letter A out of the patch and fixed it'. Its true BTW and as soon as we heard this, Anurag and I exchanged glances and started laughing. (I had mended Avi's jeans just before leaving for the vacation with an iron on patch but it wasn't something I thought he would pick to share with a stranger). Not stopping here, he continued, 'and also when my pajamas got holes in them, she stitched them'. At this point of time, Anurag and I were hysterical. We were obscured by the big wall so Avi did not see us but man oh man it was a painful laugh (laughing so hard while trying to be silent, I swear tears rolled from my eyes and my stomach hurt). I don't remember laughing like that in a long time. Anurag told me to be thankful that I finally got to stitch his favorite pajamas and jeans before this trip so at least when my son spilled our torn secrets to people, I at least came out a winner. Imagine if I hadn't done that.....Avi would be telling a different version and I don't want to think about it :)