My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
On Sunday, June 14 Duke and I and my daughter and her family set off on a grand adventure to Grand Teton National Park. On Sunday, our first day, we drove on interstate 80 across Nevada to the California Trail Interpretive Center. We had a picnic lunch and explored the exhibits. It is an excellent museum.
Inside the California Trail Interpretive Center
That night we spent the night at the Hampton Inn in Tremonton, Utah. Monday morning our first stop was the nearby Golden Spike National Historic Park. It’s at the location where the last spike was driven to complete the first Transcontinental Railroad across the U.S.
At the Golden Spike National Historic Park
From there we drove into Wyoming to our campsite at Lizard Creek Campground at the north end of Grand Teton National Park. We spent five nights camping there. It is a beautiful park and we had an exceptional campsite right on Jackson Lake.
Our campsite at Lizard Creek Campground
We saw lots of wildlife; grizzly bear, bison, moose, elk, marmot, sandhill crane, pronghorn and wolf. One day we drove into Yellowstone National Park and saw Old Faithful.
Moose
One day we took the ferry across Jenny Lake and hiked back around the end of the lake.
On the ferry on Jenny Lake.
Duke and I took three days coming home the first night we stayed at the Blue Heron B&B on the Snake River near Rigby, Idaho. We had a great dinner at the SnakeBite Restaurant in Idaho Falls to celebrate our 23 wedding anniversary. The second day of driving home we drove to Boise, Along the way we stopped at EBR-1 the world’s first nuclear reactor to produce electricity. It’s a fascinating site.
In Boise we stayed at Hotel 43, which was great. We had dinner at Chandlers steakhouse next door. The restaurant was one of the best I have ever eaten at. Boise is a beautiful city!
Monday we drove the rest of the way home. It was a fantastic family adventure.
On Monday we walked across the street from our Copenhagen hotel and took an SAS flight to San Francisco. The flight was almost eleven hours long. It was a good flight. I much prefer day time flights to overnight flights. In San Francisco we took BART to my daughter’s house where we spent the night.
On Tuesday morning we drove over the Sierras to Reno and home. It was a great and memorable trip. I’ll be posting some more YouTube videos from the trip soon.
We have had a couple warm and sunny days since we got home but today is cold and windy.
This morning we took the metro into central Copenhagen. Coincidentally the Copenhagen marathon was going on. We’ve been here before for the marathon and we always have fun people watching.
Getting breakfast across from the metro station.The marathon In the Royal GardendRosenborg CastleThe tongue in this lion’s mouth moves!
Then we went on a scavenger hunt to find some specific food and books we had requests for.
The lady on the left helped us find the books we wanted. Duke is paying.We were quite successful at three different grocery stores for the food we were looking for.On the metro back to the airport and our hotel.Picnic dinner in our room.
Saturday we started our journey home. In Edinburgh we started our day with scones, clotted cream and jam.
Breakfast at Mimi’s Bakehouse
We were lucky to have Scotland send us off with a parade, the Tartan Parade. We checked out of our hotel, stored our suitcases then walked through Princess Street Gardens. We watched the parade as it came down from the Royal Mile.
Walking in Princess Street Gardens The Tartan ParadeThere were lots of bagpipe bands and highland dancers but these were the only Scottie’s I think these were the only dinosaurs too.
For dinner we went back to Milnes Pub where we ate on our first day in Edinburgh. After eating meat pies all over Scotland I think the Milnes Steak and Ale pie is the best.
Steak and ale pie and beerI loved Scotland
After our early dinner we went back to the hotel, retrieved our bags, and went to the airport. We took an 8pm Ryan Air flight to Copenhagen where we are staying near the airport. Monday we will fly home.
On Friday morning we walked to the National Museum of Scotland. The lobby of our hotel is on the 5th floor. If you go down to the ground floor you can exit into Waverly train station. So this morning we did that, then cut through the train station to our breakfast spot.
After breakfast we went up the Scotsman Steps (104 steps) from the new town to the old town. Each step is made of a different kind of marble.
The Scotsman Steps up to the old town and the Royal mile.
The National Museum of Scotland is located just over half a mile south of our hotel. It has lots of very interesting displays. It had everything from fossils to airplanes to Scottish history.
The lobby of the museumInside the giant animals roomThe Tay bridge collapse in 1880 influenced the design and strength of the first Forth BridgeA very interesting display about the two bridges.
We had an early dinner not far from the Traverse Theatre where we have been going to TradFest concerts.
We had the best steak of the trip at a restaurant called WildfireWildfire Restaurant
We had an hour to kill before our concert.
We walked through St Cuthbert’s kirkyard cemetery. That’s Edinburgh castle looking down on us.
The concert we went to was my absolute favorite of the three we have been to. These four women were funny and just so so good! The group’s name is Rant.
The fiddling group RANT.
As we walked back to the hotel after the concert I heard a women asking incredulously if the weather is always so cold here. The guy she was with said unhesitatingly Yes! We are very far north!