Glacier - Day 1: Grinnell / Many Waters

We've been coming out to Montana basically every year since the twins were born and have driven and hiked around Yellowstone countless times, but this is the first time we are making the longer trek out to the other crown jewel of the state: Glacier National Park. 

I have to admit that I come into the trip with a little trepidation -- so many people have told me how amazing Glacier is that I'm a little worried it can't possibly live up to all the hype. We shall see!

First off, we have to make a note on the weather. I know July 4th weekend is really the "kickoff" for the summer season in GNP, but I wasn't expecting HOW cold it could be. We actually had a winter weather advisory the week before the trip based on the wet snow expected in higher elevations! Last Christmas, I recall there being a couple 50 degree+ days -- crazy that the daily high for a couple days in late June was actually LOWER than it was in December! Check out how much snow there is on Lone Peak. 

Thankfully though, the sun rolled back in and the cold blew away in time for the trip.

[Mini interlude here: I am not much of a camper...so the twins and their cousin B along with YeYe and NaiNai actually went off to GNP a few days before Baba and I to actually camp with tents and sleeping bags and so on. Well...it was a bit of an adventure. Tents flying away because of the high wind. Campgrounds being evacuated because of flash floods. S'mores not being able to be made because the sideways rain kept blowing out the fire. Won't go into more detail since I wasn't actually there. But let's just say...good for building character and fortitude? 😆]

We drove over to Browning the night before, Glacier Peaks Casino was a pretty standard hotel, continental breakfast and all. Very much on the way, and big savings tip: gas in browning was about $2/gallon cheaper than at the park entrance! 

My original hope for the first day was to hike to Grinnell Glacier...turns out that is over 10 miles and also closed for snow conditions...so I was persuaded to change the plan to a Grinnell Lake hike instead (7 miles). That trail was also closed due to flooding from the last few days but luckily opened up again the day we arrived! So off we went. The hike basically hugs the shores of several interconnected lakes, so very pretty water/forest/mountain views the entire way.

We started a little before noon so our first stop came pretty early to combat increasing hangry-ness. As you can see from the clothing, it was a little chilly still!

Why does she look like a guilty chipmunk? I asked her for a bit of her half-eaten king sized candy bar about 10 seconds earlier. "Oomph oomph...what candy bar?"

Ran into a few forest friends. They were so close I almost forgot they were wild.

Proof that R has inherited Baba's penchant for non-standard photo expressions. 

The view at the end of the 3.5 miles was quite lovely. 

I am always a sucker for rickety bridges. But thought this video also helps demonstrate how high the water is!

The hike also included a mini detour to the "Hidden" waterfall.

I thought it was worth the extra 0.3 mile ascent.

Baba did not agree. He decided to skip the waterfall and enjoy a rest instead.  

Shot of the camping crew enjoying the much sunnier and dryer weather!

The 3.5 mile return went by much more quickly than the going out - the sun had also come out in some force since our departure, making the paths thankfully much less muddy too. 

Another "little" waterfall scene peeking from between the trees. 

The walk back also included our most exciting wildlife encounter of the day.

Funniest part of that moose encounter? Toss-up between: 1) Ooh a moose! Everyone immediately whips out.....the cell phones. Because clearly you protect yourself from a potential moose attack not by being on alert with bear spray but by photographing and videotaping the encounter. And 2) kids almost entirely missing the moose because they were captivated by the chipmunk in the path further ahead. In their defense, the ground squirrels and chipmunks ARE quite adorable. 

We ended up with some apres-hike drinks and nosh at Many Glacier Hotel (a bit run down and showing its age...but clearly hitting those Alpine/Swiss/Sound of Music vibes). Best find of the menu? Duck wings. I think it was the sweet chili glaze more than the duck limbs being that much more succulent than their chicken cousins, but let's just say we ended up with...4 or 5 orders of those wings. 

After that we drove back to St. Mary's Village to check in to our Tiny Home rental for the evening. It was in fact quite tiny. But it came with a HUGE bathroom. Like jet spray soaker tub and sauna like room larger than the size of the bedroom in the Tiny Home. 

Only downside was that the bathroom was unattached, so you had to put on shoes and walk outside to get to it. But I still enjoyed it quite a bit! L/R also appreciated having a full size shower/tub for the first time in a week or so. 

All in all, good first day at Glacier! Tomorrow, we have a boat ride and then the much anticipated Going to the Sun road drive. Night night! 

Mexico City - Final Thoughts

Now that we are back home, it's time for the trip recap/tips:

1. Food -- I personally didn't love all the tacos as much as I was hoping to. I generally speaking enjoy all Mexican food though (avocado, Mexican rice, beans, simmered meats, salsa, etc) so it's not like I didn't enjoy any of the meals, I think it was more a realization that the tacos I manage to access from California are pretty good too? That or this is like Thailand where sadly I like American Mexican food more than traditional Mexican food. I will say the corn tortillas and tamalas and really anything seemed way more flavorful than their US counterparts. Food things that were better than I expected: mole, churros, pastries, mangoes, bugs. 

2. Weather -- it rained almost every day, but only for a brief portion and always in the late afternoon or evening. It was kind of nice to always be able to rely on a sunny morning. I'm also glad it wasn't any warmer than it already was -- the heat of the sun in Mexico City was definitely harsher than Bay Area. 

3. Air Quality -- this was a surprise, I wasn't expecting the air quality to be as poor as it was. It definitely reminded me of Beijing from a few decades past. Though I also think part of what I blamed as air quality might have just been me adjusting to the higher altitude? But even during the rains, there was never really a "refreshing" air feeling.

4. History - the pyramids and museum lived up to expectations. And expectations were high. So these truly were world class and worth the visit. We didn't get guides at either of these, but found the English placards and such pretty good, along with frequent consultations with Gemini. 😆 

5. Neighborhoods - Polanco was definitely quiet and safe feeling, though the amount of caged and street food in walkable distance was also lower, but I'm sure that was a direct counter-balance to noise levels. Condessa was very cute and leafy -- I could see why people enjoy staying there. Juarez was a little on the grittier side, I can see why many people generally do not pick the city center for lodging.

6. Fancy restaurants - high points for Quintonil (honestly if they didn't have the bugs I would have liked them less, made it more one of a kind). Really enjoyed value for money and home-cooking taste at Esquina Comun. Rosetta was much better than I was expecting...but I wouldn't put it on Bouchon levels. Maybe it didn't have enough butter. 😆 Masala...was probably not one I would go back to. Some of the flavors just didn't work so well for me. 

7. Cultural - Frida's house was interesting, but if you had one cultural slot to fill, I would choose Ballet Folklorico. I wish I had more time to hit some of the other museums -- like the perfume museum, the museum of modern art, and the murals at the National Palace. 

8. Length of time - I could have filled a couple more days easily (lengthen Puebla to an overnight trip at a minimum) but also felt like we had enough time to hit all the highlights with our one week.

9. Scheduling - feedback from travel mates is that the schedule was certainly full, but that they appreciated the rest/flex downtimes built in everyday. 

10. Transportation - Ubers were very easy and so cheap; Didis did appear to be noticeably even cheaper. But this is like $10 ride vs. $11 or $12 ride difference. The cars were often a little on the older side with A/C sometimes broken (again a nod back to China of 20 years ago).

11. Payment - There was a significantly higher number of places where we needed to use cash. Pyramid entry tickets, lots of markets, taco stands, photographers and drivers. We ended up getting probably around $1000-1500 out in cash for the seven day trip. 

Top 3s for everyone!

R: street vendor mangoes, stracciatella dish at Esquina Comun, VRBO rental. 

L: Handmade journal she bought at the Coyoacan markets, food/bike tour, Google office. 

Baba: Tacos at Los Alexis, Quintonil, family photo shoot. 

Mama: climbing the pyramids, axolotls, drummers and dueling harpists at Ballet Folklorico.

Jiuma: runs in Chapultepec park, climbing to the top of the Teotihuacan pyramid, torta and jugo on the bike tour. 

Jiujiu: Teotihuacan, family photos, the birthday tequila donkey at Mayahuel. 

Laolao & Laoye: Teotihuacan, bike tour, food at Esquina Comun.

But setting aside the foods and sights, I think all of us really enjoyed being able to spend time with each other, especially as we don't get to see a ton of Jiujiu and Jiuma given they're all the way over in Boston -- playing cards, walking around, sharing meals -- true highlight was enjoying all the family time we got!

Capping it out with some of our family shots. Until next trip!

Mexico City - Day 8: Zoo & Departure

Our flight today was at 3:30 so we had some time to do a tiny bit more sight-seeing. So...after we packed up all our stuff, we were off to find the axolotls! Well actually, first we sent Baba and L with all the luggage to Google (they both preferred that to capybaras and axolotls, crazy!). Laolao, Laoye, R and I instead went off to catch as many animals as we could in 2 hours. Beeline for the axolotls!

These things are crazy weird looking. 

They are like little dinosaurs who swim and have weed like tentacles around their heads.

Not sure why all of the tanks had little soccer balls...maybe they like playing? 😆

Check out those crazy weed head tentacles!

Aren't they just crazy looking?!?

Now let's run through a bunch of the other animals we saw in quick succession (I have to say, the zoo was laid out very well -- there were new animals every time we turned around, we covered SO many in such a short visit, and all of the animals were so active!)

I always get stopped by the monkeys. Their faces!

Finally got the capybara!

Yeah...he was a little far away. 😆 I guess we will have to take L and R to Brazil at some point to see the little guys in the wild.

Check out the video of the black bears playing around! R said their fighting reminded of her and L. 😆 

 

This itching monkey was hilarious. It is super little also, like maybe the size of a large guinea pig. 

I made a gif!

I was a big fan of the zoo. Great way to spend a morning before our departure from Mexico. News alert: R liked the axolotls so much that she has now convinced Baba to turn our aquarium into an axolotl habitat!

We booked our flights back with points so we unfortunately we had a layover. However - I managed to get a manicure and a shower in at the lounge.

Refreshing end to a great family birthday celebration/spring break! 

We got home at almost midnight -- so glad I got that shower in beforehand.  Very glad we planned it so that we got back on a Friday so that we could relax for a couple days before going back to work/school. 

Next post - final thoughts on CDMX!

Mexico City - Day 7: Puebla

We had a 9:30 call time this morning for our drive out to Puebla in order to make our noon mole lunch. We were originally planning on a 2 day stay in Puebla and I'd gotten all excited about some of the things we would eating...so I felt compelled to add in the day trip still. I forgot to take a photo of the actual murals on the walls -- they were quite entertaining. We picked out Jesse Jackson, Jimmy Carter, and Marilyn Monroe, among others. It was a very nice restaurant decor and ambiance wise. Unfortunately we had a waiter who had a really hard time understanding our order. I think he wasn't used to people just sharing lots of food. It unfortunately meant we had a couple botched orders...too bad because the food was actually quite good! 

I appreciated being able to order multiple moles - really helped us all figure out which were the best. Here's a pumpkin seed green one next to a sweet red one next to the classic mole poblano. Green was the winner hands down. 

This one included a chile one and a chocolate based one -- the red tomato-y one was probably the winner in this round. 

Food presentation was well done. Here's a salad. 

And this was our very last "celebration" dinner for Laoye. I think he aged at least 5 years based on the number of birthday songs and desserts we went through. 😆 

Puebla was a very cute town. Lots of colonial architecture, bright colored houses, no skyscrapers in the downtown area that is focused around the Zocolo. I kind of wish we had kept our original itinerary to stay here overnight for two nights. It seemed like the type of place we would have enjoyed wandering around in more. It was so much cleaner than CDMX, the streets were all more organized, there were a bunch of stores I would have loved to stop in. Maybe it just felt more overall manageable than the huge overwhelming nature of Mexico City. Like we went to some of the best restaurants there and yet no one would know them - everyone seemed to know the Puebla spots. The whole of downtown was like a square mile. 

But before we explore Puebla in greater detail, first a detour to the largest pyramid in the world: Cholula. You ask why you've never heard of it? Well, it's a bit of a misleading title. Basically there IS a gigantic pyramid...but over the years it was forlorn and grass grew over the top...so now its just this big hill that you can climb and the Spanish explorers built a church on the top so you can't really excavate the pyramid underneath either. The view from the top was nice. Here's the famous volcano of Mexico City in the background - typical cone shape of all volcanos. 

L and R had been expecting pyramids to climb like at Teotihuacan -- they were a little upset that we ended up doing a hill climb instead. But their disappointment didn't stop them from looking amazing for photos still!

L tried to go see the ruins underneath, because children under 13 and seniors were supposedly free...but sadly that was only for Mexican citizens. So she had to settle for climbing up to see the church. 

Panoramic view was pretty nice from the top --- this is in the downtown Puebla direction. 

Inside the church. Impressive -- but I have to say, even for someone religious, it's hard to feel excited about too many churches -- they all start seeming quite interchangeable...

After stretching our legs on this brief walk, we headed back to the Pubela historic city center for our self-designed shopping/eating/sight-seeing tour. It started with a visit to La Pasita, legendary for being the oldest bar in Puebla with some very eccentric drinks. 

I should have taken a photo of the menu, but one shot was literally just a question mark because they couldn't tell you what was in it. We went for some classics (the one with the cheese cube) and some not (pineapple and apple, I believe).

Apparently Baba felt the classic was decent (I did not agree, it was not good). I thought all of them were way too sweet. I guess the shot of tequila we had at Mayahuel was really sweet too...maybe this is a Mexican tequila thing?

After our shots, we walked around the eastern side of Puebla a bit, starting with the Alley of the Frogs (known for its colorful buildings and weekend market). 

There were some street musicians but otherwise pretty quiet. Much less crowded compared to Mexico City. We stopped at La California, which supposedly had a great "cremita" pudding. I was really anticipating this...(notice that my smile below in the picture is BEFORE we tried it). It was sort of like a creme brulee? But not that good. I would not recommend - unless you just want to say you tried it.

We stopped in a few pottery places next where I got a spoon rest and Jiuma picked up a small plate. Then we headed to the Chapel of the Rosary, known for how gilded the interior is:

Again, I was a bit underwhelmed...so we went to the Alley of the Sweets instead, hoping for a better fit for our tastes -- it literally is a small street where each shop sells candy and desserts.

Full of smiles with anticipation...but...I have to say the little candies and cookies looked better than they tasted, at least in my opinion. Perhaps Mexican candies/sweets is just not our thing? (Outside of churros).

We kept going, now in search of substantial food, Puebla's famous food scene needs to redeem itself! We passed the Zocolo along the way:

Also got the twins some bubble tea -- turns out "half sweetness" in Mexico is like no sugar at all. 😆 Next time we will know!

We made it to one of the top cemitas places in the city -- these were in fact pretty good. They are these HUGE sandwiches, bread freshly baked, ingredients plentiful, and it was fun watching them all get made right in front of us.

Look at the size of that thing! Bigger than L's head!

And the final stop was for some al pastor tacos. Jiujiu really wanted to catch a taco place with the gyro-type set up for carving the meats. 

These were actually quite good as well. Jiujiu says best tacos of the trip after the ones they got while we were at the museum. I personally really enjoyed the pineapple -- though overall I have to say I like my carnitas and shrimp tacos more than al pastor.

And with that it was adios to Puebla and back to the city. The 2.5-3 hour drive each way was pretty endless...luckily R and I passed the time very easily by binging on Pursuit of Jade episodes the entire way. 😆 

Was the day trip worth it? I enjoyed going to Puebla - I really liked the little Mexican town feel. The one shopping street next to the Zocolo actually reminded me a bit of Myeongdong! The rest of the town also reminded me a bit of Belize, but without the golf carts. 😆 Jiuma thought the Alley of the Frogs reminded her of a place in Colombia. 

But was it with the drive? Possibly not. I'd probably recommend it as an overnight trip if others are visiting CDMX. 

We were home by about 9pm - highly recommend our private driver service again for large groups - super nice folks and very convenient. We managed to stay up for a few more hours of cards (Jiujiu and Jiuma introduced us to this new game, the Crew, which is a collaborative/collective-goal concept, pretty fun! Might be a Christmas gift in the future!). 

And then off to bed. Tomorrow we depart for home. 😢