We had a pretty smooth trip home, but I felt sad the whole time. I already miss the mountains. I guess I’m also glad I get to see the pups again, though. I missed them too.
Tag: trip
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June 19
I really did not want to leave. I looked for any excuse to stop and see just one more thing. Everyone else was ready to go. We did at least make it back in time to get the sticker I’d seen when we first arrived to the park, and that made me happy. And even just driving through Yellowstone without stopping is pretty special.
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June 18
We fit almost the entire Tetons into our day today. We started with sunrise at Oxbow Bend, then Schwabacher Landing, Mormon Row, Craig Thomas Visitor Center, an ill-advised stop at Jenny Lake, a drive up Signal Mountain, horseback riding at the hotel, and a sunset drive in search of wildlife. Teton is a gorgeous place.
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June 17
We crossed into Grand Teton National Park today. We stopped at the fishing bridge and Lewis Falls before getting there. We were disappointed not to see any wildlife at the fishing bridge since the guide books all said it was a really good place for it. Robin is getting tired of driving and seeing the same thing over and over again. But the Tetons are beautiful. We stopped by Colter Bay and then since everyone was tired, we drove to the Willow Flats overlook and played Five Crowns in the car until it was time to check into the hotel. Christina beat the pants off us. I’m excited to see everything tomorrow.
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June 16
We learned a lot about geysers today, and we saw quite a few of them too. It seems a little trite to say my favorite part of the trip so far was seeing Old Faithful when that is probably the only thing I’d heard of (or all most people think of) before we came, but it really was very cool to watch. We stopped at some other mud pots along the way, which I had NOT heard of but were also cool. We had early dinner reservations at Old Faithful so we didn’t get to see Grand Prismatic Spring, which was the only other thing I’d heard of besides Old Faithful. I was a little bummed, but made up for it a little with the huckleberry ice cream cone I had, which had about a pint of ice cream in it. There was so much ice cream in the cone that the cone literally couldn’t contain it. We debated when we ordered whether to get one scoop or two and decided to keep it light with one since we had that early dinner. I cannot believe what I ate was one scoop of ice cream. But it did taste good.
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June 15
We slept in a little more this morning and hit the road toward our campsite. We hiked to the Yellowstone River after seeing Tower Falls and then made our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The falls were pretty cool, and we hiked down to the very top of the lower falls. We were literally right on top of it. The drive to the campground was beautiful through the mountains. We saw more bison. We got our campsite set up and had dinner on the lake. Another great day.
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June 14
We were up before dawn to make it into Yellowstone. It is a pretty amazing place. We walked around Mammoth Hot Springs, drove through the Lamar Valley, saw some bison, pronghorn deer, a coyote, and Billy and Christina saw a bear. We went for a five-mile hike that just about killed everyone for some reason – everyone finished the hike hating life and hating each other. I personally enjoyed it and was in a decent mood at the end other than dealing with all of the attitude around me. Oh, but we saw an otter in one of the ponds we walked past, so that was cool. Good first day.
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June 13
We made it to Bozeman. Up at 4:30am and spent the day flying. I was happy that everything went smoothly, from the Uber to security to the flights being on time, smooth connections, no problem with the car rental… nice lunch at a saloon where we learned that soda is pop here. The mountains are beautiful!
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July 4
We made it through Atlanta without getting stuck in any traffic, which is a July 4 miracle. This, just as we were saying we’d never travel over the Fourth of July again because everything is closed on the Fourth of July. There was a yarn shop and a chocolatier we wanted to stop at before leaving Nashville, but both were closed for the holiday. So be it, here we are, just south of Atlanta, where Christina just beat Billy’s and my butts at Five Crowns and we made our trip official by watching a Harry Potter movie on the hotel TV. I’m looking forward to getting back to the dogs tomorrow, food shopping, and about 200 loads of laundry. But it was a good trip. Good to get away.
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July 3
We literally did EVERYTHING today. We walked over the pedestrian bridge, went into a honky tonk, bought cowboy boots, visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and RCA Studio B, went into the Parthenon, had authentic barbecue, and ate the best ice cream sandwiches made from homemade cookies and ice cream. When you have one day in Nashville, you do it all or bust. We may have done both.
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July 2
We had to get some Kentucky bourbon before we left and found a place that distills Mammoth Cave bourbon on the way to Nashville, so we made a stop. It was really cool – a small family-run distillery. The owner gave us a tour and tasting, introduced us to his horses and his dad. They gave us tips for visiting Nashville, and it was generally great. Much better than going to Maker’s Mark or another big distillery. After getting to Nashville, we were exhausted, and ended up spending most of the day sleeping, but not until after much-needed showers.
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July 1
We went on another cave your this morning. It was unlike any other I’d done – the cave was wide open and, well, cavernous. It was really cool. It rained most of the morning, but after lunch we went for a short hike. It was somewhat drama-filled since there were varying levels of enthusiasm for the hike, most of which were barely registering. I may have screamed at everyone in the middle of the forest. The day got better, though. We played Uno No Mercy and got ice cream. We made pork chops and potatoes for dinner and then kicked Billy’s ass twice at Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. Billy made the biggest campfire ever, using almost an entire package of firewood. It was, shall we say, MAMMOTH. As fun as it’s been, I think most of us are ready to go in the morning.
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June 30
We went on our first cave tour. It was really cool! National Park rangers are generally awesome. This cave is different from others we’ve toured because it’s so much bigger, and most of what we saw was dry. After the tour, we took it easy. We played That Escalated Quickly, which is always fun with Christina. I did some knitting. Making dinner was a lot smoother tonight. Christina caught more fireflies and we roasted s’mores. I’m glad it didn’t rain.
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June 29
Today was great. Made it to the campsite and got everything set up pretty quickly. Getting a fire going to cook dinner was not as smooth. We didn’t get self-lighting charcoal, and we didn’t have lighter fluid, so that was a bust. Luckily we got to the camp store one minute before it closed and got some firewood. It took us an hour to get it going, but then it burned for hours. Christina told stories by the fire and caught fireflies. She and Billy walked to the visitor center and saw 26 deer. We are in a group site loop in the middle of three busloads of kids with some sort of organization. They were loud for a bit but are otherwise fine. It’s so nice to be camping again. It’s been too long!
