Vacation Day 4: Yellowstone National Park

Day 4: Friday.  We woke at beautiful Old Faithful Inn, had breakfast inside and then headed off to the visitor's center next door.

It was chilly.  Isabel had her hood up.



All around the Inn there were boardwalks leading to the many geysers around the area.  We decided to take a walk around the boardwalks before checking out.



Castle Geyser



After checking out, eating lunch and buying me a shirt and hat combo, we drove through Yellowstone, stopping at various points along the way to our new lodging location for the next 2 nights.



Morning Glory Pool





New hat!  I'll wear the shirt tomorrow.



We headed next to the Canyon Lodge & Cabins to check into our cabin for two nights.

The cabin was HOT when we got there.  They had all the windows closed and it was over 100 degrees inside when we entered.  Oh, and no A.C.  We opened windows but could only keep the door open for a little bit due to mosquitos.

Isabel loved the bear-shaped soap. She took it with
her in the car.  Hee hee.

We left the cabin and went to the main lodge area to check out the gift shops, stores and restaurants.  We chose a 50's style diner inside tone of the gift shops for dinner.

Since it got dark so late, we hopped in the car after dinner and headed over to Artists Point and also to the Upper Falls viewpoint.

Beautiful views and yellow stones

On our way back to the cabin, we saw some wildlife and lovely sunset views.

Back at the cabin, we had the one desk fan blowing, all the windows opened (they were screened) and we were still a bit hot.  By 2 a.m., we were freezing!  I had to get up, shut the windows and turn on the propane heater.  :)



We Interrupt the Boring Vacation Posts....

Because it's BACK TO SCHOOL TIME!

Little Miss Fancy Pants started Second Grade!  Don't ask me what's up with her pose there. No idea.

Big Mister Fancy Pants.....is a Senior.   Holy guacamole.  A Senior.  AAAAAAAKKKKK!

Here's to a great new year!

Vacation Day 3 Continued: Yellowstone and Old Faithful Inn

Day 3, Thursday evening.

We left Grand Teton NP and drove up to Yellowstone National Park, where we would be spending the night at the Old Faithful Inn.  To say we were excited is an understatement.  We were staying at the Inn....right next to Old Faithful.  FOR. REALS.

We left Teton so late, I was in a grumpy mood.  I wanted to spend as much time as possible at this Inn (it was expensive and we were only staying in it one night), and we did not get there until after 7 p.m.  When you book a room, you get less than 24 hours in it.  Usually check-in is around 3-4 p.m. and check-out around 11 a.m.  Getting there at 7 seemed like a waste of very short time we had at the Inn.

Driving up to the Inn

The Ranger at the gate gave us this note. Made for some serious laughs.

I'm sitting in the car, waiting for David to check in, and there is Old Faithful. Right there!

We got our room keys and went in.  Guess what?  No AC.  To Floridians, this is crazy troll-logic.  Huh? What?  Huh?  The room was warm and they had a small desk fan for us to use. 



The Inn



Several different geysers next to the Inn

We ate dinner at the cafeteria and went back to the Inn.  Isabel and David wanted to sleep.  Jacob and I wanted to explore the hotel, since we had gotten there so late in the day.

The clock on the fireplace inside the inn's lobby

We got some coffee from the Inn's coffee shop and explored the inn.

Unfortunately, by this late hour, the gift shop, several restaurants and snack shops were closed.  We walked up to the second and third levels of the inn, drinking our coffee and admiring all the woodworking.

Later on, the night turned cool and the room with no AC was nice and chilly for a good night's sleep.


Photo from KenRockwell.com, not me.

Vacation Day 3: Jackson, WY & Grand Teton National Park

Thursday: Day 3

We woke up early in our little cabin, got dressed and headed out to (an expensive) breakfast.  Seems that everything is pricey out here because they know we really don't have much choice. *sigh*  It was good food, just WAY more than we normally spend on breakfast.  It was more along the lines of what we spend for dinner.

We walked through Jackson and went in to several of the stores there.  Jacob forgot a sweater/sweatshirt.  We told him to pack one but he forgot, so we needed to go get him something.

Isabel gets a Hi-5 from a local

Walking through Jackson. Notice the hills behind us.

I just liked the fence around this property.  :)

After checking out of the cabin, we drove in to Grand Teton National Park where we decided we would hit the visitor's center and then take a hike.

Jacob's new sweatshirt. I want it.

Hello.



At the entrance to one of the visitor's centers at Grand Teton.



They like their moose.

Jacob takes a shot of his sister inside the center.

After the visitor's center, we drove through the park, stopping at a location that had some structures still standing from when Mormans built a little community together.

Normally, settlers liked living apart from each other.  Not the Mormans.  They built communities, helping each other build homes, raise crops, take care of the children, etc.

A few of the remaining structures of what once was a Morman settlement of over 60 buildings



We jumped back in the car and got to the main trailhead area, where we lunched on sandwiches purchased at a small grocery store, purchased bottled water and got ready for our 4-mile roundtrip hike.

The scenery was gorgeous! 

It was a cool day, the weather was perfect, the hike was fun and then...."I have to go potty."  "Hold it." "Nooo, I have to poop!"

We'd been walking for just a little over 25-30 minutes and little Miss has to go.  *sigh*  We were probably 3/4 of a mile out.  I decided to head back with Isabel while David and Jacob went forward.  They actually went even further than planned.

Here's what us gals missed.



"insert angelic music here"



"The hills are aliiiiiive, with the sound of muuuuusic."

Us girls? We waited in line for a toilet, spent another 5 minutes in it with Isabel, then went to the gift shop to get some ice cream to eat while we waited.  It's all good.  :)  We went into a smaller visitor's center, looked at books, played with antlers and waited for the boys to return.

After the boys got back and filled up on water, we headed back to the car.  We have to drive further north to stay at our next location this evening: Old Faithful Inn inside Yellowstone National Park!!  SO excited to get there!  See ya later tonight!

Vacation Day 2 Continued: Jackson, WY

Still Wednesday.  After leaving Golden Spike, we headed towards Jackson, WY because were were going to Grand Teton National Park.  We took Logan Canyon Scenic Byway in Utah and stopped at a lookout point to look at Bear Lake.

The kids looking at Bear Lake.

She's trying to grow out her bangs.  :)

After the pitstop, we continued in to Idaho just for a spell

and quickly made our way into Wyoming.

I'm pretty much in love with Jackson, WY.  aka Jackson Hole.  I'm not sure I'd live there, mind you.  The COLD!  But for a tourist town, it is beautiful!

This night, Wednesday night, was the only night we did not have any lodgings prearranged.  I relaxed immediately upon entering the outskirts of Jackson, because there were plenty of vacacy signs.  David wanted to see what was closer to the beautiful downtown, so we drove in.

We drove by a little place called the Kundar Motel and thought, "what the hey...let's try there."  The man at the front desk had a vacancy; a room in one of the converted houses near the back, not one of the log cabins.  I was not really impressed with it and David went back with the key to let the man know we would keep looking.  David them came back with another key to a cabin.  A couple that had been there before us had the cabin key to look at it, but when they realized it was available only for one night, they declined, so the cabin was available for one night.  It was adorable and we took it!

Cabin 16

Hello Ya'll!

The second bedroom.  The bathroom is behind David's back there.

After bringing in the luggage, we decided to walk down to the town center to see what was around.  Apparently there was going to be a shoot-out at the center park of the town.

There were two of these arches in the center square of town.

We saw lots of restaurants, shops, coffee houses, a few play-theatres and one movie theatre.  What were they playing?

Good Choice, Jackson.

David was is a tizzy to go see if we could spot any wildlife at dusk in Teton.  We wanted to walk around the town some more.  David promised that we would walk around some more early in the morning, since check-out wasn't until 11 a.m., so we drove into the National Park, but we did not see any wildlife.  We did stop for a sunset view of the Teton Glacier.

That's the Glacier in the middle there.

After looking around a bit, we hopped back in the car and headed back to town where we had an outdoor pizza dinner at Mountain High Pizza.

We went back to the cabin to take showers and get ready for an early night in.