Chris Turns 33 at the Grand Tetons... August 23, 2007

We're having an extra special week because Chris is turning 33!  We've been celebrating all week long with Chris taking the whole week off, and by taking a trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.  We had so many precious times on our little mini-vacation.  We spent some really good time together as a family.  Here's a little bit about what happened:

Hee hee, Chris here, Laura ran off to take a shower, so I'm sneaking in to write some.

We headed off Monday morning about an hour or so after we had planned because we have a one-year-old.  We decided to head the back way by Bear Lake, which was nice.  We've both been there before, but it's been awhile.  We stopped in Montpelier, Idaho for some lunch.  After passing by a pizza place, we decided to stop at Dan's Delicious Drive-Inn because I was craving a burger.  Big mistake!  We had a couple of groups in front of us, nothing out of the ordinary.  But we waited an hour before we even got our food.  It wasn't like we were having foie gras with some fancy sides.  We just wanted some burgers and a grilled cheese for the road.  Sheesh.  We tried to keep Noah entertained for an hour, which was no mean feat.  Like I said, he's one.

He was a trooper, though, and we finally got our food, inhaled it, and then hit the road.  The wrong road.

Apparently if I leave too late my paternal sense of direction leaves ahead of me.  I missed the tiny little turn for US 89 and went about half-an-hour (to Soda Springs) before I realized my mistake.  Oh well, other than leaving more than an hour late, losing an hour at lunch, and another punishing hour down the wrong road, we were right on schedule.  Riiigghhhhtttt.

The reason we decided to head up in this direction was to scout out a little lake my family heard about.  After waiting another few minutes for road construction in a canyon narrowed down to one lane, we got to the lake.  It's a beautiful, crystal clear lake in the mountains near Star Valley, Wyoming.  It was a nice detour.  We stopped in Jackson for dinner, which is surprisingly hard to find (not Jackson, but a good dinner spot).  The part of town we stopped in had a million tee shirt shops and 3-4 restaurants.  We ended up having some pretty good pizza, though.

Then it was off to Grand Teton National Park.  We rented a tent cabin in Colter Bay Village, which is on the shore of Jackson Lake.  Noah loved it.  He could run all over the place and see quirrels, as he called them.  We had a nice evening and Noah slept pretty well in his playpen with his little half-length sleeping bag.

Tuesday was my birthday (the trip was my present).  We got up and had breakfast before going on a great hike.  The hike took us by the shore of Jackson Lake, in to another lake called Swan Lake that was covered in water plants.  I'll bet that not even one-third of the lake's surface was visible because of all the plants.  It was the perfect place to spot a moose.  We didn't though.  We saw some really cool, enormous birds (I think they were herons).  The path took us by another little pond before hooking back to Jackson Lake.  It really reminded us of the Pacific Northwest with the thick pine forests and the placid water.

After the hike we decided to explore the park a bit.  We stopped at the different lodges and a new visitor center and saw animals on the side of the road (not dead).  In fact, we even saw a black bear, which was really cool.  I saw a group of people congregated on the side of the road looking down an embankment.  As I walked up, I saw this bear, about 30 feet away.  A bit too close.  I said to the person standing next to me, "So let me get this straight, as long as I'm faster than one of you, I'm okay."  The bear turned toward us, so we backed off.  I went to get Laura and Noah and the camera and came back to watch it for a minute before it decided privacy was a better option and headed into the brush.

As we were driving back to our cabin, we decided to take a long detour and head to eat at Yellowstone.  We both wanted to go for sentimental reasons.  We honeymooned there.  We're kind of cheesy, but it was fun to see the picnic table where we sat one morning and ate magically delicious frosted Lucky Charms.  We also went to the Yellowstone Hotel, which is where Laura accidentally tried stealing a postcard for the newlyweds to put in their scrapbook.  So we ate and got back late.

Then, Wednesday we had planned to go back up to Yellowstone for a visit to Old Faithful.  We went as much for the inn as for the geyser.  In fact, we took no pictures of the geyser, and lots of the inn.  It's a beautiful old inn with rustic beams.  Laura said it felt like living inside a tree.  Maybe that explains why she kept climbing trees and returning with her cheeks full of acorns.  Oh wait, that didn't happen.  Anyway, we kicked around there for while before heading home.  It was one of those trips when the family grew closer while having a great time.  I'd say it was a success.  It was certainly a good birthday.