Yellowstone Trip

* I copied and pasted the following blog entry from my friend, Beth. Thanks, Beth for writing this! If you don't know- Josh is her husband and Harper is their one year-old. Go to her blog at http://zarling.blogspot.com/2009/07/were-back.html and http://zarling.blogspot.com/2009/06/able-to-find-computer.html for pictures and video.

We left at 5am on Thursday June 25th, after spending the night at Beth and Josh's place in Tacoma. Travis drove like a bat out of hell and got us to Spokane, with one rest stop trip, in 4 hours. We also stopped in Missoula and one other place. We got here in 10 hours. It was a great trip too. It didn't seem like that long- maybe 4. Travis drove the whole way because he gets nervous when other people drive. Fine with me!The babies did really well. Gabby watched "Nemo" and "Dora" the whole way. Don't let anyone tell you there isn't something great about in car DVD players. Harper had a few meltdowns here and there, but for a 11 month old, she was great. The adults had a great time too. We talked and snacked and napped. We got to the resort at about 4. We are staying at this cute log cabin. We took the kids around to show them the lake, which we are directly on. They both started getting cranky at about 6pm (mountain time), so we opted for takeout from a local steakhouse. The steaks weren't great, but the bread was TO DIE FOR! The boys went out on the lake in a rowboat for about 2 hrs and caught nothing (surprise!). Josh is working on teaching Trav how to fly fish on this trip. Speaking of, Montana has rivers everywhere. Josh now wants to move here (I think with or without me).We all went to bed at about 10ish. Kind of. Harper is teething big time (we think). There is another molar poking through. So she woke up every hour or two last night crying. Fun for everyone, including Trav and Cara, who were staying in the loft of the cabin and could hear all the hoopla. The 4 of us have come up with a agreement that we are not going to constantly apologize for our kids crying or doing other thing. All 4 of us have been apologizing and we don't need to. Those of you with kids know how that is though.

We had a long drive to Yellowstone. We did decide to hit this ghost town named Garnet on the way out though. It was an old mining town and it was great for pictures.

We finally got on the road, and after about 6-7 hours, we got to our condo in Island Park, ID, which was about 20 minutes outside the park. The babies were pretty good overall. Some whining, but way better than I thought they would be.

We had a FABULOUS condo, right on the fairway of the golf course. It had two rooms that were exactly the same size, so there was no "who gets the bigger room?" So we unpacked all our stuff while the guys got us some Subway. We then gave the girls a bath and put them to bed and we stayed up planning our trip over cocktails.

The next day we got up to go see Old Faithful and West Thumb, which is on Lake Yellowstone. In took us like 2 hours to get to the gyser once in the park, even though it was about a half hour drive. We kept stopping to take pictures of stuff, like a herd of elk or a bison or a waterfall.

We finally got to Old Faithful, but the eruption wasn't for like 45 minutes, so we ate some crappy food at the cafeteria. We waited for the gyeser and Gabby kept yelling "Come on Gyser!" We were right up front. There were a lot of teasers, but once it went off, it was awesome. I didn't really see it though, I was taking pictures.

We then went to West Thumb, which is a bunch of these boiling hot pools of all beautiful colors. We really wanted to swim in them, but your skin would melt off. After that, Cara, the girls and I were all Yellowstoned out, but the boys stopped at the Paint Pots.

We didn't know it would take forever or we would have gotten out too. We went back to the condo and BBQed steaks. Then again, girls to bed, planning and cocktails.The next day we were back off to Yellowstone to go to Mammoth, which was the old cavalry station and now is the center for adminstration of the park. There were a bunch of elk hanging around in this outlook area.

It also had these cool terraces made out of some mineral I am sure Travis could tell you about. By the way, he was in heaven there. Take a Science teacher to Yellowstone and you get to see a grown man cry (but not until the Falls!). We then went home and the girls took a nap while the boys went fishing. Josh was in heaven, and kind of hell (he was passing rivers left and right and not getting to fish) the whole time in ID/MT/WY (we went through all those states on the 20 minute ride to the park from our condo). Josh taught Trav how to fly fish and the boy is hooked now. The boys came home and we went to a so-so restaurant, aptly named Boondocks, because it was out in the boonies. On the way home we had a total road trip moment when Travis (who drove the WHOLE time, god bless him), pulled over because Gabby was hitting Harper. She needed a time out. It was so hard to not laugh because it was SO stereotypical road trip stuff. We got home and went swimming. Once the girls were in bed the boys went fishing again until dark.

Our last full day at Yellowstone the girls got some time off from the babies. We went on a horseback ride in a national park that was NOT Yellowstone, but where a bear had been shot, but not killed after attacking someone the day before. We had a lovely, although somewhat low key ride. I lost $20, and almost lost $40, but luckily Cara saw it fall. She spent the whole ride watching/smelling my horse fart.

The boys picked us up, actually Travis did, because Josh had been fishing the "PhD" river- as in if he caught a fish, it was the equivalent to getting to the top level of fishing. Well he did. He caught a 5 lb trout and no one around him caught anything. That was the highlight of his trip (although he may know better than saying that). We then went home and the boys went fishing again and we took a nap. After the nap, it was to our final stops at Yellowstone: Yellowstone Canyon and the Falls. First, let me explain that to get to the falls, you have to traverse this half mile trail that goes straight down. Not too bad going down, but aweful going up. Anyway, we get down there and it's AMAZING. The falls are beautiful and the canyon in gorgeous. Travis started to cry. We had been waiting for this moment and it took him a few days, but sure enough, the beauty got to him!

We got back up to the top, winded (except for my new hero, Cara, who carried Gabby the whole way) and happened upon a husband and wife arguing on whether or not to go down. Josh butted in and told them to do it. On the way out of the park, Cara put on some tunes from high school/early college and the boys seat danced. It was hilarious. We then went to a great pizza place. After all of this, we went home and packed.

The next morning we realized C & T had left their camera at the restaurant and so we had to drive all the way back to almost the park. Luckily, someone was there, so we didn't have to wait for it to open. We then went to McDonalds and then I proceeded to spill all 32 oz of my soda on the floor. That took another needless half hour. Eventually we were on the road. We drove to Coeur d'Alene and spent the night after dinner on the waterfront.
Today we drove from there to home and were back by 4pm. It was a lot of driving (we think about 1800 or so miles total) but it was the best time. I kept saying "I am having the best time!" We are going to try and make a road trip an annual event. The girls did well and we all had a great time with each other. So much so that T, C, and G are still at our house tonight and we are all going to the cabin for a long weekend together. We are still not tired of each other!