The Traveling Londons

On Our Way Home, Part II

Even up not-so-early, we arrived around 3p in Reno and checked into Circus Circus.  The kids have been looking forward to this the entire trip because of the huge arcade where they can spend lots of money and win loads of useless junk!

We had a very good dinner in one of the hotel restaurants.  After dinner (and after the final arcade visit of the day), the kids and I were walking back to our room and I saw some really cute jewelry-holding statues in the jewelry shoppe [sic] window.  This being something I could really use (and they were really cute!), I spent some time looking at them.  I couldn't decide which one I liked best so I called over my kids for their opinions.  I feel that most of the time I am most suited to be a mother of boys.  But there are still times such as these when I could really use a girl's opinion!  Instead of a considered opinion, I got blank stares, rolling eyes, and outright derision!  That's OK, though...I'll take not having a female perspective for not having to spend a fortune on clothes, shoes, etc.

Tomorrow: Home!

On Our Way Home, Part I

Our last evening in Jackson Hole was a good one.  We ate dinner at the poolside bbq and then scored some prime seating in the lodge's great room where we stayed up late hanging out with and playing cards with the entire gang.

In the morning, we met up with the others in the great room for a short visit before we hit the road.  We made it to Elko, Nevada.  Jay loves Nevada because even the roadside hotels have casinos!

Last Day in Teton

It's our last full day here!  In the morning we (just our family) took a walk from the lodge to Christian Pond and beyond a bit into the meadows and forests east of the lake.  On our way back Adam and Daniel spotted a weasel in the trees near our room.  We met Lisa, Jordan, Ben, and Jesse back at the lodge and then headed to Leeks Bay for lunch.  After a yummy lunch on the restaurant veranda overlooking the lake, we headed to Coulter Bay for more kayaking.  Just about everyone took a turn in one of the three tandem boats we rented.  The weather is definitely turning (we got rained on a bit) and it was windy and choppy so we didn't stray far from the marina.  Again no bear sighting but we did get to see a male bald eagle and a juvenile eagle sparring in the treetops and diving to the lake.

Tonight we're celebrating Jordan's 49th birthday at the poolside western BBQ which will likely involve bottle(s) of good red wine.

Picnic Day

Thursday was a low-key day.  We hung around the lodge in the morning, some of us eating a late breakfast, the rest playing cards or reading.  Then we headed off for an easy walk along Jenny Lake and a picnic lunch on the shore.

After lunch we headed to Signal Mountain Lodge to rent a boat and take it out onto Jackson Lake.  A storm threatened but luckily we didn't get called back in due to an approaching thunder storm like last time we went out on this boat two years ago.  We headed straight across the lake for a close-up view of Mount Moran.  We paused in the bay at the base and it was really stunning to see it that close up!  You could really see the different features of the mountain which aren't so evident from further away.

The evening brought us back to to the lodge for dinner and card games on the veranda.

Sorry no pictures again!  I only get internet connection in the lobby and I left my phone cable in the room (there's got to be an app to wirelessly upload your pictures from your iPhone to the computer, right?  I'll have to search when I have a faster connection...)

In my excitement to tell about our animal sightings, I forgot to mention that Lisa and I went kayaking on the lake on Tuesday.  We left from Coulter Bay and spent an hour paddling around the various inlets there.  We saw a mama deer and two babies hanging out on the shore of one of the small islands (question:  just how did they get there?)  I was hoping to see a bear on the shore.  Maybe not though since bears can swim and there we were: nice easy pickings in a slow kayak!

 

Hiking Day

After breakfast we headed off for a 3-which-turned-into-5 mile hike up to Bradley and Taggart lakes. It was an excellent work out with amazing view before we headed into Moose (again) for lunch at the Moose Chuckwagon (which was not at good as the Moose Pizzeria). The boys braved a swim in the cold, cold Taggart Lake. No, pictures (for now) from todays's adventure since I forgot the upload flash drive for the camera I was using...

A Big Day For Animal Sightings!

We (minus Jordan and the Jobe family) set off after breakfast to our secret buffalo spotting road.  On our way we saw a coyote (we think) and some pronged-horned deer.  We first spotted some buffalo off in the distance.  Some cars were pulled over but we knew better and pushed on.  We were rewarded and came across another herd right on the road.  We had to wait (again) for a few to cross the road and then parked off the road to watch them for a bit.   A big, old buffalo looked at us looking at him and then ambled across the road behind our car.  Very cool!  We circled back to the main road and then had a fantastic pizza lunch outside on a deck in Moose overlooking the river and the mountains.

But the best was yet to come...as we headed back along the lower loop to the lodge we saw a number of cars pulled over so we did what one does when you see that in these parks...we slammed on our brakes, careened over to the side of the road, and searched frantically in the direction everyone was looking.  People were getting out of their cars and talking excitedly.  A woman told us that she had just seen a bear but it had gone off into the woods.  Then people started rushing in another direction and pointing.  A woman was talking excitedly in a language I could not understand but it was pretty obvious that she saw *something* in *that direction*.  We ran over there and there was a black bear in the meadow below the road.   Not only did he oblige us by standing there looking at us for a bit, he then stood up on his hind legs before ambling back into the woods.  It was a great animal sighting in that we were both close to the bear and the bear gave us a good photo op!

We Arrive In Jackson

We arrived in the town of Jackson right around noon. We stopped for lunch and sat outside on a balcony overlooking the square and the mountains in the distance. After lunch we headed to our hotel--the Jackson Lake Lodge--about 45 minutes away to meet up with Adam, Lisa, Jordan, Ben, and Jesse. On our way to the lodge, our path was once again (but briefly this time) blocked by a cow. This time it was a moose cow and her child. Very cool for us! Not quite as cool for the poor moose (not meese, I looked it up) who were trying to cross the road but seemed to be terrified by the cars. As we inched by, they still hadn't crossed but I'm sure they made it eventually. We all had dinner that night in the main dining room along with Bob, Marirose, and Cristian--friends of Lisa and Jordan's who live in Berkeley. After dinner we played a few rousing games of Euchre in the great room and then went off to our various rooms and to bed.

Idaho Falls

We stopped in Idaho Falls tonight as pushing ahead to Teton would have had us arriving there too late to really enjoy it.  We left Winnemucca before 10 and arrived in Idaho Falls around 6, making two brief stops for lunch and gas.  Our trip got off to a bit of slow start due to this guy (er, gal):

But as soon as she ambled off the road and we inched by her, we were on our way.

We're staying in a hotel overlooking the Snake River and the falls.  It's nice here.  We had dinner in a local brew pub, took an after dinner walk along the river, and now we're back in the room watching the original "Major League" movie which, despite starring Charlie Sheen, is an excellent baseball movie.

Tomorrow: (finally) the Grand Tetons!

Winnemucca

We made it to Winnemucca, Nevada around 5:00p this evening.  As I said on Facebook, it's really quite beautiful here!  We're in the desert with mountains all around us.  We saw an amazing sunset that I'd post a picture of but the picture I took did not do it justice.   OK, I'll post it anyway.  Just imagine it much, much more spectacular than it looks here!  It's too bad this town is in the middle of nowhere and its sole existence seems to be as a freeway pit-stop on the way to/from California, Utah, and Idaho (read: an abundance of motels, gas stations, and fast food restaurants).

Tomorrow we'll head on into Idaho.  We'll likely stay in Idaho Falls and then have an easy drive into Grand Teton National Park on Monday.  There's an off chance we'll push all the way to Teton tomorrow but we don't have a hotel room reserved until Monday night.  That said, Adam arrived in Teton today with Lisa, Jordan, Ben, and Jesse so we have an incentive to get there earlier!  (Adam spent the last week in Santa Fe with his grandparents, cousin Ben, and Uncle Jordan and traveled today to Jackson with Ben and Jordan.)

Hitting the Road in the Morning

We leave in the morning on our way to Grand Teton National Park.  In preparation for our trip, I looked up some of the posts I made when we made this trip previously.  Things I'm cracking up about:

• The amount of preparation I made for our previous road trips are here and here.  This time....um...I went to Target and bought some snacks.
• When Daniel and I were looking at the pictures from the Summer 2002 trip, I said after looking at a number of pictures, "What in the world was I wearing then???"  Daniel (who is always honest in regards to these types of things) nodded slowly and said "Yeah.  You were pretty much dressed like a mom in those."  I took a long breath and said, "Um...do I still?"  He looked at me and said earnestly, "No!  Now, you're cool!"  I love you, Daniel!   

Tomorrow we're off for somewhere in Nevada.  Hopefully it will not be the armpit of America.