Our adventure in Wyoming started off with a bang.....here are the first 2 1/2 days!
Arrival Day:
We arrived and I love the sign they have as you are driving out of the airport.....
Don had to make a slight detour before going to the hotel. We drove towards Antelope Flats, in the Teton park...just to see if the buffalo were out. They obviously got the memo that DonRahn was arriving. They were right along the street waving to him as we approached.
Some of them wanted to get a little closer to the car to say hi!
We left the buffalo, with a happy DonRahn, and headed towards the hotel. We drove through Jackson with a stop at the grocery store for bottled water, and other various food items (we had a full kitchen in our suite for the next 5 days).. and headed towards Teton Mountain Lodge.
After a quick check-in and quick change of clothes - we headed out to dinner...our bodies thought it was 7:30, and we were all hungry. We decided to drive into Grand Teton Park (a mile from our hotel) to go to Dornan's for dinner. The easiest way to get there is down Moose-Wilson Road. And the road didn't disappoint. This guy had stopped traffic in both directions to rest in the middle of the road and lick what looked to be something spilled (that was probably very tasty). Traffic started moving again, and Don was content to go on to dinner. :)
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| A fun store near the dinner restaurant |
After dinner, we headed to Mormon Row in the tetons. It's a familiar spot for famous photos with the house and the mountains behind....
These are all my pics. Don will share his when we return.
Then back to the hotel to catch up on the olympic action and sleep!
Day 1:
Don woke to a 5 a.m. wakeup call to head out solo, and animal hunt. We woke up leisurely and got breakfast. We wandered around the resort/ski village and watched the paragliders...Carleigh will be paragliding on Wednesday.
Don returned and we headed out for a "family hike." Family hike means low stress ad low distance. We found a 3 mile round trip hike to a lake that looked like fun. It was in the Teton Park and a bout 20 minutes from our hotel....so off we went.
We were hiking 1 1/2 miles to Phelps Lake and then 1 1/2 miles back - a loop. Off we went.....
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| Ready to start! |
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| on the way to the lake..... |
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| only .8 miles left to the lake... |
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| Jordan Weiber or Gabby Douglas? |
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| Carleigh trying to "stick" the landing... |
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| the woods opened up to this beautiful meadow and then the lake is right beyond the trees.. |
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| and we arrive....time to ..... | | | | | | | | |
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Shoes off, socks off, and wading into the VERY cold lake water. :)
Snack break and then getting ready to hike back to the car....and
A happy, content Don Rahn!
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| determined to get to the top...on the way back to the car... |
We made it, with only one meltdown that a can of Pepsi Max (Don called it "super juice") fixed, and the short drive back to the hotel for preschool nap time.
Preschool nap time became a tradition at Disney...when we would return to the hotel mid-day to take a nap before beginning our evening adventures. It worked...3 out of the 4 of us took a nap and we were off for the evening.
We were heading into the town of Jackson to dinner and shopping. We were successful on both ends. Lots of t-shirts and sweatshirts and a great dinner at "Local" - a new restaurant right on the town square.
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| Antler Arch picture with a new friend (as Don says ;) that will be photoshopped out at home. |
After dinner we headed back into the park for animal hunting at Dusk...they come out at dusk...we were told...this sign lied...no animals tonight, but a random moose on the way home.
We did see a fabulous sunset and a new lake that Don had discovered on his morning adventure....
back to the hotel to sleep and early wake-up call for our Hot Air Balloon ride.
Day 2:
5:15 a.m. wake-up call to call and check in for our 6:15 a.m. pick up to go to the balloon launch site. We were all up and ready 10 minutes early! Yay family!!
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| 6:30 a.m. at the launch site - starting to blow up the balloons |
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| it was cold!!! |
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| our balloon - ready to load |
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| 4 balloons went up at the same time - we were first up....here are the other 3 starting to take off |
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| love the shadow on the ground |
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| in the gondola - before takeoff and ready! |
The balloon ride was beautiful. We shared the gondola with about 8 other people, but it wasn't that crowded. Do I need to do it again? No, but was it worth it!! Yes. It was definitely a once in a lifetime kind of thing and the girls appreciated it a lot. Katie LOVED it!!
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| in the air |
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| Katie liked it the best.....she thought it was "awesome." |
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| the view was pretty incredible...we stayed in the "hole" of Jackson Hole |
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| aerial view of our resort area....it's a big ski village in the winter |
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| and we're down, out of the gondola and they are deflating the balloon |
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| packing up the gondola |
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| bye bye... |
We got back to the hotel at 8:30ish and had breakfast...and planned the rest of the day. The girls and I would take advantage of the "village" area and Don headed out in search of wildlife.
Tonight is Wild West Dinner Theater...I love my husband for being willing to sit through this. A dinner in the saloon and then move into the theater for a wild west production of Cat Ballou.
Stay tuned for highlights from tonight and Carleigh's paragliding adventure tomorrow!
