Yellowstone or Bust: Day 7

(Friday, August 28)

Today was another road trip day.  First we headed down past Old Faithful and took a bike ride.  It was a gorgeous shaded trail/old service road and it wound around next to a river.  We rode until the end of the trail- 2 miles, and then walked a bit further to the Lone Star Geyser.  The geyser was supposed to erupt soon, so we hung around for a while to watch- totally worth it.

After, we rode the 2 miles back.  We have been so proud of the kids riding.  They love it, and Garrett has improved SO MUCH at the beginning of the summer (when he was still learning to ride withough training wheels)!  He did have a spill on some loose gravel though.  We told him that a fall like that initiated him into the 'real' mountain bikers club- that sometimes even Dave and Danielle got scraped up on a ride.  He totally bought it, and even let me take the below picture to show Dave and 'That Girl."  Anyway, this bike ride was SO enjoyable- definitely a highlight of the trip.

Once we returned to the car, rehydrated, and ate our picnic lunch, we headed south through Teton National Park.  We were excited to hear that there had been several bear and moose sightings- we were watching!

We stopped at the Jackson Lake Lodge for huckleberry icecream.  We ate on the front patio and admired the towering (understatement!) mountains all around.  I'm sure my kids think I am obnoxious, but sometimes I make them order what I think they should.  For example, at the Jackson Lake Lodge the ice cream choices were vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and huckleberry.  I made everyone order huckleberry.  The kids were annoyed with me at first; UNTIL THEY TASTED IT!  Sometimes I just have to put my foot down!

After our ice cream treat we headed south a little further to South Jenny Lake for our second bike ride of the day.  This one parallels the highway, is blacktopped, smooth, and perfect for our kids!  It was beautiful.  We rode about 3 miles before we turned around.  By the end of the 3 miles back, G got a little tired, and C got more than a little tired, but we did it!  That made 10 miles in one day- quite the accomplishment for our little family; especially M and G with their gear-less bikes and short chains.  We were so proud of them.

After Carter fell asleep, he was so floppy and made my bike wobble!  Finally I had to stop (and take pictures) and trade with Joel, keeping my bike upright with that 40lb little sleeping monkey in the back was exahusting!  I was riding behind Joel and watched the whole bike seat lean back and forth and realized that Carter is probably majorly pushing the weight limit on that seat!

We were all wiped after the bike ride.  It was fun, but it was in the full sun and we were HOT.  We continued our drive south and near the border of the park we were fortunate enough to see a mama black bear with 2 cubs, and then a few miles past that a mama moose with a baby.  Waaaay down the river we could see the bull moose playing in the water.  So cool.

By then we were hungry and tired.  We drove down to Jackson (didn't it used to be called Jackson Hole?  What's the deal with that?  Did I make that up?), and found a great place to eat.  I swear I had the best pizza of my L I F E.  The kids all loved their food, and they really loved playing fooseball before our meal arrived.  We didn't get back to the condo until 11:30 that night, but what a great day we'd had!