World Travelers...Not Quite

Do you ever watch those shows on E! about missing people and the stories behind their disappearances?  There is always a point where the parents or spouse says something along the lines of "When I hadn't heard from her in two days, I knew something was wrong".  Then they call the cops and the search begins.

If I disappeared, there would be no hope of finding me.  You know how I know?  Because I'm the worst. daughter. ever.

I talked to Mom yesterday, for the first time in...oh...two weeks.  I happened to mention Wilberforce and I had just gotten back from our week long vacation throughout Yellowstone and Western Wyoming.  She had no idea we had been on a vacation.

Whoops.  Good thing no one decided to murder us on this trip.  What a gruesome thought, eh?  My mind is a scary place.  Welcome!

Oh, the voice message from Dad asking whether we were still alive or had been burned up in the wildfires was also a hint that I'm a horrible daughter when it comes to checking in with the folks.

Point of this little ball of un-nice thoughts:  we're back from a wonderful vacation!

We started off our trip with a drive through Laramie, our old stompin' grounds in college.  Spent the night in beautiful Pinedale, Wyoming.  And I'm not even being sarcastic.  I don't care who you are, you have to admit that Western Wyoming in and around Yellowstone is gorgeous.

Day two was spent in Grand Teton National Park and on the south end of Yellowstone.  We rode a tram to the top of Rendezvous Mountain in Teton Village - Wilberforce had never ridden the tram before, and it's been over a decade since I had been on it, so we did it!

 Wilberforce at the base of Rendezvous Mountain.

 Tram-riding is serious business.  Get your game face on.

 My game face is less awesome than his.

 Top of the mountain.  It was a little chilly up there.  Didn't bother Wilberforce; however, I was freezing to death because I'm a weenie.

 The landing-dock contraption for the trams.  They have two trams that depart from the base and summit every fifteen minutes.  The total trip up the mountain took nine minutes.  Pretty sweet.

 I didn't take any pictures, but the tram had Wyoming Steamboats all over the windows and on the side.  You can see the Steamboat emblem in the circles on the railing, too.  It was weird because Jackson Hole and Yellowstone are so much different than the rest of Wyoming that it's hard to remember you're still in WYO Cowboy Country.

 Checking out the view from the summit of the mountain.  There were also some parasailers getting ready to jump off the side of the mountain that he was watching.  Some people are nuts.

 The landing dock is down to the left of the picture; the building to the bottom right is a little cafe that serves meals, snacks, and even alcoholic beverages!  Oh happy day!  We didn't partake, as it was before noon.  We have standards, you know.  However, if they had served champagne in the orange juice, I wouldn't have not ordered the orange juice.

Just sayin'.

 Oh check it out!  Amanda is uploading her pictures in no particular order again.  Here are the para sailers I mentioned earlier.

 And now getting back to the cafe, this is Wilberforce wondering why I'm taking pictures of him in the cafe.  Because I can, Wilberforce.  Because I can.

 Isn't he cute?  I'll keep him.

We left Teton Village directly after the tram ride.  It's more of a ski town, and the skiing isn't great without snow in June.  Odd.

During our trip we were very careful to keep on our schedule of stuffing our faces with food every three hours.  Usually around two and a half hours following our previous snack-fest, Wilberforce would mumble something about being hungry or starving or "when is the next snack time?", so I made sure to have food with us at all times to avoid a cranky hungry Wilberforce.

I'm lying.  I'm actually the one who grows horns if I don't get fed on time.  Being married is awesome - I always have someone to blame stuff on.  Unless it's big long hairs in the sink drain.  That one is really tough to convince Wilberforce it's his fault.

 This little cooler was a life saver.  Every morning we made sure it was packed full of apples, bananas, fruit dip, and cookies.  Just the necessities.

And yes, we did pull over in the middle of nowhere to tailgate.  It's how we roll, man.

 The Grand Tetons!

 They really were spectacular.  From every direction.  I stopped taking pictures of them within thirty minutes because you just can't capture how awesome they are.

 We headed up to Jackson Lake, which was also amazing.  We stopped in a little village called Colter Bay to wander around.

 Colter Bay is named after the bay, I'm guessing.  I'm very smart like that.  The docks in the bay housed some sweet boats.  Boats that cost seven times as much as my house, I'm sure.  And there is that amazing mountain view again, from a more northernly direction.

 I basked in the sunshine.  It was chilly this day - only in the 70's.  The rest of our trip was pushing triple digits, though, so I was only goosebumpy for the one day.

 Day three was spent driving through Yellowstone to Old Faithful.

 We stopped at the Snake River overlook to get in a photo-op.

 A little old couple was watching us be ridiculous, taking pictures of each other, and volunteered to take our picture together.  Turns out the lady's mom was a teacher in my home town back in Iowa back in the day.  Such a small world.

 I haven't been to Old Faithful since high school, but the big thing I remembered was getting sunburned while waiting for the geyser to erupt.  We tried to avoid that situation this time by drinking beer and wine in the Old Faithful Lodge bar.  However, we still had to spend some time in the sun before she blew.

 So I wore my sensible hood.  I look like a dweeb but it's okay because I didn't know anyone there.  And everyone was too busy being totally annoyed with the foreigners that were obnoxiously placing bets on what minute exactly the geyser would erupt.  The geyser was 6 minutes later than the estimated eruption time and that six minutes almost sent me to prison.  Homicide is frowned upon in National Parks, I've heard.

 After Old Faithful was done doing her thing, we hiked around the other hot springs for a bit.

That blue one is Blue Star Spring.  It's shaped like a star.  I know, I know.  You're shocked to hear that.

Anyways, we headed back south to Wilberforce's hometown for his 10 year class reunion after Old Faithful.  We made a few stops along the way, but I stopped taking pictures because, well, I just did.

So Mom and Dad, we're alive!  Back at home, safe and sound.  Don't call the cops.