July 11-15 2014
This year Pat and his mom planned a fun combined anniversary trip for me and Pat, and his mom and dad. We took the motorcycles up to Driggs Idaho where we stayed in a cabin and visited Grand Teton national park, Jackson Hole, and Yellowstone. Since it was 7/11 I decided to start the day off with a Free slurpy, yum :) (Alert there will be a crapload of photos uploaded in this post)
Day one
Then we headed out on the bikes. On the way there it rained on us a little bit so we stopped and put on some jackets. Rain drops kinda hurt when your going 75 miles per hour. After we got all our jackets on we started off again, after about 8 minutes it suddenly became amazingly sunny and hot so we had to stop and take our jackets off again lol. We made it to Archer, Idaho and had dinner at Big Juds with Paige and Jason. Big Juds is famous for it's huge delicious hamburgers. About a year ago Pat ate a one pound burger there no problem. He still has yet to try the 2 pound burger challenge though.
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| Hungry much? |
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| Paige and Jason |
After eating entirely way too much we got back on the bikes and continued on to Driggs. It took about another hour and a half. Pat and I listened to my Ipod on the bike and I held it so I got to pick out all the songs we listened too heehee. Pat was a good sport about all the Shania Twaine and other random girly music I sometimes picked though.
It was so nice when we finally made it to our cute little cabins.
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| All the essentials. Yes M&M's are essential |
Day two
The next morning we woke up early and went whitewater rafting on the Snake River. The water was cold but bearable. I'm super impressed Lori conquered her fear of water and no one fell out of the raft. (Easier said than done btw) It was fun.
Then we walked around Jackson for a little bit.
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| I think this was the rapid called "Lunch Counter" or I remember there was one called "Big Kahuna" too |
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| The water was freezing! |
We found my store
And we also rode the aerial tram that went up to the top of the mountain in 12 minutes. It had some pretty amazing views.
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| Everything was so green and pretty |
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| And here I am without any make up on at all and it is pointless to do your hair when you ride a motorcycle all day |
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| Pat's dad |
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| Pat's mom who rode the tram in spite of her fear of heights too. She was a trooper :) and our shirts match |
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| At the top. There was a cute restaurant up there that served waffles. |
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| We also rode the ski lift |
Day Three
Today we did a loop through Grand Teton National Park. It was a nice sunny day today hooray!
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| This is at Jenny Lake it was gorgeous |
It took awhile to find, but we went to Phelps Lake as well. One surprise speed bump later that I caught some air on, and almost caused Pat's mom to break her nose on the back of Terry's helmet, and one dirt gravel road adventure later we found the trailhead to Phelps lake. It was about a mile to reach the lake, and then you could walk another mile to a big rock that you could jump off into the lake. Pat and his dad jumped off without a second thought but it took me awhile to psych myself out enough to jump once.
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| Pat about to jump |
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| Pat's dad getting ready to jump |
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| Pat did a gainer of course |
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| It took me long enough to just jump! It looks a lot taller when you are staring down at the water |
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| Yay I finally did it. Pat was sweet and waited at the bottom for me so I actually was motivated to jump ha ha |
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| It was a little cold, but gorgeous |
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| Pat smiling. With Death Canyon in the background. Yep it was called Death Canyon and we saw the trail leading to it and I was like yeah I probably shouldn't go there. |
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| Pat's dad headed back before us but left us some breadcrumbs along the way. :) |
There is a great story to go along with this bridge involving good intentions, running, worry, relief, and walking an extra half mile :)
Day four
Today we went up to Yellowstone. It was rainy and overcast pretty much all day today, but at least it wasn't sweltering hot right? A cute tiny baby deer ran in front of us on the highway on our way there and Pat had to brake, but thank goodness it kept walking and we didn't hit it. We walked around West Yellowstone and tried to wait out all the raining and ate lunch at a cute burger place there and looked at some of the shops. Then we did a loop through Yellowstone.
This is at the Old Faithful Inn, it's a pretty cool looking building, my camera didn't take the best photos inside though.
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| Old Faithful |
Pat had just mentioned how it would be cool to see a Bear and we saw one today! We got to look at it with the binoculars but in the pictures it's just the little brown dot.
We also stopped at Dragons breath, and the Mud volcano. They were neat but smelt terribly like sulfur like most things do in Yellowstone.
The Mud Volcano
We also saw quite a few Bison today. There was a big one that was right on the side of the highway and it had stopped traffic, so there we were sitting on the bike while it walked around and it walked right to the right of us literally about 5 feet away from us. It was soooo close. I was totally scared it was going to like charge us or something and I didn't want to move or I could've got a really sweet picture of it. But it just strolled on by like it was bored. Phew!
On our way back when we went through West Yellowstone we stopped by a biker shop that was going out of business. I can't believe I'm saying this but yes, Pat and I got some leather! It was a really good deal and we were sick of being rained on and I was freezing cold and it was worth it just for the long ride back to the cabins that night.
It was such a fun trip! Thanks Lori and Terry we had a wonderful time :)
