The Grand Tetons

I took this shot with my regular old Canon camera.

The morning we entered the Grand Tetons, my children were having the usual conversation.

“Where are we going?” Gladys asked, mostly for sport I supposed.

“The Grand Tetons, Gladys, we TOLD you that,” Andrew said immediately.

“What’s a Teton?”

“A mountain. The Grand Tetons are mountains,” Andrew replied in his all-knowing almost-seven-years-old sort of way.

I listened nonchalantly. “I wonder if there was someone named Teton.” I thought aloud. Yeah, I was imagining us learning about this man named Teton.

My husband gave me that look. You know, that ‘why are you saying that out loud’ kind of look.

“What?”

“I thought you took French.”

“I did take French,” I replied, “Six years of French.”

“So, in all that time, you never learned the word teton?” he said with the kind of emphasis that explains everything quite clearly.

“Oh, no, I think only the boys learned those kinds of words.”

“If you think of it in a historical perspective,” Jay went on. “You have to imagine that the first European explorers who came through here had been on their horses for a very, very long time. I don’t suspect they brought their wives.”

“Probably not, I agreed,” and we both laughed. It wasn’t until we saw the far side of the mountains in Idaho that we agreed they really do look a bit like ‘tetons.’

“What, Mom?” Andrew asked.

“You’re right, honey, the Grand Tetons are mountains,” I replied in an all-knowing nearly-40 more-naïve-than-she-likes-to-admit sort of way. I imagined my second-grader on the first day of school writing a report 'what I saw on my vacation'. Hmm. What would he title that I wonder?

Our last morning in the Grand Tetons, we woke up early to look for animals. Wild animals are always more active in the morning and evening, and morning tends to be the best time for viewing, because traffic is light.

This is a homo-sapien familiere of the Ohio class. Yes, he got a few good shots out there. The kids, still groggy and in their pajamas, thought my pointing out 'Daddy' as an animal I spotted was simply hilarious. The picture would NOT be better if he had been a moose. At least not in my opinion.

The area saw a lot of rain this year. This trail was washed out, but we took pictures anyway.

I loved watching the kids go exploring.

They discovered many new plants. This one I don't recall seeing myself - red asparagus?

Gladys and George enjoyed this gorgeous spot.

We could see the bottom of the lake so clearly, you can hardly see the water!

My children threw several tons of stones into the bottom of that lake in the course of an hour or so.

Here are the snooty photographers who we stood next to for probably 30 minutes and would not make eye contact with us. We found them before 6am at this spot, which is where I took the picture on the top of this post. We were not in their way. I can only imagine our lenses were not big enough for their taste. Or, perhaps they had spent a great deal of money on their photography tour, only to find a few Joe Shmoes found the same spot down that dirt road with their 4x4.

Okay, their pictures were probably better - but we had WAY more fun.

If there were dirt roads to be travelled, we found them, often at 5:30am.

Good bye, Grand Tetons! By the end of the day, we were in Yellowstone.

I think I had told people we were 'going to Yellowstone' on vacation. Was this a trip to Yellowstone? By this time, I had forgotten.

Day 5 - Colter Bay

This is Colter Bay at Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming. The bay is breathtaking. But, wait a minute, I left you at Walmart yesterday.

Goodmorning! This is me with George on Monday, June 15th in Riverton, Wyoming. We had a delightful night's stay at Walmart. As you can tell, we took the upgrade to the quiet side of the parking lot with the fantastic views.

I'm going to skid by much of mid-Wyoming. However, in spite of the gray, overcast day and relatively dry landscape, the colors popped. They were just in unexpected places.

I did not write much in my journal that day. The mountains were beautiful. A bird pooped on me. The battery in the camper died, so Jay went to buy a new one (and George and I hung out at Colter Bay).

George and I sat together for a long time on the dock, waiting for the others to return from finding a battery. We pointed out the pretty boats and threw small stones into the water.

We talked.

"Do you see the mountains, George? Where are the mountains?"

He looked at me.

"The mountains, George, where are the mountains?"

When was the last time we saw mountains, in the distance? You know, ones you could point at? Surely, we drive through the Appalachian Mountains frequently enough, but I don't believe he remembers seeing any mountains like the Grand Tetons. Surely, he must have seen mountains.

"Those are mountains, George. See the mountains?" I pointed.

George learned many new words on our trip. I wonder if they remember them even better when they see it for themselves, instead of in books.

Maybe. I heard him say 'yellow' for the first time too. Or, maybe he had said it before, and I finally took the time to hear it.

I did not spend a lot of time wondering about it. I just had a really nice day.

We took the boat cruise.

We took a walk.

We looked at the water.

We laughed.

We ran fast.
And, we actually stayed at a campsite.