Guess Where We Are!!!!

Before I tell you our new destination (we were supposed to be in the Yellowstone area 10 days, but more on that later) I need to fill you in on the last 2 days.

I left off at our early morning kayaking trip on Tuesday - Tim and I got up at 4:45, we rallied the troops at 5:00 and we were out the door by 5:15. It was our fastest drive thru the park - no bison jams, no other cars, it was really beautiful. We were almost to the marina when we turned the corner and this amazing bull elk was just sauntering along the shoulder of the road - no one else was in sight to see this huge guy. We think he was 16 or 17 points (not sure how you score an elk tho).

We arrive at the marina and I've got it all planned out. We have tandem kayaks. Tim gets Kylie and I get Ryan, my ace in the hole....he was my partner up at Jackson Lake and was a big help. There is just one other couple going with us and our 2 guides. It is rather chilly and lightly raining off and on.....it was in the low 50's, Kraig....Now the one big mistake I made was forgetting to feed my child cokes, coffee, major sugar, anything to give him energy and keep him awake. So I ended up in a tandem kayak with dead weight having to keep up with everyone else. Not exactly what I had in mind!!!!

We had a good time, Kylie fell asleep in Tim's kayak, which was very cute. We saw some really neat underwater geyser features and Rusty the bear (which turned out to be an old barrel), a huge flock of Barrows Goldeneye ducks that took flight and made the most incredible sound.

We made it back into "town" for lunch and found this great Mexican restaurant that was a bus - how can you not eat there?!

Yesterday we had a white water rafting trip planned. It left out of the north entrance area at 1:00. We needed to be there by 12:20. No problem! It's an hour+ drive....so we wisely left by 9:45 to have extra time. Uh, yeah, right! After a 40 minute, yes that's right, a 40 minute!!!! delay from a bison walking down the road with a ranger driving slowly behind him to make sure he had the right of way....we thought it was a good thing we left early. And this was 3 miles into the park. Then we had another long delay from construction, which we also had on the way home. Now when I say delay I mean sit in park, turn off your engine and wait 30 minutes delay.

Once we finally made it there we had a great time rafting. It was our first real trip with class 2 & 3 rapids which isn't anything crazy but it was exciting enough. Not to mention the major headwinds and workout we had! Oh, and in the photos, that would be our guide jumping out of the raft right after the class 3 rapid....she was 19 and had only been a guide for a few months - and kept telling us how out of shape she is - something tells me that this kind of behavior would be considered unprofessional?!?!!!

So after driving over 5 1/2 hours yesterday and seeing quite a bit of Yellowstone we had already decided the day before that we were going somewhere else....again.....Jackson!!!!