Saturday, July 8, 2017

Yellowstone Part 4

Wednesday was our day to recover a bit and do some fun things around Cody.  Some of us slept in.  I didn’t get up until about 9:15am, and Daniel slept until 11am.  We had eggs and cinnamon rolls from the bakery for breakfast. 
 
Relaxing!
 
The kids watched Lego Batman for about the fourth time (they had watched in the car, too!).   In the afternoon, we went to play mini golf.  Papa won!  Jonny got a hole-in-one on the first hole and he started giving everyone tips, lol!  Emily and I each got one, too. 
 
 
After mini-golf we went to the gunfight show at the Irma Hotel.  It was pretty cheesy but still fun and the boys got to keep some bullets. 
 
The original Irma Hotel (named after Buffalo Bill Cody's daughter), on the main road through Cody
 
With the actors from the gunfight
 
With "Buffalo Bill"
 
As we were leaving, a little girl saw Emily and told her mom, “Mom, that’s Anna from Frozen!”  I didn’t hear it, but Dad said the little girl seemed convinced she was the real Anna.  Emily even gave her a hug.  We had a good laugh over that! 
 
Our cabin was so close to the Irma Hotel that we walked.  This cute little sunroom was in front of a house a few doors down.
 
We ate dinner at Granny’s Restaurant.  The food wasn’t anything special, but it was reasonably priced and I enjoyed my open-faced roast beef sandwich. 

 
After dinner, we went to the Cody Rodeo. 
 
While everyone else found seats, Dad and I watched Daniel and Jonny ride the mechanical bull. 
 
Daniel
 
Jonathan

 
The rodeo was fun.  Not a single rider stayed on a bull for even close to eight seconds, though. 
 
They asked for kids to volunteer to chase the calf and Daniel and Andrew volunteered.  Jonathan thought about it but then turned back around.  Some of the kids took off early so the boys didn’t really have a chance. 

 
After it was over, Andrew, Emily, and Nathaniel all took a turn on the bull.  Andrew hated it.  At some point, each one of the kids got a look on their face like, “What the heck did I get myself into?  This is way harder than it looked!” 

 
After the rodeo, we stopped by Dairy Queen for ice cream and we saw one of the girls who was in the rodeo and is from Tucson. 

We checked out of the cabin on Thursday.  I was up by 5:30am and we drove away by 8:30am.  I thought that was pretty good!  Poor Emily had woken up sick so I did her packing for her and let her rest.  She took some medicine and it helped her quite a bit.  Emily and I rode with Dad.  We stopped at the gas station again on the way out of town, like we always do.  It was pretty full, and Dad had to drive around so he could pull up on the other side.  I asked, “Where’s Michael,” and Dad said, “I don’t know, but it’s every man for himself,” and just then we saw Michael who had just taken our spot!  I laughed and laughed.  Dad wasn’t very amused. 
On the way into the East Entrance, Dad spoke to the lady about the senior pass, and she happily refunded the difference and gave Dad the lifetime senior pass.  We had another pit stop at Fishing Village and then went to the West Thumb Geyser Basin.  It was pretty busy.  We walked around and saw the fishing cone, black pool, abyss pool, etc. 




 
After that we drove to Lewis Lake for our picnic lunch.  There was snow on the ground and we were constantly bothered by the mosquitos.  We ate up most of our food and headed out through the south entrance. 
 
There was a big long line to get out and we were stopped there for a while.  Finally, traffic got moving and they waved us through.  The Grand Tetons were so beautiful!!  When we were at the Buffalo Bill Cody museum, I was talking to this lady who said that we had to stop at the lodge and look at the view.  I thought it was odd that we would stop at a hotel that we weren’t staying at, but we did and I am so glad we did!  The view was breathtaking!  There were tour buses there doing the same thing we were. 
 
View from Jackson Lake Lodge; there was a huge wall of windows to sit and take in the beauty of the mountains
 
Outside at Jackson Lake Lodge





 
We were getting ready to leave and Michael said, “I’ll bet we make it to Rigby by dinnertime.  You know, all we seem to do is drive, eat, and go to the bathroom!”  He’s pretty much right!  I had wanted to take Teton Park Road, but we missed it and took the highway but the drive was still beautiful. 

 
We went through Teton Pass that was a 10% grade!  I enjoyed driving through Jackson, but it was very tourist-y and I’m glad we stayed in Cody.  Not that Cody wasn’t tourist-y, but it was so much better. 
 
We arrived in Rigby by 7pm, checked in to the hotel, and walked to dinner at New Star Chinese restaurant.  After dinner, we went back to the hotel to relax.  Nathaniel, Andrew, and Daniel stayed with Papa across the hall from the rest of us. 
 
The Chinese restaurant was so close that we decided to walk there
 
Tomorrow: Tour of BYU Idaho and Yellowstone Bear World!

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