Wednesday morning we drove to Colter Bay in the Grand Tetons. The rugged mountain landscape is incredible! The kids got their Jr Ranger books, worked on them for a while, then we decided to take a hike around the 2-mile Lakeshore Trail.
Nellie was not thrilled with the prospect, but I put a box of Mike and
Ike's in my pocket and promised the candy as a reward once we hit the
1.5 mile mark. Guess who quickly became an excellent hiker?!
The boys both desperately wanted to see a bear and were terrified of finding a bear around every corner. Thankfully, we didn't see any bears while hiking. We did enjoy lovely weather and breathtaking scenery (though I think we're spoiled with similar vistas living in the PNW).
On our way back, we stopped and let the kids play near the water for a while. Bryce hopped from rock to rock, and the other kids decided to make a gravel path to get to one of the bigger rocks. They worked on the path for quite a while until they succeeded in their efforts.
We returned from the hike, listened to a Ranger talk about the history of Grand Tetons (can you say John D. Rockefeller Jr?), and the kids earned their Jr Ranger badges.
Then we went to check into our lodgings for the night, a tent-cabin in the Colter Bay village. Upon seeing the accommodations, no one was very thrilled with the
prospects. There were two hard, cabin-like walls, two canvas tent-like walls, two sets of bunkbeds, and two cots set up inside. While I had been checking in, the kids had seen squirrels
running into and out of another tent-cabin, so they were concerned we'd
have the same problem in our cabin.
We encouraged positive attitudes, got the beds made up, then stopped by the general store to buy a few over-priced groceries to supplement our plans for dinner and breakfast.
After dinner, Sue took Aubree, Bryce, and Thane to the amphitheater to hear another Ranger Talk about wolves (they later said they loved it). I stayed at the cabin and put Nellie and Graham to bed. It was warm at bedtime, but I knew the temperatures would drop quickly, so it was challenging to balance their current desires for no blankets with the knowledge they'd be freezing soon enough.
It soon became apparent that the bigger enemy of the moment were the mosquitoes. The bug spray seemed more like "Yum, eat me now" spray. Nellie and Graham fell asleep quickly, which made them prime targets for the greedy, blood-sucking, little buggers. I also did long battle with an extremely stupid wasp that got in the tent shortly after the littles fell asleep. Eventually it made its way outside without stinging anyone. What a relief!
When Sue and the big kids got back and it began to get dark, we hoped the mosquitoes would die down. They didn't. The bugs feasted as we slept. And soon the temperatures began to plummet. I woke up feeling very cold and uncomfortable (did I mention Nellie was sleeping on the cot next to me?) at 10:45pm. I got up and made sure all the kids were tucked in and wrapped up as much as possible. Everyone had sheets and a blanket. I had a few extra sheets and blankets, so I pulled them all out and distributed them as needed.
Shortly after I finished that process and crawled back into bed, I heard a loud BANG, and Aubree was standing next to me. "Aubree!" I cried, "Did you fall out of bed (she was on one of the narrow top bunks)?"
"No," she answered, "I wasn't in bed. I just got back from the, uh, talk-thing, and I need to get in bed."
Say what? I got back out of bed to talk to her more, and verified that she was sleep-walking. Thankfully, she hadn't fallen out of bed, but had jumped down and grabbed all of her blankets in the process. As she came to awareness, we laughed and remade her bed.
As the night progressed, it got colder and colder, and I got more and more uncomfortable. Every couple hours I'd get up to make sure the kids were wrapped up and as warm as possible. In between times, I was kept awake with thoughts like, "Why do mosquitoes whine? What is the evolutionary benefit of that most-annoying sound?" "What was I thinking to tack on a nearly-camping experience at the end of a two-month road trip?" "Why did I think just one blanket would ever be enough per person in the Grand Tetons?" "Can I handle doing this another night?" "What other options can we find to avoid another night of misery?"
Many years later, morning finally came. The kids all woke up cheerful. They reported being comfy and cozy in their beds, though some of them noted they might have been a "little" cold. Bryce insisted that was the best night sleep he'd had on the whole trip!
Despite the hard night, the morning in the tent-cabin was one of my favorites of the whole trip. We told stories of the previous night, scratched untold numbers of bug bites in shared itchiness, and laughed and laughed. We also decided to ditch our second planned night in the tent-cabin.
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