Day 7

Good morning. I’ve been awake since 6:30am but did not get out of bed until 7am. The sun is shinning. My dad is up drinking his coffee. He usually is not up this early (usually 10 or 11am) but said that he could sleep because of the snoring in the room he is in. I made some coffee and cooked up an egg, cheese and toast. I gathered my laundry to wash. Then I cleaned up. I started my laundry. Other people started getting up. Gathered all the garbage and empty it. Now people are asking about what we are doing today. It is going to be a nice day, the weather forecast for the next 4 days is suppose to be rain/snow mix. So, if we are going to do ATV’s, horse riding or whatever then we need to decide soon. I called around to find out were we can go. The closest place for ATV’s is Island Park in Idaho (about a 20 min drive). I also, checked out about renting bicycles for here in town.

Michelle and Ryan are working on supper already. Michelle is cooking bacon and Ryan is cutting potatoes. I guess they are going to cook up cheesy potato soup and let it simmer all day. Well, need to go check laundry. So I will continue this later.

I’m back. Well Mari & I took off on foot and explored the shops of West Yellowstone. We did find a couple places that had a few bargains. I had to talk Mari into waiting on making any purchases. We need to see what other shops have and prices. As we were walking around the streets we ran into mom and dad up town. The rest of the group drove by. They were heading out to Island Park, Idaho to rent some ATV’s. We continued our exploration of the town. We ran into the grocery store and grabbed a few things. One of the items we got was some push pins. We decided to get these to use to hang a blanket between the bathroom area and bed room area. We walked to the Museum and found out that Yellowstone park rangers would have a talk at 2pm today about the beginnings of the park. We headed back to the cabin; it looked look like it was starting to sprinkle.

We got back to the cabin, had a lunch. After lunch we hung the blanket, finally at least a little privacy. Mari stayed at the cabin and I went to the ranger talk back at the museum. I found the talk very interesting. He talked about how the army first patrolled the area and established the posts. And how the poaching had been bad, and how the first poaching laws were created. Apparently at one time there were only 30 left. The ranger did a great job talking. After the lecture I headed out and explored the rest of the town by vehicle. Not much to see; lots of cabins, hotels and motels. Dad called and said they picked up Michelle and Phoenix from ATV’ing and they were going to head to Yellowstone Park for site seeing and wanted to know if I wanted to go. I headed back to the cabin. Got back to the cabin and we gathered our things and to head out. Found out the rest of the crew ended up renting 3 ATV’s. The price was about $100 for each for 4-5 hours. Mom, Michelle, Phoenix, Mari and I loaded up in the Expedition and headed to the park.

From West Yellowstone we went south towards Old Faithful on Grand Loop Ave. We took a side road, Firehole Canyon Road and drove past the rapids and stream. We had seen several anglers fishing for trout. We watched them as they waded out into the stream and their lines whipping back and forth to catch the trout. We did not see anyone catch anything. We did stop and let Phoenix dip his feet into the stream. He said, "Ah, this is so refreshing."

We made it to Old Faithful site and parked next to the Old Faithful Inn. We just made it in time; all we had to do is wait about 5 – 7 minutes for the eruption. I got a series of pictures. It is always neat to watch.

We then went into the old inn and checked it out. This is an amazing building. I true enjoyed it because of its architecture and being built of logs. I did snap a few pictures of the inside. Mari visited the gift shop of course and found a few things. She was pretty proud of herself for getting about 5 items for total $20. After visiting the inn, it was about 5:30pm and decided to head back to the cabin for supper with the rest of the family.

By the time we got back everyone else had eaten. The cheesy potato soup was outstanding. Ryan out did himself as always. Cleaned up the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher. Mari and I with our kids headed off to drive around town for a little while. We got back to cabin. I worked on this blog. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Michelle mentioned going fly fishing, but I think it will be raining, cold and miserable. Not sure if I really want to stand out next to or in a stream freezing my butt off. Well, I let you all know tomorrow.