Day 7: A Lovely River Float, a Lost Diamond, and Homemade Tacos for Dinner

Guest Blogger Gabby back again!

Ah, picture it: large house, comfy beds, warm blankets, long day the day before. What time would you get up in such a situation? Eight? Nine? Think again. 6:30. And why would we do such a thing? Because we were going “rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on a river!” (Tune of ‘Proud Mary’:)

We awoke to Mom’s alarm and tumbled out of bed into warm layers of clothing. We headed upstairs to a breakfast of eggs and toast before leaving at 7:20 with our friends, the D’s.

We arrived at the rafting HQ and signed in. Me (being rather cold), saw a bunch of fleecy sweatshirts and hats in a pile and looked for a sign. I found one saying I could use any of the warm garments, so I did! It was nice, and others in our group took advantage of the extra layers. 

All told there were about 25 people in the group. We boarded a bus (my fourth bus ride to date) and rode about 20 minutes to the Snake River.

After a quick tutorial on how to put on our PFDs, we were arranged into rafting parties. We were very excited to be put with our D friends on a large raft. Even better, we were the only ones on our raft! Super cool!

Our guide’s name was Molly, and she was the only person rowing our raft. We were not white-water rafting; rather, we were sightseeing. Molly was very knowledgeable, and was able to answer all of our questions.

As we drifted along, we saw deer, bald eagles, and ducks. At one point, one of the other rafts got stuck, so we waited for it.  Once it got…unstuck?... we fell behind. Which was awesome. We were able to just meander along with the river and take great pictures without the other rafts in the view.

We also had some funny conversations. At one point, Caelan was admiring Mrs. D’s nails, and we began discussing nail art and stickers…floating down a river.

We saw so many bald eagles! They nest along large bodies of water so they were very easy to spot. We also saw more deer, more ducks, fish, and a ton of beaver dams

Oh, and an army tank. Yes, there was a hermit who lived out of an army tank in the middle of the woods, because he killed someone while in the military. Not all of us saw the tank, but our guide said it was there; just well hidden.  

Another funny thing—Dad spotted a huge nest on a telephone pole and asked Molly about it. She told us it was an osprey nest, and one of us asked why it was so big. Molly kind of smiled and explained that ospreys are superior to eagles in almost everything…except landing. Apparently they are very clumsy landers and build their nest super-sized so they have the largest margin of error when coming down! :) 

The landscape was absolutely gorgeous; the birch and aspen were turning colors, and the firs were deep green. It was very pretty until we rounded a river bend and saw burned out trees. It was kind of sad looking; all those used-to-be living trees all scorched. 

Sadly, the float trip came to an end after two hours. We had a great time, and learned all sorts of things, but I wish it had been an all-day thing…houseboat next vacation, Mom? :)

Ha, maybe, Gabby :) Another thing I was excited about—this was the very last day of the floats along the Snake River until next season. That meant they were closing down the gift shop area—Jackson Hole t-shirts, buy one get one free. Now this is a great deal, because Jackson Hole is a very wealthy area and the prices reflect such monetary free flow. Most of the t-shirts and hats we looked at were triple the price we scored at the float close out sale. Bingo!

Basement view . . . not too shabby :)

Now let’s go back to the house . . . 5,300 square feet, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, for sale $5.5 million. Views, views, and more views—the Teton mountains were our artwork. We saw them at daybreak, at sunset, with snow on the tops, in a rain storm, with a rainbow, non-stop wow! Was it perfect? Well, no. I was wondering how my friend, Jenn, a cancer survivor and scrupulously clean, felt about it. The carpets needed to be scrubbed or replaced and the baseboards were dusty. She agreed that for the rental fee requested, the housekeeping staff could have been considerably more thorough. Probably, mainly, neatfreaks like the two of us would notice these things, though (and the towels needed to be replaced, but seriously, who is complaining?) Staying at this house, with a TV the size of our sliding glass door at home and a room larger than the entire cabin we’re renting as I type, was a gift from our friends. Without their generosity and welcoming hearts, there is no way we would have been able to spend a week in the Tetons with our kids. The fact that they intentionally invited us to join their family vacation to visit their favorite place in America still amazes me.

Who are these people? Right, good question : ) When we left California, Buck worked several jobs. Mike hired him for a career. When Brennen was born, Mike and his wife Jenn came to our tiny house and brought gifts for the baby. They invited us to their home and we met their (then) high school-aged daughters. We only lived in the same vicinity for about a year, but we enjoyed each other’s company. After that, we kept in touch via facebook. When we drove cross country to our East Coast family reunion, we stayed a few days with Mike and Jenn on the way home. Graysen enjoyed playing with their grandson, and I enjoyed chatting with their daughter (who bakes beautiful cakes). Buck and I sat up with Mike and Jenn as she recounted her cancer diagnosis, treatment, transplant, and survival. It was amazing to hear their story from beginning to end. Mike continued to be a mentor/friend for Buck in his career. Jenn became one of Caelan’s most enthusiastic knit goods customers. Then earlier this year, we got a message: “We’re taking our family to the Tetons this fall and we’d love for you to come.”

So our visit to Wyoming was also a reunion. Mike and Jenn’s two daughters, their son-in-law, and two grandbabies all joined the fun. Brennen and Graysen spent hours playing with almost 8-year-old A, while the girls and I took turns playing with 7-month-old baby S. That little sweetheart needed only to make a peep and she had a line of aunties ready to snuggle her back to happiness (it didn’t take much, she’s a very sweet and happy baby . . . also, only one of us was technically her actual auntie :).

During our float, baby S and parents Nikki and Miguel stayed at the house to recoup from the flight and subsequent drive from Salt Lake City to Jackson. Sometime during the day, Nikki’s pink diamond wedding ring disappeared! We all looked for it, in the house, on the lawn, in between the boards of the deck, in the patio furniture, even at the grocery store, but it was nowhere to be found. The newly married couple handled the loss well, and Miguel proceeded to prepare a fantastic Mexican meal from his family’s recipes. Nikki was his sous chef, and they showed what a good team they are as they joked and assisted each other in the kitchen. And wow, what a kitchen! The stove had six burners . . . dreamy :) Buck said the beef and chicken tacos were the best Mexican food he’d eaten in years. M & N even made homemade pico, guac, and very spicy salsa. Eyes watering all over the place, hello jalapeno!

Caelan was more than happy to rock the baby to sleep. She needs the practice for our neighbor’s baby, who we will hopefully begin watching, upon arrival, next year : ) 

I also washed loads of laundry (the machines were massive, supersized, and stacked in a closet; I had to stand on tiptoe to start the dryer)—did I mention we had accumulated five trash bags full of dirty laundry? Our boys threw the football in the back yard for hours. We all just relaxed and settled in to the next phase of our vacation . . . which included an early bedtime! Because with our late arrival at Jackson the previous night, and our very early morning for the float—we were wiped out, exhausted. So tired were we, that when a big old bull moose was spotted practically on our front door stoop, that we didn’t wake up to see him. And I’m a moose fan; I’ve been looking for moosen (my pluralization ;) for years, in several states! Oh, I knew that wouldn’t be the end of my moosen story. Here moosen, moosen!