vacation day 7

we slept in this morning since we stayed up late doing laundry and watching tv and repacking. we had our last michael phelps breakfast. i think we piled the food on a little more this morning because we know we won't have it this good for a looooong time! we got checked out of the hotel, loaded up the car and got on the road.

we made a quick stop in wilson, wyoming. this is where chris lived in 6th and 7th grade. it looked the house he lived in has been recently demo'ed to make way for new construction. chris was shocked at the number of new houses he saw. the garage where he lived was still there. the elementary school that tony went to is in the process of being converted into a community center/ city building. the general store was still there but was no longer the general store.

after a quick pass through wilson, we wound our way up the mountain pass. we pulled over and stopped at the scenic overlook and took some pictures of the jackson hole valley. i never get tired of looking at it! from there we drove into idaho. we got to see the teton mountain range from the other side. still beautiful! we drove through several idaho towns and stopped in rexburg. i swear, napolean dynamite was filmed there. i looked it up when we got home and it wasn't but it looks just like the movie. anyhoo- we stopped in rexburg because that is where chris was born. we went through the rexburg museum. the main feature was the teton dam break in 1976. chris doesn't remember it but he had relatives that were affected and also helped with the cleanup. from rexburg we drove on to lava hot springs. well, we did make a stop in pocatello. hmmmm. .. i know there are a lot of trashy towns in texas but pocatello is about has bad as it gets. i will leave it at that.

we met up with will and katie at our little cottage in lava hot springs. we unloaded the car, changed into swim suits and hit the town. by hitting the town, that means we drove down the street to the tube rental place. chris, will and i tubed down the portneuf river. i was expecting a lazy river ride. this had rapids and waterfalls! we were having a great time until chris flipped over backwards, scraped his back and lost his wedding ring. his back was mostly okay but he was pretty mad and upset about losing his ring. we tried to find it but the current was too strong. that put a real damper on things. we got out of the river. will got the car and we drove the tubes back to the rental place and met up with katie at the pool. the pool was fun. chris and will had fun on the water slides and will jumped off one of the platform diving boards. we left around 7pm and went back to the cottage to change into clothes. we walked down the street and grabbed some burgers and some misc items at the grocery store. we went back to the cottage and hung out in courtyard next to the little fire pit. we made s'mores and talked and looked up at the milky way until we ran out of fire wood.

there really aren't any pix of lava hot springs because most of what we did was in or near water. also, chris was really, really bummed out after he lost his ring. he tried to have a good time but i know deep down he was feeling bad.