Spontaneity

This past weekend Brandt and I went to Jackson Hole. Here's how it all went down:

On Friday, I called Brandt to let him know I was on my way home from work. He asks, "Do you have any plans this weekend?" 

Odd question. Ummmm...."My plans are the same as your plans...so...uh...no," I respond.

"Do you want to go to Jackson Hole?!" he asks, with obvious excitement in his voice.

.....Long pause...."Sure, why not?" I respond, with not nearly as much enthusiasm.

Apparently, Brandt's unemployment has left him with ample time to browse the internet for vacations, and he came upon a killer deal for a condo in Jackson for that night. Anyone who really knows me knows that I'm not much for spontaneity - I prefer things to be planned out. So I surprised Brandt by actually saying "yes" to this little adventure. So as soon as I got home I packed and within the hour we were on our way. We had to make a quick stop at the mall and get some snow gear (snow pants, gloves, etc.) but after that we hit the road.

The drive up there was beautiful. The roads were clear but everything else was drenched in white. Fields of snow everywhere! And the mountains and river in the background to boot. We pulled in about 6 pm and checked in at our condo. It. Was. HUGE. We felt bad we didn't come across this deal sooner and had time to invite some people to come up with us because there was plenty of room. 

♪ "And here we have Idaho..."♫ 
(At least I think we were still in Idaho at this point...maybe not.)

This is the condo we stayed in. Straight out that back door is a balcony with great views of the mountains.

After dropping our stuff off, we rode the city bus downtown to watch the beginning of the International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race (IPSSSDR for short....haha, no seriously - that's what they call it for 'short'). This is a yearly sled dog race that kicks off in Jackson, Wyoming and they race around different cities in Wyoming and finally end in Park City, Utah. The race lasts a week. It was soooo much fun. These dogs were so dang cute. They were so excited to get going. They had to wait there turn, as one team left every two minutes, so all the teams were in a single-file line just waiting for there turn to get going. There were tons of people just milling around cheering on the teams, food booths, prizes, shirts, etc. It was freezing out there so it was good it only lasted a couple of hours, but so much fun. 

Brandt underneath one of the four antler arches in downtown Jackson. Apparently, they let the Boy Scouts go in and gather the antlers from the elk refuge and, for a lack of anything better to do with them, built these huge arches and strung lights around them.

The next day we headed back to town square and browsed around the shops for a couple of hours. They weren't very busy, I'm assuming because everyone was on the slopes. It was cool how you could see the skiiers in the distance coming down on a run - it looked like so much fun. Some of them were going so fast down these seemingly really steep runs. Someday Brandt and I are going to learn how to ski. Or snowboard. But for now we were satisfied with shopping :) After that we got on the road and headed to Grand Teton National Park. We passed the elk refuge and saw thousands of elk just chillin' out on this open plain. A hunter's dream no doubt. Or a wolves dream - talk about an all-you-can-eat buffet! Once we got into the park, we headed to the visitor's center for our guided snowshoe tour.  This was another great find of Mr. Hines: a two hour ranger-guided snowshoe hike for five buckaroos apiece. Can't beat that. It was our first time snowshoeing, and I must say it was harder than it looks! It took a few minutes to get the hang of it, but we were both very proud of the fact that we didn't fall down.

The Grand Tetons (P.S. did you know "tetons" is French for "breasts"? They named the mountains The Grand Breasts - silly Canadians)

Ranger Nik - our tour guide. He taught us all about elk, bison, moose, wolves, and the little critters that live in the area.

Here we are looking at tracks in the snow of a bird of some sort (if you look close you can see the feather imprints in the snow). Ranger Nik says he probably swooped down while trying to catch his prey. (sidenote: Ranger Nik's backpack is just like Mary Poppin's carpet bag - he had a gold mine in there! Seriously, we were amazed at how much came out of that bag. Everything from real animal skulls and teeth, to a full wolve's skin, elk's leg, stuffed animals, etc. All kinds of hidden treasures in there.)

This is just to illustrate how MUCH snow they had up there. CRAZY! They've gotten over 300" so far this season.

After our tour, we hung out at the visitor's center for a bit and looked at the displays (sidenote: shout out to our friends the Moultons - they had a picture and a little blurp about the famous Moulton barn). After that, we headed on home. We had so much fun on our quick getaway. Next time we'll have to plan a bit more ahead and invite some people to come with us! Any takers?