Vacation Part 2 -- Grand Teton National Park

The Grand Tetons.  Supposedly called "the three breasts" by early French explorers (or so says Wikipedia).  Didn't look that way to me... but what do I know.

When we last left our vacation update, we had just left Yellowstone and were making our way through Grand Teton National Park to our next temporary residence: Teton Village in Jackson Hole, WY.

Our first good view of the mountains

At our next "cation house" -- Jacob thought the bunkbed was neat

 Teton Village is a ski village that sits between Jackson and Grand Teton National Park.  It was incredibly convenient for visiting the park.  We turned left out of the town and maybe a mile down the road we were at the entrance to the park.  From there, it was an 8 or 9 mile drive on a sometimes paved/sometimes dirt road to Moose Junction, which has a visitor center, general store, and other visitor services.  The road there is supposed to be pretty good for moose spotting, so we were out on that every morning, early, in the hopes of seeing something.

We didn't have much luck.  We eventually did see a moose -- a mama moose and her baby.  And we saw a bear.  But more on that later.

On our first day, we drove the loop through the park, getting out periodically to explore a bit and take some pictures.

Jacob thought pay-phones, like this one at Jenny Lake, were pretty cool.

Something we had to teach Jacob: Flowers are for looking... not for picking.  He got to this one before we could stop him.

Along the Jenny Lake scenic drive

Oxbow Bend turnout -- smooth as glass surface on the water; beautiful reflection

On our second day, we did much of the same: moose-hunting, loop driving, and little excursions outside of the car.  This time, we saw our mama moose!

Mama and baby

At the top of Signal Mountain

View from the top of Signal Mountain

At the top of Signal Mountain -- the sun was so bright...

This guy?  No fear.

Checking out Jackson Lake

On our last day, we thought we'd drive the road to Moose Junction one last time in the hopes of seeing a bull moose.  No bull moose for us.  But we did see a bear!  After our drive, we went back to the rental house, loaded up our things, and drove back to Salt Lake City to spend the night so that we could board our plane home the next day.

By this time, Jacob was totally over all the driving.

At Temple Square in Salt Lake City

Temple Square

Getting a rental house/condo in both West Yellowstone and Teton Village was definitely the way to go -- at least when traveling with our little munchkin.  It was nice to have some space for us to move around in.  In each place we had a full kitchen, dining space, and living room area.  We could spread out a bit and relax, and we didn't feel like we were on top of each other.  It was also nice to be able to cook dinners at home and not worry about where we were going to eat.  Going out to eat with Jacob is sometimes painful.  He's picky about food, so we can't just order something off the menu for him.  Plus, at his age, sitting still is not easy.  So cooking in, and making things we knew that he would eat, was really helpful.  And then if he wanted to leave the table before we all finished eating, he could, and it was no big deal.

Our rental in West Yellowstone was a townhouse.  It had two bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a living room, dining room, and kitchen.  The bedrooms were a decent size and each had a double bed.  There was a fold-away bed as well, so we took the mattress off that and put it on the floor in our room for Jacob.

Our rental in Teton Village was similar, and though it only had one bathroom, it had the added bonus of a swimming pool in the area, which Jacob thought was awesome.  I don't have any pictures from the pool, but I think my mother-in-law does, so as soon as I get those, I'll toss them up here.  In Teton Village, there is a gondola lift that operates in the afternoon/evenings during the week.  We really wanted to ride the gondola up to the restaurant close to the top of the mountain in town (which runs a happy hour), but the day we tried they had to close it because of lightning.  Jacob was fascinated with how the gondolas worked.

And then this hail storm rolled through.  So it was a good thing that we didn't go up the mountain that day...

And Jacob did pretty well.  He put up with the long rides in the car (though by the end of vacation, he was pretty much over those), and the changes in his routine.  He walked a good bit, but rarely turned down a shoulder ride from Erik.  He was a trooper, and we had so much fun seeing things through his eyes.