It's raining. I'm sitting here on the porch of the KOA kabin we've rented for the night, listening to the water drops strike the roof and patter against the dirt beyond the porch. I'm bummed. From the moment I plunked the money down on this kabin, I wanted to be able to write about looking up into the night sky and seeing the millions of stars I've missed for years. Instead, I'm watching lightning flashes and listening to huge grumbles of thunder. I have to admit I haven't heard or seen this type of thing in a long time so there is a certain fascination, but it wasn't what I was looking forward to seeing. Interesting: the fire in the pit of a neighboring kabin has turned a turquoise blue as raindrops sizzle and spit into its heart. An unexpected sight to be sure; still I wanted to see stars.
*Sigh!* Oh well. I can't let this turn of events dampen the good time we had today. We left Mom and Dad's house this morning and made it to Jackson Hole a little after noon (twenty minutes or so according the car's clock). On previous trips to the Tetons, we have visited Jenny Lake and hiked the 2 miles (give or take) up to a place called Hidden Falls. The falls are very beautiful. The water from Cascade Creek (it helps to have the map of the park handy) makes a preliminary drop before tumbling down the cliff side. With the volume of water crashing against the bottom of the cliff, sometimes the spray is powerful enough to reach the viewing area which is over a 100 yards away from the falls. For those people who don't wish to make the hike along the trial, boats shuttle passengers across Jenny Lake to a loading dock at the base of the mountain. From that point the hike is less than half a mile if memory serves. One year, we hiked up to the falls and took the boat back to the visitor's center. With a 4 mile round trip hike being out the question for Ben, I considered the possibility of us riding the boats. We may not have been able to hike up to the falls, but I thought it would be fun to be on the boat and then hike around the immediate vicinity of the docks before returning to the main dock. I looked up Teton National Park yesterday on the Internet after returning from the temple trip and learned that the price for a round trip boat ride would be $60 for the four of us. This left us with a decision: the boat ride, or dinner at a place called MacPhail's Burgers.
Actually, this point brings me to another bummer (it should have been the only one, but I'm still hoping the clouds will clear up :)). Since the time back in the early 1990s when Dad took me on a trip to Yellowstone with a foreign exchange student who was staying with my parents at the time (as I recall, this was the trip when I first told my parents about this beautiful girl named Jennifer who I was falling for), I've been eating dinner in Jackson Hole at a place called Billy's Burgers. A Billy Burger was a half pound of greasy cheese burger with all the fixings. Although no one could remember it, I took them there during our last trip to Jackson Hole seven years ago. I was excited to return to Billy's--if for nothing else then to see the look on Ben and Isaac's face when they laid eyes on that wonderful creation (they had only eaten 1/4 pound burgers; in fact, the first time I took Jen to Billy's, Dad told me to get her a 1/4 pound burger, but when I went to order it, she looked at me like I'd lost my mind: "What are you doing? I want the big one!" she declared). To my dismay, I learned Billy's closed in 2012. Curses! I started to google restaurants in Jackson, hoping to find another comparable burger joint, and came across MacPhail's. After reading positive Yelp! reviews (the biggest complaint seemed to be that they didn't season their meat . . . ooookay), I was able to find a website . . . half pound specialty burgers--exciting, but also expensive; 15 bucks a plate! The choice became: pay $60 for a boat ride on Jenny Lake or $60 for specialty burgers. In true Metcalfe style, food trumped boats.
After ruling out the boat ride, Ben said, "Why don't we go to some places we've never seen before?" This was a reasonable suggestion. :) Usually, by the time we finished the hike we would either 1) run out of time to see anything else and returned to the hotel in Jackson Hole, or 2) race off to Yellowstone to make a quick tour of the high points of that park. We still decided to make Jenny Lake our first stop. We walked along the paths near the shore until those paths ascended in ways that Ben would have difficulty following. At one little alcove, we stopped and stepped down onto the rocky shore line. I helped Ben maneuver down the steps until his feet were solidly on the shore. Jennifer took off her shoes and socks and stepped into the water far enough for it to cover the tops of her feet. She wanted me to hurry and take a picture of her because the water was very cold! I kept making excuses ("Wait, that didn't turn out very well.") to make her stay in the water longer. :) Jen was able to get a good picture of me with Ben and Isaac. While we were still in the alcove, a mother and father appeared on the paved walkway pushing their 20-something-year-old son in a wheelchair. It appeared to me that their son had muscular dystrophy. Perhaps they had seen Ben with his wraps and his cane and felt we would be understanding of their situation (or maybe I'm just imagining it), but they stopped above us and helped their son out of his chair to take a few pictures. After they left, Ben came to me and said, "I needed to see that. If he can be here, then so can I." I'm grateful this family stopped because of the impact if had on Ben. There were plenty of people staring at him as he walked with his cane and unintentionally showed off his wrapped hand and ankle.
The additional places we visited were the dam at the west end of Lake Jackson (we saw a different view of the Teton range and had a good view of the largest lake in the park) and the top of Signal Mountain to see the park from a higher vantage point (bird's eye view). A good time was had by all of us and by the time we finished, we were all sufficiently hungry for specialty burgers. MacPhail's was tucked back a bit from the main street (Broadway). It appeared to be a converted fast food place. We perused the menu for several minutes and made our choices. Ben and Isaac decided they wanted to try blue cheese, so they ordered the Oh So Blue burger. Jennifer went with the All Jacked Up and I couldn't avoid The Shroom burger. They were all very delicious (even without the burger seasoning :)). The fries were also very good and we each got a personal cup of . . . fry sauce! :) After dinner, we purchased some snacks for the next day and learned very quickly that Jackson Hole is a very expensive place to shop for food. Yikes!
The KOA in Jackson is actually 12 miles south of town and abuts the Snake River. We checked in and were lead to our kabin by a man on a scooter (nice touch). After opening the windows of the kabin to air it out (it was warm and stuffy inside), we walked down the dirt road to the banks of the river to stretch our legs. I believe this was the closest I've ever been to the Snake River. The water was very swift. Tents lined the bank of the river. We walked beyond them to a place where we could be by ourselves. I tried to teach Isaac the fine points of rock skipping--not easy to do on the surface of a fast moving current. Thirty minutes later, we returned to our kabin. Jennifer and I were able to start our laundry. We made it to the building just as the first rain storm hit. That fall wasn't a huge one, but it was enough to dampen the ground. The rain fall that came as night set in was the larger storm.
I've now come full circle back to the beginning of my musings. I've been sitting here writing long enough for the rain to finally stop. There is a break in the cloud cover to the east. A near full moon has appeared. With the porch light off, I can see three stars twinkling beyond the bright influence of the moon. Stars, but not the amount I was hoping for. Not that I've ever been a huge fan, but the title of the Rolling Stones' song "You Can't Always Get What You Want" comes to mind. Oh, well, I told Ben and Isaac I'll take them to an area outside of Cokeville before we leave and show them some stars later on this week--that is, if the weather cooperates and gives me a clear night sky between now and the time we leave. :)
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