The Ben Vacation 2015 - Salt Lake City

Our last full day of vacation (tomorrow is a driving day, so I not sure I'm going to truly count it ☺) began by following Joanna, Chad (who took the day off) and family up to Brigham City Cemetery to pay our respects to President Boyd K. Packer.  He passed away earlier this month and his funeral was held on our first day of vacation.  Since we had not been able to watch the funeral broadcast and Joanna and Chad had talked about going, I thought it would be nice to follow them and my family agreed.  **Since I'm transcribing my original notes from that day and have now seen the funeral services, I want to mention that the best moment was when Elder M. Russell Ballard publicly thanked Sister Donna Packer for convincing her husband to refrain from calling other members of the Quorum of the Twelve until after 5 a.m.  The funeral services for both Elder Perry and President Packer were very nice.**  We came to this cemetery last year to see the grave site of President Lorenzo Snow.  Not quite two weeks have passed since the service.  It was easy to see that the grass was freshly replaced and no head stone had yet been erected.  Because of this, we didn't feel right about taking pictures.  Instead, we had a moment of silent reflection.  From there, we took our leave of the Stowells and drove into Salt Lake City to keep our lunch appointment with my brother, Aaron.

Being that this is the day before Pioneer Day (which is a State holiday for Utah, marking the day that Brigham Young's party entered the Salt Lake Valley), the parking lot I regularly use appeared to be filled with parade floats and was unavailable.  With that lot rendered off limits, my knowledge of downtown parking was rendered somewhat useless.  Aaron wanted to meet us at the Beehive House which is one block east Temple Square.  Out of desperation, I ended up parking in the Plaza Hotel lot one block west of Temple Square.  We had to hustle a bit to get up to the meeting place, but we made it on time and were there when Aaron pulled up into the drop off area.  When we piled into his car he asked me where we wanted to eat.  I said Cafe Rio (which is Mexican food place in the style of Chipotle, but better--I think).  Aaron didn't know of any Cafe Rios nearby, but took us to the Rio Grande Cafe (it has "Cafe" and "Rio" in the name ☺) a Mexican food place that is part of the Rio Grande Depot building.  He told us that he came to this restaurant quite often for chips and salsa and water every once in a while when he was a starving student ☺.  The food was good and we had a nice time with him.  Afterward, he took us back to the Lion House and we walked around Temple Square for a time.

One of the things we realized as we began to walk around Temple Square was that we weren't sure if we had ever taken pictures of us touching the Salt Lake Temple.  It's possible that we have—it seems a bit unbelievable to me that we haven't—but we didn't want to take the chance that we hadn't before Ben leaves us for two years.  As we walked through the gate, we again saw wedding parties.  Here, in the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday, at least one wedding group was getting ready to take pictures.  We quickly had Ben and Isaac sit down in one of the stairways and then hurried out the way of the bride and groom in case their photographer wanted the same stairway (it's a frequently used picture area).  On the north side of the temple, Ben, Isaac and I had Jennifer take a picture of us touching the temple and then I switched with Jennifer.  While we were headed for the North Visitors Center, Jennifer got a call from the Mr. Mac store saying Ben's brown suit was ready to be picked up.  We spent some time in both the North and South Visitors Centers and went into the Tabernacle for several minutes as well.  From there, we went across the street to Deseret Book to look for anything for Ben—got him some temple pictures and the Life of Christ DVD for ourselves.

Ben wanted to go on the tour of the Conference Center, but we wanted to go up to the Salt Lake cemetery to also pay our respects at the grave site of Elder L. Tom Perry.  Problem was, we didn't know exactly where to look and the main office was closed by the time we arrived.  There were some workers out, but when I stopped to ask if they knew where to find the grave site I found out they didn't speak English.  Oh, well.  It's the thought that counts.  Even though the suit store wouldn't close until 9 p.m., we thought it would be better to pick it up with plenty of time to spare.  Back at Joanna's house, we told Ben to try it on with one of the new ties—it looks very good.  Now all he needs it a missionary haircut and he'll be good to go (I plan to wait on that until about a week or less before he leaves; might as well get my moneys worth out of it ☺).  As I mentioned up top, tomorrow we will head for home.  We'll make a stop at the Missionary Mall in Orem (we found out they will be open until 2 in the afternoon) for some extra slacks.  After that, all of the major items will be purchased.  From there, Jennifer and I expect our the next 5 weeks to be pretty hectic until we take Ben back to Utah a couple of days before he enters the MTC. ☺

The Ben Vacation 2015 - Missionary Shopping

Today Ben's mission became even more of a reality as we entered a local Mr. Mac store (definite symmetry here as I got my missionary clothing from a Mr. Mac store) and bought missionary clothing and accouterments for him.  We already have the one suit we purchased for him to wear for his prom, so we only needed one additional suit and the other clothing items listed in his missionary packet.  The Church issued new guidelines for missionary attire about a year and a half ago (give or take) which included gray and brown as acceptable colors for suits (black and blue used to be the only accepted colors).  A few months after this change, Elder Jones came into our area as a "greenie."  One of his suits was brown and Ben really liked it.  Over the last couple of months, Ben's been telling Jennifer and me that he wanted a brown suit.  Jennifer has been a bit dubious about the idea, but I told Ben that I would be okay with brown as long as it was a good suit, it looked good on him and we weren't buying it "just because" it was brown.  Ben accepted this stipulation.  There were two brown suits in the store.  Ben tried them both and liked them (Jennifer and I liked them too) because they did accent his hair well and, yes, they looked good on him.  The suit Ben choose was the best of the two, but the following exchange helped me understand how much he had taken my earlier stipulation to heart.

Salesman (after Ben has tried on the suit we all liked): "Which of the two suits do you like?"
Ben: "This one." He then turned to me. "Dad, do you like this one?"
Salesman: "That's up to you to decide."
Ben: "No," nodding at me, "that's up to him."
Me: *Chuckling* "I like it.  I think it looks very good on you."
Ben: "I'll take this one." ☺

From there we moved on to shoes.  Good grief!  Both pairs over $120 a piece; these things better be best shoes he's ever walked in!  Then it was shirts, shoulder bag (Jennifer and I asked about the 3 types of shoulder bags; the most expensive one was quite nice, but as she and I considered the possible arguments in favor of the other two, the salesman said: "We'll let the missionary decide." Of course, "the missionary" picked the expensive bag, but it has a strap that connects around his waist that will better distribute the load off his shoulders, so what can I say? ☺), ties, coat (a three-in-one that should serve him well in Colorado), and socks.  Okay, yes, I had a moment of "sticker shock" (I always do in situations like this), but the important thing is that he is properly accessorized and sufficiently prepared temporally to enter the field to begin his missionary service.  More important is his spiritual preparation and I think he is doing well in that category also.  I'm thankful the missionaries in our ward have been taking him on appointments—sometimes twice or more a day.  After Ben's graduation, we were having our missionary correlation meeting and the Elders asked if there was anything they could do for us.  "Use Ben as much as possible," Jen and I replied.  This is a luxury I did not have since I don't recall ever seeing missionaries in our little town.  I came into the field completely clueless.  Because of the opportunities Ben has had, he has a better idea of what to expect.

Ben will receive his temple endowment on August 8th and our plan is to also take him to the Los Angeles, San Diego and Salt Lake temples before he enters the MTC.  The Denver Colorado Temple is close to, but not a part of his mission.  We are hoping he is able to attend there to partake of the blessings of the temple while on his mission (something I was not able to do while I was in the mission field until days before returning home).  Spiritual preparation is so important for the Elders and Sisters and I am glad Ben has worked diligently in this area.  Meanwhile, as far as the temporal is concerned, his suit doesn't need much tailoring (actually, just the pants need adjusting).  We will be able to pick up the suit tomorrow afternoon after 3 pm.

The Ben Vacation 2015 - Moving on with Ant-Man

Our visit with my parents came to its inevitable conclusion today.  Last night we had a nice Family Home Evening with them as we talked about Isaac soon being ordained as a priest and the importance of the sacrament.  Toward the end of the lesson, Dad asked Isaac to read one of the prayers and he did very well (spoke clearly and precisely).  It was fun to hear thoughts from both my parents and our family about the sacrament and its importance to each of us.  This will be the last time we will see my parents as they will report to the Missionary Training Center on August 17th for their third mission.  Unfortunately, they will be shipping out to France about a week before Ben reports to the MTC on September 2nd.  I guess since they have served in France twice before (my father three times), they are not required to spend 6 weeks in the MTC but can leave almost immediately.  A bit of a bummer for Ben (it would have been fun for him to be there with them at the same time).  I'm glad we spent some time with them after visiting all the National Parks.  It was nice to take a break from the traveling and to be with them before they leave.  Jen took some nice pictures with me and Ben and Isaac with them and Ben and Isaac with them.  After hugs all around, we left Cokeville to drive to Utah and Joanna and Chad's home.

When we arrived, the Stowell cousins immediately showed us their new (well, new to us, I don't remember how long it's been in the back yard) trampoline with netted sides to keep people from falling off and convinced Isaac to go out and jump on it with them.  Isaac kicked off his shoes and followed them outside to spend some time jumping with them; it was fun to watch him.  I couldn't help but take some pictures of him from inside the house (I didn't want him to suddenly feel self conscious about me snapping pictures; by the time he realized I had, it was too late ☺).  Also, the movie Ant-Man was released last week.  Being that it's a Marvel movie and I've raised two Marvel geeks, Ben has been very anxious to see it (he's been talking about it for weeks).  Jennifer and I realized that with all the weekend activities planned once we return home from our trip if we didn't watch it now Ben might not be able to watch it at all before he leaves.  Consequently, we called Joanna to find out when and where it was playing in her area and asked if she and Chad would be interested to see it.  When all things were said and done, she found a place where it was playing for a reduced price and she, Chad, Merritt, Heather and Heather's good friend Kim joined us.  We had a good time and everyone stayed to watch the credits (it doesn't happen very often when we go to movies with other families)!

I enjoyed the movie.  I've been quite impressed with the Marvel Studio's efforts and felt this was a good origin story.  Because of the early deals Marvel made with other studios before going out on their own and being bought by Disney, they've had to take some heroes or groups not considered to be "top tier" (Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, Thor) and turn them into viable franchises.  Ant-Man is, in my opinion, another example of this process they've developed.  Like Guardians of the Galaxy last year, I wasn't sure if I would like the movie, but I was, again, pleasantly surprised.  The movie had a nice mix of humor and action. -Spoiler Alert!- My favorite scene of the movie was the battle of Yellowjacket and Ant-Man on the Thomas train.  With their size at the time, it felt as though the combatants were hurling significant train cars at each other.  When the camera pulled back and the audience was treated to what the fight looked in "normal" perspective, the "reality" of the desperate train battle was very funny.  To see the smiling face of Thomas growing ever larger as it bore down on Yellowjacket, I could understand his reaction.  The results in normal perspective, however, were hilarious. -Spoiler Over-

This is most likely (I suppose there could be another one in his future) Ben's final theater movie before he enters the mission field.  He was very happy he saw it.  Tomorrow, we go missionary shopping for him and the reality of what will happen in about six weeks from now will creep into our vacation.  We'll see how that goes. ☺

The Ben Vacation 2015 - Star Valley Temple

Indianapolis Temple

Provo City Center

We drove to Afton, Wyoming today to visit the Star Valley Temple construction site.  During our trip back east two years ago, we stopped to see the Indianapolis Indiana Temple.  At the time, only a piece of one wall with another small piece forming a corner was standing (it's about a month away from dedication).  Last year, we stopped to see the progress of the Provo City Center Temple.  This temple is now several months away from completion with the open house slated for January and February of next year and dedication in March.  As I mentioned in the "Crossing Idaho" post, if we'd had more time, I may have considered stopping at the Meridian, Idaho temple site.  With a choice between two temple construction sites, I decided that the Star Valley site was more exciting because 1) we could spend more time at the construction site; and 2) the location of the temple, only 50 miles north of Cokeville.  If someone had told me back in the 1980's when I lived in Cokeville that a temple would someday be built in Star Valley, I would have thought that person was off his nut.  Now, however, what would have seemed inconceivable back then is becoming a reality.

Star Valley construction

As we approached the construction site, it was difficult to see anything because of the chain-link fence and green barrier attached to the fence (probably placed there to keep gawkers from staring at the construction site and causing accidents ☺).  A "welcome center" trailer was near the construction site.  Inside the trailer, we met Elder and Sister Hesler, the construction missionaries.  They gave us a nice presentation which discussed why the Church builds temples and the importance temples serve.  At one point during the presentation, Elder Hesler, using his electronic tablet, was putting pictures of several temples on the screen and asking Ben and Isaac if they knew where the temples were located—Ben and Isaac knew them all.  Elder Hesler thought he had them with the picture of the Rome Italy Temple, but Ben immediately identified it (Isaac could have as well).☺

He told us that when they first arrived in town, no one knew they were coming or had been told construction was close to commencing.  As soon as people in the area began to learn the Heslers were construction missionaries, it wasn't long before the whole valley knew construction on the temple was close to beginning (one of the "joys" of small town living).  He mentioned another story when he entered in the local Ace Hardware store (wearing his missionary tag as is appropriate) to make a purchase.  The moment he was recognized, all 10 people in the store converged on him to ask about the latest temple news.  Sister Hesler said that both members and non-members are excited about the coming of the temple.  From these and a couple of other stories they told us, I'd have to agree.

The temple is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2017.  The Heslers also told us that in order to reach this goal, the construction company is working to get the outside walls up during the summer so they can work on the inside of the temple during the winter months.  If this target can be reached, my Mom and Dad should be back from their mission by then.  I think it would be fun to return in the summer of 2017 to attend the open house. ☺

The Ben Vacation 2015 – Shooting in the Backyard

Old Faithful - Day 2

I bet the title to this post got your attention. J  You’re going to have to wait for a few paragraphs to find out what it means (how's that for a shameless teaser; Ryan Seacrest has got nothing on me).  Since we were so close to the West Entrance of Yellowstone Park and had quickly reached the Upper Geyser Basin, I felt that we could make one more trip into the park before making our way to Cokeville with stops at the Rexburg Temple and Rigby, Idaho to visit former Elder Sheppard (Tyson since his first name has now been restored to him J).  We got up a little earlier this morning than we did yesterday and were able to break camp and stop in West Yellowstone for some breakfast items under the time limit I'd set.  The "express lane" was not in service this morning (maybe it was retired after the debacle yesterday).  There was more traffic at all the entry booths, but we still got through fairly quickly.  All day yesterday we hadn't seen any buffalo (a bit of a rare occurrence), but a small group of 3 visible buffalo (that’s all we could see from the road; there may have been more) cleared the road of the cars ahead of us as people pulled off to the side of the road and increased their potential of being gored by getting out of their cars to take pictures (it's happened several times so far this year).  With hardly anyone in front of us, we arrived at Old Faithful in good time and found out the geyser was about 10 minutes from erupting.

Beehive Geyser 2015 Version

As we were walking toward the Old Faithful viewing area, we saw another plume of water shoot into the sky.  We hurried to the boardwalk and found that the Beehive Geyser was erupting from across the way.  This same geyser shot off last year when we were walking along the boardwalk of the Upper Basin and today we got to see it from a different viewing perspective.  What I found interesting was that minutes after Beehive finished Old Faithful erupted.  I wondered aloud if she was waiting for Beehive to complete its plume so as not to be upstaged in any way. J  Since this morning was not as cold as yesterday, we got a better view of the water spout since it wasn’t enshrouded in steam.  Ben was happy to get a last look at the geyser before he leaves on his mission.  I thought it was great that we ended up with a 2-for-the-price-of-one deal.  Because the buffalo ran interference for us and we were able to arrive in time for this earlier eruption, we also had time to drive over to the Black Sand Basin to see if we would have better luck with the parking lot—thankfully, we did.

Cliff Geyser

Sunset Lake

My guess is that Black Sand Basin gets its name from volcanic, obsidian sand (like what we saw along the beach in Northern California), but I admit to not noticing any sand that qualified as “black.”  Not to say that it wasn’t there; I just didn’t see it. L  Instead of a boardwalk loop, the walkways consisted of short “jetties” that took us out to the various pools and made us backtrack to return to the main walkway.  There were several guided tours going on at the time we arrived.  They did not appear to be ranger lead (the two women heading up both groups were not wearing a park ranger's uniform).  In one instance, the leader consulted a guide book giving statistics about the geysers and pools (for example: how hot was the water; how long had the geyser been active).  I guess the people in the group had paid for these guided tours.  I would catch snippets of the things being said (sometimes enough to make it interesting), but, at the same time, these groups wouldn’t linger for too long a time; just stop long enough for either lady to give her short presentation and then move on to the next stop.  When compared to the way my family likes to soak in the sights, I’m not sure the people in these groups were getting their money’s worth.

Rexburg Temple

Emerald Pool

Some highlights from Black Sand Basin: Cliff Geyser – this geyser is one that seems to mainly bubble, gurgle and spout, but what is unique about it is, like the name states, it is located on the edge of a short cliff next to the Iron River.  Sunset Lake – because of the coolness of the morning, the amount of steam pouring off the water made it difficult to see too deep into the pool, but we were able to see the way the algae and bacteria living along the edge of the lake have contributed to its name.  Rainbow Pool is next to Sunset Lake.  Apparently, it is so called because of the rainbow colors offered along the edges and leading into the pool, but the morning steam made it even more difficult to see the water.  Emerald Pool – while the Back Basin of the Norris Geyser Basin had Emerald Spring, the Black Sand Basin has an Emerald Pool.  I'm not sure if I understand the difference between a pool and a spring.  It could be that the spring is hotter.  While the spring from yesterday got its green coloring from sulfur deposits, it appeared that this pool’s green coloring benefited from yellow bacteria growing along the edges of the water.  From what I could tell, the green color of the pool appeared deeper than that of the spring we saw yesterday. J  I did enjoy this new area, but I think it would be better to visit again in the afternoon when the heat of the day is not causing as much steam to rise into the air.  I get the feeling we would have seen some amazing colors in the water if not for the obscured view.  Having seen all that we had time to see, we returned to the car and said our good-byes to Yellowstone.  We reached the West Entrance by around 11:30 or so and found cars backed up all the way to the stop light at the edge of West Yellowstone.  With the amount of people now trying to pour into the park, we were happy we left earlier in the morning.

Our next destination was Rexburg, Idaho to see the one temple we had missed on Thursday.  Thirty years have passed since I was last in Rexburg.  After graduating from high school, I spent a year going to what was then called Ricks College—a 2-year Junior College.  After returning home from my mission, I enrolled in Dixie College (which was also a 2-year junior college back then) and completed my associates degree.  Ricks went on to become BYU-Idaho.  I never really ventured out much during my time in Rexburg.  I lived on campus in the dorms and didn't have much of a social life which didn't give me much reason to travel any farther than my room to the various classrooms (or the on campus arcade).  I think the only time I actually went into Rexburg was to see the movie 2010, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey.  As we drove toward the temple, it was difficult for me to make any comparisons as to the changes in town since I had no particular frame of reference, but I'm sure things are different.

Getting Ready

The temple is located across the street from the campus of the university.  The campus had undergone some changes; one of which was that my old dorm building was no longer standing.  Since it was a Saturday in the middle of July, there were several wedding parties on the grounds in various stages of picture taking (I only saw 2, but everyone else tells me there were 3).  We tried to be respectful and keep the people out of the shots we were taking with both camera and video, but it wasn't easy.  Still, we were able to get some nice pictures before leaving to meet with former Elder Sheppard and his family.  Tyson (I still have a hard time calling him by his first name ☺) finished his mission in our area as I chronicled here.  About a month later, he came back with his mom, sister and brother to visit our's and other areas he had served in during his mission.  He spent about 30 minutes with us.  While we were talking, it dawned on me that we would be driving through his home town of Rigby during our vacation.  I mentioned that we could return the favor and visit him in July.  He definitely liked the idea and gave us his phone number to confirm the date.  A few days before we left, Jennifer called to talk to him.  During the conversation, he asked her if we would like to go shoot skeet during our visit.  "Oh, I don't think we'd be able to do that," she replied and told me later that he sounded disappointed.  We were thinking that he was expecting us to go somewhere to do this shooting and it would take too long to get there, shoot the guns and return ... we found out that we were incorrect in our assessment. ☺

First Shot -- "AH!"

This was the only time that my Google map failed us.  In every other situation, we were taken right to where we needed to go; this time the map tried to send us about 5 miles away from the Sheppard's home.  Oh, well; he came on his motorcycle to rescue us after Jennifer called and told him of our predicament.  It was a lot of fun to see Tyson in his home element.  He's been home for about 6 months now; working and preparing for school.  His family is big into hunting.  As we walked into the living room, we found it full of mounted animal heads.  A pile of antlers, shed by the animals earlier in the year lay in the corner of the room.  After talking for about an hour, Tyson asked again if we had ever shot a shot gun.  I had, Ben and Isaac had during a scout outing, Jennifer had not.  He asked us if we'd like to shoot skeet and when we said we weren't sure, he replied, "We can shoot in the back yard.  Come on."  With that, we found ourselves shooting in the backyard. ☺  Everyone took a turn.  Jennifer, Ben and Isaac shot a 20 gauge shotgun.  I fired the 20 and the 12 gauge.  I was a junior or senior in high school the last time I shot a gun or a shot gun.  I was actually surprised at how quickly I remembered all the important facets.  Jennifer's first shot was quite funny because of the face she made when she pulled the trigger. ☺  Ben hit a skeet out of pure luck; the rest of us experienced an epic fail.  Tyson took pity on us and brought out an empty Sunny Delight gallon jug.  The 3 inexperienced shooters in the family took aim at the jug and hit it at least twice out of three tries.  It was very nice to see Tyson again.  We thanked him and his mom and sister for letting us come and visit (his dad and younger brother were participating in a 50 mile hike) and continued on our way to Cokeville.

We found ourselves in the middle of a huge downpour after passing through Pocatello.  The force and amount of rain pounding against the car reminded me of the rainstorm we experienced during our drive toward Carthage, Illinois two years ago.  The rain followed us as we exited the I-15 and continued on US-30 through Lava Hot Springs.  The town is a big tourist spot because of the hot springs.  I found it quite interesting to watch the people scattering like the ants in Bug's Life.  It appeared no one had expected to receive such a deluge and were running for cover anywhere and everywhere they could find it.  About 5 miles later, we finally got out from under the rain clouds.  The good thing about the rainstorm is it cleaned the bug guts off the front of the car (major carnage; it reminded me of the Far Side cartoon with the bugs watching a horror film about a windshield). ☺  An hour later, we pulled up next to my parent's house.  We had dinner with them and talked for a while before calling it a night.

The Ben Vacation 2015 – Yellowstone: The 2015 Version

Yellowstone Campsite

When Ben chose Yellowstone as the final national park for our vacation, I wasn’t surprised by the choice because we have visited Yellowstone Park practically every time we’ve visited my parents, but I was also intrigued because our approach to the park would be entirely different.  Our usual approach, coming from Cokeville, is north through Jackson Hole, the Tetons and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway.  This makes for a long drive because the speed limit drops to 45 mph from the Tetons on through.  When I’ve ended up traveling behind a RV (a very common occurrence), the speed drops even more until the RV pulls over to let people pass. L  Once we’ve entered the park through the South Entrance, it’s at least another hour’s drive to reach the Upper Geyser Basin where Old Faithful is located.  Last year, we stayed at the Jackson Hole KOA and left at a fairly decent time in the morning and still didn’t reach the geyser until about 11:30.  By staying in West Yellowstone, we were only 7 miles (or so) from the park’s West Entrance and then not too far away from the geyser basins.  My hope, as I planned our visit beforehand, was to reach Old Faithful in 35 to 45 minutes.

Deer crossing the Firehole River

Old Faithful

After showering (while Crescent City had the best campground, this KOA has the best shower/bathrooms; separate rooms that can be shut and locked for privacy—it’s great), we went to the camp’s general store to see if there was anything we wanted to eat for dinner.  The plan was that this would be our final campfire dinner of the trip.  We found some soups that were the “heat water, let sit for 5 minutes and eat” variety.  By this time, I don’t think we were too terribly picky about what we were going to eat for dinner (although Isaac wasn’t particularly thrilled with the choice).  After making our selections, we hopped in the car, drove toward the West Entrance … and ran smack into a traffic jam!  Ugh! L  Not the type of start I was looking for!  As I assessed the situation, I saw that the problem seemed to stem from a sign claiming to be an “express lane.”  Here's a lesson from me to always remember: Express lanes aren't!  Rare are the times when I find myself actually moving quickly in an express lane.  I'm convinced they're designed to give people the impression that they are moving quickly (like Disneyland lines), but the truth is they are slower than all the other lanes.  I must admit, the sign almost caught me because its wording made it seem that everyone with a National Parks Pass (which I purchased at Sequoia) or a receipt had to go into the "express lane."  Deciding not to fall for the hook, I moved into the shortest line I could find.  When I pulled up to the gate, handed the ranger my pass and showed her my driver's license, she let me go right through—express lane my eye.  Just as I had hoped, we made it to the Old Faithful parking lot in 40 minutes even after stopping to watch 3 deer cross the Firehole River and scamper up a hillside (very cool).

Lion Group Geyser

Castle Geyser

Ben & Isaac 2007

I don't know if the geysers are more active in the morning, but based on our last two visits it seems that way.  Last year and this year we reached the Upper Geyser Basin while it was still morning and we've seen activity from geysers other than Old Faithful.  Last year we saw Grand, Beehive, Fountain, Jet, and Clepsydra Geysers erupting during our tour through the park.  This morning, after watching Old Faithful show off, we then saw one of the geysers in the Lion Group erupt (there are four geysers in this group: Lion, Lioness, Big Cub and Little Cub; I'm not sure which one of the four was roaring J).  Later when we walked to Castle Geyser, we found it shooting out water (usually we only see steam).  Opportunities to see more geysers erupt than just Old Faithful is one of the reasons we like to come to Yellowstone; it makes the familiar appear new.  From Castle, we walked along the boardwalk and viewed the various pools and geysers.  We made a stop at Grand Geyser; described as one of the largest, predictable geysers in the world.  The problem is that the predictions are basically a rough, 3 hour guesstimate—today it was 12:45 to 3:15.  If we'd had more time, I suppose we could have waited patiently to see it erupt, but we needed to keep moving.  As we walked back to the Old Faithful area, we crossed a bridge spanning the Firehole River and I was reminded of a favorite picture I took of Ben and Isaac during a visit to Yellowstone in 2007.  They’re holding Gatorade bottles and someone said something funny right before I snapped the picture and Ben cracked up.  The boys actually suggested we try to recreate that picture (after a fashion) as we crossed the bridge.  I told them a spontaneous picture like that can't be recreated—it would look posed and fake.  Some pictures just can't be duplicated, and that is probably for the better. J

Sawmill Geyser

Over the years we have developed a certain routine of frequented stops: Old Faithful, Fountain Paint Pots, Upper and Lower Falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  This year we wanted to mix in some places that we hadn't seen before, or that we hadn't seen in a long time.  The first new place we wanted to try was Black Sand Basin.  It is very close to the Old Faithful area—one of those places that can be easily missed if one’s focus is solely on Old Faithful.  The parking lot, however, was not very large and it was packed to the gills!  I tried two passes to see if a spot would open up, but no joy.  Ben wants to come back and see Old Faithful one more time before we start our push toward Cokeville.  If we have time, we'll give this place another try.  Biscuit Basin didn't look Ben-friendly (a few steep ascents to get to where the action is) and the Midway Geyser Basin was closed for parking lot repaving, so we went with the familiar and stopped at the Fountain Paint Pot.

Fountain Paint Pot

"Hot Chocolate Geyser"

One of the things I like about this particular area is the pinkish hue of the paint pot.  Even though its bubbling mud, this paint pot (more than the others I’ve seen) gives me an actual impression of paint—that I could just reach down with a couple of paint buckets and slap it against the side of my house. J  There was also a new little area that I didn't remember from last year that had become active in the geyser area.  I don’t know how long it had been churning, but the water was still quite muddy (not as thick as the paint pot area, but not so long established that it was clear either.  In fact, the more we watched it bubble and steam, I decided it should be named the “Hot Chocolate Geyser.”  I thought the name was clever; but I may have been the only one. J  The Fountain Paint Pot geysers weren’t as active today as they were when we visited a year ago, but it was nice to walk along the boardwalk and watch the splashing of the Spasm Geyser.  At one point as we returned to the car, Ben needed me to help him out as “human cane” and I found myself reminiscing about last year when we visited this area and how much Ben has improved physically in the year that has passed.

Porcelain Basin

Back in the car, we confronted the question, where do we go next?  Out came the park map.  There is another paint pot area (Artists Paintpots) north of Madison Junction, but it was rejected when we pulled into the parking lot and I remembered the steep ascent needed to get up to where the pots are located—not Ben friendly.  Up the road from those paint pots, Jennifer pointed out an area called the Norris Geyser Basin.  Here was a place we had not visited.  Intrigued by this new prospect, we drove to the entrance of the basin ... and got stuck in a pile up of cars that would have rivaled the 405 freeway on a Friday night! L  Okay, I'm exaggerating, but once I was stuck in this mess there was no way to escape.  It took us about 10 to 15 minutes to inch our way into the actual parking lot.  I was very worried we would have another Black Sand situation.  Suddenly, like an oasis in the desert, an open parking space appeared as I turned the car around the corner (cue the heavenly choir)!  Quickly, before the spot became a mirage, I pulled into the space and parked.

Emerald Spring

Steamboat Geyser

Once we got out of the car however, we were next confronted with the task of figuring out whether this new area was Ben-friendly or not.  There were two divisions to the Norris Geyser Basin: Porcelain Basin and Back Basin.  Porcelain was the shorter route, Back the longer.  To reach the head of both trails a short walk to a museum was required.  When we first saw this pathway, we began to wonder if our joy at arriving would be short-lived because it looked a bit sketchy and the “helpful” map made it appear quite long.  I decided to scout ahead and found that once it made a turn (which caused us to not see the end of the trail), I quickly came up the museum—problem one solved.  Once there, we realized that Porcelain Basin required some major descents and ascents, but Back Basin seemed fairly level.  We decided to give the second basin a try and I'm glad we did because we saw some fun new sights.  Two highlights: Emerald Spring — so named because the yellow sulfur deposits lining the pool turns the blue water green; and Steamboat Geyser — the world's tallest active geyser (so the sign said) with eruptions up to 300 feet high (only it's unpredictable; the last major eruption occurred last year)—it was spitting some water, but no huge blow-out.  When we returned to the museum, I took an overview recording of Porcelain Basin.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Our final stop for the day was Mammoth Hot Springs.  I first visited this area as a young boy, several years before we moved to Wyoming.  As I recall, my parents borrowed a truck and a camper shell from someone and we spent several days in Yellowstone in the mid-70s (funny thing, we moved to Wyoming and were only 2 1/2 hours from Yellowstone, but I didn't go back until 1994).  I remember that Mammoth Hot Springs enthralled me.  At the time, the calcium rich water flowed over a series of terraces that were very white.  They seemed to sparkle like diamonds in the sunlight and I thought they were very beautiful.  In the years that followed, however, the water flowing over these particular terraces dried up either because of earthquake activity or a shift in the water flow.  When I returned to Mammoth with my family when the boys were young (Ben 5 and Isaac 2), the white and wonderful terraces I remembered were dry and crumbling while the active areas were brown, yellow and orange with algae and didn't jibe with my memory. L  My disappointment reflects in the fact that it’s taken me 13 years to want to return.  The terrace area of my youth is still inactive, dry and disintegrating, but what we saw in the Palette Spring area was different than before because of the new deposits that had occurred in the intervening years.  Also, my “eye” had changed over the years because I found the different colors striking and quite fascinating.  The rest of the area required steep hikes to reach.  Ben considered climbing them, but finally opted against it.

We had considered visiting the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, but it was getting late.  With Ben spent and all of us happy with the places we'd visited, we decided to call it a day and return to the KOA.  As we were driving back to camp, however, none of us were too terribly interested in eating the food we'd purchased earlier in the day.  For me, the thought of building a campfire wasn't all that entertaining either.  Suddenly, Jennifer said, "What about the pizza place in the general store?"  Earlier, we had noticed a pizza restaurant in the building.  "Sounds good to me," I replied and there was much rejoicing. J  We purchased a 16" pizza with four toppings of our choice (pepperoni, Canadian bacon, sausage and olives) for a reasonable price; it was also topped with lots of cheese.  Yummy!  As we were getting ready for bed, Isaac asked if he could sleep in the car.  He was tired of ending up on the ground each morning.  I set him up in the passenger seat and we went to bed.

The Ben Vacation 2015 – Crossing Idaho

Since we would be entering the Mountain Time zone when we crossed into Idaho, we got up earlier to try and compensate for the loss of an hour.  We had all slept very well; the inn had completed its job well.  The Horseshoe Inn is a “no frills” hotel, which, in my book, means there is no continental breakfast (I guess they offer a free cup of coffee, but that wasn’t anything I was interested in partaking J), but it accomplished for us what we needed—a place to sleep at a reasonable price.  Actually, one of the things that also intrigued me about the hotel (besides the two queen bed room for roughly $20 more than I would have paid at the KOA in Medford), was that the name isn’t just something pulled out of a hat—the inn actually is built in the shape of a horseshoe!  I’ve made a screenshot of the aerial view of the hotel in order for you to see what I mean.  Since we arrived after dark, it was difficult to get the full feel of this unique configuration, but as I began to load the car this morning, I realized just how pronounced the curve in the building is.  I’m always on the lookout for fun, unique places like this.  If the hotel is affordable, I'm more likely to plunk down the money to lodge my family there for the night.  At the moment, I recall one year when we vacationed in Zion Park, staying in the Bumbleberry Inn because I could afford it and I liked the unique name (the diner wasn't bad either).  If by some chance you happen to find yourself in Burns, Oregon, I’d recommend the Horseshoe Inn as a place to stay. J  Showered, refreshed and ready to take on the next leg of our journey, I put the room key in the drop box in the office and we got back on the road and entered the leg of our journey that broke away from our 2008 vacation.

Boise Temple

We left the Horseshoe Inn at a pretty decent time (for us J).  Only a few miles later highway 395 broke away from highway 20 to head north toward Washington State and we lost that small connection to home.    The remaining portion of Oregon that we traveled through was pleasant.  The only annoyance was the road work that stopped us a few times along the way.  There were only a couple of very small towns along the 100+ miles we drove as we followed along the Malheur, River.  Not until we came into Vale, Oregon and stopped to get gas at a Sinclair station did we finally come across a bustling town (good thing too, otherwise we would have run out of gas).  For about 15 miles before entering Vale and as we drove toward Ontario, Oregon, we passed many farming fields.  Corn (easy to spot the stalks), onions (we’d catch whiffs of their smell), potatoes (we're close to Idaho, so that shouldn't be surprising) and other vegetables passed whisked by in rapid succession.  One of the missionaries who recently transferred into our ward, Elder Haueter, is from Ontario.  When we told him we would be passing through his home town, he tried to convince us to stop by his house, "My Mom will feed you," he assured us.  I felt a bit weird about popping up on his parent's doorstep: "Hi, I'm your son's ward mission leader from California and he told us that if we stopped by you'd feed us.  Here we are!  When do we eat?"  I told Elder Haueter that if he wanted us to deliver something for him (a letter, note, something) it would at least give us a reason for stopping.  I did not expect to be fed, but I thought it would definitely be a surprise for his parents to have us pop up to give them something from him.  Unfortunately, he didn't give us anything before we left, so we waved at his home town as we drove through and left it at that. J

When I was putting the vacation plan together for this portion of the trip, I put two scenarios to a vote.  Scenario A was to drive to Craters of the Moon and spend some time in that national park and monument area before continuing on to West Yellowstone.  Scenario B was to stay on the freeway south of Craters and visit the LDS temples in Idaho.  The 2nd scenario won quickly and unanimously.  Today's plan was to visit the temples located in Boise, Twin Falls, Idaho Falls and Rexburg.  A new temple is being built in Meridian, Idaho, but I decided that attempting 5 stops like this in one day and still making it to West Yellowstone at a decent hour was too much of a reach.  Besides, Meridian was somewhat out of the way, while the other temples were located along our journey.

I learned something about us that I probably should have understood a long time ago (I guess I've just never truly paid attention until now), but we are very deliberate when it come to visiting temple.  Last night, as I was thinking through the itinerary in my head, I said to myself, "Okay, we'll probably spend 30 minutes at each temple," as I attempted to estimate the timing in order to have a loose idea as to when we might arrive in West Yellowstone.  As we drove into the parking lot of the Boise Temple, we decided to eat lunch on the grounds (that took nearly 30 minutes alone).  Then as we walked slowly around the temple, enjoying the ambiance of the grounds and soaking in the Spirit, we probably added an extra 45 minutes to an hour.  We love being around the temple and we can't just quickly take a cursory look, hop back into the car and drive away toward our next destination.  This and the other temples we visited were even more poignant for Ben as he is only a few weeks away from taking out his own endowments in the Redlands Temple.  This realization hit him especially hard while we visited the Boise Temple and those feelings made it more difficult for him to leave when the time came.

Twin Falls Temple

When we finally did leave, we drove over the bridge spanning the freeway to fill up again at the Costco before continuing on.  I deliberately asked the girl who helped me at the Sinclair station to only put about $15 worth of gas in the tank because I had already planned to buy gas in Boise.  But as we had exited the freeway to drive toward the temple, we had also seen a sign for a Cracker Barrel store (cue the choir of angels).  Ever since our first encounter with a Cracker Barrel store in Joliet, Illinois and our first taste of buttermilk & herb potato chips two years ago, I think we subconsciously look for these stores.  This time it was buttermilk & herb and baked potato flavored chips (my mouth is watering as I type this).  I had to make sure we didn't start eating them until after I gassed up the car and got us back on the freeway or I wasn't sure if I'd be able to eat any.  As it was, the ravening hoard in the back seat nearly finished off the buttermilk chip mere moments after we opened the bag. J

From Boise, we moved on to Twin Falls.  We drove over the Snake River Canyon in order to drive into Twin Falls and I was reminded of Evel Knievel's attempt at jumping the canyon back in the mid '70s.  The Twin Falls Temple was very nice.  Again the grounds were beautiful and the spirit comforting as we walked around and took our pictures.  As we moved on toward Idaho Falls, we drove past Burley, Idaho and I was reminded that I had my first ride in an airplane there.  If memory serves, we had driven up to the area for a Toner family reunion (my Grandma Petersen's family).  I don't remember exactly how old I was at the time, but I do remember it being one of those affairs where my cheeks got pinched a lot.  One of my grandmother's brothers owned a Cessna and he took Dad, Aaron and I (as I recall; there may have been others) for a ride in it.  I'm not sure if I can say I had fun.  I think it was fascinating being up that high in the sky, but I got air sick at some point during the flight.  I didn't throw up (thank goodness), but it wasn't one of my fonder memories.  The negative aspect of the memory was strong enough that it was the main reason I had misgivings about my first commercial flight when I was a missionary.  Fortunately, I've never had those type of symptoms since that time.

Idaho Falls Temple

The Idaho Falls Temple is closed for major renovations.  As we walked up to the chain link fence surround the perimeter of the temple, we all noticed that the construction company signs had the Okland insignia (Joanna's husband, Chad, works for them).  We took some pictures of the temple and then entered the visitor's center for what we said would be a brief visit … it lasted 30 minutes or so (what can I say J).  I wasn't aware that the Idaho Falls Temple had been dedicated in 1945 (for some reason, I thought it had been built in the '80s).  The two sister missionaries gave us a nice presentation.  Afterward, while Jennifer and Ben talked with one of the sisters, the other sister missionary showed Isaac and me the conception pictures of what some of the rooms inside the temple will look like when the renovations are completed.  From what I saw in the pictures, the upgrades will be very nice.  We decided to continue walking the perimeter sidewalk of the temple grounds after leaving the visitor’s center.  On the southwest side of the temple grounds, we saw the Snake River on the other side of the street and decided to cross and take some pictures.  I’m not quite sure how Idaho Falls gets its name because there are no water falls anywhere near town of which I’m aware.  However, there were some falls on the river just down the street from where we were standing, maybe that’s where the name comes from (update: I looked it up on the internet and it appears that these are the falls referenced in the city’s name J).

The falls of Idaho Falls

With our visit to the temple completed, it was now 7 p.m.  We were ready to eat and we still had the Rexburg Temple on our itinerary.  I didn’t want to waste time “dining in,” so fast food that could be consumed in the car was the goal.  A Carl’s Junior rose up before us and the consensus was to get our food there (second time in as many nights).  I wasn’t interested in a second day of Carl’s, but a Wendy’s was next door, so I gave Jen some cash and went to the Wendy’s.  When I walked inside, I noticed two things: 1) the soda spigots were located behind the counter (which would have made it difficult to drink and then refill before exiting the establishment; something I could do at Carl’s); and 2) the entire staff was in the back yapping happily away without a clue that someone was waiting at the counter.  I waited for about a minute.  No one bothered to come out from the kitchen, so I left and went back to Carl’s (good thing too, the $30 I’d given Jen wasn’t enough to cover their order because of Ben’s specialty burger and the extra chocolate chip cookies J).  With time at a premium, we decided to hold off on the Rexburg Temple and visit it on Saturday when we’d be returning that way to visit the former Elder Sheppard in Rigby.

I had Jennifer call ahead to the West Yellowstone KOA (actually there are 2 of them in the area, our reservations were for the Yellowstone Park/Mountainside) to tell them we might not make it before the office closed and were told it was open until 10 p.m.  We made it to the office with about 12 minutes to spare and had to put our tent up in the dark, but it all worked out. J  The camp site is next to a stream, which is nice, but it also has some rocks in certain spots (which makes me glad we have air mattresses; although Isaac’s is still losing air).  Tomorrow we’ll see if entering Yellowstone from the west entrance makes as big of a difference as I’m hoping it will.