Our cabin in Grand Teton

Of course, one of the things we heard from all of our friends when we told them we were going to Yellowstone was

“how did you find a place to stay? I thought you needed reservations a year in advance.?”

When we looked online we couldn’t find anything nearby that looked decent.  However, Michelle read in one of her books that there were frequently last-minute cancellations so we woke up early the day before we left and called the Grand Teton Lodge Company and asked about any last-minute openings.  Sure enough, they had a large cabin available both days in Colter Bay for only $155/night.  That’s less than a simple double room in nearby Jackson, WY Super 8!.

It’s absolutely adorable.

Here’s Madison in front of our cabin.  Michelle and my bed is just under the big window. 

 

The kids have a double bed for the boys and a single for Tiny.

 

We had similar luck with Yellowstone.  They had places available both nights, but in different locations.  The only spot with two nights back-to-back was the Old Faithful Inn, which looks amazing, but at $515/night it was not worth it. So we’re at the Lake Lodge Western Cabins one night and the Canyon Lodge Pioneer Cabins the next.  It should be wonderful.

Oh, and one more thing.  Because our cabin is literally adjacent to the Lounge, we have WiFi in our cabin!  WOOT!

Summer Vacation Day 2

What a wonderful day!  Many fewer miles today, but just about as many hours in the car.

We rose early from our hotel in Salt Lake City to get an early start to Grand Teton.

We piled into the car and spent the next hour or so trying to get out of SLC (don’t even ask about it.  I’ll just say lost pillows and confusion over the GPS instructions were a frustrating way to start the day).

An hour or so later, we crossed over into Idaho for the first time . I remember spending a little bit of time in Idaho when I was a kid, but haven’t been back since.  We all liked Idaho quite a bit.  Beautiful land and so green.  We would like to go back and spend some time there.

 

We finally arrived at Grand Teton about 4pm and just couldn’t believe it.  It is so beautiful it defies description.  Despite the fact that we took almost a hundred photos, we couldn’t do it justice.

We spent the first few hours driving around the park and admiring the wildlife.  For instance we found a dead woodchuck, a half a leg of a deer, and we personally killed a snake.  There were plenty of living animals too…

We ended with a picnic of chili/Frito Pies beside Jackson Lake.  Wow…what an amazing day.  We’re looking forward to some fishing, canoeing, and hiking tomorrow.

The sunset over the lake was breathtaking.

2010 Summer Vacation Day 1

We FINALLY got out of town today.  After waiting for almost a week from our planned departure date, we left this morning at about 6:30 AM and arrived in Salt Lake City at about 7:30 (Mountain).  By the time we got to our hotel and ready to swim it was 9PM.  Long day of driving, but lots of pretty sights.  I was amazed at pretty Utah is along I-15.  It’s much greener and more settled that I expected from my former drives through Southern Utah.  I didn’t take many photos, just this one of us at Michelle’s favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel.  However, Michelle couldn’t quite get into the photo due to our two camera hogs.

 

Here are a few of the highlights of Day 1:

• Leaving so early we didn’t have any traffic in LA.  That was far different from last time we left the July 4th weekend and spent about 8 hrs just getting to the other side of LA.
• Dinner at A&W (it was Monday Family Float night, so we all got A&W Root Beer Floats).
• Driving by Las Vegas and seeing all the cool casinos without getting stuck in any traffic.
• The amazing views of Utah.
• Listening to the Chronicles of Narnia on CD (THANKS Hung & Corinne!)
• Spending a few hours in the back of the van with Madi & Marcus while Matt & Michelle sat up front..

And here are the highlights from the rest of the gang…

Michelle – We got up and out at 6:30! 

Matt – Getting out of the car.  What a long ride!

Madison – Playing in the pool with Daddy.  We made up an awesome game in the pool that wore us out!

Marcus – Being in the car and listening to Chronicles of Narnia.

Me – Playing in the pool with the kids at Baymont Inn in SLC. The water was refreshing after a long day of driving.  I really like SLC.  Perhaps we’ll vacation here sometime.  Seems to be a nice city.

Tomorrow we’re off to Grand Teton NP where we’ll spend the next two nights at Colter Bay Village.  I’ll give you an update tomorrow night (assuming there’s WiFi!)

And away we go…

We were schedule to leave for vacation last Tuesday.  But due to a variety of opportunities (e.g., a youth group trip to Hurricane Harbor, and a day of rest for me and Michelle!) we decided to wait until the weekend.

Of course, with the holiday weekend, the traffic in LA is awful.So, we’ve decided to postpone departure until 5am Monday morning.

We’re heading up around the great national parks of the American West.  Here’s our itinerary in Yahoo! Maps.

First stop, Salt Lake City, then on to Colter Bay Cabins at Grand Teton NP!

I’ll post photos and commentary each day that we have WiFi.

Boys weekend at Joshua Tree

Last weekend was one of the highlights of my year for the past few years.  The Hilltop Church sponsors an annual guy’s trip to Joshua Tree’s “Sheep's Pass” campground.  We’ve gone the last few years and had a blast!

This year our dear friends Caleb & Brian came along with us.  It was wonderful to spend some time with our friends in the familiar environment of Sheep’s Pass (and A&W on the way to the desert).

Here’s Brian right after we got the tents set up.

.  You can see the enormous barren desert behind him.  The view from where we put our tents is really amazing.

It was about 100 when we arrived (but it’s a dry heat). It was about 3pm on Friday.  By the time we got the tents up, we only had about an hour before dinner. 

We spent the whole day Saturday climbing around on the rocks…well almost the whole day.

 

After a few hours of climbing Marcus slid down so many rocks that his pants were ripped all the through…so were his undies!  Half his bottom was hanging out for all the world to see (I have a photo, but he says I can’t put it up here.  If you SMS me, I’ll send it to you though. Andrea-just wait until your boys start voting on which of their photos you can post.  I’m sure the naughty mat photo will be a goner!).  So, the boys and I climbed into the car and headed the 10-miles back out of the park to Yucca Valley, CA to get some new clothes for Tater Tot.  It actually worked out great because it was like 105 degrees from noon to 3 and we were hanging out in the AC at JCPenney’s, Albogordos’ Cantina, and GameStop. 

Sunday morning we always volunteer to help out with breakfast.  This year I decided to let Marcus sleep and just signed up Matt and myself.  It was a good choice.  Matt made me so proud…he rose at 6am with no problem and worked hard for three hours preparing, serving and cleaning up breakfast for 100+ guys. 

Here he is cutting up a watermelon with our dear friend and King’s Kamp Director, Mr. Bruce.

He sliced all the watermelon.  It was his first time to slice a melon by himself.  He did great.  (You’ll have to ignore the Angels cap.  We got it free at an Angels game a few years ago.  He’d be happy to receive an Orioles or Dodgers cap for Christmas…hint, hint).

Once we had breakfast all prepared, we started serving.  Sunday’s breakfast tradition is “omelet-in-a-bag”.  It’s a fun meal where we put egg-beaters and leftovers from the last few days into a zip-loc baggie and boil it for seven minutes.  Sounds weird, but it works great.  Matt’s job was to pour the egg-beater into the bag, and I filled up the rest of the goodies. 

Brian also volunteered on Sunday and he handled the cooking. 

After breakfast, we just had a little devotional and then packed up and headed out.

Of course, one of the highlights every year is stopping on the way home to wash our hands and faces (there’s no running water within 6 miles of the park), and get something cold to eat.  This year Matt went a little overboard with a soda, a blizzard, and an ice cream cone at DQ.

Here’s a photo of all of us together near where we put our tents.  A wonderful weekend for sure.

 

It could have been worse…

June Gloom is in full swing here in Malibu.  On a good day, we may get 90-minutes of sunshine.  Other than that, it’s foggy, grey, and depressing.  From early in the morning until about 2pm it looks like this.

And then it clears up for a couple of hours, before returning to fog by about 5pm. So depressing.

That nasty weather was definitely a contributing factor to an accident we had this week. I took the neighborhood carpool to Malibu High as always on Thursday morning. About two miles north of PU on PCH we were approaching the intersection of Latigo Canyon and there was a light blue Honda Pilot stopped at the stop sign. Somehow, the driver didn't see our enormous Nissan Armada with the headlights on, and pulled right out in front of us.

I swerved to the left (into oncoming traffic lanes!) to avoid hitting her driver-side door head-on. Thank God there was no traffic in the other lanes. She clipped my rear quarter-panel and back tire on our way past. While it doesn't look so bad, the damage was substantial enough that I couldn't drive the car after that.

Thank God, no one was hurt, but it was sure a scary morning. She took full responsibility and was very apologetic.  She was insured and it looks like her insurance will take care of everything.

Now we're in a rental car (currently an enormous Lincoln Town Car) until the Armada is fixed. They estimate 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, we're supposed to leave for vacation in 2 weeks! Gheesh! Why does this always happen right when we are leaving for summer vacation? (http://blog.m5williams.info/2007/07/damage-from-fender-bender.html)

Nashville with Matt for CSC

Last week I took at trip to Nashville for the Christian Scholars Conference.  I wasn’t planning on going since I have so many other travels this summer.  However, when Provost Tippens called with an opportunity to respond to a paper by David Miller, I knew it was an opportunity I shouldn’t pass up.

David Miller is on the faculty at Princeton University where he directs the Faith & Work Initiative.  David’s paper was a summary of his book God at Work along with an announcement of a new phase in his research where he is further refining “The Integration Box” model with an instrument development study.  I will be paying attention to his work over the next few months and would be interested in joining in the conversation.  If you are interested in the topics of faith/spirituality and work/life balance from an academic perspective, you should check out his blog…http://faithandworkblog.com/.  It’s not updated often enough, but it’s a good start.

The conference was engaging and enjoyable.  I always enjoy my visits to Lipscomb University.  It’s a beautiful campus in a lush, green, pastoral quarter of Nashville.  There are many things about Nashville that are appealing.  One of the highlights of the trip was seeing so many old friends.  I had lunch with Ted Thomas (formerly minister of the Silver Spring CoC in Silver Spring, MD) and Gayle Crowe (former minister of the Chatham CoC in Chatham, NJ…and father of one of my best friends DMC). 

 

These two guys are so special to me because it was in conversation with them many years ago that convinced me it was time for a career change.  I’m so grateful for their influence in my life.  Without them I would be Lord knows where… but almost certainly not here.

But the big highlight, was that Son #1 was able to come along for the trip.  We had a blast.  We spent the first night on the plane at DFW… and didn’t arrive in Nashville until nearly 1am.  But the second night we did a double-feature… Iron Man 2, followed by Prince of Persia.  What fun.  I preferred IM2, but he liked PoP better.  Both were fun. (Ironically, last time I attended CSC I took in a Double Feature at the same theater!)

We also made a stop by the Parthenon…

And then had the most amazing burgers at Five Guys…

Day 3 we had to fly back to LA.  But before leaving, we made a few stops.  Like at Krispy Kreme for some hot, fresh donuts.

 

On Legends Corner in downtown Nashville… 

I think Matt only recognized Johnny Cash from the guitar face.

Then we stopped by the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole’ Opry…

And finally, we wondered by GameStops, Targets, Best Buys, and Walmarts looking for a PSP Bundle Pack.  With the bundle you save about $30, but Matt really wanted to buy a PSP for the plane ride home.  So, we finally picked up a new PSP and the Prince of Persia game and headed to the airport.  It was a terrific trip for both of us.  I really enjoyed having Matt with me.  I look forward to having him with me again.