Our Great Adventure, Part 2

I had intended to split our great adventure into two parts. But, I was looking through our pictures and realized that we had far too many adventures for just two posts. So, I will have to further split our adventures into other posts. So, this part will cover our adventures on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, we drove to Island Park, Idaho to Jared's Wild Rose Ranch (not affiliated with Mr. Frisby in any way) where we had reservations for my whole family for the reunion. We were only an hour or so from Yellowstone Park there, so the plan was to stay at the resort and then head into Yellowstone to see the sights each day. Different parts of the family had different accommodations based on the number of people in the family, etc., etc. Shortly after arriving, we saw that some of our accommodations were seriously lacking in the livability factor. We swapped out two A-Frames we had reserved for one much more luxurious "plex" (don't ask what that means - that's just what they called them). Since the "plex" didn't fit quite everyone who was supposed to be in the A-Frames, Mr. Frisby and I opted to stay with my sister and her family in the condo they had reserved. The condo, we learned, was a step up from the A-Frames, but didn't have the luxury level of the "plex". As we moved our stuff in and started looking around, we noticed so mouse droppings here and there, but it was too late too change anything, so we determined we would talk to the office in the morning to request a thorough cleaning. After getting settled and catching up with the family we all went to bed excited about spending the day together in Yellowstone the next day.

In the middle of the night, I was awakened by a rustling sound. I listened for awhile and determined that a mouse was getting into our food. So, I grabbed a flashlight and went downstairs to investigate. I went down, looked through all of the food and everything seemed okay, so I went back to bed. A few minutes later, I heard the rustling again. It was the distinct rustling of a plastic grocery bag. This time, I grabbed my flashlight, but didn't turn it on and instead just followed the sound. As I got to the stairs, I could tell the mouse was in a bag on the table directly below me. So, I pointed my flashlight at the bag and turned it on fully expecting to see a mouse scurrying away. Instead I saw nothing. But, as I kept watching, I saw a small little lump moving around in the bag. And then, he popped his head out and looked right at me. A small, brown mouse, munching on one of my granola bars. He would've been cute if he was someone's pet. But, he was not a pet and he was eating my food, so I determined something had to be done. I didn't really know what because I'm not well versed in catching mice. So, I just watched for awhile hoping some great idea would come to me. It didn't. My heart just kept beating faster and faster as I watched the mouse scrambling around in the food bag and jumping back and forth from the stairs to the table. Finally, I decided that Mr. Frisby needed to save the day. So, I ran and woke him up and told him there was a mouse. He came and I showed him the mouse and we sat there for a little while wondering what to do. Then, I said maybe we could catch him in the plastic bag (because he was already in it). I thought maybe we could just grab the handles really fast and then take it outside. So, Mr. Frisby gallantly agreed to try. But, because of the food in the bag, he couldn't grab both handles and close it fast enough, so the mouse jumped out when Mr. Frisby was lifting up the bag and he ran off. So, Mr. Frisby and I went back to bed, but several minutes later, we heard the mouse again. This time we came up with a plan. We would get one of the coolers, grab both handles of the bag really fast and throw it in the cooler and shut the lid. So, we went to see the mouse but this time he ran off fast when he saw us. So, we got the cooler and got it all set up and went back to bed. Unfortunately, though, the mouse didn't come back that night. That was adventure number one. And it's not over.

The next morning, after complaining to the office about the mouse and making demands for a thorough cleaning and mouse traps to be put out, we headed off to Yellowstone. We had lots of great adventures in the Park. And we documented them all with photos:

We saw a Bison moseying down the road. This, I thought, was totally awesome. Hello Bison! That's what I yelled to it as it walked by our car.


We stopped at the Artist's Paint Pots where the kids had a great time watching the yucky mud boil.


We saw Elk grazing near the side of the road. Or maybe they were Mule Deer. We had a hard time differentiating.


We hiked around Norris Geyser Basin. We saw no geysers go off.


But, we did smell them.


We finished our hike around Norris Geyser Basin


Then we saw another Bison who had stopped for a bite to eat on the side of the road.


We also saw more Deer Species (these ones we're pretty sure are Mule Deer).


And then we checked out Mammoth Hot Springs


And, apparently missed the Black Bears that were just down the road past the Hot Springs that my sister and her family did not miss because they did not stop at the Hot Springs.


After our stop at Mammoth, we headed to Tower Falls where my brother and his son contemplated the beauties of nature.


And then we headed to Artist's Point which overlooks the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.


And enjoyed the beautiful Lower Yellowstone Falls.


After our many adventures in the park and our mouse adventures in the middle of the night, we were exhausted. So, we got some food in Canyon Village and headed back to the resort to prepare for more mouse-catching adventures that night.