Around The World In 7 Days

Okay, so it really wasn't "around the world" - but it felt kinda like it. We took off for Wyoming Sunday evening and overnighted in Logan, Utah at Darren's sister's house so we could get an early start Mon. morning. The drive was okay - I slept most of the way - and we arrived in Alpine, Wyoming at around lunch time. Come to find out, about half the U.S. population decided that would also be a great week to camp along the Snake River, okay not half - but a lot! we finally found 3 camping sites together in an "okay" location - meaning we weren't turning around to go home so anyplace that had a port-o-pot and some sort of level ground. I was a little uneasy about all the grizzly bear signs and the steel boxes at the campsites to keep any and all food in to prevent attracting bears. You better believe we picked up every dropped scrap of food before we went to bed - cleanest campsite EVER!
It was incredibly hot while we unpacked and set up camp so despite my wanting to ride the river first before Evan and Ryann went down - we all headed out. "It looks fine", "I'm too hot to stay back", "We'll just hold on to them really good" - ahhh, the proud parent moments we have. we geared up and headed out... yee-haw!
As soon as we hit the water the clouds and rain came in and it ended up being the coldest run EVER! Evan was sitting up front with me and we were getting soaked by the rain and the river. the poor kid has absolutely no body fat and was literally turning blue and shivering non stop. The other 3 kids were all pretty miserable themselves and kept saying through jittering teeth "It's really fun fun when it's warm, promise...blah, blah, blah". We ended the 8 mile stretch with Evan and Ryann saying they never wanted to go again. Dang, this wasn't starting off too good.
Darren and Dennis (brother) wanted to go again and to take Dennis' wife, Julie down for the first time. So they went and apparently it wasn't as cold so it was a lot better, dang - missed out on a good ride, oh well, there's always tomorrow.
We started off early, right after breakfast, and luckily all 4 kids were ready to try it again. Yeah! this next run was fabulous...

Reilly and Jacob wanted to ride at the front of the boat and even stood holding the ropes, "raft surfing", during some of the more mild rapids.
Evan and Ryann were glued to my hip, which was fine by all. Evan kept shouting out "Fire in the hole" and "Oh, my tenders!" - dude, where does he get this stuff?!
Here's a photo of most of the group

We headed out Wed. morning and were home by Wed. night in order to get cleaned up and packed again for Darren and my trip to Monterey, CA. Darren's sister Diane offered to watch the kids in Logan while we were in Monterey so after we spent the day unpacking, doing laundry, going to see Kung Fu Panda (that's where Evan got the term "my tenders from") we packed again and Darren drove the kids back up to Logan to spend the weekend with their cousins. He made it back in record time (ummm, 1.5 hours) and we hit a late showing of the new Batman movie. For someone who doesn't see a lot of movies, this was a record for us. (are you so proud Janan?) We left for Monterey early, early, what were we thinking staying up so late, early Friday morning and were loving the 65 degree weather in beautiful Monterey. As I've said before, it is definitely one of my most favorite places to go and this trip just reinforced my love of the city. We strolled Fisherman's Wharf and had authentic fish tacos overlooking the water and listening to the sounds of the sea lions, attended a company BBQ that night and watched Baby Mama on PPV - not as funny as I thought it would be, oh well. The next day Darren had some early meetings so I walked to a near by cafe for breakfast and brought my book in tow. I read for about and hour then met up with Darren again and we headed out to try something new and terrifying for me - kayaking in the ocean. I don't like being in the ocean, nothing to do with the water or swimming, I just am terrified of sharks and other animals that could possibly even touch me. (it's amazing how someone throwing you in the dark pool at night and yelling there's a black octopus in there and laughing while you swam for your life, several times, could affect you 20+ years later, hmmmm...) Well we suited up and took off for the great unknown, okay, the bay, but it felt like I might not be coming back in one piece - if at all! It was amazing being so close to the sea lions - some would even swim along side you and incredibly there were a dolphin mom and baby in the bay showing off for everyone - WOW! We, and by we I mean Darren with a little help from me, paddled by sea otters and waded through the largest kelp forest in the world, literally. I was a little leery when large bubbles kept surfacing all around our kayak - obviously something was down there I wanted to get out of there before what ever it was came up, yeah it was time to leave.

kind of a dorky picture, but whatever - at least I posted one of me

this guy just seemed to be posing for us, so we had to take his picture

That night we had a company dinner at Stillwater, located on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach. I'm not much of a golf fan, oh, how are we kidding - I'm not much of any sport fan, but even I was impressed by this famous course. The view was spectacular and the food was probably close to the best I've had. It was an amazing night and a weekend I won't ever forget. Thanks again Darren for letting me tag along.