Day 8: Jackson Hole

We tried for an early start this morning; we knew we'd have to in order to beat the crowds at Old Faithful.  We stopped at McDonald's for a quick breakfast, then into the park.  The businesses have a hard time finding workers during the peak season, so places like McDonald's have to find foreign workers to staff their stores.  It's borderline humorous to watch the foreign workers deal with the many different American dialects...  Anyway, I digress...

We stopped at Grand Prismatic Spring for a quick hike, then on to Old Faithful.  We beat most of the crowd, but the geyser went off just as we were walking up so we didn't get to see it.  We decided to wait until the next eruption.  We stopped by the visitors center to kill some time, then Sarah, Sadie, and I walked around the geyser basin.  Sadie was a trouper and walked most of it by herself.  We knew what time Old Faithful was supposed to go off again +/- 13 minutes.  We got back just in time because it went off around 20 minutes early.

In an effort to gain time tomorrow and the next day, we decided to go on to Jackson Hole and the Tetons.  That's always a pleasant trip.  They were doing a raptor show at the visitor center at Jackson Hole and Sadie loved seeing the owls, hawks, and eagles.  We had a picnic lunch while we were at the visitor's center.  We did a quick tour of the town, then back through the Tetons to Yellowstone.

We stopped by the mud volcanos which Sadie was really looking forward to.  She liked seeing them but hated the smell.  I haven't mentioned it yet, but we've noticed the park has had a lot of rain and snow run-off, so there is a lot of water.  The mud volcanos and all the pools have been full and running over.

On our way up to the waterfalls, Sadie started complaining of a headache (which she never has before).  We suspected she was just getting tired because we walked so much.  We made the waterfalls a quick stop, then headed back to West Yellowstone.  Sadie was not feeling well and let us all know the entire trip back.

To save time, we decided to eat at the Buffalo Bar.  While dad was carrying Sadie in, she couldn't take in and threw up right as they walked in.  I took her and Sarah back to the hotel and came back to pick up mom and dad.  Sarah and I placed a to-go order.  I don't think any of us thought the food or service was any good. 

It was a late night trying to wash clothes.  Sarah and I got two loads done and Jenn got one.  We are all tired and frazzled.  We're going to get Sadie some children's Tylenol for the fever and maybe some pedia-lax in the tomorrow.