Oh, am I tired today. Exhausted with a capital EX. Sleep deprivation, nothing more, but it’s enough. I have dropped approximately 37 items so far this morning (it’s 8:40 am), including all of my mortgage paperwork (all over the slightly damp back deck), my peanut butter toast (PB side down, of course), my gym bag, and (very nearly) the baby. Instead of going to the gym today, I will be taking a nap in my car during my lunch hour.
I’m going to recap our trip over the next few days. As for whether or not Jack rode a buffalo . . . well, you’ll have to wait and see.
Salt Lake City
SLC, we never knew you. I’m sorry. I know you are a gorgeous valley town, with dramatic snow-capped peaks, cute and interesting shops, angry drivers (holy cow, I thought Boston was bad!), and my favorite blogger (and another favorite.) But we had to get up at 6am Friday morning and fly to your airport with a 7 week old baby and, oh, maybe 700 pounds of luggage (see "7 week old baby, traveling with"), and so upon arrival at our hotel (the lovely downtown Sheraton), we immediately sacked out on the bed and ate takeout and watched cable. You looked really cool from the balcony of our fifth floor room, though. Promise. I would recommend you to any of my traveling friends.
Saturday morning dawned sunny and gorgeous, and I wondered if perhaps dry and relatively cool temperatur’d Utah might not be a good place to move after suffering the wet heat of Carolina’s early June. Then I remembered that it had snowed in Utah in early June, and shuddered. Jack lay on the bed kicking and laughing all morning as we packed around him, and then with the windows down and a skinny almond latte in the cupholder of our rented PT Cruiser, we were on the road.
Idaho Falls
We stopped at a Wendy’s in Idaho Falls, and that was it for that town. I don’t think we even got out of the car. BUT – our friends getting married this weekend live in Idaho Falls, and so we drove around a bit just checking it out, and it is surprisingly cute (call me a snob, but I just didn’t expect much out of the place.) And also the Museum of Idaho boasted a huge exhibit on the great Pharaohs – of Egypt, presumably, but since it was the Museum of All Things Idaho, well, it led to some jokes at poor Idaho Falls’ expense. So we got some mileage out of visiting this little town, and it wasn’t even out of our way. **PS the Chicken BLT salad there is different from the one here. I thought the point of fast food was that it’s the same everywhere so you never have to leave your comfort zone?? WTF is up with messing with my salad, Wendy’s of the West?
Jackson Hole
You can imagine the drama of the drive over the mountain pass leading into the Jackson valley, so I won’t try to describe it because I’m too tired to think of words any more descriptive than "big," "majestic," "snow-capped" (and I used that one already), and "oooooooh, pretty." We saw snow, and stopped at a very windy vista to take some pictures before plunging into the valley. The Tetons rise so abruptly from the valley floor that I couldn’t help but wonder what geological force created them (a combination of plate movement, lava flow, and glaciers – we looked it up.) The rehearsal was to take place in the town square at 4:30, and we made it with just a few minutes to spare. The bride was radiantly happy in her simple black dress, and the groom did not look nervous at all. They began dating about 3 days before Patrick and I did, and we all reflected on how, for whatever reason, Patrick’s and my domestic bliss has been put on fast forward, while theirs has moved at a more leisurely pace (Dude, y’all have a frickin’ baby! was basically the gist of the conversation.)
I stood aside with Jack in his sling while Patrick did his groomsman thing, and while I waited I had an interesting experience. Whenever I carry Jack in his sling, I notice numbers of people looking closely at it, and I can see the questions “what’s in there? Is that a baby in there?” running through their minds. Often, they will come up and ask, and then I’ll turn so they can see his face, and they ooh and aah and go on their merry way. Well, this happened here, except the guy who asked if I had a baby turned out to be a German tourist who was spending a couple of months in Jackson taking photographs. He had quite a lean mean photographin’ machine hanging around his neck, so when he asked if I would like him to take a photo of me and the baby with my relatively dinky little camera, I wasn’t afeared that he was trying to trick me into handing it over so he could run off with it. So, mildly amused at his glee at the prospect of taking our picture, I acquiesced, and moved over into better light. Well, this dude took several pretty nice photos with our “dinky little camera” (so there goes my excuse that my photos are bad because of insufficient technology, and also my argument to Patrick that we need an expensive Canon like dooce has.) Then he took a few with his own. He very sweetly told me that I still had the pregnancy glow, even as a new mother, and that my eyes were shining with love for my baby. If an American told me this schlop I would wonder what he was trying to sell me, but for some reason because of his German accent and nice crinkly eyes, I found him genuine and immediately started preening. Patrick kept looking over at me instead of paying attention to the rehearsal, concerned that I was being steamrolled into something strange that costs money (which, I will admit, occasionally happens to me from time to time *coff*), and I gave him a thumbs up and a self-satisfied smile (eyes shining up a storm.)
After this sweet little interlude – which did wonders for my ego because I was feeling quite self conscious about being 34 pounds heavier than I was the last time I saw all these wedding guests 4 years ago (I used to be a little too thin) – we walked under the arch of elk antlers to the Wort Hotel for our dinner. And I will pick it up here when next we meet. (I will also post pictures, eventually, from the computer at home.)