December 2019 at the Hydeout

Christmas 2019 involved lots of superheroes, but also Lincoln getting a big kid bed and Willie getting a bicycle. But the biggest present was after opening presents on Christmas morning, we got into the car and drove to Naples! Well, first we took down the Christmas decorations because no one wants to come home from vacation and then have to do that, dropped Sophie at Carrie and Mike's house and then started the long (1150 miles) drive south.

Christmas Eve - Leaving Cookies, Milk, and Carrots

Because it was Christmas morning, we correctly figured 2 things about our drive: not many places would be open and not many cars on the road. We made good time on the roads and ate some lunch of uncrustables, big carrots, strawberries, and pretzels, in the car. Our stops for gas and bathroom breaks were extended by a few minutes to allow everyone to run around or rock climb at the gas stations. We found a Waffle House that was open on the south side of Atlanta which was perfect for dinner and then changed into PJs to sleep the last part of the drive. We switched drivers one last time with about 450 miles left and with the strength of a coffee, Red Bull, and quick nap before taking over, I was able to crush the last section without any stops and pulled into the Hydeout at 4 a.m. and 10 miles to empty on the gas gauge.

Running Around at a Gas Station in Kentucky

Rock Climbing, again at a gas station in Tennessee

Waffle House in Atlanta

Waffle House in Atlanta

Soon after our arrival, Mimi and Obo showed up having flown in (they've earned the right to fly, having driven with me, Abby, and Beth their fair share of time). The first day was spent at the pool and resting. We also learned that the Trogs were making their way South after a snafu with the rental car company, think Seinfeld's voice "anyone can take a reservation."

We decided early on that going out to dinner would be quite the endeavor with 4 children so we planned out a few meals that would eventually include: a shrimp, mushroom, and parmesan risotto made by Mimi that was incredible, a creamy shrimp fettuccini that I still dream about, shrimp boil with Matt and Mary Lynch, Thai carry out, a night out at Pinchers, and a night when Mimi and Obo babysat the sleeping kids and let the middle generation go to the Dock for dinner. For lunches, we had lots of snacks at the beach, Brooks Burgers for Megan, some gyros, and some sandwiches from the new South Beach food stand.

Speaking of meals, the one night out for dinner was at Pinchers at Tin City. This was a strategic decision for 4 reasons: We got there at 4:15 which we thought was a way to minimize any tired children meltdowns. The restaurant was sufficiently loud which drowned out any loud noises coming from our table. Kids ate free. Lastly and crucially, drinks were 2 for 1. It was a successful adventure, with appetizers, including the crab claws for Cora; a short break for the kids when Zach and I got this amazing picture of all 4 children looking in the right direction, and ice cream from Tin City afterwards. We also ran into a Morristown, Indiana family that knew the Gaffney's, small world.

Successful Picture by me and Zach at Pinchers

Willie Taking Pictures

Superman Ice Cream!

Superman Ice Cream!

Some other random memories we all left the Hydeout with often centered on the little ones. For example, when Cora announced it was "praise time" and to Willie this meant to grab her by the cheeks and kiss her on the lips. Or when it was a little too quiet in the bunk room and we go in to find Lincoln, Cora, and Willie on the top bunk giggling about being sneaky. Or when the Crab Man, Matt Lynch took the sunglasses from Lincoln while they were playing around in the pool, and Lincoln slowly bursts into tears. Or the day everyone was feeling generous with the popsicles and June ended up eating an unknown number but every adult gave her some so it easily could have been 10 popsicles. Or the good work Willie and Lincoln did while helping Obo wash the cars. Or the endless number of times Willie and Lincoln pretended to go for a walk into the pool, which I will admit got pretty convincing that they were just walking normally and fell in the pool.

The Car Washing Team

The vacation included many mornings at the beach and afternoons at the pool. One day we switched it up and didn't go to the beach until 4 p.m. We played in the water under the setting sun. Zach was standing near us fishing when suddenly, a bird is cawing and flapping its wings against the water. The bird had its wing tangled in the line. People on the beach looked on horrified as Zach tried to free the bird. I stepped near to the situation but was clearly going to be of little use to Zach or the bird. Afterwards Zach said he thought he was going to have to snap the bird's neck which I'm sure would have caused quite the stir amongst the sunset crowd. But lucky for everyone Megan calmly took Lincoln's hat and placed it over the birds beak and face which pacified the bird enough for Zach to untangle the line from the wing. After the bird fiasco, the Trogdon ladies were inching closer to bedtime and headed home before sunset. The rest of us sat on some chairs and watched the sun dive towards the horizon. With about 5 minutes to go, it started to rain and the cabana boys ran around to steal all the umbrellas saying they would lose their jobs if they didn't take them now. Mimi was very angry as we were going to use the umbrellas for literally 5 more minutes as the sun was starting to dip under the horizon. I sat under the cabana boys' umbrellas which were still up while everyone else took shelter under the awning. It ended up being a beautiful sunset and I snapped this picture with a dolphin breaching in front of the orange sun.

Sunset with a Dolphin

Another adventure was when we visited the Everglades Wonder Park in Bonita Springs. It is this zoo type place with alligators, lizards, snakes, and birds. Normally you are already to feed some pellets to the alligators but they are renovating the gator sanctuary so that didn't happen this time. However, we were able to feed the birds including the flamingos (known as "mingos" in our house). Another adventure we went on was a couple of nights we took flashlights out into the backyard area and wandered around. The kids enjoyed shining their lights on things and we explored some stuff in the neighborhood including some fountains, the pond, and the golf course. One day we did a similar exploration and found the butterfly gardens which was fun. There we found multiple types of butterflies and a few caterpillars.

Butterfly Hunting

Monarch Butterfly

Caterpillar

Feeding the 'Mingos

Flashlight Adventures

Fountains at Night 

While we were doing lots of swimming at the pool, Willie was becoming more and more confident going under water and eventually, we let him take of his swimmies. With Obo, Megan, or I usually being the lead instructor Willie soon called this time "swim lessons" which of course made Lincoln incredible jealous and he, in his soft pitched voice said "meeee toooo" wanting to remove his own swimmies.  Lincoln enjoyed going under water with everyone and pretending to shout underwater, although he would only shout once he returned above the water.  Willie did quite well with his swimming and was able to swim about half way across the pool and would even start to take a breath or two while swimming. Momma couldn't be more proud.

One morning instead of beaching or pooling, we went to the farmers market in Old Naples. We sampled some chocolate beignets, got some guacamole, some grapefruits, an iced coffee, and Willie used his long dollar that he had earned from finding conch shells for Obo to purchase a cookie. After the FarMar, we went to Cambier Park to play on the playground. The kiddos had an absolute blast. Lots of chasing after people and climbing on the equipment. The Trogs then had lunch at Captain and Krewe, Megan and Mimi stopped at Alvin's Island to get some stuff and also picked up some Gyros. The rest of the day was spent at the pool.

Nearing the end of the vacation, as I mentioned, Matt and Mary Lynch were in the area for a wedding and came to see us all for a couple of days. Their visit included a couple of pickleball matches that were back and forth affairs. I had also mentioned that the middle generation went to the Dock for dinner one night, this included Matt and Mary. We all ordered two drinks right off the bat and tried to get a free order of appetizers but with no luck. (We are quite classy.) After dinner we walked around the docks to look at the yachts.

The last bit is just a dump of pictures highlighting the sunsets, adventures, and cuteness from the rest of the vacation. The Trogs and Traviss left to drive home around the same time on Friday morning and in fact ran into each during the first bathroom and refueling break. The journey home was rough because there was lots of rain, a few accidents on I-75 south of Atlanta, and then rush hour traffic in Atlanta. We all arrived back home around 2 a.m. which made for a tiring Saturday but everyone was glad to be home and was in generally high spirits to have slept in their own beds.

Sunset Adventures include drinks

Sunset from Hyde Park

Sunset from Hyde Park

Cute Kids Sitting

Willie and Mimi Searching for Shells

Running from the Waves

Sand Castles

RoadTrip: Final Thoughts

These will just be some notes about the trip that I want to remember.

We listened to a bunch of songs on Spotify as in some places we just weren't going to be finding good radio stations.  The songs we heard the most and became annoying were:

• Rumor Has It by Adele
• Payphone by Maroon 5
• Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
• Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen
• Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye
• Some Nights by Fun.

We also listened to CDs on my car's hard drive:

• The Foundation by Zac Brown Band
• Live at Albert Hall by The Killers
• Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay

I decided that I could live in just about any place we stayed but would really love to live for some time in Boulder, San Francisco, Santa Fe, San Diego, and Jackson Hole.

As I start working to become a teacher, I hope I can look back on the hike in Capitol Reef National Park and reminisce on the moment I decided to actually start doing something with this thought of being a history teacher.

At the beginning of our planning for this trip, we discussed bringing Sophie with us but that would have been a huge mistake.  It would have been great having her with us but it would have been a hassle whenever we wanted to do something where dogs were not allowed, like National Parks.

When we got back, people unsurprisingly asked what our favorite thing was.  I still am not sure I can give one thing. 

• I loved Yosemite.
• I loved all the surprises in Southern Utah.
• I loved not knowing where exactly we were going to be staying the next night but planning out what we wanted to do and figuring it all out as we went.
• I loved the Date Night Burger at Mountain Sun Brewery in Boulder. 
• I will always love the Tetons, Jackson Hole, and Togwotee. 
• I loved being able to visit old friends and family in their home towns. 
• I loved doing random things like going to the Rodeo or sleeping in a Teepee. 
• I really loved driving around the country with Megan on this adventure doing and seeing as much as we could, while smiling the whole time.

Garden of the Gods - An important place for us

Yosemite

Pikes Peak

Boulder Mountain Park

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Grand Canyon

Boulder Falls

AT&T Park

Togwotee

Las Vegas

Arches National Park

Grand Tetons National Park

Vernal Falls, Yosemite

Grand Staircase - Escalante

Point Reyes

Muir Woods

Old Faithful Inn

Mount Rushmore

Grand Tetons

RoadTrip: The Final Stretch

As I previously stated, we were going to try to drive from Yellowstone to Naperville straight through.  According to our google maps it was 1391 miles.  This was going to be a long day.

We had planned on waking up similar to when we left Yosemite, around 3 a.m.  However, when Megan fell asleep at 10 p.m. I laid there tireless for an hour.  I kept thinking, 'ok, if I fall asleep now I'll get 4 hours of sleep. I can do that and then nap while Megan is driving and be like normal.'

Then it is Midnight. I think, 'ok, 3 hours isn't terrible, I've done that before and I lived."  But I just lay there not able to fall asleep.  Until finally, the clock on my phone changes to 1 a.m. and I say screw it.  I gently rouse Megan and tell her to bring her pillow and go sleep in the car. I am going to pack everything up and we are leaving because I can't sleep and if I'm awake we might as well be driving.

I pack everything up and we hit the road around 1:30.  Driving anywhere at 1:30 there aren't bound to be many people around but in Yellowstone there isn't a soul.  So I start the drive with Megan sleeping and I have my phone playing some music to jam out to, plus I do well driving at night; it's great thinking time.  It is slow going for the first 2 hours or so, no not because traffic, but because there were so many animals out that I didn't want to hit any of them, plus it was some mountain driving and I didn't want to careen off the road.  At one point I counted 14 animals, most likely elk or deer standing in the road during a one mile stretch.  There were also a bunch of eyes lighting up as I drove past but I couldn't make out any of the animals.

Before long I had made it to Cody, a real town, and I was used to driving at faster speeds than 25 or 30 MPH which was the posted speed limit in town.  At 3 or 4 a.m. on a Saturday night/Sunday morning I was an easy target for the cop that pulled me over but he took pity on me because I wasn't a drunk driver and I was wearing my Guinness pajama pants and still had about 1200 miles to drive.  I drove until about 7 a.m. when the sun was starting to become blinding.  I had made it through the Bighorn Mountains and onto Interstate 90 before Megan took over while I napped.  We had decided that even though some things might add a few miles to our incredibly long journey we wanted to stop and check them out.  Our first such detour was to see Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore - 3 Great Presidents and a friend of the sculptor

We made it to the heads, which is what my sister used to call it when we were younger, around the time we were looking for lunch but it was only 9:30 a.m.  We enjoyed stretching our legs and glad we stopped off to see the Presidents but we were back on the road before we knew it.  I still needed more sleep so I gladly let Megan stay behind the wheel but my nap didn't last long because our next stop was only a few miles down the road at Wall Drug.

If anyone has driven through South Dakota, you have heard of Wall Drug Store.  There are billboards for hundreds of miles touting their coffee, ice water, souvenirs, sandwiches, pretty much everything.  We stopped in and found ourselves to be a little 'out of it' by all the commotion.  We ordered some sandwiches and ate while the whole world seemed to be moving and talking around us.  It was quite surreal.  I guess I was pretty tired; Megan might not have felt the same way about Wall Drug.

Likely the last side story of this journey and it is about Wall Drug.  My little sister collects toothpick holders.  She's unique.  Wherever we would go on trips, she would run into the gas station, visitor center, souvenir shop, hotel gift shop, etc. searching for a toothpick holder.  Amazingly, most places carried them. I swear she is the only person to ever buy them but I guess not.  Well one summer we stopped at Wall Drug because we had seen the billboards for the hours before as we drove towards Godforsaken, South Dakota.  She found a frog toothpick holder, don't ask how I remember that it was a frog one, and was very happy with her purchase.  We kept a bunch of stuff in the top carrier to save space in the car, my job was to always catch the top as my dad flipped it over to me.  Well as we were driving down the interstate after our stop at Wall Drug, the top carrier flew open sending our clothes and one bag of souvenirs down Interstate-90.  We stopped the car and my dad dodged semis to pick up the clothes with giant tire marks across the front of shirts however the frog toothpick holder sadly didn't make it. 

We decided not to spend too much time at Wall Drug and instead choose to drive a short detour loop through Badlands National Park.  We blared Bruce Springsteen's Badlands for pretty much the entire 45 minute drive, which made me endlessly happy as I sang, 'poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king and the king ain't satisfied 'til he rules everything.'  Man he's good; he really is the boss.

Badlands

After our third detour in only about 4 hours, we decided we needed to get some miles behind us and started cruising again.  We switched drivers a few times as we made our way across South Dakota and into Southern Minnesota.  Megan was then tired when the sun went down, so I took over and drove through Iowa down to Interstate-80, which would take us home.  We hit Iowa City, where my older sister went to school and knew that we only had 3 hours left, however it was almost 11p.m. now.



I was still a little wired from making sure I didn't fall asleep while driving and it took me a few minutes to fall asleep.  Megan, I'm not sure if she was completely rested or what but didn't fall asleep for awhile, she said was too excited to see our puppy the next morning as we had to pick her up from the kennel.  We rolled in to my parents place at just after 1 a.m. We drove 1,440 miles in 23.5 hours.

What a trip! We spent time in 13 states over 34 days. We covered 8000+ miles and I wouldn't change a single thing about the trip, except that it had to come to an end.

RoadTrip: The Grand Tetons

Mountains, oh glorious mountains.  We have obviously seen our fair share of mountains for the past 4 weeks but in my head we were building up to the grandest of them all.  Growing up, my family took many a roadtrip out to Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons, probably 5 or 6 trips between the age of 10 and 21.  But that means I hadn't been back out to maybe my favorite place in the world (so far) in almost 5 years.

We were planning on waking up early so we could secure a camping spot at Jenny Lake, which all the websites said fill up in the summer quite early.  Well we had had a long day yesterday and were completely fine sleeping in and staying at the Jackson Hole Campground an extra night.  Also, Megan conveniently set the alarm for P.M.  No complaints from either one of us.



String Lake

We took hot showers to warm our toes back up and drove a couple miles towards Grand Teton National Park.  We stopped off at the Visitor Center and talked with a ranger about possible trails to hike.  We decided on the Bear Paw trail as we would hike along Leigh Lake and String Lake which have incredible views of the Tetons.  There was hardly anyone around which was wonderful to feel the peacefulness of the wild.  I had been to String Lake and Leigh Lake before but the views are top notch and the mountains feel as if they are towering over you and reflecting below you on the cold, calm, blue lake water.



Leigh Lake



Grand Teton National Park

Mountain Reflections



Cool View Through the Trees



Grand Teton Poking Through the Trees



We hiked back and with stomachs' growling ate some tuna sandwiches and Spicy Doritos at the Jenny Lake visitors area.  We decided to rent a kayak to see Jenny Lake and the Tetons from the water.  We had to wait a few minutes before a kayak or canoe was available but we decided that we were going to do a horseback trip at Togwotee, the resort where we were staying the next night.  We were out on the water in our kayak for only an hour but had a great time paddling over to the far shore.  We also commented how amazing our trip was and that it was pretty neat that we had been floating through Yosemite just 48 hours earlier.

Kayaking on Jenny Lake



Even the Views Looking Away from the Mountains is Beautiful



Every Picture of Grand Teton is Amazing



The Most Mountainy Mountain I have Ever Seen

We found our way back to town without a plan for the rest of the afternoon or evening.  We wandered around a few shops to buy some souvenirs.  Megan found a cowboy hat and I found a sweet picture of Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) with the saying "I'll be your huckleberry."  We also snagged a prime seat on the second story deck at Town Square Tavern and people watched as we enjoyed a cold beer.  We also watched the wagon take little kids on rides around the square and Megan commented that if the roads were made of dirt it would be even cooler.

As we walked out of the tavern Megan noticed the Old Time Photographer and dragged me in.  We found some amazing outfits and had our picture taken as Westerners.  There was a family that came in after us and the little boy upon seeing Megan said, "Mom, she looks like a princess."  Megan said that her trip was complete and she didn't think she'd ever be happier.

After our short stint as old time characters, we found Mountain High Pizza which we split a pizza and a pitcher of beer while sitting out on the deck.  We went back to our camp and had a fire to stay warm as we played cards while the sun went down.  I kicked Megan's butt in Gin or Rummy or Gin Rummy or whatever and she got mad at how I was playing but then we played another game and she kicked my butt.

We woke the next morning feeling warmer than the previous night after sleeping in wool socks, pants, long sleeves, and all of our blankets.  We left camp early at 7:15 as we had to be at Togwotee by 8:30 for our horseback trip.

Grand Teton National Park is the Best

Togwotee is a 'resort' in the middle of nowhere Wyoming.  It is 35 miles from Jackson Hole and is directly East of Grand Teton.  My family would always stay here when we came to the area and I have many memories of spending time with my sisters and parents in one of the cabins out in the back of the property.  There is a restaurant, a bar, a gas station with a convenience store, and a front porch that is great for sitting and watch all the crazy people that come passing by.  Growing up, we always stayed in a cabin but they were all booked up for us so we had to settle for a room in the lodge.

We ended up having a private horseback tour as the other groups during our tour were split pretty evenly.  Megan was riding the donkey named Carl and I was on a horse named Dewey.  Our guide was a little off but we enjoyed our ride around the forest and got some great views of the Tetons spread across the wide open "flat" land that separates the mountains from Togwotee.



Our Horseback View



Megan Wearing Her New Purchase

We returned back to the lodge and found that our room would be ready in a few minutes so we decided to wait around the lodge so we could shower.  We checked out the bar but didn't like the lunch selection so we snacked on some chips while we sat in the Adirondack chairs on the front porch.  After cleaning the horse smell off of ourselves, we decided to go to Brooks Lake to go on an afternoon hike.

Brooks Lake Trail



Snow at Jade Lake

We hiked up to Jade Lake but the snow was just starting to melt and the trail was really wet so we didn't complete the hike.  It was a great day to be outside plus since we were in the middle of nowhere there was nobody around.  Brooks Lake is a cool place to be when nobody else is there because the the valley is really wide open and you can see for miles across the lake.  As we were returning to our car we heard a giant crash and snapped our heads around to see a big cloud of rubble from where a piece of the cliff had broken away.  I wonder if it would have made the same noise had we not been there to hear it ...

Brooks Lake

After the "short cut" of my way back out to the main road, we both felt lucky to be alive and decided a hot tub session was in order.  With our muscles feeling relaxed after a rough day of horseback riding and hiking we showered and found our way to the restaurant.  We had a filling meal of salads, pasta and a burger to go along with a pitcher of beer.  We bought a few souvenirs from the gift shop before sitting down on the front porch again to finish our beers.  We were getting eaten by some bugs so we moved inside to look at some magazines of what to do in Yellowstone.  I asked the front desk lady what she thought and we got to talking about how we wanted a cabin.  Well it was our lucky day because someone had just cancelled and she gave it to us. We high-fived and packed up our stuff from our stupid lodge room and drove down to our spacious cabin!

Excited About Our Cabin

We were pumped now that Megan got to experience Togwotee as I had hoped she would, just like my family has done many times in the past.  We listened to some music and played some cards on the little front porch as we drank some beers.  We also got to witness a spectacular display of a sunset over the Grand Tetons which was just another perk of being in the cabins versus staying in the lodge.

Dusk Over the Tetons from Togwotee

We were in no hurry the next morning and wanted to enjoy our cabin for as long as possible so we lounged around in bed, watching TV and reading before showering and packing up the car.  We were driving the short distance to Yellowstone where we luckily had a campsite reserved.  Before we reached Yellowstone we stopped off at Jackson Lake Lodge which has a ridiculous view of Mount Moran, one of the Grand Tetons and we took a bunch of pictures of the Grand Tetons as we were driving straight at them before turning and heading towards Yellowstone.



Looking Across Jackson Lake



From Jackson Lake Lodge