July 10 Jackson Hole (re-created)

Wow!  I have no idea what I am doing wrong when I write the blogs off-line - they disappear when I try to transfer them to the blog - so again, this one will have to be re-created.

The girls were amazing this morning.  They got up early and stowed their gear and tent and then helped us with our tent.  When we were secure, we got into the truck and were on our way.  We all said goodbye to "Boofy", our resident buffalo and headed south to get out of the park.  We spotted a white-tail deer and an elk with a huge rack of antlers.  We stopped at Grant Village for more ice for the cooler and didn't stop again until we were at the Grand Tetons.  We stopped at Jenny Lake for breakfast - muffins we had purchased last night at Fishing Bridge and drove on until we got to Jackson Hole.  On the way in, we passed a number of ski areas and wondered which one Nick had worked at during his gap year before college.  We parked and walked around the square, stopping to take pics under the antler arch.  We walked down to the post office and mailed off some postcards and then came back to town to find lunch.  We found a little cafe off the tourist route and all had a lovely lunch.  We drove out of town for a few miles to get to Mad River Rafting.  We rented booties for the girls and boarded an old school bus where we had a safety talk.  We had to ride on the bus for about a half hour to get to the place on the Snake River to launch the rafts.  We put on waterproof jackets and life vests.  We were paired with a family with three teen boys.  That whole family and Dave were the oarsmen, I sat in the back/middle and the girls knelt up in front (the safest, but wettest perch according to our guide, Christian).  We had a few minutes to practice paddling and then we were off to the rapids. The water was up and the trip was mostly a class 3 with some class 4 rapids.  The girls had a blast!  They were soaked and happy - lots of giggles coming from the front of the raft.  At one point, we came upon a calm area and the girls jumped off the side of the raft to swim.  They didn't stay in long as the water was a brisk 49 degrees!  We saw a very large bald-headed eagle's nest up on the cliff and an osprey sitting at the top of a dead tree.  We finally came to the largest rapids, Lunch Counter - Ella thought it might be named that as it is where you are served your fate!  We were all soaked by the time we got through that set!  Eventually we came to the place where we took the rafts out - about 8 miles from where we started.  We gave back our jacket, vests, and paddles and boarded the bus for our trip back to Mad River Rafting home base.  We all changed into dry clothes and headed back to town to find our motel, Ranch Inn.  After settling in, we walked into town again and looked for a place for dinner.  We ended up at Liberty Burgers.  Back at the motel, we played a game of cards and read a chapter of Caddie.  By that time, everyone was ready for bed as the water and sun had pretty much tired everyone out.