Pocatello Part 1 - Grandma and Bear World

On Jim's 41st birthday (Wednesday, August 28), we left for Pocatello via Salt Lake City for a family vacation centered around the Pocatello marathon on Saturday.  I was trying to pack that morning, and it was hard to be productive with a Dolly.  She needs to be busy and loves "helping," so I finally started giving her the clothes I was pulling out to pack for her and asked her to take them into Mommy and Daddy's room.  She'd run down the hall and then return, and I'd give her something else.  When she'd transported all of her stuff, we went into Jim and my room, and I found that she'd put everything under our bed almost in piles.  I told her to smile next to her work, which to her means put your hands on your cheeks:

Dolly did really well on the plane, although I felt like two hours was about the max we could handle.  (Our trip to D.C. in November concerns me.)  We stopped at Burger King for food and then headed to our hotel near the Salt Lake airport, the Baymont Inn and Suites.  It was kind of old and junky and dark and definitely over-priced.  There was no soap in our room, and it took the front-desk guy a really long time to find some.  It also took him an extremely long time to bring in Dolly's pack n' play, which was broken.  We struggled forever to put it up, but one of the sides wouldn't lock.  We finally crammed it in the bathroom and hoped it wouldn't collapse.  We didn't get her down until 10:00, but she went right to sleep. 

Dolly didn't wake up until 8:30 Thursday morning, so we hit the continental breakfast at the hotel right before it closed and then went to Grandma's place at the Seville.  She has shrunk so much in these last several years, and her hearing seems to be going.  She didn't seem nearly as talkative as she's always been, but she's still funny.  It was fun for her to see Ever.  We hung out and then went down to the dining room for lunch.  Toward the end of the meal, I let Dolly down from her high chair.  She was sticking close to our table, but at one point this old lady at the next table yelled at me to get her out of the way because the server was going to trip over her.  I looked back, and Dolly was right behind my chair, while the server was about 30 feet away.  Old people are crazy. 

To and from lunch, Normie gave Dolly a ride on her walker.  I told Dolly to smile, and she clapped her hands to her face and almost fell, frightening Normie:

Undeterred, I kept asking her to smile:

It was really nice to visit Normie, and I'm looking forward to seeing her again at the end of November when we go for Cornyee's Utah reception.

After saying goodbye to Normie, we drove to Pocatello.  It was a lot prettier than I remembered.  We saw a sign for Café Rio and went straight there, where we ran into an old friend from L.A., John Meurer.  He and his (relatively new) wife and a couple of nephews just happened to stop there for grub on their way to Yellowstone, where they were going backpacking.  It was fun to see John and meet his wife. 

Dolly absolutely refused to look at the camera.  That's John on the right.

 

We stayed at the Clarion Inn in Pocatello, which was the host hotel for the marathoners. 

Jim went for a run at the fitness center while Dolly and I got cleaned up.  The Clarion was a vast improvement over the Baymont.  The vanity, however, was separate from the bathroom, which meant that the bathroom was too small for Dolly's crib.  We smushed the crib mattress into the bathtub, and she slept like this:

Picture taken Saturday morning at 7:15 a.m., after Dolly had been asleep for
12 hours.  She was practically unwakeable. 

Friday morning we cruised Old Town Pocatello looking (unsuccessfully) for a restaurant and eventually ended up at Jumbo's Café (not in Old Town).  We had delicious french toast, among other things.  In the car this whole trip, Dolly wanted all her books with her in her car seat.  She perused them or just sat with them between her legs.

Dolly and I outside Jumbo's Café:

 

When we left the restaurant, the longest train in the world went by on the nearby train tracks.  We watched it forever.  Couldn't have left anyway, since it was blocking traffic.

Then we headed to Bear World, which is just south of Rexburg.  Dolly fell asleep on the drive.  I looked back and saw she had stuck a sticker on the middle of her forehead and still had all her books in her chair. 

Bear World has a fenced-off area you drive through to see wildlife.  The bears get their own section.  Dolly rode with me in the front so she could see the animals:

We saw deer:

(It rained a bit as we drove through, and we weren't supposed to roll down our windows.  We broke the rule for the clear pictures.)

Elk:

Rare white elk sitting under the tree:

Bison:

There were tons of bears, and some of them came right up to the car.  I took lots of pictures:

 

 

We passed a moose or something on our way out:

 

Jim let Dolly drive from the wildlife area to the parking lot.  She loved it and got upset when he tried to help steer:

 

Bear World also features a petting zoo and a handful of rides.  Before the petting zoo, there was a room filled with dead things or coats thereof.  Jim pet the grizzly fur: 

 

I decided I don't want any run-ins with wolves.  This one was a big fella:

In the petting zoo, we saw ducks:

We all (even yours truly) took turns touching this fat pig:

There were deer:

Again, Dolly was brave:

We saw this rooster lying against the fence and thought for sure he was dead until we saw his eye move:

There were a couple of cute midget goats:

We took a family photo in the cut-out sign:

There were lots of fish and ducks in a little river (pond?) that Dolly tried to climb through the railing to get in:

 

Jim discovered that while he doesn't quite measure up to a grizzly, he is a full six feet tall:

There were a couple of bears in small enclosures by the petting zoo/amusement park area:

I don't understand how the bears survive such hot weather with all that fur.

Dolly was able to ride all of the little rides as long as she was accompanied by a big person.  First up were the giant spinning bears, which Dolly thoroughly enjoyed but which made Jim feel sick:

Then there was a little train:

Dolly really wanted to ride the little roller coaster.  She watched and pointed from the sidelines:

We were worried it would freak her out, but she absolutely loved it and kept asking for more:

Last were these cars that went up and down as they spun around:

We finally pulled Dolly away from the place where all her dreams come true and drove back to Idaho Falls.  Idaho has fun water tanks:

We picked up some food at a grocery store and picnicked by the river across from the temple.  Dolly went to town on the fruit:

Below is my all-time favorite picture of Jim.  How weird is his incredibly-in-need-of-a-cut hair?

Nice spot for a picnic:

Then we headed back to the hotel in Pocatello.  To be continued . . .