Sistah Pat

I haven’t written since Monday evening because I caught a bug and felt pretty bad all day yesterday.  I started with a cough Monday evening and all day yesterday I was sneezing, runny nose, and coughing my lungs out.  DS caught it too but he seems to be about 12 hours behind me on it.   I feel a lot better this morning so I hope it was just a 48 hour thing.

We’re camped at Hebgen Lake which is about 15 miles west of the western entrance to Yellowstone.  The mountains surrounding the lake are all snowcapped and it went down to 43 degrees last night.  Yesterday’s drive was gorgeous and I wish I’d felt better but I got a few pictures.  The Grand Tetons always blow me away because of all the wildflowers in the meadows.  The pictures don’t do it justice because you can’t even see half the wildflowers in them but I could spend days just wandering in the meadows full of coreopsis, delphiniums, lupine, shasta daisies, and others.  It’s hard to believe that so many wildflowers could grow here.  In places, the sides of the hills are completely yellow because of the flowers.

We took it easy yesterday on the drive because it was so gorgeous and we only had to go 7 hours so we stretched it out and stopped several times.  I drove my car and DS and DH drove Manny.  We followed the Snake River most of the day.  We started the day camped beside it and followed it all the way to Yellowstone.  It was getting a little late by the time we arrived at Yellowstone so we didn’t spend a lot of time in the park but we went by Old Faithful, called home, and waved at everybody on their webcam.  We saw elk, antelope, and bison as we drove through.  I’d love for the boys to see a moose because they’re so huge.  Maybe we’ll find one today as we spend the day in the park.

Here’s a rough map of where we’ve been since leaving home.

Noon : Just had a mild shock when I weighed myself a few minutes ago.  I’m down to 172.5!  That means I’ve lost 3.5 pounds on vacation.  I’ve been eating a lot of healthy stuff and hiking when I can but the biggest difference is that I’m not eating things I don’t want.  I might crave a doughnut, take two bites of it and decide it’s not all that great and throw it out.  In the past, I probably would have eaten the entire thing and maybe another just because they were there.  We grilled hot dogs the other night and I ate about 2/3’s of one and didn’t want anymore so I threw it out.  DH said, “What’s wrong with your hotdog?”  I did a double take because I didn’t realize the implications of the act.  Again, in the past, I would have just finished the last little bit without thinking about it.  It’s good to waste food!  Mama, you were wrong!  Cleaning my plate is NOT going to help all the starving children in China.