July 12th
Old Faithful Inn
We started the day by meeting the Lehenbauers down in the lobby. They are on a three week tour of the area and beyond! We watched Old Faithful go off & then took off for some major hiking!

First we went to Biscuit Bay & Mystic Falls. The hike was somewhat elevated; but it was a pretty easy walk. Once up at the falls, we all went down in the water & climbed rocks. We have some great pics from that! We found a great picnic spot right along the Nez River. Our next hike was to Fairy Falls. It was long, dusty, & hot! We kept walking feeling like there was no water anywhere near us. We were getting a little concerned after walking for nearly an hour without passing a soul! When we did finally see some other hikers, they were wearing bear bells. What did they know that we didn’t know!? It was 2.6 mi each way. We had to even start rationing waters because we were getting near the end of our supply! Finally, we made it & the view was worth it! It was a very high, sparse falls that came down into a nice pool area. The kids immediately ran into the FREEZING cold water to cool off. It was refreshing just to put our feet in & have the spray hit us to cool the adults off! We stayed for about an hour; not wanting to head back on the long, hot trail. The kids were troopers – we all made it back in time to shower for dinner. We all needed showers because we were covered in dust!

We ate at the Inn on the 2nd floor. After dinner, Terri & Natalie wrote a short play for us all to “act.” We each had parts (except for Jake & Kevin, who wanted to laugh & watch us all make fools of ourselves!). I must admit, we were quite silly and had a great time. The video better not show up on UTube! It’s a good thing that Keith’s part in the skit never made it to tape – however, we can all relive it in our memories!