Making Plans

** Friday Update- Well the second trip to the vet was a nightmare, I won't go into details. But we were not at all sure that after everything the PetsHotel was going to accept her. I was starting to think we would have to cancel the whole trip, but we managed to get her checked in with no trouble tonight. (That place is so cool - I'm a little jealous of her! ) So we are planning to head out early in the morning. The weather looks questionable for a balloon launch, but overall good for the weekend. So we will hope for the best! Look for our trip report Monday night or Tuesday!**

It's Wednesday! Only two days until we leave for our Royal Gorge trip - we realized last week that Saturday is also the Balloon Classic, so we are going to go see the Balloon launch on Saturday morning before heading to Canyon City. The Petshotel called today because they had called Nala's (old) vet and found that her Bordatella and Distemper(sp?) shots were out of date, we had gotten a new Bordatella yesterday at the other Petsmart, but they didn't mention her needing the Bordatella when I made the reservation. So I was a little annoyed, but fortunately her new vet can see her again tonight and get it taken care of. 

So hopefully the trip will be a go, the weather looks decent enough. Lots to do before Saturday morning, though. The tent and sleeping bags have to be packed, car cleaned out, maps printed, and so forth. 

Our general itinerary is as follows (consider this our Pre-trip report):

Saturday - 

7am - Balloon Launch @ Memorial Park

10am - Royal Gorge Bridge Park

4pm - Check in at KOA Campground

6pm - Dinner @ Old Mission or Viva Vallarta

Sunday - 

7am - Breakfast @ Waffle Wagon

9am - Check in at Royal Gorge Route

9:30am - Train departs

12pm - Lunch @ Mr. Ed's

1pm - Dinosaur Depot

4pm - Explore Downtown Canyon City

6pm - Dinner @ Di Rito's

Monday - 

8am - Breakfast @ Main St Cafe

9am - Arkansas Riverwalk

12pm - Lunch @ 16th St Cafe or Pizza Madness

1pm - Head home

In other news... still working on plans for next summer's vacation, most reservations are made except the night at the Granite Park Chalet which can't be booked until the end of October. It makes me a little nervous because the rest of our schedule depends on us being able to get a certain night at the Chalet, so I will have to watch carefully and make sure to call the day the reservations are released! One exciting addition to the trip - since we are going to drive anyway (after seeing the current airfares) we have decided to make a side trip by Yellowstone and Grand Teton! It only adds 2 hours to our driving time, that was just too good an opportunity to pass up. At first I had wanted to stay at the Snow Lodge (where we stayed two years ago) but then we decided that we would rather spend more of our time in Grand Teton, since we wished two years ago that we had been able to spend more than one day there. Hopefully we will come through the Old Faithful area in Yellowstone around Dinner time and can see it erupt and maybe even have dinner in our old hotel ;) That would be quite nostalgic even if we aren't staying there this time. 

Our basic plans is as follows:

Thur July 9 - Drive to Great Falls, MT (12 hours!) and stay at Days Inn

Friday July 10 - Drive to Glacier National Park (3 hours) and check in at Swiftcurrent Cabins

Saturday July 11-Monday July 13 - Explore Glacier National Park

Tuesday July 14 - Check out of cabin, hike to Granite Park Chalet (7 miles)

Wednesday July 15 - Hike back from Chalet, drive to Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta, Canada - 60 miles), check in at Prince of Wales Hotel

Thursday July 16 - Explore Waterton Lakes National Park

Friday July 17 - Check out of Prince of Wales, drive to Yellowstone National Park for dinner (8 hours), continue to Grand Teton National Park (1.5 hours) and check in at Signal Mountain Lodge

Saturday July 18 - Explore Grand Teton National Park

Sunday July 19 - Check out of Signal Mountain, drive home (9 hours)

The trip will involve a bit more hotel-hopping than we are used to, so we are thinking of taking the red car since it has a real trunk and would make it easier to leave some of our bags in there that we don't need on particular nights. It has a few more miles than the blue car, but not enough to really make a difference. The blue car gets taken on all the road trips, probably time to give the red car a turn anyway :)

So other than traveling plans, lets see... signed Lily up for ice skating lessons today, they start in a few weeks. On Sunday afternoon Lily spent a good deal of time making a paper fairy costume - wings, a wand, and a crown. I couldn't believe what a good job she did, yesterday she finished taping everything and actually wore it around for a while. It was cute, don't know why I didn't take a picture then but she wore them again today so I got some (see below)! She is getting to be so clever and creative... oh and she is now saving up her allowance for a Chameleon. She saw one in Petsmart and is determined to have one as a pet. So I told her if she actually manages to save the $120 for it she can get one. I'll even throw in the cage and food. But that will take her a while, so we will see. 

A bit of bad news, we found out that her teacher (the one who was a real certified kindergarten teacher) is leaving :( So much for me feeling a little better about her being there. I have no idea who they will be able to get to replace her, not a real teacher almost certainly. It's only for a year, that's what I keep telling myself. I can't shake the feeling in my gut though, that we made the wrong choice. I suspect it will haunt me for the rest of the year. Oh well, not much that can be done about it now. I don't want to move her again, and I don't even know where I could move her to if I did. 

Well I suppose that with all I have to do I should probably be doing something more productive than typing a blog message... but it has helped me get my thoughts together anyway. I will post a trip report from Canyon City when we get back next week!