52 List : Healing Trip

At the end of 2015 I had planned a trip to Yellowstone with my parents and D.  The main thing I wanted to do was to take dad fly fishing.  His favorite movie is A River Runs Through It.  We used to watch it at least once a day right after he was diagnosed.  It's something he has always wanted to do.  D had never been to Yellowstone and we had just been in 2014 and it was magical.  

I had to fly fishing trip booked, down payment and all.  The hotels were booked too.  It was one of those trips that I could picture, just like it had happened.  I was so excited for this trip.  Especially to make a video of it.  (To remember dad in motion.)

And then he passed away.

Let me tell you, there is nothing quite worse than cancelling a trip for a person you love most because they are no longer here.  Sure, we still could have gone, but it would have been too painful.  We talk about going, but it probably won't be until after we have kids now.  

Since we had been looking forward to a trip in July and Yellowstone was definitely out, we decided to go to the beach.  We have a family friend who owns a house right on the Gulf Shores in Alabama.  She has always offered for us to go so we finally took her up on her offer.  

Instead of heading to the mountains as a family of 4, we went to the beach as a family of 3.

 ^^ These people.  They are my world.

 ^^ He used to joke that I can't tan.  But that's mainly because I don't go outside often and we didn't a pool to go to prior to this year.  Look who tans in just minutes...ha!

 ^^ We were originally going to go on a hot air balloon ride, but it got cancelled because of a storm that came in earlier in the day.  So D and I decided to go parasailing.  I can't believe I did this.  Over water.  With sharks in it.

Gulf Shores 2016 from Megan Marti on Vimeo.

A little video of our trip.  Enjoy!

Trip: Branson

Two weekends ago, we went to Branson to visit some family friends.  These people are more like family to me than my real extended family is and I'm so thankful for that fact.  They are such great people.  Here are a few photos from our trip...

 ^^The view of the lake from their house.  This photo doesn't show how beautiful it really was.

^^Of course we had to get a sunglass photo.  I love how you can see everyone on the boat in the reflection. 

 ^^My dad and Virgil worked together and he kind of followed dad's footsteps in their careers.

Family Vacation: Part Five: Grand Teton

We saved Grand Teton as our (almost) half way home stopping point.  It was a great decision, because that meant we got to go through part of Yellowstone again.

I read this blog as they did pretty much the same vacation, but in a much longer time frame (and a few extra stops).  She recommended eating at the Taco Bus that is at the West Side of the park.  Silly me, I thought it was inside the park.  Since we were well inside the park, and the Taco Bus was just outside the west entrance, we missed it the first time going to Yellowstone earlier in the week.  Thankfully, we definitely didn't miss it this time around.  Yes, we ate inside the bus, and yes, the food was awesome.

We stopped and took a few photos of the river and some animals as we were leaving out the south entrance.

 ^^ The food was amazing! 

 ^^ Grand Teton

 ^^ Definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip!  This guy was SO close to the road and we saw him drooling, it was incredible!

 ^^ Had dinner at Jackson Hole.  We really want to go back here one day!

Oh vacation, thank you for being amazing!

Family Vacation: Part Four: Missoula, MT

After we spend a day and a few nights in Glacier, we headed to Missoula, MT.  On the way there, we stopped at a local state park and had a picnic by a lake.  It was very cold, so we wrapped up in jackets and towels.

When we arrived to Missoula, we scouted out places for dinner.

^^Cold Hard Cash was so awesome.  I think this was one of dad's favorite parts :) 

 ^^ Checking out some fishing stores, sadly they were all closed.

It was very cool to experience the town that Norman Maclean grew up in (the author of dad's favorite movie, A River Runs Through It).  I guess every Thursday night, the town has a festival with live music.  On this particular night, we watched Hard Cold Cash perform Johnny Cash music. They were awesome and dad loved it!

Family Vacation: Part Three: Glacier National Park

One of my absoulte favorite parts of the trip was going to Glacier National Park and staying at the Glacer Park Lodge.  It was absolutely beautiful there.

As we pulled into the lodge parking lot we were awestruck that we were actually staying here.  A building built out of trees back in the early 1900s, still with no air conditioning, elevator, or tv.  It was a little piece of heaven.

 ^^ Our first stop on the Going to the Sun Road

 ^^ Big Horn Sheep by Logan Pass.

 ^^ Saw goats outside of the park at Goat Lick (Yes, that is the name lol.)

(We didn't have internet/phone service for a lot of the trip.  I surprisingly, really enjoyed that.  It was a great reminder that I need to put down all devices and enjoy life.  However, I was very, very thankful we had service in the middle of Wyoming when we our car broke down.  And I was very, very thankful our car broke down on that Saturday, rather than the late Friday night drive, out in the middle of nowhere, with no service.)

Family Vacation: Part Two: Yellowstone

On Monday, we got up early and went to Yellowstone.  When I checked the weather in the morning, it said thunderstorms all day long.  But someone looked out for us and we only had cloudy skies until the late afternoon.

We drove on scenic highway 191 and watched the Gallitan River flow along next to our car.  (Which was pretty cool since that is one of the rivers they used to film A River Runs Through It.)

 ^^Oh hey Mr. Grizzly.

^^ Old Faithful

 ^^That water was FREEZING!!! I've never felt water that cold before.  Crazy cold.

 ^^ This big guy created quite a commotion right next to the main road through Yellowstone.  And all he wanted to do was sleep.

^^Just taking a stroll down the highway...no big deal!

 ^^Mammoth Springs

There was a big rain storm in the evening while we had dinner.  We thought it stopped for good, but when mom and I came out from a bathroom break it was raining again.  And then we watched this double rainbow form over Yellowstone.  

Rainbow are so significant to our family.  And the fact that we saw this beauty on our trip...breathtaking.  One of my absolute favorite parts of the trip by far.