Day 2: Sure, we'll take the Honeymoon Suite!

July 12, 2012 Well, despite everything about the Idaho Falls Hotel, it had a fantastic breakfast that we all could enjoy and we got on the road about 8 this morning. Well, 8 was our plan, and 8:45 was not too far off, right? So, we headed on our way through Idaho and finally bought the kids a map so they could stop asking if we were halfway through Idaho yet. They had fun with that and Alison loved seeing the people on the Indian Reservation. She thinks she might be an anthropologist now. We stopped in Chateau, MT for ice cream (a family tradition) and asked for one scoop…I’ll have to wait for data on my phone to upload the picture but for some reason for them, the one scoop ice cream equals about 4. I got bubble gum and it was fantastic. Back on our way, we wound through the backroads of Montana toward the boarder, stopping for mom to ask a man how much he was selling his chainsaw bears for and then trying to make the Canadian officials at border see that we weren’t being aggressive by opening our door, there was just no way we were unrolling the window down to talk to them. Luckily, they didn’t shoot. Out of the two or three hotels in Cardston, we had the nicest and we checked in. My aunt who was driving down to visit us got the rooms and one for them adjoining so we could visit. Unfortunantly they had no elevator and the adjoining rooms were down in the basement and mom couldn’t go down there so we just got our one room on the main floor. After driving around Cardston looking for some family, we came back and saw our aunts had checked in, only they were on the third floor and had checked in three hours earlier than us. Who knows why they tried to send us to the basement, but we still would have had to have the main floor, so all worked out well. We visited, the kids went swimming and then we all settled down to sleep after trying to figure out the sleeping situation with five people. Tired from a day of diriving we all settled in about 11pm. My mom was sound asleep when three of us all heard it happen. At first, it was more like someone was snapping, or maybe poping their lips, and then suddenly we knew, something was leaking. My sister and I jumped out of bed to discover, the AC (which wasn’t working all that well anyway) was leaking onto the floor. We pulled out some towels and I went to talk to the desk person. As I made my way down there, there were about 3 or 4 people milling around, a few of them left leaving one person standing around but no one behind the counter. I stood back to wait and then realized the one person left was the front desk person when she said, coving the mouth of the phone she was on. “I’m calling the police to talk to them right now, you’re hear about the fighting?” Obviously I wasn’t, but there was some sort of domestic despite going on and the police showed up in the lobby shortly thereafter. I told the poor desk person of our predicament and she they only had a couple rooms left but we could trade if we wanted. I told her that there were five of us and that my mom had to stay on the same floor. There was one room open on the same floor with a king sized bed and then one room upstairs that three of us could go to. Our we could just put towels down. I went back to report, my mom, who was sleeping just wanted to know why it was suddenly so hot in the room and didn’t want to move. But then she asked about three or four times if we could turn the AC back on. We kept telling her ‘no’ and asked her what she wanted to do, but then we were met with silence as she had fallen back asleep. After the final time there was silence, suddenly she broke out into giggles. My 73 year old mom could not stop giggling at our predicament and the craziness of our trip. We decided we’d better move. Mom and my sister went to the room just across from ours and I took my nieces to go upstairs. We got up to the room she had told us, opened the doors and the lights were all on and the beds all turned down. Needless to say, we backed out and went back to report to the desk lady that someone was apparently in that room. She looked over what was available and then said, handing us the key, “Well, you guys get the Honeymoon suite for the night. Don’t have too much fun!” So, my nieces and I headed up to the suite, which wasn’t too much different only with a jetted tub in the middle of the room, a kind sized bed and a pull out couch. A pull out couch in the honeymoon suite? I didn’t quite get that, but whatever; Alison loved having her own bed. So that’s how I spent my first night in a honeymoon suite. Anyway, Friday the 13th, BRING IT ON!

Day 1:

July 11, 2012 Day One of our great Canadian Adventure began with great trepidation. Over the last few days, we’d spent nearly 2000 on getting mom’s van ready to go, the one thing we didn’t fix: the drivers window. That’s only a problem if someone rolls it down. Unfortunately, the Big O tire guy rolled it down the day before the trip began and we ended up with a window 3/4ths of the way down as we began. Mom had to go the bathroom about Sandy, so we stopped hoping we could fix the window which will usually inch it ways up but hadn’t moved. No luck. So we went on our way, all of us eventually going half near mad with the noise of the 75 mph wind rushing through the van. By the time we got to Tremonton for another bathroom stop for mom, I had my credit card out ready to rent a car and Karen was ready to go back home. Finally, we decided that it would be the same amount of time just to keep going to Idaho Falls and we should just press forward. And so, with thoughts of the pioneers, we pressed forward with Come, Come Ye Saints playing on my ipod. At least the covered wagons couldn’t go that fast so they didn’t have to deal with the noise… ;) Luckily, about 30 miles from Idaho Falls, was finally rolled all the way up and we all cheered, our hearing restored, the hot air no longer blowing through the car Our hotel in Idaho Falls ended up being right next to a trailer park, (reassuring, I know) and we told them about our reservation and went to pay when we were told our card was declined. So four credit cards later, we convinced him it was a problem with their system and he eventually agreed that it was probably their system and not our cards. Annoying. I grew up going on weekends with my parents and a niece a nephew or two to St. George, California, Canada or all kinds of adventures like that. My two little nieces, 12 and 13, are the worst travelers ever. I say that as only a semi-joke because they have no idea how to use hotel keys or hotel showers. Novices. Stay tuned for more adventures...