Summer Vacation 2018

Our summer travels this year were much closer to home than usual. This year, the Hunters went road-tripping.

As some of you know, I grew up in Michigan, which means I’m much more familiar with the East Coast. And Mr. Hunter is a native Swede, so most U.S. destinations are new adventures for him, too.

We planned to start our journey north and head for some of Oregon’s glories (Crater Lake!!), but the California wildfires changed our course. Instead, we started through Nevada--hours of it--and then turned north toward Idaho. Okay, I admit that my knowledge of Idaho was lacking--potatoes, Sun Valley, and, um...mountains? But, wow! Check out this volcanic landscape.

Our final destination was a beautiful lodge-like house in West Yellowstone, which served as our home base for two weeks in Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons.

Of course, as is usually the case in my family, as soon as my sister told everyone she and her husband were flying in from Australia to join us, the crowd to quickly grew to eleven. We piled into the enormous house, ate good food, took lots of walks, and saw plenty of wildlife. It was amazing.

Best/Most List

Most anticipated/discussed feature in a hotel: The breakfast buffet
Best road name: Chicken Dinner Road (spotted in a suburb outside Boise, ID)
Best road trip find: The Ashton, ID Thrift Store (ack--I think that’s the name of it!) had a fantastic used romance book section. The owner and I talked romance until my family tugged me out of there.
Best road food: The Darth Tater pizza at Main Street Fountain and Pizzeria, also in Aston, ID. Ready for this? It’s pizza topped with white sauce, bacon, red onions, scallions, and cheddar. Seriously.
Most fun new word: Butte. This new word, intentionally mispronounced, got solid laughs for two weeks. Robert’s Butte, Little Butte, Red Butte… the list goes on.
Best new family saying: “Hot spring, hot springs!” Started by Mr. Hunter in a ironically chipper voice as we drove through Yellowstone. After a few days, the kids were using it whenever we pointed out a landmark of any sorts.
Best family game: Pinocle. We had three generations around the table and played every possible version, ranging from three to six players (more = two separate games). The next generation has officially been inducted into this family tradition.
Most surprising license place sighting: Hawaii. The three states we never spotted? Delaware, Connecticut, and South Carolina.