I know that it is hard to believe that two old people, particularly me, could hike up a mountain which is 11,000 feet high. Lynn Hill, who hikes it every year, asked Sid to go with him. Sid asked me, thinking that I would say no. However I surprised everyone and decided to go with them. Sid and I were unprepared for how grueling of a hike that it would be. Lynn wanted to hike the face since it would save 4 extra miles. But as we started up the hill, there was a sign that said that it was very difficult. He said that it was okay, because it would save us a lot of time. As we started to go up the steep and rocky terrain, I thought that it would be a long four miles if it was all like this. Fortunately only one mile was straight up. Then we hiked in a fairly easy incline through some meadows. Then we hiked on a bed of rocks which were not hard to hike, but tedious. At this point, we could see that Sid was coming up from behind. I knew that Sid would perservere, but at his own speed. The last hill was the steepest and when I saw all the high school kids whining, I knew that it wasn't going to be easy. The altitude was killing your lungs and you could only go a few yards without stopping for air. I told Lynn that I thought that it was far enough when I was about a few feet from the top. He just laughed and said that it would be worth it. When we finally got to the top in about 4 hours, Sid just laid down flat for a rest. It is like a big table at the top and the view was breathtaking of the Tetons. We could see the brave hikers on the Grand. I waited for Harrison Ford to come and save me with his helicopter, because the thought of going downhill was terrifying me. I also thought of life flight. After eating our lunch, we headed down. I know that Lynn Hill was sick of me hanging on his backpack, but he was my security blanket. I wish that we had taken the easier way down and not the face of the mountain, but we finally made it down to the pickup in about 4 hours. I kept thinking to myself...where is that Diet Coke? We had plenty of water, but not pop! The thought of that Diet Coke kept me going! After talking to veteran hikers, they couldn't believe that we hiked on the face. Neither could we! Sid wanted to go back the next week! I said perhaps in a year when my memory became dimmer.
Francie Mackert's husband is on the right. His name is Rob and he plays the sax in Disneyland. They were performing in New Orleans.
Patsy and I met Francie at Disneyland. Thanks to her, we got into the park for free and also got 35% off of the food and gifts that we purchased. Can you believe that Patsy has never been to Disneyland? Neither could anyone else. We had a great time and took as much of the park in as we could. We loved how everything was decorated for Halloween...even Space Mountain. It was really crowded, but we managed to ride on most of the large attraction rides. Our favorite was Space Mountain even though we had to stand in line for 90 minutes. I was looking for Braxton so that we could go to the front of the line.
While Idaho was experiencing record low temperatures, we were in beautiful California with 70 degree weather. Patsy and Cam are congratulating Lily on a great soccer game. I loved watching her play. She is a good dribbler and made a few goals.
Then we went to watch Cam play flag football. He is really quick and and agressive. He was fun to watch. Jacob was also playing, but Dave took him to his game. He and Cam played at the same time.
