Daycation

Hello everyone!
As you know, Chad got Saturday off so we could go to Provo for Will & Sawyer's birthdays. However, after deciding that we didn't want to drive down, and then back up in less than 24 hours, we postponed our trip to later this summer and looked for something to do here instead.

We decided to go to Island Park and check out Johnny Sack's cabin, Big Springs, and Sawtelle. First, however, we remembered the WalMart ad that advertised $30 glasses. Since I haven't had new glasses in I don't know how long, we thought it might be a good chance to go get some cheap glasses. The closest WalMart with a Vision Center is in Idaho Falls, the opposite direction from Island Park. However, by the time we were headed out, I found out that my eye doctor was closed and I couldn't get my prescription anyway. I called WalMart to make sure they couldn't help me without my prescription and they said they couldn't. And then the guy so nicely tells me
"Well, that's for kid's 18 and under anyway."
"Oh, well it doesn't say that in the ad."
"Yeah...."
"Okay, bye."
Stupid WalMart. I sure am glad we didn't waste an hour driving to Idaho Falls to be told that their ad falsely advertised $30 glasses.

So we headed to Island Park instead. We made a stop at the Mack's Inn Dinner Theater so Chad could say hi to the people he used to work with up there. We ran into the manager who gave us free tickets for that night's show ($30 value).
After that, we drove up the road to Big Springs - you might think you would see water springing out of the ground, but you would be wrong. The water does, in fact, flow straight out of the mountainside, but it's overgrown with plants, so you can't actually see it. We stopped on the bridge to look at the fish and dip our feet in the water.








We walked up the trail to Johnny Sack's cabin. He was a 4'11" German immigrant who built his entire house by hand, and lived there for 25 years. He died in the 50's and the neighbors in the area saved his cabin from being destroyed, and in the 70's (I think) it was made into a national something-or-other. It was really interesting!



(Some cool steps along the side of the house up to the outhouse)



Dead mouse we saw on the steps.


View from across the river.


But they said the only place where he really built around his height was in his workshop in the basement, which of course, was closed to visitors. It would have been a fun place to visit. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't live there year round. They had pictures in a binder of the snow covering the front steps - probably 4 or 5 feet of snow.



After the cabin, we ate Subway, then drove over to Sawtelle, the big mountain in the area. We drove the dirt rode up to the top and took some pictures.

Sawtelle from the bottom.


Sawtelle from the top.


Weirdo soccer ball thing on the top of Sawtelle. Chad says it's a satellite that's built like that so it doesn't catch the show.








This one's for you mom. I could hear you in my head - Megan! Get away from there!



After Sawtelle, we stopped at the little restaurant where Chad, Christian, and John used to live/work. We bought a "kiddie" sized ice cream, and it was pretty good. But when we went to pay for it, the socially odd lady at the cash register said -
"Can I see how much they're putting in that? That's what I thought. That's way too much. We ran out of kiddie size cups, so they're putting way too much ice cream in those cups." Ohhkay. That's not awkward and tactless. Maybe we should give you some of it back? We went down to the river and put our feet in the water, and revisited the little place where we ate our fruit loops for breakfast the second day we were married.

Let's see, after that, Chad took us to the Island Park Reservoir, where we walked on the boat launch and hung our feet off the dock before it was time to get back to Mack's Inn for the show.










Our dog friend. He had a collar but no tag and he was running around in the parking lot/by the boat launch the whole time we were there. We hope he wasn't lost.



We saw [the] Less Miserables, a parody of Les Mis. The actors were good, but the show itself (written and produced in Utah) was not the best thing we'd ever seen. But it was free. We headed back to Rexburg after that, stopped at WalMart for I don't remember what, and then came home.

While we were sad to miss the birthday party, it was a fun day, and I think now we have officially done everything there is to do in Island Park.