What a fascinating and fun vacation. I LOVE the Edmond Fitzgerald and the whole story. Joan Biaz sings about it and I have always been intrigued. I LOVE that you lived in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. I didn't know that and would love to learn more about it.....like how old were you and how long did you live there? Waking up to see Moose everyday sounds perfect....I get excited just seeing Deer.
It's great to grow up and remend relationships with great friends. That happened to me in my youth with my oldest friend from high school. I was mad about having to spend too much money on her for her wedding. I was her maid of honor. I was very young at the time. How foolish to let that come between good friends. We are fine today....have been for the past 20 years. We were young 20's when we had our falling out and fortunately it didn't last that long.....just a few years. I'm happy for you that you'll get that friendship back.
Sorry, this is long!!!!!
Deb, the only song I know about the Edmund Fitzgerald is the one Gordon Lightfoot sings. I heard it often as a kid. I should play it for Tyler. Well, I believe I read somewhere that they play the song as you're walking through the shipwreck museum. Whenever I take Tyler to the Michigan History Museum here in our city, I let him pick out a new book from the gift shop. When he was 6, he chose one about that story, not having any idea what it was, just that there was a boat on the book's cover, LOL! Ever since reading it, he's wanted to visit these places up north, and I kept telling him "some day". I think he stopped believing that we'd ever go, so.......off we go!
My Wyoming story: I was 21 years old, and saw a flyer hanging up at college for a summer resort wanting employees. Signal Mountain Lodge in Moran, WY, right in Grand Teton National Park. I worked as a hostess in their main dining room, which has floor to ceiling windows overlooking Jackson Lake. The Tetons are RIGHT BEHIND the lake on which the lodge sits, check out the pictures here:
http://foreverlodging.com/lodging.cfm?PropertyKey=69
Anyway, they had a dorm building right on site for us employees, it was just a short walk through the forest to get to work, and that's where I saw moose quite often, just outside our dorm. We were located about 20 minutes south of Yellowstone's south gate, so I often spent my days off exploring Yellowstone with a group of co-workers. We were about 45 minutes from the town of Jackson, WY, so we went there quite often as well.
I was there from March until October and had planned to move in the winter with my other co-workers to a ski resort to work, and then back to Signal the following March. Just about everybody out there came out for a summer as I did, but never left. That was my plan as well because I fell in love with the area just like they all did. It's unbelievable and truly sucks you in.
BUT, I was horsing around one night with friends, fell backwards onto the corner of a picnic table, and broke a rib just before I was about to go for my winter job interview in October. Of course they couldn't hire me all broken up, understandably, and I was told I could I'd have a job after I healed. But in the meantime, I had no way to support myself, so I had to go back home to MI to heal and went back to my job at Subway.
By the time I'd recovered, I was back in college and couldn't afford to fly back out there, and life moved on.
Ever since then, I KNOW I will live out there permanently. In fact, I'd planned on moving there after law school, but then of course Tyler came along. I even took pictures of my favorite mountain and wildflowers with me during labor as my calming visions.
It's still my dream to live there, I just now have to delay it until he's grown. I also plan on getting him out there for a week visit because he loves mountains and fishing just as much as I do, so I think he'd love it. I want to show him my favorite hikes, if I can find them. I wanted to take him this summer, but we did the LA repo and AK cruise instead. I will try next summer but can't if we do the December Fantasy cruise, so maybe the following summer.
I'm glad you recovered your relationship with your best friend, Deb! You're right, it's so silly what we let get between friendships when we're that age. Seemed important at the time, but as we get older we realize how ridiculous it was.
Maybe I should pay the neighbor girl an extra $20 to tackle that in addition to the $15 for mowing? Plus the $20 for taking care of our pets. Ugggh. I suppose it would be worth it so I don't have to worry about it. I slept through church this morning for the first time in months. I just couldn't move. And my eyes were swollen with a headache. Not migraine, it was taken care of with Excedrin and going back to sleep, fortunately. I've only been getting migraines about once a month now, or when major storm fronts are on their way through. And that's after weaning myself off my preventative meds. I discovered on accident that caffeine is the culprit. When I gave up pop for Lent, my migraines completely STOPPED. If only a doctor would have suggested that to me years ago, I would have been saved years of misery and drugs. 
They always asked how much pop I drink, and I've always told them, but nobody suggested cutting back. Anyway, after Lent, since I noticed the disappearance of migraines, I never went back to the amount of pop I used to drink, but do allow myself one a day as a treat. If I forget and have more than 2, I get a migraine. So simple. 
I've never been one for heels and figured I'd be on my feet so long that I'd want comfy shoes, and since the dress went to the floor, nobody would see my feet. I glued lace on them just in case they peeked out though. 
