My Life in a Jar #2

Tell about a favorite vacation from your childhood.
I can only remember one vacation we took as a family. Even then Wally wasn't there because he was working. I was about 8 yrs. old when we went to Yellowstone for about a week. Dad and mom rented a cabin for sleeping and our meals were cooked on a camp stove. I remember being really excited before we left. I was in awe as we watched Old Faithful blow, and couldn't understand how it would it would do it every hour. I was amazed at the hot pots and remember just standing and looking at them. They were so pretty but so dangerous. Dad and Mom were both worried about Craig. He was at times pretty daring and they were afraid he'd end up falling in one. I remember seeing the displays of things they had pulled out of the pools and how they didn't resemble the original object.
At that time the bears were very common around the area. We'd be driving from one place to another and pull over because there would be a mother bear with her cubs. They were so cute and fun to watch. Again I had a hard time understanding how something so cute could be so dangerous. At one stop we had got out of the car and was looking around when we noticed Karen in the car. One of the back windows were down and a bear had climbed half way in. Karen was crunched as close to the other door as possible. It wasn't uncommon for the bears to reach in the cars to get food. After a bit the bear lost interest and left. It gave us all a fright.
We were able to see elk, deer and buffalo roaming free. The buffalo were huge and interesting to watch. I remember learning about how the Indians would hunt for buffalo with a bow and arrow and wondering how it would be possible for them to kill one that way.
I think my favorite part of Yellowstone is Mammoth. That's where the mud pots are. They were beautiful to watch as the mud bubbled and boiled. They were on a hill side, where it seemed one was on top of another one. This was one of the few times growing up that I saw my Dad relax a little.
Another time when I was about 12 we went to Lagoon. It's an amusement park in Salt Lake. I remember having a great time riding the rides and just enjoying the park. Dad wouldn't allow any of us kids to ride on the roller coster. Of course that's the one we wanted to, since it was off bounds. Dad would only tell us it was to dangerous. It was many years later that we found out he had seen someone jump or fallen from it and was killed. He wasn't being mean (which we thought at the time) he was afraid for our safety.
When Craig was stationed at Ft. Lewis here in WA. Dad, Mom, Karen and I went to San Francisco then drove up to Ft. Lewis to see Craig. Dad hated CA. but wanted to show us Vallejo where Wally was born and to see the area again. We went to Santa Rosa and saw the wineries. Then on up to WA. We stopped in Astoria, OR for lunch and saw this high bridge. We didn't go over it but remember commenting on how high it was. Then up to Tacoma to see Craig. It was nice to see him and have him join us for a couple days. Then we headed home. It was a long drive and most of the time was spent in the car, since we didn't have anyone to visit along the way.
Looking back on my childhood we didn't go on a lot of long vacations and rearly went out of Cache Valley. Our time with the family was spent mostly at a park for dinner or occasionally for breakfast. These were usually on a Sunday afternoon. After Wally and Mary Ellen were married whenever they would be around that's where we would head. Tony Grove in Logan Canyon was a family favorite.