Tuesday: Arrival day!

While most of the kids were arriving by plane, we were driving down from Yellowstone. The large fire burning in the Tetons was making things a bit smokey for pictures but it wasn't anything you could smell. On the drive down we passed by several herds of Bison just grazing by the road with a gorgeous backdrop of fall color.

As we neared the Tetons we were greeted by beautiful, but slightly smokey views, of the Tetons across the lake. The smoke combined with the incredible and almost unbelievable beauty of the vistas nearly made it appear to be computer rendered.

While I think we were about a week late for what was considered peak color season, there was still no shortage of amazing groves of perfectly golden trees.

After an amazing 90-minute drive from Yellowstone, we arrived at the Tetons Science Center. We planned our trip to arrive about an hour before the rest of the students so we would have time to clean up. We had been tent camping in Yellowstone for 3 nights with no shower so we were both overdue for a shower.

The timing was perfect and after a shower and unpacking, the rest of the crew arrived from the airport. In a matter of minutes, they dropped off their bags and headed to the playground to start the games of "Grounders" on the playground. I'd never seen grounders before but it is basically tag on a jungle gym where the IT person can only go on the jungle gym if their eyes are closed. Yes, I too was expecting the game to result in multiple fatalities but somehow they all managed to survive!

After a bit of settling in a few students did a bit of karaoke in the open space to embarrass themselves and then we were off to orientation!

After a long day of travel, the kids (and adults!) had no problem obeying the 10PM bedtime rule. The rooms were great. Kids were either 3 or 4 to a room and adults were 2 or 3 to a room. The rooms had private bathrooms, 2 bunk beds, and usually a single bed as well. My only complaint was a lack of storage space to unpack which meant we all lived out of our suitcases for the whole trip.

Overall, a great first day!