Memorial Day in Salmon

This Memorial Day weekend, we finally got to see the 1000-flag display they set up in the city park every year. There were some posters up commemorating each branch of the armed forces, and I think it provided a good talking point with the kids. Owen even says he wants to be a soldier now. A nice visual reminder of the reason for the holiday, even in the yucky cold rain.

When the weather cleared on Saturday, we headed up north to Salmon, Idaho for a scenic getaway with some family friends. First lesson of rural Idaho: highways sometimes double as cow pasture...

Once we got close, we stopped at the Sacajawea Interpretive, Cultural, and Educational Center, since this was her hometown, to stretch our legs. Salmon is located in a very scenic valley surrounded by mountains on all sides.

There was a beautiful loop trail, which was perfect to run off some pent-up energy from the car trip. It was fairly flat, but went through fields, forest, and up to the riverbank for lots of variety in terrain.

Along with educational signs posted throughout the trail, they had several interactive things such as these huts and tipis.

And never underestimate the fun to be had from a branchy tree like this.

We checked into our house, unloaded, and explored the downtown area after that. The next day was our designated Goldbug Hot Springs hike, which was supposed to be about 2 miles up to some hot pools. 

What a gorgeous hike! The kids were all troopers, except Hadley requested to be carried about half the hike in, but we cut her some slack since she had just vomited less than 48 hours prior. (Thought it was food poisoning.)

Looking back at where we came from...

Then we made it! On either side of some raging waterfalls, were little natural pools. Some were quite hot; I could barely dip my feet in. But the kids seemed to love them and had a higher tolerance for the heat, which surprised me.

It was a little crowded for a while, but then most of the crowd headed back down and we got some time to ourselves before the afternoon shift showed up.

The boys enjoyed moving rocks around to try and divert the water flow.

It's really fun to share these memories with our friends! Sorry that Hadley's "food poisoning" was actually a virus that got Owen about 12 hours after these pictures, me on the way home the next day, and then trickled through their family. Memories are to be shared, not viruses! Ugh!