My Own Kind Of Paradise

The gorgeous snow capped mountains

The Jackson Lake marina at Colter Bay

Colin and Tanner in their kayak

Jesse next to me in his kayak

The mountains reflecting in the water was amazing

            This morning I got up and met Jesse out on our back porch. We sat out there for a while talking, drinking the coffee that he’d made, and enjoying the nice morning. Cristina came out and joined us when she woke up, and we then texted Nate to come join us, which he soon did. Jesse, Tanner, and Nate and I all have today off, and Cristina doesn’t go in until three, so we decided we’d all go up to the marina at Colter Bay and go kayaking on Jackson Lake. Colin, another employee that we’ve hung around with some, came along with us.

We all left the dorms at about eleven, ate lunch together in the Colter Bay EDR, then went off to rent kayaks. Employees are allowed to have them out for two hours for free, thankfully. Tanner and Colin shared a two person one, Nate and Cristina shared a canoe, and Jesse and I each had our own kayaks. It’s an absolutely beautiful place to be on the water. We all took off at about noon, and spent the first half hour or so paddling out to one of the islands in Jackson Lake. There weren’t too many people on the water, which made it even nicer. We got out on the island we arrived at, and spent about another half hour walking around it, exploring, taking pictures, skipping rocks, and just all hanging out together on that beautiful island.

After a while of hanging out on the island we returned to our kayaks and got back out on the water. We took our time getting back into the marina, taking some more pictures and just goofing around with each other a bit. When we all eventually got back and went to put our paddles away, we saw that Jen, one of our supervisors, was getting ready to rent a kayak as well. Today’s one of her days off, and I guess she had the same idea that we did. Pretty much all of the employees, no matter what department, definitely take advantage of all the awesome opportunities we have on our days off; that’s one of the main reasons we work here.

We got back to the dorms together at a little after two, and Cristina went to get ready to go into work. Not long after getting back, Tanner knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to go hang out at the pool with him, which I immediately said yes to. The two of us swam and tossed a football around in there for a while; it felt great to be in the water. After spending some time doing that I got out and came back to my dorm room to relax for a while, telling Tanner I’d text him before heading to the EDR for dinner.

Tanner and I might hang out again together, since we both have it off as well. We might do some hiking around Jenny Lake or somewhere else around the park. This morning Jesse, Cristina and I said that we might have another little grill party outside our rooms on Saturday night. Jesse has the day off, and Cristina and I both work in the morning. Nate’s going to try to switch shifts so he can work in the morning as well. We think we might turn it into a “day after payday” tradition.