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The highlight of August was our return to the Jackson Hole area (above; more photos here), but this time to Teton Valley, the "quiet side of the Tetons." We went horseback riding and hiking (despite hail!) at the Grand Targhee Resort, and learned how to fish. Nikita especially got into fishing: he caught his first one at Teton River, and others in a stocked pond. Teton Valley is much more affordable in the summer than Jackson, WY, a point brought home to us when we enjoyed $2 ice-cream cones and saw an advertisement for $10/hr violin lessons. The people are also super friendly and generous: Nikita got some free flies for fishing, and I got a free horseride.
Finally, Teton Valley was a great base from which to explore the area. We visited Yellowstone National Park nearly every day for a week, amazed at the sight of geysers, the Grand Canyon, and wildlife (bison, but no bears) that randomly crossed the road. We also enjoyed an art fair in Jackson, a late lunch at Main Over Easy in Bozeman, MT, and swimming at Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. The Gallatin National Forest is a must for the future: our brief drive through it revealed gorgeous scenery, but we were also struck by the number of fly fishers and white crosses that marked car accidents. Everywhere we went, Nikita tried fishing and we ate ice-cream - especially Wilcoxson's at Yellowstone.
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Before and after our trip out west, we went out of town a number of times, mainly for Nikita's chess tournaments. Nikita did poorly in Sturbridge, but actually won $50 in NYC. Ivan doesn't play chess competitively (yet), so we spent our time exploring museums (the Cloisters, Met) and Victorian Gardens (above), swimming (Wells State Park - crucially, Ivan can now do the backfloat-swim- backfloat sequence), and playing with my nephew, Sebastian. The boys got to see all their first cousins (but no girls!) at the end of month when my youngest brother was in NYC (photos here) .
