Our 13th Anniversary, Day 2

"Smile Steve!  No, like REALLY smile!"  And this is what I got- an expression of pure joy!

 We left Logan in the morning to drive to the Bear Lake area, but not before stopping off at the infamous "Angies" for breakfast.  It did not disappoint!  Steve got the berry cheesecake waffles, and I got a ham and egg breakfast croissant sandwich.  We liked everything so much, we made another stop to Angies later on our vacation.

 Next, we headed up Logan canyon, stopping off at a pretty spring to take pictures.

 Then a couple came by and offered to take a picture of both of us.

 In 2 poses, no less!  Let me tell you, the springs look really cool in real life.  Here you can only see the river, but in that cave behind us the cave wall just stops, and water comes up out of nowhere to make this flowing river.

 When we got to Idaho, we went straight up another canyon to the Minnetonka caves, only stopping for a herd of cows who decided it was a nice road to take a walk on.

 Minnetonka caves had tours every 1/2 hour that lasted for approximately 1 and 1/2 hours.  The tour was phenomenal.  With a jacket, I was comfortable in the 40 degree cave, and I'm glad I wore my hat in because the cave was weeping with water. 

 There are 896 stairs round trip, and I wondered how well I'd do with that, and the answer is... not bad. 

It was fun when we got to the middle of the cave and got to turn out the lights for a chance to be in complete darkness.  We also saw a bat flying around and of course there were lots of cool cave formations to look at.

 After the caves, we checked-in to our cabin which we would call home for the next 2 nights.  Our hosts were wonderful and were in the home nearby if we needed anything.  We used the airbnb website to secure this lodging, as well as our lodging in Logan. 

 This cabin was actually the first cabin built in the area in the 1800s when Mormon pioneers came to settle.  It has been updated with conveniences, but the place still had many original features. 

Gifts including a personalized welcome sign, fresh cut lilacs, and a jar of homemade raspberry jam, our hosts welcomed us warmly.  They also included a bag of bagels and a container of Mango Juice for us!

 Although there is no wifi or cell phone service, they did have satellite TV, which we didn't really use all that much, but Steve did get to see some basketball playoff game he was looking forward to.  This cabin does not have a bathroom, so we had to go outside to an outhouse that was made equipped with modern plumbing (not those smelly latrines you're thinking of).  For showering, the hosts let us use the bathroom in their home.  It was so nice to have a shower after hiking and spending our days in the sun!  While one of us showered, the other visited with the hosts, which was nice to get to know them a little bit.

 We browsed around the property as our dinner cooked in the oven.  The meadows were peaceful and lovely to take a walk down, and the lake was only a short walk from our cabin on a private driveway. 

 We were being attacked by mosquitoes at that time of day, so we headed back to the cabin to finish our evening.  When our hosts found out mosquitoes were attacking us, they ran to the house and gifted us a bottle of bug spray, and additionally, within 5 minutes, mosquito abatement showed up with a big pickup truck blowing some sort of vapor and started de-bugging their meadows!  The next time we went out to the lake, there was not one mosquito to be seen!  Now that is what I call gold-star customer service!