My Favorite Memory...summer of 2003 Jacob Lake Inn

Well I have a lifetime of Memories...so to be able to say I have one single

favorite would be a slanderous statement. 

I was just looking at some pictures of my uncle Kieth's last road trip on FB

and was reminded of some pretty good memories.

You see, he took his motorcycle to the Grand Canyon, and I spent one of the

best summers in the world there.

I worked at a small little lodge near the North Rim in the summer of 2003.

Jacob Lake Inn

I was a waitress

That summer I made some of the best friends and best memories I will hold on to forever.

 My Grandma and Grandpa Platt knew the owners back in the 60's.  My Aunts worked there just after high school in the 70's. 

Nothing had changed.

Except maybe a few trees have been cut down...

I remember first getting there and seeing where I would be living for the summer...Scary. Then later...FUN

That week I went out on a walk amidst the tall ponderosa trees and stood there..

all by myself

and felt so small, yet so loved...so at peace with this world.

So happy

The people I met that summer

I considered family.

We took many day trips to the rim, in the rain and early mornings to watch the

sun rise over the south rim.  We would sit and laugh and feel so free. 

 We would go on bike rides through the forest, hikes and trips all over southern UT, AZ and NV. 
LOTS OF DRIVING...thanks to Jack Johnson to make tose trips a bit more enjoyable.

Day off trips to Lake Powell, Vegas, ST George (saw Pirates of the Caribbean for the first time), Brice, Zions (to hike the Narrows, sleeping in the golf coarse the night before), playing night games in all of the sinks.  Having a camp fire in a giant Calvert telling embarrassing stories...and so much More..
We had Christmas in July and a Halloween Party in August.

Poker Nights

The Fire Tower

Trips to Lees Ferry

Bike Rides to Lees Ferry.. 44 miles of Exhausting..But made it...All the way...on my second to last day. I was late for my last 4 hour shift. But it was worth it.

http://www.jacoblake.com/lees_ferry.html

Family nights where we dressed up like polygamists...(still laughing about that)...

I will always remember the smell of that place.

And the Hot chocolate.

I will always remember the friends I made and how much I loved them all

I will also remember not showering for days.  Gross...

What was even grosser though, is the showers we had to shower in.

I remember late night talks and early morning shifts.

The stars...there were a MILLION

The break room where we ate all our meals and played ping pong during our breaks...

also where we had sacrament meeting Sunday nights at 11 PM after closing...

And my last few memories of that place.  (Even though I know I am forgetting a million.)

My last visit to the North Rim before I left to go back to school.

It was raining and there was the most beautiful rainbow.  We stopped and took a picture.

I remember the last time I bribed the Park rangers with Jacob Lake cookies to let us in for free.

And remember sitting at the North Rim Lodge...with the big bon fire going, I remember saying goodbye to all my new friends.  It was hard. 

I remember the stars starting to come out that night...thinking to myself that it doesn't get better that this....

And it never really did...Not in that aspect of life...anyway.

I would add pictures, personal ones, not ones I got off the Internet... but I am too old to have them saved on a computer...yeah, they are in a scrapbook..can you believe it.  Yes. I am that old. 

(and lazy...that I don't have time to scan then in...maybe someday)