Adventures in Yurting

Perhaps because I was feeling all outdoorsy and nature-girl from my stint with camping,  I was gung-ho when my sister and brother-in-law suggested we go on a yurt adventure to Manti, Utah.   Julie and Reo went to Snow College, mere minutes from the yurt,  and I was more than pumped to visit their old stomping grounds-- plus hang out with their son Holden, the most adorable baby ever.   Besides, we needed a break from our tired Rock Band routine.

I should have taken it as a bad sign that Holden cried for nearly the entire journey to said yurt, but I chalked it up to his being an infant.  Also I should have taken it as a bad sign that we got checked into our campsite by a nine-year-old boy, but I chalked that up to bad parenting (which I've experienced first-hand as of late).

I can't remember the first time I knew I wanted to stay in a yurt.  It wasn't very long ago, and I was surfing the web for some reason (Or maybe no reason at all, which I sometimes do)  and I saw a picture of a yurt.  Obviously, it was not this particular yurt.

Anyway, since that moment I've been digging yurts and their whole architectural style, which is like a tepee, but not.  Note from the picture above that the top of a yurt is flat, not cone-shaped as a tepee.  This yurt boasted a skylight at the top, perfect for stargazing.  Usually stargazing makes me too dizzy to be enjoyable, since I can't tilt my head back and look up at the same time.  If I was lying on my bed, though?  I could totally handle it.

Unfortunately, this was my bed:

Now, I wasn't expecting five-star accommodations or anything,  but I was expecting something better than this broken-down futon, which actually looks much cleaner in the photo than it did in real life.  Just take my word for it.

Julie and Reo's bed, however, had a whole different vibe (think The Princess and the Pea):

If these things alone had been the yurt's only shortcomings, no big.  I can handle odd, unsanitary furniture (I've lived in a college dorm, after all).

Alas, we had booked the yurt for the same weekend a family reunion had booked all the camping spaces around the yurt.  And by around, I mean that one tent was pitched so close to our deck that using our grill would have set said tent on fire.   Things I  tripped on/almost tripped on while walking to the yurt:

--one  inflatable pool with waterslide

--two pack-n-plays (neither of them for Holden)

--three camp chairs

The members of the family reunion wore matching shirts.  Also, they stared at us.  Whenever we were outside.  So we did not spend a lot of time at the yurt on our yurt adventure.

Which didn't turn out to be all bad.  We ate good burgers,  toured the desereted Snow College campus, and even went to Wal-Mart (where we bought sheets for our bed, because a sleeping bag was just not enough).  Plus, we ate at yet another One Man Band Diner.

Oh, and you could see exactly zero stars from the yurt's skylight.