Gettin' Away

After a stressful past two months, Ken and I decided a long week-end getaway was what we needed. We drove to Cody Thursday afternoon and planned on going to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. It was 4 o'clock before we got there and they closed at 5 p.m. so we decided to save that visit for another time. It has been years since we have been to the musuem and I do want to go through the entire center sometime soon. It is one of the finest musuems and art centers in the country.

After dinner we took a drive east of Cody. It's kind of desolate country, but the fall colors on the trees and bushes were really pretty.

This picture was taken at the end of the Cody reservoir just as the moon was coming up.

When we got back to Cody we walked along main street and decided to stop for a drink at a small Mexican restaurant. Their special that night was $2 margeritas (!) so.................we had a few. Of course they also brought us chips and salsa to go along with our drinks, so for a grand total of $8 we a good time in Cody.

The next morning we headed for Jackson Hole, via Yellowstone Park. Just outside the park we spotted this buffalo getting a drink in the river. We had high hopes of seeing a lot of animals today.

Shortly after we entered the park we spotted a line of cars parked along the road, a sure sign that there was an animal spotting. Sure enough, someone had spotted this grizzly bear a few hundred feet from the road.

This was the first time that I had been to YNP during the off season. It was great not having to fight traffic, one downside was that very little was open. We avoided all the usual tourist places and just took in the beauty of the park.

Two shots of the steam rising from the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

Grand Teton National Park. The leaves had already fallen from the aspen trees in the Tetons so we were a little disappointed, but the grandeur of the Tetons is always impressive.

There was a lot of color in the bushes and shrubs.

I'm sure everyone who visits Jackson has there picture taken under one of the antler arches in the Town Square. We were no exception.

We always scout out bakeries in the places we visit and coincidentally, just a few days before our trip I was wathing Rachel Ray's $40 Dollars a Day show on TV and she featured Jackson Hole on her show. She had breakfast at the Bunnery so that was a must do for us. We had an apple turnover and raspberry scone with our afternoon coffee. Rachel didn't disappoint us, bothwere excellent. After our snack break we walked around town a little, visiting some of the many art galleries in town.

This is where we stayed "The Inn at Jackson Hole". I booked it on-line and wouldn't you just assume that it would be in Jackson Hole? No....... it was in Teton Village, a ski resort town about 12 miles down the road. Oh well, a new place to explore. October is between the tourist season and the ski season so most of the shops and restaurants were closed, so we headed back to Jackson for a little more action. We had dinner at a good Italian place and were back in our room by 8 o'clock! So much for more action.

I don't know what this bush is. We saw a lot of them along the roadside. The berries were really juicy but we didn't dare eat them.

We had this nice fireplace in our room, so while Ken watched baseball I snuggled up with a blanket and a book. It was a nice day.

We decided to head home in a different direction so we went over Teton Pass into Idaho and entered the park through the entrance at West Yellowstone. We spotted this swan and ducks swimming in the Madison River

Our animal sighting had been a little disappointing at this point, so when we saw these three cow elk along the river we were pretty excited.

We hadn't gotten too far down the road when we saw a line of cars parked by the roadway so we stopped to see what they were looking at. One guy told us that a wolf had been spotted, but when we saw it we could tell it was just a coyote. We see plenty of coyote in our country, but I guess to some people it would be exciting.

A little further down we were excited to see a large herd of elk in the river. There were 22 cow elk and we could hear a bull bugling in the trees. It wasn't too long before he came through the trees and entered the river too. By then, there was a large group of us down by the river taking pictures. That was the closest I have ever been to that many elk, it was a fun experience.

The big bull following his harem.

This buffalo was quite close to the road so we stopped to take a look. As Ken was taking the picture a group of foreign kids came up to me and asked me what it was and if it was dangerous. I told them that they can be dangerous if you get too close. They then proceeded to walk right down to it to take their pictures! Maybe they didn't understand what I told them. Anyway, the buffalo was pretty docile and we all got our pictures and walked away safely.

We had planned on spending the night in Gardiner and looking up some friends who live in nearby Mammoth. We couldn't reach them so we decided just to save the money of another hotel room and drive home. This mountain sheep was standing on the road just outside Mammoth. We got to Billings about 5:30 and had a nice dinner at the Outback. It was a fun weekend and a good stress reliever.

Summer Recap *warning photo overload

Wow, another month has passed since my last post! Where has the summer gone? The time since I retired and moved to Billings has just flown by. These are some of the things we have been doing since we moved to Billings.

Fun...... swimming in the kiddie pool in our backyard. The adults had fun in the hot tub, but nobody would allow me to take pictures.

Fun at the mall.

Fun at the Mustang baseball game.


Fun at Riverside Park with the ducks and geese. Not so fun.....cleaning our shoes after.

Not fun......Caelen pouting because I wouldn't take her to the store with me dressed as she was. I know......what a mean grandma!

Fun at the Yellowstone County Fair.

Fun dressing Luke up in the girl's dress up clothes. (I hope this doesn't cause him problems in the future)

Fun........Caelen's first day of kindergarten.

Not Fun....... Another summer storm that had us worried we were in for a repeat of June's tornado and flood.

Fun........camping on the Big Horns over the Labor Day weekend even if it was only 40 degrees, at least it didn't rain or snow.

Not so fun (for Ken) funnier than hell for me.....Ken falling into the creek.

ROAD TRIP

Sunday morning we sat on our deck reading the newspaper and enjoying a cup of coffee. We decided we didn't want to sit around home all day so talked about what we wanted to do. Ken suggested we take the kids to Riverside Park to feed the ducks and geese. That was okay with me but it would only take about an hour of the day to do that so I suggested we pack a picnic and drive to Chief Plenty Coup Park. Colette squashed those plans when she told us the kids were scheduled to see their dad that afternoon. Ken then suggested that he and I drive to Lewis and Clark Caverns, something we have been wanting to do for a long time. Since we were getting a late start we decided to take an overnight bag and spend the night somewhere. The cave is located about 19 miles south of Three Forks and is the largest limestone cave in the

the Northwest. It wasn't founded by Lewis and Clark, but is located just above the Jefferson River which was part of their route. We have passed by the sign to the caverns many times over the years and have talked about visiting it every time. I am so glad we finally made it because I don't think I could make the hike to the entrance for too many more years. It is only about a mile long but all uphill. My camera doesn't take very good pictures in dim lighting (like in a cave) so the pictures arent' the best. It was very impressive and I am so glad we made the trip.

After we finished the cave tour we headed north and ended up in Helena. We decided since we had come this far we may as well drive up to Whitefish and see Ken's brother who has lived in the valley for four years and whom we hadn't seen for about that long.

After a disappointing dinner at Macaroni Grill (they are not all created equal) we checked into our hotel where Ken was dismayed to learn that the TV did not carry Fox News so he setteled for Horton Hears a Who. (it's a good thing he doesn't read my blog...he probably wouldn't appreciate this picture.)

This mother deer with her twins was the only wildlife we saw on our trip. We are used to seeing deer all the time in Colstrip, but didn't expect to see any in front of our hotel in downtown Helena.

Monday morning we left Helena and headed up the east coast of Flathead Lake. We passed many smaller lakes and a lot of small towns we had never heard of before. The scenery was gorgeous the entire trip to Whitefish.

We made a quick stop in the small town of Seeley Lake and enjoyed a huckleberry smoothie. Huckleberries grow in abundance in this area, but they are quite expensive because it is hard to get to them before the bears eat them all.

We arrived in Whitefish about 2:00 in the afternoon and visited with Jim and his family until 5 pm then hit the road again. We drove over 530 miles for a three hour visit? I would have liked to have spent the night in the Flathead and headed home Tuesday morning. There is a winery and a mission that I wanted to see, but Ken thought we should get a head start on the trip home so we drove down the west side of the lake and spent the night in Missoula. Tuesday morning we woke up to pouring rain and arrived home in the afternoon. We drove over 1,050 miles on this spur of the moment trip! It was fun though and nice to take a break.