Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Grand Tetons

My vacation pictures are all uploaded to flickr acct. Now I just have to edit the massive amount of pictures that WG took.

Here's link to my yellowstone pictures

I'll put up my link to the Grand Teton pictures with my Arches preview.

Back to the vacation preview. I've been trying to post this but it is taking me so long. I'm trying to remember what we did and where we went. I know, I know, I should have done this sooner.


Day 3
After Old Faithful, we started south to our next hotel in Alpine, WY (south of Grand Tetons NP). There was a lot of road work being done in both parks, so it took us a while to get to out or in to the Parks. But the closer we got to GT NP, the more we could see the beautiful mountains. We had to make a pit stop.

Colter Bay Village was our first stop in GT NP to get a map and ask if there was a better viewing spot to take some picture. Well, we sure got one. The range pointed us to a picnic/beach area off one of the parking lots. And there they were, SO BEAUTIFUL! Even with clouds rolling in.


view from the swimming area



I was laying on the pebbly shore (no sand) while WG was taking his pictures. The rocks were warm by the sun and it was perfect for a short little cat nap.


We tried to hit as many spots on the way through the park since we really didn't have that much time there. Most of it, were beautiful mountain views--we couldn't get enough of them.

Finally, we got to the hotel. On their website, it said the hotel was close to the park (or we thought it was). Maybe it is to people in WY it is because everything is so far apart. Oh well, the room was big and quiet and they had a great restaurant at the hotel, that served the most delicious ribeye steak. I guess it makes up for the long drive.


Day 4
Our full day in Grand Tetons. I'm trying to keep these description short but it's not that easy when you have jam-packed days. Our first stop was to the Chapel of the Transfiguration and Menor's Ferry. The chapel was a tiny building position perfectly with the mountains behind it. Inside, behind the alter was a picture window that you could see the mountains. This sure would make it easy to sit and listen to a service. Here's a picture of the chapel and the mountains.

Chapel of the Transfiguration


Most of the hike are quite long but we were able to squeeze a hike to Inspiration Point. We took the ferry across Jenny Lake, then upward to Inspiration Point. Here's a picture of me (in my silly hat) going up.

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We really didn't plan our time in Grand Teton well. We should have packed a lunch to eat when we got to Inspiration Point but we didn't. We instead ate at Signal Mountain Lodge, sat on the deck with the view of mountains and the lake. Here's a picture from inside of the Signal Mountain Lodge restaurant. Pretty nice.

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Signal Mountain road was close, so off we went to Cunningham Cabin. This is where one of the homesteaders lived. The view was amazing but very remote, even now. While we were there, 2 bisons trotted by to the parking lot. They seemed to be in such a hurry. I don't know where they were running to.

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The mountains view from the Cunningham Cabin

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One of the bison trotting towards the parking lot.

We decided to make our way back to the hotel as we had a full day drive tomorrow. We made a couple of stop on the back to Alpine. We stop at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. It is a beautiful place with incredible pieces. They must have incredible benefactors.

The next stop was Dairy Queen to have our first blizzard with butterfingers. Even the counter boy laughed at me when I told him I never had one.

After that we stop by the town square of Jackson. WG went out to get a few pictures of the square and the antler arches.

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One of the statues outside of the National Museum of Wildlife Art

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One of the antler arches in Jackson

One more preview to come of Arches. Hope you like it.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

preview of my vacation pictures

I'm sitting here on a beautiful day, uploading my vacation pictures. I found a faster way to get these upload instead of my pokey computer. I'm using WG's PC and it's like lightening compared to my slow little MAC (need to upgrade--maybe next year). But I want to give everyone a preview of a few of my favorite pictures and places we visited.

Day 1
After driving up from Salt Lake airport, we enter Yellowstone around 4:30pm, drove north towards Mammoth Hot Springs. This is from the upper terrace @ MHS as we made our way down the broadwalks. Lots of bubbling pools, steam, limestone deposits and dead trees made the landscape have a great eerie look (would have been better without the beautiful blue skies)

pools and steam

Day 2
Up at the crack of dawn, we are off and running in the park by 7:30. Today's adventures takes us through canyon country, lake country and Cody (Buffalo Bill) then back in early evening with the hopes to see animals, animals and more animals. A full day of driving and seeing so many beautiful spots, made it very hard to choose a picture for this day. But a picked one from Artist Point, of the falls.

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Day 3

A half day in Yellowstone, then long drive down to Grand Teton NP. It was geyser country today with Old Faithful topping it off. I started feeling ill at Grand Prismatic Spring, chills, cramps and a bad stomachache. WG was a little oblivious to me being sick as he was taking hundreds of pictures. I waited paitently on bench, listening in to all the tidbits of what to see. Bison and bear prints around the spring. Anyway, I made it through with out any incidents--the wait at toilets was a little rough. We went to have lunch near Old Faithful, picked the perfect out-of-crazy-crowd cafeteria--very clean and new. Then we made our way to the visitor's center to see when the next time for Old Faithful to erupt. Our wait was about 1/2 hour. WG found us a place in shade next to a very tall family--everyone in the fall was so tall. They must have thought I was an oopalumpa (sp?). To commemorate my eventful time at Grand Prismatic Spring, here's a picture of it with the bison foot prints.

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Then we were off to Grand Teton. I have to stop now. The Closer is on and I want to watch. I'll try and write more tomorrow.

Monday, July 13, 2009

my poor neglected garden

As I mention in a previous post, I haven't been paying too much attention to my plants this year. But despite that fact, I think they are all doing pretty well. Here's some pictures:

my chili pepper plant

chilli plant

many little chilis have been popping up. not sure when they will be ready. So far they look too small to harvest.


zucchini plant

zucchini

Like my chili plant there are many flowers and hope to see some baby zucchini soon. Once we have had too much, it will become zucchini bread.



new grass

new grass

From several years of neglect (allergies for both WG and me) before we got our landscaper guy, our grass go a bit weedy. WG decided we should do something about it. So late spring, with the help of our painter/all-around handy guy, we put in some new grass with the patch grass seed stuff. That's the stuff with the ground up paper and fertilizer with the seeds. It was much more of a ordeal that WG thought. Luckily, painter guy had the forethought to get a rototiller to dig up all the junkie grass, 2 1/2 days later with had most of our back yard and part of front tilled up and spread with pulpy grass seed stuff. With the luck of the very wet June, the grass is doing great. Here's a picture of our back yard in all of it's green glory.


our back yard

got the pattern

I got the pattern (adjusted) and will go out to Joann's (the closest fabric store to my office) tomorrow to buy some fabric to make a test run. Let's see if I can sew up a new wardrobe for myself.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

update on pattern adjustment

My sister, the alteration goddess, has finished major surgery on one of the flea market patterns. I should receive it in the mail shortly. Then we'll see if it worked. Cross your fingers for me. I'll post a picture as soon as I sew it up.

some summer baking

I do love summer baking with all the fruits in season. Here's a few (not so great pictures, need to work on this) of a blueberry coffee cake and an apricot cherry crumb. The coffee cake is great, simple and delicous. The crumb needs a some ice cream to go with, not as sweet as I wanted it to be. I think the apricot need to be super ripe.

my garden and yard has been doing well on it's own amazingly. My zucchini plant is doing well, a lot of flowers. Waiting for the first harvest, then I'll try and do something with the flowers. My chili pepper plant is also doing good. WG will be happy with the results. But with all that said the weeds have won, with all the rain we have gotten. I just don't have the energy after work to weed a little. Oh well, at least it green. Speaking of green, the new grass that we put in at the beginning of summer is looking good. I guess the rain did come in handy.

Here's the pictures of the dessert.

Blueberry Coffee Cake







I should have mixed some flour with the blueberry before I folded them in so they wouldn't sink to the bottom. Next time.


Apricot Cherry Crumb







I have to remember to get extremely ripe apricots next year. But I don't think it's too bad to eat it with some vanilla ice cream. Ice cream makes everything better.

Vacation pictures to come. WG just loaded up the removal HD with all the pictures of the vacation. Coming soon.

Monday, July 6, 2009

pattern adjustment

Guess who was so disappointed when she found out how hard it would be to adjust the her flea market patterns. ME! I'm so sad!

It will be a major reconstruction to the pattern I brought to Sac with me, that I had to leave it with my sister. She knows really how to do it as opposed to me that read something on internet.

I guess it's the gym for me. Here I thought I would be sewing up a storm this summer, having all these cute pieces (that fit) to wear. Oh well, it really suck to get old.

ps: are you surprise that i posted twice in a day. I guess I'm a bit jetlag and I'm sitting a WG's laptop and posting away while he sleep.

Back from vacation

Just got back from vacation--yellowstone, grand teton and arches. 3 national parks in a 8 days in 2 states. Yes we are gluttons for punishment. Driving, driving and more driving. We're exhausted. Hope to upload the pictures sometime soon but remember it almost took a year to the great wild west pics.

Will be having a busy few months starting in Aug. 3 sets of visitors in 3 months. At least my house will be clean during that time.