Jennie Lake, Grand Tetons, vacation photos #2

Two old goats - thank you to the kind Japanese man who offered to take our photo on this cold day.
When I was about 11, my father built a type of canvas and aluminum camper frame for the back of the pickup truck and the family of 6 headed from Illinois to Yellowstone. This was before people has 'real' campers. I remember parts of the trip, and mostly, I remember stopping at a very cold lake on the way home, where Mom said all us kids smelled pretty terrible, and she made us wade into some FREEZING COLD lake -- and wash. Even at that young age, I clearly remembered how beautiful the lake was - it had to be THIS Jennie Lake, in the Grand Teton National Park. And so I wanted to get back to that space, for those memories -- we made it! I KNOW this was the place - it just felt right!

Below is the Snake River - the highway follows the Snake for a very long time through Idaho - what beautiful fishing this must provide!
This is one of the few buildings left from DH's father's birthplace in Roseberry, Idaho, a town that is no longer 'there.' Note the roofline - it was built by Finns (from Finland) and many of the old roofs were built with this 'look'. Now, it's a museum.

The old General Store - upstairs was a "Dance Hall" where DH's father had a band. Our 80 year old hostess, a cousin to my DH, told us she sneaked off one evening as a teenager and attended the wicked "Dance Hall" upstairs, and was sorely punished when her mother found out!
Heading back home through Idaho, we went through Craters of the Moon, an area formed by molten Calderas, where lava had oozed through to the surface - scarey and bizarre! Yellowstone is at one end of the underground caldera system - you may have heard that Yellowstone is due for an eruption one of these thousand years.

2200 miles later ...

We just returned safely from traveling 2200 miles north and west, through Casper, Wyoming, to Grand Teton National Forest and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, then on across Idaho to Roseberry, Idaho, where my husband's grandfather settled during the great migration west, in the late 1890s. DH has a cousin, older than us, who lives in McCall, a town near Roseberry, who he has not seen in 50 years, who is well-informed regarding his family's history, and talking with her for some time was our goal. There were a few skeletons in the closet that he wanted to learn about. The little town of Roseberry no longer exists, but some of the buildings have been saved. DH's grandmother once ran a hotel in nearby Donnelly, and we wanted to see WHERE it was. Unfortunately, there is nothing to commemorate that place's existance, except a new Post Office.

I KNEW the elusive Jackalope might show itself along the way, and HOORAYYYYY!!! SUCCESS capturing his image, before he skittered away. Jackalopes are well-known in Douglas, Wyoming.

For those of you who might live in crowded cities, Wyoming has a LOT of space!
Backyards are frequently enormous!
... but there is the occasional problem with slow traffic ...

The first view of the Grand Tetons cannot help but take one's breath away!
It was cold and damp with the threat of more snow.
Oh Mercy - I promised DH I'd be very brave, wouldn't cry or faint, and agreed to ride the TRAM in Jackson Hole, up the mountain. Because the weather was so poor, the tram was not filled with the usual 100 skiers, and off we went with 5 passengers, into the clouds!
I DID feel faint, some tears of total fear trickled down alongside my nose, but I DID it!




The only moose we saw on the entire trip was from this tram. I DID bolster my courage to actually look down to see the critter (not shown)!

The best part of the Tram ride was that at the top of the mountain where we got off, was a warm establishment under a LOT of snow, where coffee and Belgian Waffles were served - ya know, we'd gotten pretty cold on that tram, and I've NEVER tasted a waffle that good, served with butter and brown sugar, all messy and dribbling down one's chin. YUMMY!

I will be posting additional travel photos for the next few days for the benefit of family. Not much quilting going on, although I DID wish I'd brought my machine to stay occupied while DH watched TV Political NEWS! I am of the opinion that vacations should NOT include the life that one is leaving behind!