Twenty Trip~~Hiking Along Jenny Lake

(My apologies for the delay between posts. April was a busy month, but I will try to keep up better. I have friends heading out to Yellowstone and the Tetons at the end of the month, and I'm considering stowing away in their car...)

Sunday, September 9th, 2012

After our lengthy search for a restaurant--which took us to many interesting places we otherwise would never have seen--we drove out to Grand Teton National Park 

and stopped briefly at the welcome center.

My aunt and uncle had suggested we take the ferry across Jenny Lake, then hike up to Inspiration Peak to look down across the lake. 

Unfortunately, the ferry's last run was the day before our arrival!

We drove around to a trailhead by String Lake, which is right below Jackson Lake 

on this handy-dandy map.

The star around the little hiker-dude is where we started out. The trail took us along side Jenny Lake (but on top of a bluff beside it, so no wading!) through some beautiful scenery.

Right at the start we crossed this river (overgrown stream?) on a wide plank bridge. I appreciate the way the bridges were designed to blend in with the outdoors, not just plunked down as something to walk across.

See why I'm longing to return?

I'm not sure when the fire that took these trees out was. It's almost prettier with the dead trees. You can see farther--and it makes for great photos!

Dad + hiking stick + mountains + boulder!

Good picture, eh?

We saw two ospreys on the hike up, then headed back down we could see another in the nest.

Those green-turning-orange bushes in the foreground (of the amazing picture I took) are called "snowbrush" or "sticky laurel" bushes. They smelled amazing! The breeze was warm and brought a lovely, spicy scent down along the hillside. When you crushed the leaves the smell was even stronger, and stayed on your now-sticky fingers. If the scent could be bottled, I'd buy it.

Half-way up the trail.

This is the point where I told Mom
"I think I was supposed to be a mountain goat, not a city girl."

We stopped right on the other side of the rocks to eat our picnic lunch. I was too excited and ready-to-move to eat much, but managed to down the salami, crackers, & cheese, and the
lime-and-chili almonds Mom bought special for the trip.

Oh, I miss snacky picnic lunches on sun-warmed rocks in Grand Teton National Park!

~Kiwi~

Late-At-Night Post

I'm working on plans for another of my 12X2012 accomplishments.

• Take a bike trip to the Hill of No Return on my green bike.

Almost half of that has been accomplished. My bike is now fixed, all I need now is a free afternoon! Perhaps I should have said simply 'take a bike trip.' That is going to happen, Lord willing, Thursday morning/noon/afternoon. Two of my friends and I shall pack a picnic lunch, bike to the nearby farm market to purchase donuts and peaches and the like, then start pedaling down a back road or two. At the moment, the chosen destination is a cemetery a few miles away. We might stop and eat at a park between here and there, as others may not find our choice to lunch in a cemetery so...appetizing. Perhaps we won't stop there at all, maybe we'll just continue and find a brand new spot. =) I love not planning everything and getting to make choices on whims.
And I'm also curious, can anyone else see the picture in my last post, of the bike? It's disappeared.
Good night, my lovelies! ;)
~Kiwi~

Happy 4th of July!!

Due to the holiday today, I have changed the colors on this blog. I'll switch them back next time I get on.
S. was in the parade today with his fellow boy scouts. K, Rapunzel, and I gathered a large bag full of candy. I know, 18 and 16 is supposed to be too old to gather the candy, but most of it was just K.'s doing and us grabbing the candy that fell in the road. Thankfully Mom didn't frisk us for any pocketed candy this year like she has done for as long as I can remember. I have quite a stash of the good stuff (eg. Twix, Skittles, not tootsie rolls) in my purse. S. came down after the parade and had his pockets STUFFED with candy. Mom and Dad gave him the two choices: have all the candy that was in his pockets or put it in the bag with all the stuff we gathered and get an equal share of it all. He chose the latter, although he wasn't very happy about it.
After the parade we went to a county park and had a picnic lunch there. Dad, S, K, and I played catch and did a little batting practice. We had an old free-bee (sp?) baseball from last year that we played with. I don't think the poor thing was meant to be played with. It was doing just fine 'til Dad pitched it to me. I gave it a nice, solid hit, straight back at Dad. I deformed it. Now there is blue paint on the bat from the ball and a flat spot on the ball from the bat. After I hit it a few more times, the S, K, and Rapunzel, and even Mom, it no longer bears much resemblance to a baseball. It flies weird. It feels really weird to throw it.
I had to use Rapunzel's old glove, the one Dad got her when she was two years older than K who is now 7. We're keeping our eyes out for a good used one at a garage sale or Goodwill. Mostly I use Dad's, which he's had for a good 20-25 years.
After that we tried to find two more letterboxes. The first one we (guess what!) didn't find! Even after I tramped around and got my legs all scratched up trying to find it. But I found the second one. It was really easy, the directions told exactly where to find it, didn't have to search at all. But the stamps were interesting. It was hidden by the same person I mentioned before, the one who did the Buffalo Bill Cody one. He hand carves the stamps, and they're really intricate. I'll put pics on here soon.


Yesterday, after cleaning for a house showing, I finished a last practice painting of one of the butterflies. It's the one (if you look back a few posts) in the circle with the flowers. Tomorrow or day after I'll start on the final paintings.


I'm going to go be sociable now. We're at my grandparents' house now and everyone else is in the living room talking. Have a wonderful day!!
~Candy-stuffed Kiwifruit