52 Photowalks - Week unknown

Due to the busy-ness of work and school and life in general, I've just not taken the time to keep up with my 52 photowalks. Thus, I've missed a few weeks and have lost track of what week this is.

The super cute husband invited me to tag along with him to Jackson Hole for work. I had high hopes of it being a beautiful day, but I knew mother nature would not cooperate for me. She never does. As we hit the top of the Jackson pass, and we saw this... I knew my hope of photographing the Teton's would not happen this trip. Again.
We did drive out to the infamous Mormon Row anyway.



The colors in Jackson just didn't do it for me. The Jackson pass was okay, but the Pine Creek pass was better, so we stopped at West Piney for some reminiscing...

I've passed this building a thousand times in my life and asked the super cute husband to stop so I could take a picture of it.
Then we pulled off at Fall Creek for a minute... in the rain... and you can see the difference between spring (top picture) and autumn (bottom picture).


Hopefully this will not be the last photowalk of the year! Thanks super cute husband for letting me tag along.

52 Photowalks - Week 37

Each week, I upload my favorite picture from the week onto my Facebook profile. Just for fun. A few weeks ago, one of my cute cousins left me a comment wondering if I knew of anywhere she could get a picture of the Idaho Falls temple with the falls in it so she could hang it on her wall. I happen to know someone with access to a camera and an addiction to taking pictures, so I said, let me see what I can do.

So last week, I trekked into town and wandered down by the river for a few minutes to see what I could come up with. Here's the results. What think ye? Me thinks that one day the tree's are going to get so big, you won't be able to see the temple at all from across the river.

52 Photowalks - Week 36

My mother in law loves squirrels. She loves them so much that a couple of years ago, she had some trapped and transplanted from town (I'm still not sure how she pulled that one off... I've learned not to ask). A majority of the squirrels have wandered off, or been electrocuted by the power lines out back, but every once in awhile, we see one traipsing through the yard.

A few years ago, she had a brilliant idea to grow giant sunflowers so she could harvest the seeds for her precious squirrels. Now they just come up from seed here and there in the garden. In her not to subtle way, a few weeks ago, she said something along the lines of, "Don't you think a picture of that giant sunflower would look beautiful hanging on my wall?" Um, is that a hint?

So I took some pictures.







And while I was at it, I threw in a few dead daisies...
And some rotten apples...
And a maple leaf...
Because that's just how I roll.

52 Photowalks - Week 35

Located in the southwest corner of Yellowstone National Park, is a remote area of the park accessible by only one road... starting point: Idaho. At the end of this long dirt road you will find a 250 foot wide and 20 foot high waterfall, better known as "Cave Falls". When the husband surprised me by taking the day off on our 19th wedding anniversary and suggested we go for a drive... I quickly suggested we drive up to Cave Falls so I could try out my new polarizing filter he'd bought me a few weeks before. It's the filter you need to take those really awesome motion water shots.

The closest I came to a motion shot.... turns out that boatloads of blazing hot sun is not the best thing for these kind of shots, even with the special filter. Someday I'll have that shot... someday...





Some of the local wildlife... or not wild, just... life...
Rumor has it there's a place up there called Bechler Meadow. I didn't have clue one where it was, but decided this was it, even if it wasn't.

Maybe next year I'll wear something besides flip flops and we can hike to one of the other waterfalls.

So if you are ever looking for a nice, quiet, remote place with few people and some great scenery... check out Cave Falls. Have you ever been there?

52 Photowalks - Week 34

18 hours in the car + 3 states = 74 hours gone from home and a whole lot of photowalking.

Day one.

Leave home at 3:30 p.m.

Drive four hours north.

Dinner: Asian Garden in Butte, Montana. So so food.

Dessert: Huckelberry soda.

Uptown Butte, Montana.
The entrance to the closed Berekley Pit. Guess we'll have to come back tomorrow.
Oh, what a FIND!!! This might come in handy later...
Day two.

Breakfast: Hampton Inn hotel complimentary buffet.

The Berkeley Pit.

Trying to find our way back to the highway.
The scenery between Butte and Anaconda, Montana.
The big chimney in Anaconda.
The reason I even know of Anaconda, Montana. Old Works Golf Course.
The reason I want to move to Anaconda. It won't seem so wierd when I ask to be buried in the coolest cemetery I've ever seen.
It even has a place on main street to tie up my horse.
And there's my piano...
Right downstairs from the building I want to buy and renovate and live in.
Oh well, maybe in my next life. Instead, we'll head to Missoula.
They have cool bears there.

Lunch: McKenzie River Pizza company (YUM!)

Then it's back to Idaho. North Idaho. Coeur d'Alene to be exact. A place I have never been. Our hotel room at the Hampton Inn.
The view of the Spokane River outside our window.
A walk around the hotel warranted this little find...
Oh yeah, and there's a lake, too. Which you can't really see much of because the trees are SO THICK! And the lake... is HUGE.
And a beautiful private (and gated) golf course with the worlds only floating green that you can't see from the uber thick trees so you have to drive and drive until you find a spot from above you can actually see what's going on below.

Dinner: Fish Market (Uber slow, but yummy sushi!)

Dessert: Frozen snickers bar from the hotel lobby.

Day Three

Breakfast: Starbucks pastries and hot chocolate.

With very little to do or see in Coeur d'Alene, not that we could find anyway, we head off to Washington. Spokane to be exact.
And run smack dab into a PF Changs.

Lunch: Duh.
We check out the cultural diversity festival going on at the park.
And wish we were little enough to play on the giant red wagon.
Instead, we head back to the car.
And go back to Idaho.
The manly toy store: Cabelas.

Dinner: San Fransisco Sour Dough Sandwich Shoppe

Dessert: Chocolate covered pretzels from Shugar Shack.

Activity: Inception, the movie. Awesome.

Day four

Early to bed, early to rise, we have an 8 hour drive home.

Breakfast: Hampton Inn hotel complimentary buffet.

Old Mission, Idaho.

Stopped for gas in Kellogg, Idaho.
This is how it came to be.
The country side between Coeur d'Alene and Missoula. The trees are this thick. Everywhere.
A quick stop to stretch our legs in Alberton, Montana
Got honked at by a local for stopping on the tracks. At least it wasn't the local police. Luckily, we still had our Missoula Junior Police Department badge on us.

Lunch: Taco Bell in Hamilton, Montana.

Dessert: Dulche De Leche fudge from Cabelas purchased the day before and forgotten about.

The burnt countryside between Hamilton, Montana and Salmon, Idaho.
Downtown Salmon Idaho. There were two ways home from here. The long, windy, beautiful route, or the short, straight, boring route.
We were tired of driving. Short, straight, boring route it was. But it warranted my favorite picture of all just this side of Leadore, Idaho.

5:30 p.m.

Home again, home again, riggity jig jig.
Beautiful drive. Great company. Now I need to get ready for school which starts next Wednesday and I have yet to purchase a thing.