Systematic Songbird: June 2015

Sunday

Sunday, we planned to relax. Breakfast was served at 8:15am, which let us sleep in right up until 8:10 :) They served blueberry cornmeal pancakes with real maple syrup, along with fruit and this delicious "Berry Refresher" smoothie, made of strawberries, raspberries, and apple juice. It was sooooo good.

After breakfast we went back to our room, and I feel back asleep. We woke up just in time to make it to sacrament meeting at 10:50am. After that, we came back to the Wildflower Inn again. We had swung by Albertson's the night before and picked up Lunchables so that we wouldn't have to go out for lunch. We got them out and ate them on our deck while reading.

The weather, again, was lovely. While we were sitting there, Peter looks up and says, "What...is that a moose...?"

Can you see it? No?

Here, take a closer look:

I took that picture with the telephoto lens, but the moose was really only about 10 yards away, maybe less. It was so well camouflaged, we didn't notice it until we'd been out there for ten or fifteen minutes, although he'd probably been laying there the whole time, perfectly aware of us. When it stood a few minutes later and wandered off, it came even closer, perhaps within 10 feet.

We were quite excited about seeing the moose in our backyard :)

I eventually started getting restless, though, so we headed up to Grand Teton National Park and wandered around Jenny Lake for a bit.

We had stopped at the Visitor's Center, but forgot something in the car, so we were headed back towards it when a family of four stopped us. They had gotten a little turned around on the trails and ended up a good distance from their car, so Peter gave them a ride back to their car while I waited.

Then we went for our own little hike. I took the opportunity of our leisurely pace to practice a little with my camera settings, so I took a lot of pictures. I only put a few of them in here.

I had hoped these two pictures were a little more alike for the panorama.

Contemplating the Mountain

My Mountain Goat Hubby climbing rocks

A nice Scottish couple took this picture for us.
Peter chatted with them after for a minute about Scotland and England.

Peter started playing with the camera

Okay, here come some of my favorite play shots.

I was playing with the focus in particular on these.

We wanted to take the scenic drive so I could take some more pictures, and we stopped at one of the lodges to check out their menu for dinner. It was too pricey for our tastes, but I got this lovely hanging flower picture. These hanging flower planters were everywhere in Jackson!

We also stopped at Jenny Lake Overlook so I could take more pictures, since we didn't quite make it to the overlook on our hike.

We finally ended up back at Sidewinder's for dinner, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing. We watched a movie we had picked up at Redbox the night before, The Book of Life, which was not bad, but a little odd.

Monday

Breakfast Monday morning was some sort of Egg Souffle thing (I'm not sure which recipe it corresponds to on the website), with more fruit and bacon. They also had a granola and yogurt parfait. I took a few more pictures of the common area at the bed and breakfast this morning.

Enclosed back porch

Sitting Room

Side Deck

I had been wanting to go for a bike ride, and lucky for me, the Wildflower had bicycles for their patrons to borrow! Again, I took the opportunity to do some practicing with my camera.

I actually took this with my phone,
but I thought the flowers in front of the fence were pretty.

trying to capture the flowers in front of the mountain

Pretty purple wildflowers

Playing with the shutter speed to capture motion

After we checked out of the bed and breakfast (much too soon), we went back to Jackson to get a few last minute souvenirs, lunch, and ice cream from Haggen-Daz (which more than adequately made up for the Moo's Ice Cream we had had Friday). We had to wait for our White-water rafting trip pictures to print, so we hung out at the park for a bit after lunch and before getting ice cream. I got out my camera to play again while Peter read.

I tried to get the monument through the archway:

Peter reading in the shade of a tree

More playing with focus:

I started to get bored...so I messed with Peter :)

The classic tourist-town buggy ride.

Enjoying our Haggen-Daz

We stopped at the Maverick to gas up and get our Icees that we couldn't get at the start of the trip. I also wanted to take a picture of it because it was huge and because all of the buildings in Jackson, including the Smith's and the Wendy's were in this sort of rustic hunting lodge style, which was pretty cool.