Thursday Afternoon ...

You might think that would be yesterday afternoon, but you would be wrong! THAT is how far behind I am ...


But before that - WE ARE HOME!!!

On the drive to the airport:

Gary: "We need to get T-Shirts that say: "I Survived Back to Back Family Reunions" - what do you think?"

Lori: "Well, TECHNICALLY, I think you would have to have ATTENDED most of the functions to be a contender in that competition, so I will have to recuse myself."

Gary: "Oh, well, yeah - there is that."

Lori: "But we could get you one! You kicked butt at surviving the reunion, a very sick wife and all of the other things that popped up!"

Gary: "Hmmmm, we should look into it."

Lori: "For just you ..."

Gary: "For just me ..."

So - as I go through they days - you might notice that I was getting sicker and sicker and having to participate less and less - especially in the evenings.

But - WE ARE HOME!

Arrived Wednesday night, I went to bed and decided to stay there for all of Thursday to see if I would start feeling human again. I also have a newsletter that takes a huge amount of time (and brain function, and creativity - which don't seem to be around right now ...). It is due Sunday and knew I needed to be out of bed on Friday and Saturday if I had any hopes at all of making something halfway decent.

So - what am I doing?


Yes.



Blogging.



I can't come up with a single idea for the header, so I am letting my subconscious work it out while I play with photos ...




IT COULD HAPPEN!




I am also busily charging all my poor little overworked camera batteries:

Which might just make it look like I had my act together. Maybe? Yes?

Also there is this sitting in the entry:

Gary's luggage!

Oh, my goodness! Gary has not unpacked? I have at least rummaged around in my electronics bag to pull out my cameras (let's not get into the other two bags and a backpack that have not been touched ... m'kay?).

Well, it might look that way, but poor, poor guy - he has UNPACKED and PACKED AGAIN and is headed to Istanbul, Turkey even as I type.

I could not do it. I feel very sorry for him. I need a nap just writing about his dilemma - which I am sure I will take as soon as I finish this post - newsletter be damned...

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So ...

Thursday Afternoon - where we left off a few posts ago - you remember, the fields of flowers, the mystery cafe I can't remember ... that Thursday.

We get back in the car and I am doing my usual while Gary is driving - taking random shots of ... whatever out the window:

When all of a sudden, my last photo (actually the one right above here) didn't seem so pretty anymore and I started snapping photos of the majestic Tetons (this is the first photo after the one above):

And kept snapping:
And kept snapping:

FINALLY, Gary decided that we would stop at a pull out and take some photos that weren't up to chance from a moving vehicle.

It was a lovely lookout:

My attempt to shoot the Tetons through the trees, but all I could find was a hole big enough for the highest peak (I am sure it has a name, but I do not know it):

Then we took a detour my dad had suggested we take. We debated just doing it another day, but after going through all we did, we would have NEVER come back - so happy we took the 'Mesa Falls Scenic Byway'.

We hit the 'Lower Falls' first and there were wildflowers EVERYWHERE (as there had been on our drive for quite some time, but it is a wee bit harder to capture wildflowers by the side of the road at 70MPH than it is to capture a mountain in the distance). So I had a lot of photo taking to do, and Gary had to wait on me. I don't recall if we get dandelions in Texas? If we do, it never struck me as beautiful - but this guy did:

TONS of yellow flowers everywhere:

And my favorite little cuties, but when I posted these on facebook, a lady said it was the hated ragweed that so many people are allergic to its pollen. Don't know if it is really the vile ragweed that everyone hates, but THEY ARE SO CUTE:

The Mesa Lower Falls:

Even the grass with the sun hitting it looked lovely that day!

AND the leaves:

Back in the car and headed to the upper falls.

Got there and, sure enough, there were flowers everywhere. And, sure enough, Gary had to wait on me again.

The yellow beauties that were everywhere:

Not much Indian Paintbrush - this one was all by its lonesome ... and come to think about it, I can't remember seeing any more:

This trip, I became enamoured with the ordinary pine tree and its cones:

Pretty lone, pink flower:
And the Mesa Upper Falls:

I was turned right to take a photo of the falls, this is just me rotating to the left:

More (but different) yellow flowers:

BEAUTIFUL walk back up to the lodge that was located at the Upper Falls sight ... not that huffing back up was making me very happy:

The lodge - turned into a visitors center if I remember right:

And lookie, lookie what I found! THE MOST PERFECT FLOWER EVER:

A close contender for the perfect flower title:
Funky white 'exploding' flower:
And, finally - a beautiful field of the yellow flowers:

The byway didn't take all that long and would have been rather short had I not felt the need to photograph every wildflower in the area!

Got to our cabin and checked in. It was lovely ... and, well ... not. A weird place. I will post photos and 'The Creepiest Moment In My Life Since I Can Remember' - something to look forward to!

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Oh! And I am making an exception (for Kristie) to my linear posts of the trip and jumping right to what Gary and I now call 'The Camera Killers' - what I was jumping out of the car to photograph in Yellowstone when I dropped my camera:

Sure, they are cute and all, but .... DANG!