10th June 2025

So, all too quickly, this year’s adventure comes to an end! 😔

We left Las Vegas in temperatures of 103º F (39ºC) yesterday and have arrived home to sun, cloud and 69ºF (20ºC). In Las Vegas today there’s a ‘Extreme Heat Warning’ warning for heat as it’s108ºF (42ºC)! 🥵

Our flight was uneventful apart from some turbulence and even that wasn’t too bad. We arrived at London Heathrow on time but were then made to sit and wait for 30 minutes as the stand allotted to us was still being occupied by another plane. This is the second year in a row that has happened. It’s so annoying. Once we’ve landed we just want to get off and be on our way home. I’m sure there are lots of you who would agree. 🤨

We were offered the Virgin pyjamas to sleep in so we accepted them this time although we didn’t intend on using them, but we were told we could keep them, so why not?! 😂

I didn’t have a meal but Si had a chicken dish that he said was just wonderful. I ended up having one bread roll and a cup of hot chocolate. We both had breakfast this morning.

We were surprised when we reached the e-Gates (Security) at Heathrow to find them not busy at all, We both managed to get through okay this year. Plus, there was no-one in Customs (green channel) to check our bags. 🤷‍♀️

The roads from Heathrow to home were extremely busy, it felt like a Friday afternoon.

No matter how long we’ve been away for, everything remains just the same. It’s as though we just popped out for some milk.🥛🤷‍♀️

Our next-door neighbour, Mike, had cut the front lawn for us while the other next-door neighbour, Allan, watered all our plants for the whole time we were away. Many thanks to both. 👏

We’ve had a magnificent time, met lots of interesting people, including one lady at Las Vegas who happened to be catching our flight. She’s a huge Elvis Presley fan and goes to all major events in Nashville. She was travelling with her brother as she is now on her own, so is he and so he accompanies her as often as he can on trips as she doesn’t like to travel alone.

The only complaint she had about her brother was that he never listens to what she says! Show me a woman who doesn’t have that problem with a man!!!! 🤣🤷‍♀️

We had a lovely funny conversation with them, she lives in London now, he in Scotland but both were born in Scotland, about the English-Scottish rivalry. 😂

We’ve seen some wonderful sights and accomplished quite a few ‘firsts’ along the way too.

We did strenuous hikes, rode horses, slid down a roller coaster and travelled by train to the Grand Canyon, ate lots of delicious food, drank a ‘few’ cocktails  and of course. enjoyed the Bellagio Cheese Plate plus, did lots of shopping too. Hence, why my bag was overweight! 🧳😉We also experienced different weather, some snow and extreme heat. ❄️🥵⚡️🎢🏇🥾🍔🍹🚂

Plus, after a rocky start with the car hire, it all turned out okay in the end! 🚙 Even when Si drove on the wrong side of the road, it all worked out!! 🤣

As aways, we would like to say a big “thank you” to all of you who read and followed our adventures on the blog and for the comments too.They are always appreciated.👏

So, until the next time, there’s just one thing that remains for us to say, and that is ………. “goodbye again” 🥲

arrivederci, adeus, hejdå, 再见, zoi geen, zai jian, tot ziens, au revoir, tschüss, shalom, ciao, じゃね, anyeonghi gasyeo, poka/Пока, adios, hejdå, tạm biệt, vΘleft, farvel, ya sas, tókša akhé,

and hope to see you all again on our next adventure. 👋😀 ✈️🚙🇺🇸🇬🇧

8th June 2025

Good morning from another hot, sunny day in Las Vegas. The temperature today is forecast to reach 103ºF (39ºC). 🌞🥵

Warning! This post is mainly about eating and drinking, so look away now if it’s all too much and skip to the part about shopping at Walgreens and the Bellagio Atriium! 🤣

So, last night’s dinner at Bavette’s. We were not disappointed. Everything was just wonderful.

First of all, they sat us in banquette seating which we love as we could see the whole of the restaurant laid out in front of us. Our waiter, Carlos, was very friendly and attentive. They start serving dinner at 5 p.m., our reservation was for 6 p.m. and the place was already packed with diners.

Carlos felt our cocktails were taking a little too long so bought over two glasses of complimentary champagne to enjoy! 🥂🍾

Complimentary Champagne

We started with cocktails, even for Si! He had a French Martini (vodka, pineapple and Chambord black raspberry liqueur) and liked it so much he had a second! I had my usual Amaretto Sour, well two actually.

Si with the starter and his French Martini

Sand and her Amaretto Sour

We shared a starter of Peppered Duck and Goat Cheese Terrine, apricot Mustarda (a traditional Italian condiment made from fruit, both fresh and dried, syrup, spices) and thick pieces of toast.

For mains, Si had the Classic Ribeye, Chicago Cut, 16 ounce steak with bearnaise sauce and I had the Filet Mignon, Petite Duchess Cut, 6 ounces, again with bearnaise sauce (they were so juicy and tender we didn’t really need a steak knife to cut them) and shared buttery mashed potatoes and creamed spinach with blue cheese and caramalised onions. It’s no wonder we didn’t have room for dessert! 😂

Si’s Ribeye Steak

Sands Duchess Cut

I wonder if we will be able to get up from this table! 😂

We did have a little ‘flutter’ (gamble) after dinner with some success!

So, I had a mini disaster yesterday evening getting ready for dinner. I somehow managed to knock my makeup bottle from the sink area onto the marble floor! Of course it smashed the glass bottle, make-up and glass everywhere! 😱

Lucky for me, the store Walgreens, is in an alliance with Boots in the UK so I was able to pop along this morning and buy my No. 7 make-up! 👏(Oh, oh, now I’ve given away my secret of how I stay looking so young …………. Boots’ No.7 range for the ‘old folk!) 🤣Thank goodness for alliances! Some of the products are much cheaper than in the UK while some are about the same price. Believe me when I say, no-one wants to see me at dinner without my make-up! 🤣 The day has been saved. 👍

Walgreens No 7 counter

We managed to take photos and a video of the Bellagio Atrium this morning too.

Health warning! My video is rather all over the place so may make you giddy! 😵‍💫🥴

Many of our followers will know that a stay at Bellagio must include a visit to the Petrossian Bar for the cheese plate. This ‘must do’ was done this lunch time. It was as delicious as ever. 👏

Si with his Lavender-flavoured Lemon Drop – just love the flower! He had two!

Sand and her Bellini

Here comes the cheese plate!

The cheese plate

Sand’s Amaretto Sour!

Snacks were brought out to enjoy with our second cocktails!

The snacks

The entertainment

After that lot a hot drink was required!

Si has decided that we need another meal tonight as it’s our last evening here so we’ve decided to go back once again to Jasmine here in Bellagio.

By the time we get home we will have put back on all the weight we lost during our hiking earlier in the holiday! 😔

Looking back at this post it’s mainly all about eating! Well, we are here in Vegas with some of the best restaurants anywhere so what are we supposed to do! 🤷‍♀️

Here’s another lovely flower display in the Bellagio.

Tomorrow we leave the Bellagio to fly back home, so please join us for our last U.S. post. 😊

Thanks for sticking with us. See you tomorrow.

7th June 2025

Another brilliant, hot sunny day here in ‘Sin City!’ It’s currently 100ºF (38ºC)! 🌞🥵Luckily, it’s a dry heat, no humidity, so it’s just about bearable when walking outside.

A new centre-piece at the Bellagio. I thought we had come to the wrong country! 😂

Since our return here, the famous Bellagio Atrium has been remodelled for Summer. It means either an early-morning or late-evening visit as it gets packed out during the day. Photographs coming soon!

The day so far has consisted of lunch (we were up too late for breakfast), shopping and gambling. We dined at Mercato della Pescheria in St. Mark’s Square in the Venetian Hotel and Casino. Another ‘first’ for us as the restaurant we used to eat at was taken over by this company.

I had a Margherita Pizza and a non-alcoholic cocktail while Si had Tortellini al Proscuitto, Tortellini filled with Prosciutto, in a Grana Padano Broth, finished with Tomatoes & Truffle Oil and a Fat Tire beer (any followers of Bosch on Netfilix will know the name as that’s what Harry Bosch drinks). All the food was delicious.

Si waiting for his lunch

Delicious!

Sand with her pizza

And her non-alcoholic cocktail

I’m getting just a wee bit concerned about the suitcases! So far, we’ve had to expand Si’s suitcase but I don’t anticipate doing any more shopping before we fly home on Monday, so I think we should be okay space-wise.🤞🧳

Coming out from London they had ‘Heavy’ stickers placed on them even though one weighed 24 kilograms (53 pounds) and the other 26 kilograms (57 pounds). Our allowance is actually 32 kilograms per bag so I thought I had done quite a good job packing. They are a wee-bit heavier now. That Si buys so much during these trips,😉 so they’ll probably get ‘fork-lift truck needed to lift’ stickers instead! 🤣

Tonight we will dine at Bavette’s Steakhouse inside the Park MGM Hotel and Casino.

In their words, they are a stylish departure from a traditional steakhouse, Bavette’s embraces French flair without the formality, blending fine dining with unabashed fun. Indulge in timeless steakhouse fare, including richly flavorful ribeyes, fresh seafood, traditional side dishes, and house made desserts. Strong cocktails and a well-curated international wine list enhance the gilded space which features red leather banquettes and glowing chandeliers.

The last time we were there the food was fabulous so we are hoping for a repeat this evening.

We shall have a little ‘flutter’ after dinner. Probably on the same slot machine that we won our $13,000 in 2023 and Ann’s $89 this week. Fingers crossed we are lucky again this evening, but we won’t be holding our breaths!

Once again, I’m sat at the window typing this post and the Bellagio fountains are below me. They look magnificent.

Sand typing the latest Post for the Blog

Tomorrow will be the last full day of our holiday as we fly back to Blighty (the UK) on Monday evening, so please join us then to hear about tonight’s dinner and to see what we got up to!

As always, thanks for reading.

6th June 2025

A beautiful start to our first full-day in Las Vegas. 🌞 At 8.30 a.m the temperature was c 79ºF (26ºC) with the highest predicted to be 94ºF (34ºC) by 2.00 p.m.

First of all, let me back-track to last night’s meal at Spago. Our good friend Julie has reminded me that I didn’t actually tell you what we ate!

Well, we both started with Maryland Blue Crab Cakes followed by an 8oz Dry Aged Ribeye Steak for Si and although Prime Fillet Mignon was available and would usually be my first choice, I had Cheese Ravioli instead. I’m saving the steak for Saturday night when we dine at Bavette’s Steakhouse. For dessert, I had the Spiked Lemon and Si the Vairhona Dark Chocolate Souffle. Fabulous food in a fabulous location.

The Spiked Lemon is interesting. It’s all edible. That’s flecks of gold on top and in side are layers of yuzu cream, chiffon cake and citrus mousse. When it’s delivered to the table, the waiter dramatically cuts it in half. Vegas theatre.

I’m posting these photos as thumbnails because Si is not looking his best and didn’t want me to put them on at all!!! 🤣

The Crab Cakes

The Ribeye

The Ravioli

The Spiked Lemon

The Spiked Lemon cut in half

The Souffle

Today we decided to visit some of the other hotels. In particular we went to the hotel and casino, Park MGM, the site of our big win in 2023, as our good friend Ann has entrusted us with $12 she found at the back of her underwear drawer, left over from her visit to the U.S. last year. She wanted us to gamble it on the same machine we used in 2023! Guess what happened? Once again, on a first spin, we won her $89.00! 👏Here’s the video of the event! 🤣 Apologies for any bad language you may hear! 👂

After the win we went for a quick lunch in Eataly (everything Italian) at Park MGM.

Si at Eataly

A refreshing drink

Our lunch

This is my view as I’m writing the blog today, the Las Vegas strip.

The Las Vegas Strip

This evening we dined at Jasmine here in Bellagio. The food was excellent. When we booked they asked if it was a celebration so we said it was. It’s 59 years since we first met so we thought that was worth celebrating! They gave us the best table, it was a large one and raised up for a good view of the fountains and a special dessert.

Our view from our table

The fountains through the window

Si started with sliced BBQ pork and then we both shared the Peking duck that they carved at the table. Another ‘first’ for us as we’ve never seen that before. They took the rest of the duck away and bought back the remainder mixed and in a lettuce leaf and then we finished with the special dessert.

The beautiful napkins

The chop sticks and yes, we did use them!

Si with his BBQ Pork

Carving the Peking Duck.

The rest of the duck

The special dessert

When we had finished we went and had a ‘flutter’ or two with some wins and some losses. Besides the Dragon Link machines, another one we have fun with is called Mo Mo Mummy, it’s hilarious. He doesn’t really talk but grumbles and makes weird noises. This is what he does when you win.

The weather forecast was right, it’s been a lovely sunny day and the temperature got up to 93ºF (34ºC). Tomorrow it’s going to climb even hotter! 🌞Thank goodness for the air-conditioning!

Thanks for keeping up with us. More tomorrow! 😊

5th June 2025

First of all, I must apologise for this Post being so late! We are eight hours behind here so some of our followers will be part-way through their day (Friday) before they see this! 😔

The reason for my tardiness is that we went to dinner at Spago here in the Bellagio,    where we are staying. We had patio seating so were able to have a close-up view of the famous Bellagio fountains every 15 minutes. We have eaten there on previous visits and they welcomed us back. As always, the food was fabulous.

Sand and Si at Spago – part of the fountains in the background

After dinner we decided to try our hand at a little gambling and managed to turn $300 into $1000 so I’d call that a successful evening all round! We won it on a Dragon Link machine (the same type of machine we had our big win on in 2023) but this was called Genghis Khan. 💵😊👏

The win!

So, back to earlier today. It was another driving day but much shorter than the other ones we have done, just 3.5 hours.

We left Williams after breakfast and a quick visit to town to check out the old Route 66 and of course, the shops!

Don’t think that fence would stop a buffalo!

On old Route 66

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but one the reasons we changed our plans (apart from the bad reports of the Grand Canyon North Rim) and came to Williams was because I saw a programme on television with Nick Knowles called Escaping the Grand Canyon. He came to Williams and travelled on the Grand Canyon Railway and it inspired us to do the same.

The drive was uneventful, apart from a 16 minute hold up due to road works and there’s not much to photograph along the way either.

Here are a few photos of our drive.

Welcome to Nevada

We think our roads are bad back home because of the pot-holes. Well, the roads we’ve travelled on here are far worse, if that’s possible!

We had to take the car back today so decided to drop our bags off first at the Bellagio and then return it to Hertz Car Rental. At least this car behaved itself better than last year! Although we did have an alert that the oil needed changing as soon as possible! 🤷‍♀️

We drove a total of 2,804 miles and during that time we only had one incident with Margaret on Google Maps and that was when we had a choice of three roads to take and she didn’t bother to tell us which one we should be on and so, of course, we chose the wrong one and had to turn around. We gave her a stern telling off and after that she behaved! 😂

We were a little dismayed on arrival in Vegas to discover it was raining and lightening,!! ⛈️ But that cleared up quickly and the sun came out. 🌞 It was 90ºF (32ºC).

Another hot day is forecast for today (Friday), it should reach at least 92ºF (33ºC) so it’s hats and suntan lotion all round me thinks!! 🥵🧢 😉

Thanks for reading. Back tomorrow (well today actually)! 😉

4th June 2025

Well, we have had the most fantastic day riding the Grand Canyon Railway to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. 👏

We arrived yesterday in Williams, Arizona, after a very long drive and checked into the Grand Canyon Railway and Hotel.

After settling in to our lovely room, we had a delicious dinner and even managed a visit to the gift shop! 😉

Miniature train running around the restaurant

We were a little worried when we checked the weather last night as it forecast rain and lightening for our visit to the Canyon today and even gave a Flash Flood warning! 🌧️⛈ 😱

The Grand Canyon Railway started carrying passengers to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on 17th September 1901 and since that time, notable passengers to ride the Grand Canyon Railway include Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, William Howard Taft, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Clark Gable, Jimmy Durante, Doris Day, Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates.

It’s estimated to carry more than 225,000 passengers every year, resulting in around 50,000 fewer cars entering the park.

Thankfully, overnight the weather forecast changed to only a slight chance of rain. After a lovely breakfast we wondered over to the train station to take photographs and then it was time to board the train.

This engine from the Pikes Peak railway was of interest as a couple of years ago we drove to the top of Pikes Peak instead of going by train.

A train engine from the Pikes Peak railway

At the station

Sand at the station

Sand hanging off a carriage!

Which way?

While checking out the railway station, we suddenly heard a train whistle and a freight train appeared. We were rather surprised to see it had five engines and wondered why! We found out soon enough when it took three and a half minutes to pass through the station. It was pulling 202 containers (yes, I counted them!) The driver waved and blew his whistle for us as he passed by.

Before we boarded, we were serenaded by a group of cowboys and then were treated to a cowboy gunfight by the Cataract Creek Gang (we were going to see them later in the afternoon!) and Marshall Tucker. They are a group of performers known for their Old West-themed gun fights and robberies. They were very funny.

After that boarding commenced.

The train consisted of 13 carriages and appeared as though every one of them would be full. Our train carriage was called ‘Fred Harvey’ and had a glass domed ceiling. Everyone in our carriage were just fantastic and friendly. Our hostess was called Noel and she made the day. She was so funny and could she talk! 😂🗣️

The ‘Fred Harvey’

Fred Harvey had a strong connection to Grand Canyon hotels because he and the Santa Fe Railway formed a partnership to create a chain of Harvey Houses along their train routes. Harvey recognized the need for better accommodations for travellers and worked with the railroad to build hotels and restaurants, including those at the Grand Canyon. 

The journey to the Grand Canyon was just 65 miles and the train travels at about 35 miles per hour so took us approximately 2.5 hours. We had a buffet and plenty of drink to keep us occupied during the trip.

This is our train. Sorry for the poor video!

As well as watching the scenery, which was mostly flat countryside, we were on the look out for wildlife and saw cows, elk and Pronghorn antelope. Fact: Did you know Pronghorn antelope are related to giraffes?! No, we didn’t either. 🤷‍♀️Another fact given to us by Noel.

We were also treated to entertainment in the form of Brian, who sang and played the guitar. He was great and we even sang along to a couple of John Denver numbers.

At the back of our carriage was an open-air platform so we took advantage of that as we had never stood in the open-air on the back of a train before. Another ‘first’ for us.That was fun!

On the back of the train – another ‘first’ for us

We reached the Grand Canyon in lovely warm sunshine and were, once again, overawed at the amazing sight before us. No matter how many times you gaze upon it, it always takes your breath away. We took loads of photographs. Here are just a few. No photograph will ever be as good as seeing it in person.

While we were there, we were surprised to see this elk having his lunch and the squirrel waiting for his! 😂

Elk having his lunch

Squirrel hoping he gets lucky!

Sand and Si at the Canyon

Si on ‘top of the world’

I’m not going back any further!

Then it clouded over and started to rain. Luckily, we had booked to have lunch in the El Tovar, the South Rim’s hotel, so managed to miss getting wet. 🌧️ The rain passed quickly and there was no thunder or lightening.

Sand with her elk bolognese and Amaretto Sour

Si with his lobster ‘roll’

We boarded the train for our return journey and again, were treated to a buffet and drinks, although we couldn’t manage much after having such a delicious lunch.

Once again there was entertainment, this time with Singing Sam who sang rock and roll and played guitar. Then suddenly, the train stopped and was boarded by the Cataract Creek Gang, who were wearing masks and carrying guns (not real ones!) They tore through the train robbing as many people as possible! In hot pursuit behind them was Marshall Tucker who eventually caught up with them as they had run out of train and marched them off to jail. It was hilarious! 🤣

Marshall Tucker!

We learnt a couple of things on the way back to Williams. Noel was telling us it snows in Arizona, we did not know that, and has 600 volcanic mountains!! Who knew? 🤷‍♀️

Sand and Noel

Tomorrow we leave Williams for the relatively short drive to our last ‘port of call’ on this holiday, Las Vegas.

Please join us for tales of gambling, fine food, fine wine and if the weather forecast is correct, very, very, high temperatures!! ☀️

Thanks, as always, for joining us on our adventures.

3rd June 2025

Before I begin, I would like to give a shout out to good friend Dot who noticed a mistake in last night’s blog. I had posted a photo with the wrong caption! Ten points and a gold star to dearest Dot!! ⭐️

Today has been a long day!

We left Capitol Reef Resort at 8.30 a.m. for the long drive to Williams, Arizona, calling into Monument Valley , home to the Navajo along the way. In the end the total drive was about 7.30 hours.

We had a lovely surprise today when we discovered Glen Canyon, another first for us. We had heard of it but never visited and my, my had we missed out on something grand. It was magnificent.

Sand above Glen Canyon

Sand in Glen Canyon

Glen Canyon

The landscapes from Capitol Reef to Williams have been so different it’s hard to imagine they are in the same country. From canyons and towering monoliths to flat ranges. From red rocks to white and grey.

At one point we had a cows being herded by wranglers on the open ranges.

Just before we reached Monument Valley we passed the famous Mexican Hat. The nearby town called Mexican Hat is named after the rock formation that resembles the sombrero, or a Mexican Hat.

Mexican Hat just outside Monument Valley

We visited Monument Valley (Navajo Nation’s Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park) about halfway into our journey. The views were as magnificent as ever but the passage of time has changed things!

Monument Valley

Sand in front of ‘Right Mitten’ in Monument Valley

Si at Monument Valley

One point of excitement was when we reached U.S. Route 163 near Monument Valley. This road is commonly referred to as “Forrest Gump Point“. In the film, Forrest Gump, as he runs up the road he comments that he has run for three years, two months, 14 days and 16 hours and then says “I’m pretty tired … I think I’ll go home now” and then “and just like that my running days was over”. 

Ever since then when you reach that part of the highway, there are cars and people everywhere just trying to recreate that same shot.

Sand and Si on the Forrest Gump Road!

Most of the roads we travelled today were single lane and at one point we had to travel on a gravel one down the side of a mountain for some distance. It was quite terrifying as on my side it was a sheer drop. That was the famous Moki Dugway!

The Moki Dugway is a dramatic, unpaved switchback road carved into the face of Cedar Mesa in southeastern Utah, forming part of Utah Route 261. It’s known for its stunning views and challenging drive, especially for vehicles with trailers. The 3-mile stretch climbs 1,200 feet with an 11% grade, offering a unique experience of the American Southwest. 

This video makes it look as though we were flying along but we weren’t!!

At one point the sky became very dark and down came the rain. At least it gave the dirty car a clean! 🧼🧽

Here comes the rain!

We have arrived at the Grand Canyon Railway and Hotel but will save all the details to incorporate into the blog tomorrow when we have completed our trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Very excited! 👏🚂

As always, thanks for following our adventures.

2nd June 2025

Well, what do I know? 🤨

I said yesterday that we would not be hiking today and of course we did! 🤷‍♀️

But, first of all, the most important news of the morning is that Si has had one of his photos go into Explore on Flickr.! 👏 Flickr is an online site for photographers to show their pictures.

The photographers among you may know this already, but everyday, Flickr choose 500 of the best photos from the millions they receive on a daily basis and put them into Explore, so it’s very special. This is the photo taken when we were in the Grand Tetons and is called ‘Teton Sunset’.

Sunset at Snake River Overlook now on Flickr Explore 1st June 2025

It was originally our intention today to do another ‘first’ and drive two hours to the Temples of the Sun and the Moon, two iconic sandstone monoliths located in the Cathedral Valley here in Capitol Reef but we were warned by a Ranger not to attempt it as rain was expected and the roads would become impassable due to the sand turning to mud and we could become stuck! 😔

So, instead of a ‘first’ for both of us we decided to do a ‘first’ for me and a ‘second’ for Si. We drove to Goosenecks Point Overlook and Sunset Point, they were a ‘first’ for me as the last time we were here I caught Covid so Si hiked up alone whilst I sat in the Car, hence a ‘second’ visit for him.

Goosenecks Point

Goosenecks Point

Sunset Point

After that we decided to hike to Hickman Bridge. We both did that the last time we were here and before I realised I had Covid.

River at Trail Head

Hickman Bridge Trail

Cactus Flower on the trail

Sand at Hickman Bridge

Si at Hickman Bridge

The hike was a two mile round trip, classed as ‘moderate’ with an elevation gain of 400 feet. It seemed much longer and after yesterday’s hike to Cassidy Arch, our legs were not happy! 😂

It has been overcast all day and this evening we’ve had some rain. The temperature this morning was 62ºF (17ºC) and the highest it rose to was 73ºF (23ºC).

We had our last dinner here in Capitol Reef Resort at the Pioneer Kitchen again. The food is excellent and the staff lovely and very attentive.

Sand with her chicken pot pie!

Si and his burger!

Sand and Si at the Pioneer Kitchen

Tomorrow is a driving day, a long 6.5 hours to Williams in northern Arizona. It is known as a gateway to Grand Canyon National Park via the Grand Canyon Railway and is situated on the Historic Route 66.

Route 66, also known as “The Mother Road,” is a historic U.S. highway established in 1926 that ran from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California covering 2,448 miles.

Williams was the last town on Historic Route 66 to be bypassed by Interstate 40. The community, bypassed on 13 October 1984, continues to thrive on tourism.

We shall be passing by Monument Valley en-route so we intend to stop and take some photographs there too. It is said to be one of the most photographed places in the world.

The Valley’s landscape has been a backdrop to many Hollywood movies and television shows, beginning with several John Wayne films including “Stagecoach” in 1939 and “Forrest Gump” in 1994.

Well, they say things happen for a reason!  We were originally going to stay on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in the Grand Canyon Lodge cabins after leaving Capitol Reef National Park, but Si saw a report that things were not as they should be with accommodation and food so we cancelled our stay and decided to go and stay in Williams and travel by train to the Canyon instead.

Are we glad we did, because we’ve just seen a report that as of today there is a power outage on the North Rim and all visitor services are closed until further notice. 😱Grand Canyon Lodge has cancelled reservations for tonight and dining/food services are suspended. People will have to travel outside the park for food and fuel as the Lodge is the only place to eat. Nightmare!

It must have been fate that made Si read that report or we could have found ourselves sleeping in the car!!! 🤣

Thanks, as always, for reading and following us on our adventures.

1st June 2025

It was another ‘first’ today as we decided to hike to Cassidy Arch (named after Butch Cassidy who had a hide out here) in Capitol Reef National Park. This was a ‘first’ and believe me, there is never, ever, going to be a ‘second’! 🙂‍↔️

After we ate a quick breakfast, we set out at 8.00 a.m., it was 73ºF (23ºC) so it was already starting to get warm. 🌞

When we arrived at the trail head the car park nearly full but we managed to get one of the last two spaces and off we went! 🥾

Walk to the Trail Head

Walk to the Trail Head

Si walking the Grand Wash

From the Grand Wash

From the Grand Wash

From the Grand Wash

We walked down into Grand Wash and after about a quarter of a mile we realised, even though we were following AllTrails, that we had missed the sign telling us where the Trail Head was to start the hike to Cassidy Arch. Along with another family who had done the same as us, we retraced our steps and realised a huge bush was covering up the sign! Lesson learned here, always keep your eyes on the AllTrails map on the phone! 😉

That’s the way!

According to AllTrails and Strava, (an internet service for tracking physical exercise which incorporates social network features) the elevation gain is between 685 and 1058 feet and the hike is classed as strenuous. This is the map showing how steep the climb is!

The first half mile is really vertical and to quote a previous hiker “kicks butt!” I was ready to turn around at that point but Si wouldn’t let me so we trudged on to the summit.The trail was very steep and rocky and some of the stone very slick. There was some shade but not a lot but I have to say it was well worth the agony in the end. The views were magnificent. 👏

I told Si it was reckless!!! 😂🤷‍♀️

We joined a lot of other people at the summit with some choosing to walk out and stand in the middle of the arch. It looks very thin but in fact you could probably drive a car over it.

Cassidy Arch

Hooray, we made it! 👏👏👏The summit at last! 😊!

Sand and Si on top of Cassidy Arch with two Abseilers about to descent into the canyon!

Sand and Si on top of Cassidy Arch

As we hiked down there were lots of people hiking up even though it was midday, the temperature extremely hot and dark clouds were starting to gather! If you read the blog yesterday you’ll know about rain and thunderstorms! We had checked the weather forecast before we left and there was no mention of rain, but you never can tell. It changes quickly. 🌞⛈⚡️

At one point, we passed a family hiking up and the father was carrying a small baby! How he was going to manage, scrambling up and over rocks and boulders goodness only knows. People can be so silly at times. 😔

We also met a Volunteer Ranger hiking up, and we told him so that he was aware that a situation could occur, especially if they were not carrying enough water. 💧

Sand on the way down! This photo reminds us of 2013!!

Help, I’m exhausted – and I’m 12 years older now! 😂

The hat I’m wearing says GRITS on the front ……………. but in this case it’s not the kind you eat (Grits are a type of coarsely ground, dried corn that’s a staple in Southern U.S. cuisine). It stands for ‘Girls raised in the South’! That’s right, I was, but not southern USA 🇺🇸but southern UK! 🇬🇧 😉

Help! I’m exhausted – 2013. Yosemite Falls Trail .

It was a great hike but what a relief to get back to the car! We were covered from head to foot in red dust.

The hike took 3 hours 19 minutes and we covered a distance of 4.20 miles.

When we left there were loads of cars trying to find somewhere to park so what do they do? Why, park where it specifically says “No Parking” of course.🤷‍♀️ They don’t give any thought to the fact that if the emergency services need to get down there, there won’t be enough space for them to get passed the parked vehicle!! 😟

I think we deserve a large glass of something 🍹🍺for our efforts today so you can be sure we shall indulge at dinner!

Tomorrow is our last full day here but we haven’t decided yet what we should do. I definitely do not see a hike of any kind on the cards that’s for sure! 😂

Please join us again tomorrow to see what adventures the day brings.

31st May 2025

This morning, we were up, breakfasted and in the stables by 8.30 a.m. ready for the great ride! 🐎

There were eight in our party including Brett and Ellie, our wranglers. Brett was basically born in the saddle and was hilarious for the whole ride. Because Si looked so comfortable in the saddle he kept saying he must have been born and lived in Texas in his early life! Ellie was a local girl born on a nearby ranch.

We all wore hard hats and were given water and a bag to hang from our pommels to put anything in we wanted to take with us on the trail. None of the party were really experienced riders but the instructions we were given by Brett and Ellie were second to none. We all felt very comfortable.

The hard hat was not very flattering, I look like my granny! Bless her! Long departed this world. 😱😂

Sand looking like her granny! 👵

Si looks okay

Some of our party

Ella rode up front and Brett at the back. He kept us fully informed about the red rocks, trees and vegetation.

I was riding Rocco and Si was on Rio, the horses are best friends. Rocco likes a good drink of water and takes every opportunity to quench his thirst. Before we even left the coral he made his way over the trough for a good long drink. Brett reckons he’s part camel! 🐫

The sun was already warm so we were pleased we decided on the early ride. We were feeling a little nervous but once on the trail it was if we had ridden only yesterday. Of course, the horses make it easy.

We rode through magnificent scenery, riverbeds and under the red rocks. As the area is very dry there was quite a lot of dust but it wasn’t a problem. My horse, Rocco, likes to be last in the pack so that meant that Brett and I got the worst of it. 🤷‍♀️

I have to say that every time we’ve done a horse ride on holiday, I’m always the one who ends up riding at the back! What’s that all about?! 🤷‍♀️😂

The ride actually took about 1.5 hours and we both felt that was about right once we dismounted and found that we’d both developed bowlegs!! 😂 I dread to think how our legs will feel in the morning. 😔

I think I’m getting too old for this! 🫩

Brett said we should hold hands!

Once we’d showered and changed, you can imagine what our clothes looked like, we took a ride to Fruita and the Gifford House, famous for fruit pies and ice-cream, with the fruit coming from their orchards. We last visited here in 2023 when I was suffering with Covid so it only seemed right that we should return and once again, sample their delicious home-made pies.

All the seating was taken so we found ourselves a nice shady spot to enjoy our pies.

We didn’t arrive until 1.15 pm so felt sure all the pies would have been sold, they are usually all gone by midday, but it must be our lucky day, there were still a few left. One pie really serves two people but we grabbed two, together with two small tubs of vanilla ice-cream. Si, had the rhubarb and strawberry pie and I had the apple.

While we were sitting on the grass Si spotted a hummingbird amongst the lilies and he was lucky enough to capture this wonderful picture.

It’s unfortunate that they are currently undertaking maintenance work on the 7.9 mile (12.7 km) Scenic Drive to improve roads, washes (dry riverbeds and channels that can be traversed to access various canyon sections or explore specific canyons) and car parks, so there’s only a few miles open and in June the whole Scenic Drive will close. That’s sure to cause chaos!! It’s lucky that we were able to drive and enjoy that on our last visit.

Capital Dome

Followers of the blog may remember that we walked one of the washes in 2022 and a couple of weeks after we arrived home there was a flash flood (click on the link to see what a flash flood looks like) in the same wash and people were stranded and vehicles washed away! We are always reminded not to hike a wash if a storm is forecast. The speed, depth and debris in the water is unbelievable! 😱

We will probably be hiking in the Grand Wash tomorrow, but you can be sure we’ll be checking out the weather before we go! 🌞⛈

Here’s a couple of random photos.

The view from our balcony.

Sand writing the blog!

Sand writing the blog on our balcony

Our plan for tomorrow is to do a hike but we are not sure which one to do. We will wait and see how our legs feel in the morning as some of them are quite steep but whichever one we choose will be another ‘first’ for us.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you’ve enjoyed it. 🤗

30th May 2025

Today has been a driving day. We left Salt Lake City for the 4.30 hour journey to Capitol Reef Resort.

However, we were sat eating breakfast this morning when I saw an advertisement on the television that said “Harry Potter The Exhibition” now in Salt Lake City!!! What?! 😱I dropped my spoon on to the table and gasped! This was all news to me. Apparently, it opened on 24th May. 🤷‍♀️

Well, what’s a girl to do when she’s a huge Harry Potter fan? Well go to the exhibition that’s what. Luckily, it happened to be on the very road we would be travelling out of Salt Lake City, so even more reason to go.

When we arrived it wasn’t busy as it’s still school time here. There was much confusion when buying the tickets as everyone serving was new and the technology had not bedded in properly, so we had to wait quite a while to get in.

It’s a fairly small exhibition compared to the one at Leavesden Studios where they actually filmed the series but it was well worth a visit. Quite a lot of interaction and a lot of the original props from the films. Enough to keep any Harry Potter fan happy.

There were also exhibits from the Fantastic Beasts series.

Here are a few pics from the Exhibition.

Sand at the entrance

A first edition of HP and the Philosopher’s Stone or Sorcerer’s Stone

Si repotting a Mandrake

Sand in the Ministry of Magic phone box

Si in Hagrid’s chair

Sand in Dolores Umbridge’s office

Sand and Si in Harry’s cupboard under the stairs

Si scoring a Quidditch goal!

Sand and Si disappearing into a suitcase!

The final battle!

Of course there was the obligatory gift shop and even though my cupboards are fairly full of memorabilia, I still managed to find a few things I don’t have and of course, needed badly! Plus of course, the ‘official’ photographs that we bought but will put in a cupboard and never look at again!

Our journey to Capitol Reef Resort was uneventful and the temperature along the way climbed to 90ºF (32ºC), so very hot indeed. 🌞

On the Road

Arriving at Capitol Reef Resort

We have a lovely room at the Resort, overlooking the red cliffs and have settled in nicely. Tonight for dinner we will eat on site at the Pioneer Kitchen and venture further afield tomorrow evening.

Pioneer Kitchen

The view from our room.

Sand on the balcony

You may think our first adventure tomorrow would be a hike but oh no, tomorrow morning the Barretts will be riding like John Wayne!! It’s been quite a while since we sat atop horses 🐎so hard hats have been requested and fingers crossed, we will complete the two-hour ride with no mishaps! 🤞🤕

Please join us tomorrow to see how we fair!

29th May 2025

First of all, last night’s dinner. As I said, we ate at the Blue Lion Restaurant in Jackson and the food was as good as always.👍

I started with the obligatory salad (there always seems to be a salad course before the Main course in the US!), followed by beef tenderloin, with crab au bleu sauce, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.

Si had stuffed mushrooms consisting of crab, cream cheese, and Courvoisier stuffing followed by the salad and then seared scallops with Sunchoke puree, curried carrots, pickled mustard seas and sesame seeds. To finish off he had the Russian cream and raspberries.

Si with his stuffed mushrooms

Sand and her beef tenderloin

Si with his Russian cream and respberries

He then staggered out of the restaurant, ready for a lie down! 🫩🛌😂

Today has been another driving day, so we haven’t done much except sit in the car and admire the scenery.

We said farewell to Dornans 😔 where the temperature at 9.30 a.m.was 70ºF (21C) and made our way to Salt Lake City, where the temperature when we arrived was 86ºF (30ºC). 🌞 The drive was very easy, even though we started on small local roads before hitting the highway and took about 4.5 hours.

Farewell Dornans

Our journey was hastened by the fact that some of the highways had an 80 miles per hour (128 kilometers per hour) speed limit.

We are staying over night at the same Best Western we stayed at last week on our way to the Tetons.

I’ve been meaning to say ……………… regular followers of the blog will know that we’ve always called our satellite navigation (satnav) ‘Margaret’ in honour of our dear friend Dot, who has a saying she uses when she wants her car to get a move on and that’s “punch it Margaret”,

You can see why we are all such good friends! Dot is our leader! This was taken some years ago at Watkins Glen State Park, New York. She will hate this picture! Sorry Dot! 😂 🥰

We used to include satnav (Margaret) with our hire car from Hertz and sometimes she could be rather difficult (she was getting on in years! 👵) sending us in the wrong direction etc. Well, Margaret retired last year to the home of Elderly Satellite Navigators and as with all things, times change.

Si has free roaming on his phone in the USA (“free roaming” on a phone, in the context of international travel, refers to international roaming plans offered by a mobile carrier that doesn’t charge extra fees for using your phone in other countries) so we now use Google Maps instead. We are pleased to report that the voice guiding us now is actually Margaret’s daughter, also called Margaret in honour of her mother and who is carrying on the family tradition. Touch wood, everything’s been fine so far with Margaret 2.

Today we travelled from Wyoming, then one and a half miles into Idaho and back into Wyoming again before finally landing in Utah.

Welcome to Idaho!

Along the way we passed through Plymouth and Weston (spooky, that used to be my maiden name!) 😳

One interesting fact is that by using Google maps we receive alerts along the way telling us  there are reports of Police ahead and then a prompt appears on screen asking us to confirm they are still there or have left. The same happens with roadworks and objects in the road! Good system! 👍

On the way back today we had to drive over railway tracks again and this time there was an actual train heading our way, thankfully very slowly. There were no crossing gates or anything telling us a train was coming so that was a little hairy! 😱

Here comes the train!

For dinner this evening we returned to another favourite eatery, Texas Roadhouse. Again, our dear friend Dot first introduced us many years ago to the wonderful Texas Roadhouse Rolls brushed with sweet honey butter and we always return there if there’s one in town.

The Texas Roadhouse Rolls 😋

I had the 6oz Dallas Fillet. It is a popular steak at Texas Roadhouse and is known for its tenderness and lean, melt-in-the-mouth quality and my goodness are they right! It was fabulous. All the steaks are hand cut. It was accompanied by mashed potatoes topped with bacon and cheese and buttered corn on the side.

Si started with a cup of chilli topped with cheese, followed by a 12oz ribeye steak with a mushroom topping accompanied by mashed potatoes topped with bacon and cheese plus prawns on the side.

Sand with her Dallas Fillet

Si with his Ribeye Steak

Some of you will remember that last time we tried to get a drink at the Texas Roadhouse they wouldn’t serve us because we didn’t have our Passports with us! I’m pleased to report that things have improved and they were happy to accept our driving licences instead.

Sand with a rather large Margarita

Si’s lager

We seem to have lots of pics of us eating today but I know there are regular followers who enjoy nothing more than seeing, in particular, what Si’s been eating. 😂

Here are a few more picture from our journey today.

Is that an elephant’s head?

There’s still snow in them there hills!

A rather large chicken!

Just another train

I do like a pic of a Coca-Cola lorry!

Tomorrow we travel on to our next destination, Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. The Park covers 58 acres and there’s plenty to do there as well as hike. It is one of the ‘Mighty Five’ National Parks in Utah. The other four are, Canyonlands, Arches, Bryce and Zion.

As for wildlife, Capitol Reef has black bears who are more timid than grizzly bears and tend to shy away from people, but we still have our bear spray and will take that with us, just in case! 🤞

On a closing note, I’ll be lucky if I get this post out tonight as the wi-fi’s being a nightmare and keeps falling out! 😔

Anyway, as always, thanks for reading and we hope you’ll join us tomorrow for the next stage of our adventure.

28th May 2025

Last night we drove out at dusk in yet another attempt to see wildlife! We did see some Elk and  Si took some lovely sunset shots from the Snake River Overlook.

Sunset at Snake River Overlook

This morning, our last full day in the Tetons, we were up and out fairly early to continue our quest. It’s been another lovely day and everywhere was very peaceful this morning.

In Jackson this morning we saw this fabulous tree! If anyone knows the name, please let us know.

Si with the fabulous tree

We saw a few Wildlife Management Managers in a couple of places and thought that boded well for seeing wildlife but alas, that was not the case today!

On our boat trip on Monday, First Mate, Brooke was telling us how all the colleagues keep in touch with each other when it comes to wildlife sightings but when talking to each other they have to talk in code because people are monitoring their airwaves for information of sightings and will then race to the location, but they are able to overcome this by speaking in code.

We did stop and talk to one Manager who was trying to educate visitors on good practices whens it comes to wildlife, in particular, bears. This will have been the only time that we actually got up close and personal with two bears. One Grizzly and one Black bear!!!!!

You can tell the difference between the two as the Grizzly has a hump on his back.

Grizzly Bear

Black Bear

One interesting fact about bears! Mother Bears like to stay near the road with their cubs because they feel safer as male grizzlies, who usually try to kill the cubs in order to mate with the mother bear, will not come near the roadway.

After our failed outing this morning we once again stopped off at the Pioneer Grill at Jackson Lake Lodge for breakfast. I had the healthy granola, yoghurt and fruit while Si had the U.S. equivalent to bacon and eggs. Food was delicious as always.

After breakfast we decided to visit Signal Mountain that had been opened again after a Grizzly attack! The views from there are just amazing and well worth the fairly long drive to reach the summit.

View from Signal Mountqin

Balsam Root on Signal Mountain

Once at the top we got talking to a lovely lady called Kris who, with her husband Mike, two cats and a dog, has a You Tube channel called Positive RV Journey. They originally hail from Maryland but are now two of the US’s full-time RVers (that’s people who live full-time in their Recreational Vehicles).

Kris from Positive RV Journey

We have spoken to a few full-time RVers on this trip and it’s quite amazing that they all seem to follow the same You Tube channels as us! Spooky! 👻

Kris has done a cruise from Iceland to Southampton. Spooky again, as that used to be our home town and of course our football team is Southampton Football.Club. Well, someone has to follow them! Also, Kris is a American Football fan and follows the Washington Commanders as does Si. What a small world it is! 🤷‍♀️

She has also visited London and had afternoon tea at Fortnum and Masons. Her next trip will be to Dublin, Ireland. Have a great trip Kris.

Also on the mountain we came across a couple who were married last Friday in Seattle, Washington and were on their honeymoon. We have now seen six couples recently married. It must be that time of year and love is in the air! 👰‍♀️🤵💕

On the way back we stopped off at Oxbow Bend.

Oxbow Bend

Our next quest was to try and find the Big Horn Mountain Sheep. They too have been hiding away but we found a small herd. Hooray! Along the way we also saw some Pronghorn Antelope so all was not lost.

Big Horn Mountain Sheep

Si thought was a good shot of the Teton mountain range with no traffic in sight!

As this is our last night here we are going to get out of our hiking gear and dress up (well sort of!) and dine at The Blue Lion Restaurant in Jackson. We’ve eaten there before and the food was delicious.

So, this is our last post from the Grand Tetons. Our next one will be from Salt Lake City where we will overnight tomorrow before heading to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. Regular followers of the blog will remember that on our last visit in 2023 I caught Covid so was unable to hike or appreciate the beautiful surroundings.

Please keep everything crossed that our visit this year will be problem free!! 🤞

Thanks for reading.

27th May 2025

Today has been one of ‘firsts’ again!

As it was going to be another hot sunny day, we decided not to hike but to spend a leisurely day in Jackson. 🌞 Shorts and short sleeves were the order of the day!

This was such a beautiful tree, we felt a photo was in order.

The first thing we did was a ‘little’ shopping 🛍️followed by lunch once again at the restaurant Local where I had crab cakes and Si, steak frites.

Sand and her crab cake

After lunch our first port of call was to the Snow King Resort in Jackson,

where we rode the Cowboy Roller Coaster! This is how it is described on the website:

Climbing the Mountain

Hop in the driver’s seat, get comfortable, and buckle up! The Cowboy Coaster does the work for you as you make your way up the mountain. During the roughly five minute ascent, enjoy unparalleled views of the Tetons. As the ride nears the top, get ready to smile or make a funny face for the camera!

Race to the Bottom

When the auto-lift ends and the ride begins to go downhill push the hand brakes forward and rush down the mountain. The curves, twists and turns, and 360 degree loops are sure to thrill every rider! For everyone’s safety the coaster will automatically brake when it reaches 25mph. For those looking for a more leisurely ride, use the brakes to ease your way to the bottom.

Now, the Barretts are not usually reckless roller coaster people but we had seen this activity on You Tube and felt we would like to try it. We were a little nervous but knew that we would be able to control the cart ourselves so we decided to go for it. 🫣

Ready for lift off!

It was exciting but hairy in parts but we were well strapped in and there was safety netting round the tight bends so it was quite safe. Needless to say, I did not travel at 25 miles per hour but made my way down at a leisurely pace. Si wondered where I was as he came down much quicker than I did. So reckless! 😳

Look at him with his cap on backwards! 😂

Here I come, nice and steady!

After that excitement we made our way back to the town for another ‘first’. We had a ride in a stagecoach round the town square. We had always wanted to do it, so decided today was the day.

We were surprised how smooth the ride was but we were only in it for a short time.

Riding in style

One other thing I had never tried before was a huckleberry milkshake so that was another thing ticked off the list today. It was rather delicious, thick and creamy. Just what was needed on a hot day.

Sand putting the world to rights with Benjamin Franklin!

Tomorrow will be our last full day here at Dornans in our lovely cabin, Osprey, 😔so please join us to see what adventures we have in store to complete this part of our holiday.

26th May 2025

Last night we went out once again in search of wildlife. We were lucky in that we saw a Moose, but not so lucky because he was well hidden in the brush so difficult to photograph.

There’s a Moose there somewhere!

This morning we had another late start, 9.05 a.m. I’m beginning to think we are getting lazy or is it all the early starts and hiking catching up with us oldies? 😔

Today has been another fabulous hot, sunny day. The temperature started at 54ºF (12ºC) and is currently 70ºF (21ºC). 🌞

We did the narrated scenic boat tour around Colter Bay, part of Jackson Lake and Mrs. B. did not embarrass herself thank goodness. 🥴👏

There were lots of people kayaking and canoeing on the lake too. A lovely day for it.

People out on the Lake.

The Colter Bay boat area – waiting to board!

We had Captain Dave as our ‘driver’ and Brooke from Raleigh, North Carolina as First Mate. She was excellent and her knowledge first class and very informative. We learnt a lot today. Our boat today was called Teewinot.

Our Boat Teewinot – on the left!

Captain Dave from Chicago

First Mate, Brooke from North Carolina

We were lucky that the water was very calm, as during high winds and various other activities, waves have been known to reach up to 6 ft high (1.83m).

Grand Teton from our boat

The lake is 437 feet deep and is the second-largest in Wyoming with Yellowstone Lake being the largest. As there are only about 60 frost-free days in the Tetons it means the lake freezes over in the winter and the ice can be 5 feet thick. When this happens wild animals and people often walk across the lake to Elk Island. Elk give birth on the island too. Everything is glacier created and that means the mountains are always on the move. Grand Teton is the tallest mountain in the National Park.

Camping on Elk Island

Moose are aquatic animals and have double jointed knees so can swim doing a type of breast-stroke up to six miles per hour. Who knew, not us that’s for sure! 😂

Aspen trees grow in groves and are all around the lake. The individual groves are all  connected to one mother tree by their root system.

Aspen Trees

The first mountain to be named in the Tetons was Teewinot (apparently from an Indian word meaning Pinnacles, but when this was queried they said they didn’t know the word!) It stands today at 13,775 feet (4199m) and it is still growing.

The Tetons are the youngest mountain range in the USA at 10 million years old and are continually on the move. They are measured every two years.

In 1950 a plane crashed into Skillet Glacier killing all 22 people on board. The plane was never recovered and remains there to this day. A priest went up the mountain to carry out a memorial service. Some say on a sunny day you can see the remains of the plane glinting in the sunshine.

In the past two years, due to contact with humans, lots of bears have had to be relocated across the lake to wooded areas. They are not content to stay there however, and can often be seen swimming in the water and often swim alongside boats. Sadly, we didn’t see any today.

There are an estimated 200 bears, both black bears and grizzly bears, living in Grand Teton National Park. Within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which includes Grand Teton, there are roughly 700 grizzly bears. The 200 bears in Teton National Park are tagged so they can be monitored. 

After our boat trip we did a short hike to Heron Pond and were lucky to encounter a large Moose on the trail. At one point he looked very hard at Si so we moved away quickly. 😱 Perhaps he thought he would be good for his entree! 🤣

Moose

Moose having lunch!

View of the Lake from our hike to Heron Pond

For lunch we went back to the Pioneer Grill where I had my first Bison Burger of the trip and Si a Cowboy Burger consisting of 1/3 lb Beef Patty, Honey-Bourbon BBQ Sauce, Bacon, Crispy Onions, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, and Cheddar Cheese. He said is was fantastic.

We were served by a lovely young lady called Emma Rose from Massachusetts. She has been studying to be a nurse and has just graduated. Her wish is to become a Theatre Nurse and we wish her well for the future.

Emma Rose

Emma Rose and her colleague, Jake, from Wisconson

Just an update from our trip to Yellowstone last Saturday. You may remember we saw a beautiful little bird that we didn’t know the name of. Well, thanks to a friend and follower of our blog who has the Merlin Bird ID app, he was able to tell us that it is called a Chipping Sparrow. Thanks Jim.

Chipping Sparrow

The app was also recommended to me by my friend Ann and I now have it downloaded to my phone. It’s a great app and so far today I’ve been able to identify five birds! I can see a new hobby coming on! I expect I’m late to the party and lots of you already know about it. 🤷‍♀️

Our time in the Tetons is coming to a close very rapidly, too rapidly in fact. We leave on Thursday. 😔

We haven’t decided yet what to do tomorrow so it will be a surprise for all of us! 😳

As always, thanks for reading. See you tomorrow for more adventures!

25th May 2025

We had a later start today, out at 9.30 a.m. so had time for my breakfast in bed supplied of course, by Mr. B. ☕️🍞 Once again, it was a chilly start but this afternoon it had reached 70ºF (21ºC).

It was another ‘first’ for us today as we hiked the Lake Shore Trail at Colter Bay. It consists of two loops, Colter Bay and Jackson Lake. It was an easy hike and the start of it was on tarmac. We had fantastic views of Grand Teton and the water was crystal clear and not too cold either.

Colter Bay is a beautiful area with lots of beautiful boats too! Those reading this post who know me very well, will be rather flabbergasted by what I am going to say next ………….. tomorrow we are going on a scenic boat tour of Colter Bay!!! 😱🫣🤢I’ve packed plastic bags and will be taking my travel sickness pills before embarking on this adventure! 🤣 Let’s hope I don’t come to regret this rather foolish idea. 🤞

Colter Bay

Boats at Colter Bay

Colter Bay with Grand Teton

Colter Bay

Sand resting a while with Grand Teton in the background

Sand studying All Trails

Photographer on the trail

At the end of the trail there is an amphitheatre. What a fabulous setting.

Unfortunately, the only animals we saw today were Bison and just a tiny squirrel. We are beginning to think that this isn’t our year for wildlife. 😔

We had lunch at the Pioneer Grill at Jackson Lake Lodge. We’ve had breakfast there before, lovely food. It’s like an old fashioned diner. We enjoyed tuna melts and fruit plus white wine for me at a cost of $16.00 (£12.00). I didn’t notice the cost when I ordered it) but there was enough for three good glasses …………… in a can!

Pioneer Grill at Colter Bay

Sand’s lunch with the can of Pinot Grigio

A couple of things I keep forgetting to post ………………

On our first day here we purchased our Annual Pass for all the National Parks, cost $80.00 (£61.00) and the young lady who served us asked where we had come from. We told her Las Vegas and she commented that no-one ever wins in Vegas. Wrong! We told her about our big win in 2023 and she was flabbergasted.

When we went through again on Friday she remembered us and said she had been telling all her friends about the English couple who had had success in Vegas. 💵

Also, I consider that I am quite knowledgeable about all things Apple but even I learnt something yesterday. 🤗Some of you may know this but I certainly didn’t. If you have an Apple watch and call up the compass, it has a Back Track setting on it. What ……………..? 🤷‍♀️How did I not know this? We could have used that two years ago when we got lost and had to be saved by a Ranger.🤣 So, we now have two options to save us from getting lost, the compass and What 3 Words. 👏

Also, even though I’m quite ‘techie’, sometimes things baffle me too. Last night I started to back up my laptop and it suddenly stopped and said it couldn’t complete the task. It seems that it didn’t like one of my videos. 🤷‍♀️Couldn’t get to the bottom of it so had to go and buy another back-up disk today. 😔 Hey ho! Modern technology is excellent when it works. 🤷‍♀️

Note to my good mate Ann! You will see from one of the photos of me at the lake that I am using the phone holder you told me about. Good call, thanks.👍 I used it today to hold Si’s phone to follow All Trails to make sure we were walking in the right direction.

Another busy day comes to an end.

Please come back to read tomorrow’s post on our scenic boat tour. Will it be a success or a total disaster for Mrs. B.? 😂🚤

.

24th May 2025

Before I start today’s Post, there’s one thing left over from yesterday’s!

Last night we decided to take a quick drive to Mormon Row to see if Si could get any decent sunset shots of the Tetons and the famous T. Moulton Barn. This was more of an experiment really as he doesn’t usually photograph straight into the sun. This is one of the shots.

Sunset at Mormon Row and the T. Moulton Barn

Also, while we were there a newly married couple arrived for photographs. We don’t know them but it seems fitting to include them.

The Happy Couple!

The Happy Bride!

So, to today’s adventure.

Another early start today! We were up and out at 6.00 a.m. for our trip to Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park. This was another first for us as we have never stopped there before. It took two hours to get to drive there and for most of the journey it was just us on the roads. .

It was chilly at first, 35ºF (1.6ºC) and on the way to Yellowstone we had snow ❄️ and rain. 🌧️It didn’t bode well for the day but I’m pleased to say the day turned around and we ended up with a hot sunny day with a top temperature of 70ºF (21ºC). 🌞

On our drive to Yellowstone we saw Elk, Pronghorn Antelope and Bison. Once in the park we saw loads of bison 🦬 and the rear end of a bear 🐻but it was too far away to photograph! 😂

Elk

Bison on the way to Yellowstone

Yellowstone River

We were surprised how much snow there still was, much more than here in the Tetons. Lewis Lake (named after one of the explorers Lewis and Clarke) was still partly frozen over. Yellowstone has a high average elevation, around 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) above sea level.

Lewis Lake Frozen

Along the way we passed over the Continental Divide. A line of high ground, often a mountain range, that separates where rivers and streams flow on a continent. Basically, it’s the line that divides whether water flows towards one ocean or another. In North America, the Continental Divide primarily runs through the Rocky Mountains, and it separates water flowing towards the Pacific Ocean from water flowing towards the Atlantic or Arctic Oceans. 

The Continental Divide

Our first stop was at the Fishing Bridge Mud Pots.

Steam from the Mud Pots

Mud Pot

Dragon’s Mouth Spring

We also saw this lovely little bird. Sadly, we do not know what it is!

The Hayden Valley.

The photographer at Hayden Valley

The Photographer’s Assistant at Hayden Valley

We had breakfast at Canyon Village where we met a President Trump supporter and his wife. We spent a very interesting 20 minutes chatting with them. He actually went to both of the President’s Inaugurations.

We decided to drive on to the Old Faithful Inn where we watched the Old Faithful Geyser erupt from the boardwalk behind the geyser instead of the front as most people do. Another first for us.

He’s watching Old Faithful erupt!

Old Faithful erupting

Solidified mud!

On the way back to Dornan’s we suddenly came upon a rather long traffic jam. We thought there must be traffic lights or an accident but it turned out to be a rather cheeky bison 🦬walking down the middle of the road. He was in no hurry to get anywhere and he made sure we wouldn’t be going anywhere in a hurry either! It took 30 minutes to clear the traffic. Still, it is his home after all.

Bison Traffic Jam

To finish with, here are two interesting photos we took today.

Just a random cloud

Downpour just outside Jackson

Tomorrow it is our intention to hike around Colter Bay and fingers crossed, grab a glimpse of Blondie and her cub.🤞At least we won’t have such an early start to our day. Perhaps have breakfast in bed for a change! One can only hope! 😉

Hope you can join us again tomorrow for more adventures.

23rd May 2025

So we were up and out by 5.30 a.m. for our early morning trip to Schwabacher Landing (SL) for sunrise shots. 🌅 It was rather chilly at 34ºF (1.1ºC) with ice on the car’s windscreen 🧊 but the day warmed up beautifully and ended up at 64ºF (18ºC).

When we first came to the Tetons five years ago and went to SL for sunrise shots there were about 12 people, including us, to experience the event. What a difference five years makes!

We were flabbergasted when we arrived to find the parking area was full and people were parking in every available nook and cranny and when we left, about an hour later, the cars were parked right back to the main highway with more cars trying to get in! We counted at least 80 cars and that was a rough count, so there could have been more. There must have been between 200-300 people all vying for the best spots and SL is not exactly a huge area. It was crazy! 🤷‍♀️

So, how have things changed so dramatically in such a short time? I think we all know the answer to that ………………. the curse of the Internet that’s what! The Grand Tetons are being mentioned everywhere and once people see how beautiful it is well, enough said. Things will never be the same again. 😔

It was a beautiful morning so we were well rewarded for our early start.

Sunrise at Schwabacher Landing

Sunrise at Schwabacher Landing

After the shoot we went for breakfast in Jackson at The Bunnery Bakery and Restaurant. It’s a very popular restaurant but as we were so early, just after 7.00 p.m. we got a table with no trouble at all. The food was delicious. I had huckleberry pancakes and Si had ‘The Glory Bowl’ consisting of Swiss cheese melted over two fried eggs, mushrooms and hash browns garnished with sour cream. A healthy dish indeed!! 😂 We won’t mention the cakes we purchased on the way out for a snack later! 😉

Si and his ‘healthy’ breakfast ….. not!

We stopped off quickly at Mormon Row the historic district that showcases the settlement patterns and architecture of Mormon families who settled the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Si’s always hopeful that he will find slightly different photographs to the ones he’s taken there before.

House on Mormon Row

House on Mormon Row

We decided to dedicate the rest of the day looking for wildlife. Alas, we were not exactly successful on that front. The first animal we saw was a deer hoovering up someone’s front lawn but we were not able to stop for a photo opportunity and the second was a Coyote but again, we were unable to get a photograph.

So, you can imagine how we felt when we stopped at an area called Colter Bay and a lady told us that yesterday, a famous bear called Blondie (for regular followers of the blog you may remember we photographed her and her three clubs two years ago and then the cubs were killed by a grizzly bear?) had spent all day around the commercial area with her current cub.

Blondie had three cubs again this year but again, two of them were killed by a male grizzly bear. That girl does not have a lot of luck! 😔

There was also another famous bear in the Tetons called Grizzly 399. She was world-famous and there are official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts for her too. Sadly on 22nd October 2024, aged 28, she was knocked down by a car and killed.

She was the oldest documented grizzly bear to reproduce in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Grand Tetons is part of that). Her last cub was born in 2023 when she was 27 years old. She had at least 22 cubs and was followed by as many as 40 professional wildlife photographers and millions of tourists came to the area to see her.

Most of her ashes were scattered in Grand Teton National Park and Static Peak was renamed to Peak 399 in her honour on 1st May 2025.

Her eldest surviving daughter Grizzly 610, often referred to as “Princess 610” or “the Princess of the Tetons,” was also in the Colter Bay area yesterday so we are hoping to see her or Blondie when we hike the area in the next couple of days.

We had lunch today in the Mural Room at Jackson Lake Lodge and were lucky enough to sit at a window table that affords magnificent views of the Grand Tetons. Si had the turkey club with fruit (much healthier!) and I had salmon croquettes with roasted red pepper remoulade and grilled lemon.

While we were out driving today we came across this sign. Not one we are familiar with in the U.K.

When we arrived back at the cabin this little guy was waiting for us. We’ve named him ‘Gordon the Ground Squirrel’. I guess that’s actually three wild animals we’ve seen today!

Gordon the Ground Squirrel

Tomorrow looks like being another early start as we plan to take a drive to Yellowstone National Park. We have been there a few times so instead of re-visiting the areas we have already seen our plan is to visit Hayden Valley instead.

It has abundant wildlife including bison, elk, grizzly bears, wolves and various bird species so, fingers crossed, we may have more luck tomorrow. 🤞

As always, thanks for reading.

22nd May 2025

Today has been a day of ‘firsts’.

As the weather forecast was for cloud all day, we didn’t rise early for sunrise shots (we have that pleasure tomorrow morning). Instead we decided to undertake a hike we have never done before around the String Lake Loop Trail.

Grand Teton from String Lake Loop Trail

The trail is 3.7 miles long (if you don’t miss the turnoff, walk for a mile and then realise you are going in the wrong direction!) and takes approximately two hours. It rises 325 feet and is considered easy. The area is popular for picnicking and water sports.

The first thing you see as you start the walk is a large sign warning of bear country and telling people what to do in the event of a bear attack and not to hike without bear spray. Shame some people are unable to read!

When we started the trail three people passed us and found it quite amusing that we were carrying bear spray. When I enquired if they had any, one of them replied that he didn’t but he wasn’t bothered. I told him to make sure they walked in front of us then! Stupid or what! 🤷‍♀️

It is a beautiful hike and along the way we saw a Marmot, American Robin and a large Moose. We met two people from North Carolina and walked a while with them. They had intended to bring bear spray but were staying with a friend and she couldn’t find the spray so they came without any too!

Marmot

American Robin

Moose

There was quite a lot of snow on the trail but it was all passable without walking sticks and crampons. At one point we had to strip off some our layers as it was so warm.

String Lake

String Lake

Grand Teton from String Lake

Sand taking in the view

The Photographer

Saw this on the trail!

??????

After we had completed the hike we set off for Oxbow Bend, one of our favourite spots, just to check it was still there and to take some photographs.

Oxbow Ben

This evening for dinner we went into Jackson and another first, had dinner at a steakhouse  called Local. It has received some very good reviews and the food was indeed, excellent.

We started with sharing a crab cake and salad followed by a WAGYU Philly Cheesesteak consisting of shaved New York steak, sautéed onions, white cheddar fondue on an amoroso roll served with either salad of fries. We had one of each to share. Needless to say I could only eat half but there’s always room for a pudding so we shared the Sticky Toffee Bread Pudding served warm with toffee caramel sauce and vanilla ice-cream. All washed down very nicely with a few Amaretto Sours for the lady and beer for the gentlemen. 🍹🍺

Oh my! The ‘Lady’ after a few Amaretto Sours!!

It occurred to me earlier that there were a couple of things I missed from the previous blogs!

The lady from Florida who I mentioned holidays alone, well she told us that on one occasion she was camping overnight on her own and at one point her tent was surrounded by eight bears!! ⛺️🐻She said she just sat perfectly still until they went away! Again, a much braver woman than I.

Next, while we were shopping in Jackson yesterday, a man walked past me with a gun in a holster on his belt. To say I was rather stunned is an understatement. You hear about it but to actually witness it was something else. Wyoming is an open carry state, meaning open carry of firearms is legal without a permit. Anyone who is at least 18 years old and legally allowed to possess a firearm can open carry in Wyoming. No permit or license is required for open carry. 🤷‍♀️

Tomorrow, the forecast is for a lovely sunny day with temperatures ranging from 35ºF (2ºC) to 60ºF (15ºC). Sunrise is at 5.50 a.m. so we shall rise early, about 5.00 a.m. to make our way to Schwabacher Landing to, fingers crossed, capture some fantastic sunrise shots. 🤞🌅

As always, thanks for reading and please join us again tomorrow to see those fantastic sunrise shots!

21st May 2025

Well, what a difference 24 hours can make! It has been a lovely bright, sunny and fairly warm day. 🌞So different to yesterday.

We started with a visit to Jackson for some shopping, as you do and headed straight for the Eddie Bauer store. The clothing there has always been of high quality and it’s where we stock up on our hiking gear. You can imagine our disappointment when we discovered they were no longer trading in Jackson! 😔We we were bereft and were a little lost for a while. Of course, there are other outfitters in Jackson so we made our may to one of them and managed to find a thing or two, some in the Spring sale.

My favourite hiking and gym shoes are by La Sportiva and I found a lovely pair the colours of which reminded us of the Gryffindor colours in Harry Potter, so of course, I had to buy them! 👏 I haven’t been able to buy them in the UK although they do sell them across Europe.

As it was a lovely day we knew it would be okay to ride the Teton Village Aerial Tram as the views would indeed be magnificent and we were not disappointed.

Jackson Aerial Tram

The trams leave every 15 minutes and can transport 600 people per hour up to Rendezvous Mountain. The mountain stands at 10,450 feet and in the winter can have 400 inches of snow. There are over 200 species of plants and lots of wildlife live up there including Golden Eagles.

For those who like the technicals, the trams are run by 1000 horsepower motors, 15 miles of steel cable, 200 assorted wheels and three braking systems!

The ride up was spectacular. When we arrived it was bitterly cold and there was a lot of snow.❄️The temperature at the bottom of the mountain was 52ºF (11ºC) and 25ºF (-4ºC) at the top! 🥶 But more of a concern was the wind. It was blowing a gale. We were told the wind was 30 miles per hour but it felt much stronger to us. 💨

On the tram

On the tram

It was quite scary at times and I thought I would be blown away. Everyone was holding on to glasses, hats and scarves. There was a viewing platform that went out over the mountain but because of the wind, most found that a step too far. Si, of course, braved it to see what photographs he could get. The views were magnificent, we could not have chosen a better day.

Grand Teton from the tram

At the summit there is Corbet’s Cabin Top of the World Waffles where waffles are made to order and hot drinks are available. Very welcome after experiencing the cold wind.

Corbet’s Cabin Top of the World Waffles

Corbet’s Cabin

Corbet’s Cabin

Sand and Si on top of Rendezvous Mountain

Si on top of Rendezvous Mountain

One of our sunrise visits will be to Schwabacher Landing so we drove there to make sure the road was open. Although we’ve been there previously, it’s a beautiful place and Si’s always on the look out for a better sunrise photograph. That means a very early start any day now! 🥱

Schwabacher Landing

Schwabacher Landing

Sand at Schwabacher Landing with Grand Teton in the background

There were two nesting sites with geese sitting on eggs so that was an added bonus.

Sitting goose

As we left the Teton National Park we had our first siting of large wildlife, a young Moose. We were not the only excited ones. The two National Park employees in the Entry/Exit booths also had their cameras out taking photos.

It was our intention to dine in Jackson this evening but after quite a long day we decided to eat once again at Pizza & Pasta with Si having the buffalo pasta and me the Lobster Ravioli for a second time. Well, it was delicious. The restaurant is only a two-minute walk from the cabin so we can stagger back easily after a drink or three. 🍷🍻🥴

Please join us to see what adventures tomorrow brings.

20th May 2025

We have settled in to our lovely cabin here at Dornans. One thing we had forgotten about was the height of the bed. Si at 6.0 feet tall has to climb into it so you can imagine what it’s like for me at 5.0 feet nothing! Si’s worried I’ll get a nose bleed or suffer the return of altitude sickness. 😂

As this is our first full day in the Tetons, it was only right and proper that it started with breakfast in bed, well for me anyway, of toast with huckleberry jam and coffee. 🍞☕️

One of the delights for me at being back in Wyoming is huckleberry everything. Yesterday while shopping at the Deli here at Dornans we found cinnamon bread, another favourite and huckleberry jam made especially for them. Well, who could resist that?! 🤷‍♀️

Huckleberries have been described as having a taste of blueberries and raspberries. I also have huckleberry chocolate and Huckleberry Mini Sammies in the freezer. I believe the Sammies are huckleberry ice-cream with coconut on the outside. They look delicious.

Our plan for the day was not to hike but to do a recce to establish which trails are currently open and hikeable and those that are not and to decide if we needed to buy crampons and new walking sticks. Some trails still waist-deep in snow but as usually happens, not everything went according to plan.

We started our recce with a drive to Taggart Lake and once there decided to hike the Taggart Lake Trail to photograph the lake. It’s a fairly short walk from the car park, although quite a steep one but we’ve done it a few times before and knew it would be okay. We were at an elevation of 7,000 feet.

Once at the lake it started to snow ❄️ but not heavily, so then decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to hike the Taggart Lake Loop as we had never done that before. That would be a total of approximately four miles. By now the snow had turned to rain 🌧️ and it was a little chilly🥶 but not too bad.

This is snow melt on the way to Taggart Lake.

Snow melt

The Taggart Trail

We met a lady from the Florida Evergades hiking the Loop from the opposite direction to us. She was all alone and told us she always holidays that way and has done all kinds of exciting adventures like undertaking an 8,000 mile boat journey, all alone! She’s a braver woman than I McDuff, that’s for sure. 👍

One thing we are always told is do not hike alone in bear country. One good thing, she did have bear spray with her.

On our hike we decided it was a good idea, in addition to shouting “hey bear” so if there is a grizzly present he would know we were coming so wouldn’t be startled and charge at us, is to also play some music, so we decided on John Denver (JD). After all, if we were to be confronted by an angry grizzly 🐻what better way to smooth his troubled breast than by listening to the gentle tones of JD! Always smoothes my troubled breast that’s for sure. 🤣 There was evidence of bear activity by means of bear poo and scratches on trees. Luckily, we didn’t come across any creatures apart from one lonely chipmunk.

Tonight we ate at Pizza & Pasta again with Si enjoying the Lobster Ravioli and I had pizza. Delicious! Sadly, I was unable to have my Amoretto Sour as they had run out of Amaretto! 😔

The beautiful view from Pizza & Pasta

Si and his lobster ravioli

Sand and her pizza

Coming to the Tetons at this time of year is a gamble regarding the weather but we are always prepared for that and it doesn’t detract from the beauty you see everywhere.

Although the day started sunny it’s ended mostly cold and wet but, fingers crossed, it should be sunny tomorrow and if that’s the case, please join us for an aerial tram ride to ‘the top of the world’ with magnificent views over the mountains …………………. or so the literature says! 🤞

As always, thanks for travelling with us.

19th May 2025

Today was another driving day to complete the final leg of our long journey to reach the Grand Tetons in Jackson.

The day started with a delicious breakfast provided by the Best Western Plus, Cotton Tree Inn in North Salt Lake. We’ve stayed there a few times and they never disappoint.

Before departing we filled up with petrol (gasoline) and it’s certainly more expensive here than it used to be (well, what isn’t I hear you cry?!) 🤷‍♀️ but still a lot cheaper than in the UK.We paid $3.66 (£2.81) a gallon compared to £5.18 per gallon in the UK!

The drive today was just 4.5 hours, 283 miles. It was a lot more pleasant than yesterday and the traffic much lighter. The temperature at one point dropped to 37ºF (3ºC ) but we had come prepared and dressed accordingly.

The first part of the journey was undertaken once again on Interstate 15 but then we found ourselves on much smaller roads, similar to back home and for a large part it was just us speeding along, singing a song or two to pass the time.

At one point we had to drive across railroad tracks. It was like something from a film! 🎥

Train Crossing

Railroad Tracks

Welcome to Idaho!

Every time we travel to Jackson we pass through a small town called Soda Springs in Idaho (population 3,204). As well as being part of the pioneering Oregon Trail it is also famous for its mineral springs and for having the only Captive Geyser in the world. That is a geyser controlled by human intervention. Rather than naturally erupting it operates by means of an electric motor that opens and closes a valve, mimicking a natural geyser’s eruption. This was necessary because the initial, uncontrolled geyser, discovered in 1937, threatened to flood the town. It is now capped, controlled by a timer and erupts every hour on the hour. The geyser reaches heights of 100 feet, 365 days a year.

We have noticed active mining sites together with evidence of mining activity from the past and we thought they were coal mines, so were surprised to learn that in fact it is phosphate rock being mined and what we have seen is what’s left over after mining the rock. The area is a major phosphate producing region in the US.

Welcome to Jackson!

We arrived early at Dornans, our home for the next ten days, and received a very warm welcome from Zoya, who we have known for some time and is ‘in charge’. Although check-in was at 4.00 pm we were pleased to find our cabin was ready for us and after a long trip that was very welcome.

Our Cabin, Osprey

A little friend guarding our cabin

Before we arrived, we popped into the Visitor’s Centre to buy the essential bear spray. Zoya was telling us that two weeks ago two men were hiking round an area called Jenny Lake (it was our intention to do that this year too) when they turned a corner and out of the trees came a grizzly bear. He was startled by them and lunged. Luckily, they had bear spray to hand and so was able to get away unharmed.

I think we may take the boat across Jenny Lake instead of hiking round. 😱With our luck at the moment, one of us could become a meal!! 😂

She also told us a story about her husband, Geoff Barnard, a professional photographer here in the Tetons. They were out walking a dog they were dog-sitting when a bear suddenly appeared and started running towards them. Zoya picked up the dog and started to run but Geoff, being a photographer, started videoing the event!! Thankfully he was okay. Photographers, what they will do for a good photo opportunity!! 🤷‍♀️

After settling in we went for dinner at one of the three eateries on site, the Pizza & Pasta Company. It overlooks the mountains and the food is fabulous. It’s very popular, but we were still amazed to find it heaving at 3.00 p.m. I had the lobster ravioli and Si had garlic chicken pasta.

View from Pizza & Pasta

The service is excellent and when I asked Si to order me my favourite Amaretto Sour he was doubtful they would know how to make one but the barmen came up trumps and it was so good I had two! That’s probably why I’m having trouble typing this post! 🍹🥴😂

Lobster Ravioli and the Amaretto Sour!

Please join us tomorrow to see what our first full day has in store.

A very good evening to you all! 🥴

18th May 2025

Today we collect the car and then drive to Salt Lake City to overnight before arriving tomorrow at our favourite place, the Grand Tetons! 👏

But, before then, let’s finish off the post from yesterday and our flight to Las Vegas.

Our flight was due to take off at 4.35 pm and were called to board at 3.35. Normally, we all sit around before boarding but not this time. We had only sat down for about five minutes before they called us forward. I don’t think the flight can have been full as everyone was on and ready to go at 4.20. Needless to say we didn’t take off straight away and Air Traffic Control (ATC) said there would be a 15 minute delay. That turned into an hour and we finally left at 5.20. ✈️

Why is it that a flight very rarely leaves on time? Answers on a postcard please to ………..😂

Regardless we had a great trip over on ‘Mystery Girl’. Did you know that all Virgin Atlantic planes all have ladies names? I bet you didn’t! 😂

The crew were a delight and looked after us very well. We had our three course meal and later they came round at various times with tubs of ice cream, vegetable samosas and finally Love Hearts. Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned Love Heart? Then, just before we landed we had afternoon tea. Strange eating tea at 2.00 am UK time!! Very nice though. 😋 For the food watchers, here’s our onboard meals.

Tomato Soup

Sand’s Haddock

Si’s Pork Belly

The Pud! Mixed Berry Moose. I know what you’re thinking!

We’ve been flying into Las Vegas since 1988 and usually there are long queues to get through Homeland Security but not yesterday. We were through in five minutes. Our flight was scheduled later than usual and that meant we were one of the two flights expected at that time. The other one was a British Airways flight, reportedly carrying Janet Jackson.

We did have one incident on board …… well of course we did! When Si went to put his laptop in the overhead it fell out of his backpack scratched his new glasses and hit him on the nose and fell to the floor!! Pleased to report there’s no problem with the laptop and Si seems to be okay too!!! 😂 Luckily, I always carry spare glasses in my carry-on luggage for just such an event. Looks as thought the new glasses are goners though. 😔

Our driver from Las Vegas airport told us about the Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas music festival is taking place here until tomorrow (Sunday) and that 300,000 people had descended upon Vegas! That would account for the fact that the casino here was heaving last night.

We did manage a little gambling before we ‘hit the hay’. We had a couple of good runs but not as good as the one in 2023! 💵 Fingers crossed that happens when we end our holiday here in three weeks.🤞

For those who don’t know (and I’m sure there aren’t many who don’t know, it’s a story we repeat often!) 😂 on the last day of our holiday here in 2023 we managed to win a Grand Jackpot of, just over $13,000 (£10,000),

Yesterday was the last day of the Bellagio’s Spring display in the Atrium before they started taking it down ready for the Summer display so we thought a few photos were in order. We are lucky that on this trip we will see two different displays as we’ll be back at the end of our trip. For those who are not aware of the famous Bellagio Atrium displays, everything is made up of fresh flowers.

Bellagio Spring Display

The Chicks

The Bird

So, on to today’s adventure!

The Atrium is looking rather sad this morning with everything being ripped out.

We had breakfast at Sadelle’s in the Bellagio and were delighted to see that Susan, one of the servers, who we have known for some years is still working there. We had a lovely catch up and hope to see her again when we return in three weeks.

Susan

Si had an American omelette and I had the Yoghurt Parfait with a Bee’s Knees cocktail. The food was delicious but the cocktail not so. Just a little too much lemon for my taste.. The Bee’s Knees made up of gin, lemon juice and honey with a cinnamon sugar rim round the glass dates back to the Prohibition-era and is an extension of the classic Gin Sour but has honey instead of sugar that creates a much richer drink. It is credited to Frank Meier, an Austrian-born bartender who worked at the Hotel Ritz Paris during the 1920s.

Sand’s Bee’s Knees

It was then time to go and collect the car! Well, after last year’s fiasco we did say we would give them one more try but I’m sorry to say they did not exactly shine this morning! 😔

Being Gold Members the idea is that there’s no queuing to collect the car.  We should just be able to walk in look at the board and it tells us the bay number our car is in and we jump in and off we go. Well, not today! Our name wasn’t on the board and no car waiting for us. We had arrived early and that was originally given as the reason for not being ready for us.

Eventually, a car was brought round but not the one we had ordered, although it was in the same category. We were not happy to see it had 61,000 miles on the clock either but after checking it out decided to go with it. We drove to the Exit only to be told by the attendant that she couldn’t let us take the car as the licence (car tax) was due to run out in the middle of our hire! 🤷‍♀️

Upon our return to the office (smoke now coming out of our ears) the only person serving was an elderly gentlemen called Joe. Sadly, he was rather hard of hearing and didn’t seem to understand what the problem was. It was at this point that I walked away and Si continued to explain what the problem was.

Long story short, Joe eventually found us another car, an upgrade, with just 21,000 on the clock so we took that and went on our way, albeit an hour later than intended. I feel another complaint winging its way to Hertz!

The Beast. A Ford Expedition

As today was a driving day there’s not much to report. The drive took about six hours to get to Salt Lake City crossing various time zones along the way. That can be very confusing with the car and our watches flicking times back and forth. We started off in Nevada then passed through Arizona before arriving in Utah.

We set off from Las Vegas in glorious blue skies and lovely hot temperatures but alas, the further north we came it started to rain and at one point, was so bad we couldn’t see the road in front of us. But, by the time we arrived here it had all cleared up and the sun was shining once again but the temperature on the trip dropped by 30º. 🌞🌧️🥶

The road from LV to SLC is 435 miles on Interstate 15. The sat nav doesn’t say a word for 5.3 hours as there are no turnings. It is one long, more or less, straight road and very boring!

The long boring road!

This doesn’t look good!

This doesn’t look good!

So, what’s wrong with this picture?! 😱

It was just a truck cab pulling another truck cab but it did us a bit of a scare! 😂

One, kind of funny incident, happened as we left the hotel this morning. When we went to breakfast we put our valuables in the safe and I told Si not to let us leave without them. Needless to say, as we were leaving the room checking that we had everything I casually said we should check the safe to make sure we hadn’t left anything and it was then I realised we had nearly left without our cash, passports etc. 😱💵🛂

Can you imagine if we had driven six hours only to find we had to drive all the way back again to Las Vegas!! 😱I blamed Si of course!! 😂

Tomorrow we drive to Jackson, Wyoming where it seems they have had a little snowfall today!! ❄️ Good job we packed all our winter gear as well! 🧣🧦🧤

Thanks for reading. Comments always welcome.

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17th May 2025

Well, after a week of mishaps, one being a chipped tooth from eating a rather thick piece of chocolate straight from the fridge (left over Easter egg), to dropping my phone from a great height onto a wooden floor (luckily, no damage, thank goodness for my ESR phone case) to tipping over a bowl of water on to the floor of the en-suite, it seemed inevitable there would be one more thing to make the week complete!

That turned out to be the road to Heathrow’s Terminal 3 being closed and our driver having to turn around and go another way. Luckily, as usual, we had factored in plenty of time so it was no big deal.

We had already checked in last night so just needed to drop off our bags and go through security. As Virgin have their own dedicated suite for Upper Class passengers the process only took five minutes as we were the only ones in there.

We didn’t have to take our laptops out of the bags, take off our shoes or show liquids. The whole area is fairly new so I was wondering if they have the new scanners.

I was particularly proud of the fact that even though we have a baggage allowance of 32kgs per bag, both our bags actually weighed in at just 24kgs, so why they felt the need to adorn them with those orange stickers saying ‘heavy’ is a mystery to me! 🤷‍♀️

Once all the formalities were done we settled in to the Virgin Clubhouse and partook of a very tasty venison smashed burger with some of the best fries we’ve had in a long time! Goes very well with the champagne and Maiden Voyager cocktails!! Hic!!🍹

Maiden Voyager

Note our very own special burger bun!

We will be staying in Vegas for just one night before we collect our hire car from Hertz tomorrow, Sunday, and hope to do a little gambling before we ‘hit the hay’!

Followers of the Blog will know of the problems we had last year with Hertz but we’ve decided to give them one more try to see if there have been any improvements. 🚗

As we have now been up for 24 hours I think it’s time for bed 🛌 so I’ll finish this post here and tell you all in tomorrow’s blog about the flight and our first night in Vegas.

See you tomorrow! 🙋‍♀️

One week to go, everything’s sorted and so it’s time for a practice pack! 🧳

Things are complicated this year as we could be hiking in snow ❄️ in the Tetons but have hot temperatures everywhere else 🌞so a mixture of clothes are required. 🧢🧤🧣🩳👙The cold gear takes up so much room. 😔

I’m a great believer in making lists so this year I’ve made a Clothes Menu to help things along. Well, what’s that you ask? 🤨

Well, if you’re like me, I usually overpack and lug around lots of clothing that I’m never going to have time to wear. So, this year I decided to work out in advance what I’m going to wear each day and make a list of all the clothes I will need and that will save Mr. B. from having a meltdown when we weigh the cases. We are allowed 32 kgs per case and they weigh less than that so all good so far. 👏 We are allowed to take a total of four cases but Mr. B. would divorce me if I tried to take four large suitcases to the airport! 😱😂

Please join us next Saturday 17th May as we fly off for the start of our next adventure! ✈️🇺🇸 👏

Another year, another visit to the U.S.A! 😀

So, what do we have in-store this year? 🤔

We fly off to Las Vegas (that’s a surprise!🤭) on 17th May. Our followers will know that our last visit was in 2023 when we had a fantastic win at the Park MGM casino on the final morning of our holiday. A great way to finish a wonderful holiday.

We will have one night at the Bellagio Hotel. I hear the cheese plate calling to me! 😉

The cheese plate and Champagne

I was disappointed in 2023 when I discovered the new Chef had changed the make-up of it. 😔 There used to be a choice of crackers and breads whereas now it’s just the garlic bread! Still, better than nothing! 🤷‍♀️ We will then drive via Salt Lake City to our favourite place, the Grand Tetons in Wyoming.

We will be spending 10 nights in a lovely cabin at Dornans (not like the one we spent 8,000 feet above sea level in Gardener, outside Yellowstone National Park some years back where I got altitude sickness. There were holes in the walls and spiders ran amok!!) 🤣 I know I’ve mentioned it previously but that will stay with me for the rest of my life! 😱

From there we will travel again, via Salt Lake City, for a four-night stay in Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. Some of you will remember we stayed there on our 2023 trip but I caught Covid and wasn’t well enough to do much. We hope to right that wrong this time. 🤞

We will then drive to Williams, Arizona (situated on the original Route 66) for three nights and will be travelling on the Grand Canyon Railway for a day-trip to the South Rim of the Canyon. We have visited the South Rim before but never arrived by train. 🚂

Our original plan this year was to stay in a cabin on the North Rim but after seeing some disturbing reports on the cabins and eating facilities we changed our plans and settled for a day-trip to the South Rim instead.

We will finish our holiday in Las Vegas (cheese plate here I come ……. again!) for four nights before flying home. ✈️

We look forward to you joining us on our new adventure. 😀

If you’ve been following our blog this year, you will know that we suffered quite serious problems with our hire car from Hertz.

Just to let you all know that after a long and exhaustive battle comprising of numerous emails and telephone calls ‘across the pond’ to Hertz regarding our request for a complete refund of our all car hire charges, I’m pleased to report we were successful!! 👏

Hertz refunded us the majority of our original payment and gave Si Gold Member points that equates to a week’s free car hire plus, they did not charge us for the second vehicle. So, all in all, we were just £6.00 short of the original payment. We considered that a great result. 👍

The lesson of the day …………. never give up when you believe you are in the right, especially with the large corporations!

As our good friend Malcolm always says at the end of his monthly newsletter ………………. “Illegitimi non carborundum!!” in other words ……… “Don’t let the b…….s get you down!”😂

Hope you’ll join us for our next adventure in 2025. 👋

Well here we are, back home in good ol’ Blighty! 🏠🇬🇧

I’m pleased to report that thank goodness, the ants did not invade while we were away enjoying ourselves. 🐜 Big thanks goes to our neighbours Al and Carol, who checked on the house and reported back to us, so easing our minds. 🥰

The walk across the Skybridge from the hotel to our terminal was an easy ten minute walk but it was heaving when we arrived. It was worse than Heathrow! Virgin was right at the end out of the chaos and surprise, surprise, check-in was open already and our section had no queue. 😁

The heavy suitcases!

We had already checked in, so a lovely lady took our bags and another surprise, surprise, the scales said our bags only weighed 19kgs each!!!!! What?!!! There is no way they only weighed that amount. On the way out they were 23 and 24kgs and all I threw away were some toiletries. The amount of goodies we added and the weight of them, when they were lifted, had us convinced they may even have been over our allowance of 32kgs each! Still, it made Si happy! 😊

When we arrived home we weighed the cases and one was 32.6 kgs and the other 28 kgs so goodness only knows why those scales said 19 kgs each. Big mystery! 🤷‍♀️

Also, for once, our suitcases were not opened by US Customs either. What’s going on!? 😂

We made our way to Security and stood in line, just like us Brits always do and then Si saw a sign for First Class etc so we made our way there. The queue was slow but we got through eventually.

Si, as always, was a problem at security bag check. It wouldn’t be a good holiday if he wasn’t now would it! 😁 He undid his belt but forgot to take it off and sure enough the alarm went off!! 😔They just scanned his belt but he had to go back through the scanner again.

Then came the anxious wait to see if the carry-on bags would make it through and not be ear-marked for further checks. Hooray, hooray, they went straight through! 🧳👏

Strange scene while we were waiting for our carry-on! There was a lady stood cuddling her cat!! 🐈I wonder if he has special bag allowance!! Um, must check that out!! 😂

So, on to the Delta Lounge. Virgin and Delta are sharing lounges at the moment and I think I may have mentioned that it said on the website it would close at 9 p.m., so meaning we would have to evacuate and sit with our fellow travellers for an hour or so. Again, a nice surprise awaited us when we were told they are open today until 1 a.m. so meaning we could stay until we were called for boarding at 10.20 p.m. Why is it in the US that they seem to be able to board people quicker? Our scheduled departure time was 11.10 p.m., 4.10 a.m. UK time.

We settled into the lounge, it was huge, with our beverages. My amaretto sour was classed as a ‘premium’ drink so we had to pay $6 dollars for it. Hey ho, it was worth it. 🍹

Si managed something to eat but I didn’t bother.

Si relaxing in the lounge

Me too!

The Lounge

The Lounge

Two disappointments followed. One, we were expecting one of Virgin’s new planes but two had suffered damage so they had to send out one of the older Airbus 330’s. Secondly, Tom didn’t pilot us home after all. ✈️

There were only 129 people on board. We were twenty minutes late taking off, mainly because of maintenance having to be called on board to fix a seat.

Food was served about an hour after take-off and although I planned not to eat anything so late at night, I did succumb to the asparagus soup.  It was delicious and came with a toasted cheese sandwich. I love toasties but not at that time of night! Si had a salad followed by cheese and biscuits.

The soup! Yes, I have the little salt and pepper shakers too!

View from the Lounge

We were told the flight would only take six hours instead of seven and because we still arrived at Heathrow early, we had to be put in the dreaded holding pattern.

We had quite the surprise when we landed at Heathrow because basically, it was empty! We arrived at the e-gates and there was not one person queuing. We just walked to the gates and through. Our bags were among the first to arrive and

The salad

The cheese and biscuits

there was no-one in Customs either. It was a miracle! 😂

After reading about the Border Control staff going on strike and the e-gates failing last week, we felt sure it would take ages to get through.

So, back to today!

As always, the holiday went far too quickly. 😔

We had a fantastic time, seeing new places and meeting many lovely people along the way. We didn’t even let good ol’ Hertz spoil things, even though they did their best to do just that! 🤬

It was great meeting up with Dot, John and Nat again. It was as though we had all been together just the day before.🥰

One sadness, was that we didn’t get to see our other dear friends, Denise and Desiree. Sometimes plans have to change, as happened this time, but fingers crossed it won’t be too long before we can right that wrong.🤞🥰

We had a few laughs too! Si driving on the wrong side of the road a couple of times for starters. 😂 Not being able to get a cup of coffee after 1 p.m. in Corning, New York being the second! Even the Hilton Hotel in Corning took the coffee away from the lobby after breakfast! 🤷‍♀️

As aways, a big “thank you” goes out to all of you who read and followed our adventures on the blog and for the comments too.They are always appreciated.👏

So, until the next time, there’s just one thing that remains for us to say, and that is ………. “goodbye again” 🥲

arrivederci, adeus, hejdå, 再见, zoi geen, zai jian, tot ziens, au revoir, tschüss, shalom, ciao, じゃね, anyeonghi gasyeo, poka/Пока, adios, hejdå, tạm biệt, vΘleft, farvel, ya sas, tókša akhé,

and hope to see you all again on our next adventure. 👋😀 ✈️🚙🇺🇸🇬🇧

Well, the end draws near! It all goes so quickly. 😔

It sounds like the weather at home is ‘on the turn’, so I expect it will be raining when we land! 🌧️ 🛬

I can’t remember if I told you, that there’s a good chance our plane will be piloted by a guy Si knows from our gym. Our very own pilot, oh my!! That’s what you call service! 😂 ✈️

We had another fabulous meal last night in The View restaurant at the Inn. We had one less course each but still couldn’t eat everything. Si had the risotto fritters followed by sea bass and I started with the pate and the rice fritters. To finish, Si had the vanilla creme brulee and for me, the Lemon Budino made up of shortbead cookie, fresh strawberry, strawberry coulis and strawberry dust. Plus, I had my usual, Amaretto Sour.

Si and the risotto fritters for his starter

I had the pate for my starter

Si and his sea bass

The Lemon Budino

The Amaretto Sour

Enjoying dinner

There was a small incident at the end of our meal that we felt bound to complain about last night and again this morning. 🙄

A party of six women arrived celebrating Mother’s Day, which just  happens to be tomorrow, two were from Cosmopolitan magazine and separately, a bachelor party of 10. We didn’t hear a peep out of the men but my goodness, the women! Well, in the end, we were having to raise our voices to hear each other. 😔

As you can imagine, I was rather annoyed and as we left I was giving long-hard stares at them and wanted to say something but Si was pushing me out by my elbows before I could voice my opinion! 🤬

We told our waitress and the maître d’ that we’d had quieter meals at a McDonald’s! Our complaint made its way to the Restaurant Manager and this morning he came to apologise and said our breakfast would be complimentary.

Such a shame on our last evening! 😒

I completed the review card in our room too, saying that if noisy children are not welcome then the same should apply to loud parties too! It’s quite a large restaurant so they could easily have been sat away from people trying to enjoy their meals in peace.

After breakfast, we said farewell to the couple from New Jersey, who it so happens have friends in Dorset and also learnt that the young man on reception has a sister living in Leeds! It’s such a small world. Then we set off to Boston for our flight home tomorrow. ✈️

Part of the Inn’s famous wine collection!

Our five-hour journey sadly took an extra ninety minutes due to road works and as we got closer to Boston, the traffic came to a standstill. Margaret, our sat-nav, told us there had been an accident but when we eventually reached the problem, it was just three lanes merging into two! 🤷‍♀️

I think that Margaret was having an off day today. She got a couple of things wrong and at one point disappeared altogether and we were left driving blind, so to speak! She needs a good talking too! 😒

We put our suitcases into our hotel room and then drove the car over to Hertz to return it and also speak to a manager about all the problems we’ve had on this trip.

We were fortunate to speak to a very lovely guy, Jason, who took everything on board, was very sympathetic and assured us he would do everything he can to resolve things to our satisfaction. I was pleased that I’d taken the time to write everything down and had saved the pages to my mobile because I was able to Airdrop everything to him, so he has all the details and copies of paperwork to hand.

Poor guy’s only been in the job a week, so he will take it to the next level of management for a conclusion. We felt reassured after speaking to him. He gave us his mobile number too, so that was encouraging also. We’ve requested a full refund so, fingers crossed, it’s all sorted out quickly.

We were pleased to get back to the hotel. We have a lovely corner room with a great view. We are in a Hilton and as I’m a member, they emailed and asked me to choose which room we would like. They also use digital keys so there’s no queuing to check-in. It’s all done via their app and the key is sent to my mobile so we just walk in to the hotel and straight up to our room. 👏

Tonight, as we were feeling rather weary after the long drive, we had a quick dinner here in the hotel at Connolly’s Publik (yes, that’s how it’s spelt) House. I had the Figgy Pie pizza, it was fabulous and Si went for clam chowder and fish tacos. Of course, I had my usual Amaretto Sour! I think I’m becoming addicted, I’ve had a few on this holiday!

It will be cold pizza for breakfast tomorrow me thinks as there was plenty left. We love cold pizza!

Our flight tomorrow is not until 11.05 p.m. It was changed from a more reasonable time, so it will be a long day. Luckily, we have a late check-out of 6.00 pm and there’s a walk-way from the hotel to the terminal, so that should be quite straight forward. We received emails from Virgin Atlantic asking us to choose our food options on board. Who on earth would want to be eating at 11.00 pm and then going to sleep! Not me, that’s for sure! 😒

See you tomorrow!

The day started cloudy and chilly again with a temperature of 60ºF (15ºC).☁️ 🥶I guess we shouldn’t really complain, as we were expecting it to be a lot colder up here! But I think it’s a good thing we fly home on Sunday, as I hear the weather is rather fabulous at the moment! 🌞

So, last night’s dinner in the award-winning restaurant! It was more than delicious, it was just fantastic. We are booked again for this evening.

The evening started on the right note when they presented us with our very own personalised menus!!

Our personalised menus!

There were three choices to start with, a cold starter menu, a hot starter menu, main course and then at the end of the meal we would be presented with the dessert menu!

Our waitress told us we could order whatever we wanted in whatever order we liked. For instance, we could start with a main course and finish with a starter etc.

Our view in the dining room

For the first course, we shared a cold starter of the house-made Harmony Hills pork pâté, fresh horseradish mustard, dried fruits and baguette. Oh my goodness, what can I say? The fresh horseradish was divine.

A little late taking the photo of the Harmony Hills pork pâté

The Safron Risotto

For the second course, we both had the saffron risotto, cheese, panko, North Point Community Farm roasted garlic aïoli and Small Town Culture fermented red onion. Again, just fabulous.

For the third course, Si had Slow cooked beef cheeks, cheddar grits, sautéed mushrooms and roasted North Point Community Farm garlic glaze and I had the 6oz grilled centre-cut beef tenderloin fillet, potato purée, petite carrots and turnips, haricot vert, fine herbs butter with pinot noir glaze. Heaven!

The Beef Cheeks

The Beef Fillet

My petite veggies!

Of course by this point we were saying it was a mistake to have had the first course because we were struggling, but we still managed to find a little room for some dessert of course! Si had the vanilla crème brûlée described as custard, sugar crackle, almond tuile cookie and fresh berries and I managed one scoop of burnt banana ice-cream.

In my excitement for dessert I forgot to take a photo. Good enough excuse to have the same again this evening me thinks! 😂

All in all, it was one of the best meals we’ve had in a while. Looking forward to this evening’s meal but we will probably only have two courses …………… or maybe three with dessert of course! 😂

After the meal!

So this morning we decided to visit Lake Saranac, just up the road from Lake Placid but upon arrival we decided perhaps it was not the best choice. It didn’t seem to have a lot to offer, although I’m sure the locals would disagree! So, we returned to Lake Placid and decided to do the Mirror Lake Loop again but this time in reverse. That meant the start of the walk was via the Main Street shops and that suited me fine. More goodies to purchase! 😁👍

Here are some photos taken on our walk and some of the Inn.

The Olympic Museum

The Inn from the lake

The Mirror Lake Inn Waterfall

Mirror Lake Inn Daffodils

Our very own outside temperature thermometer!

Once back at the Inn we composed our letter to Hertz detailing all the problems we’ve had, so that when we return the car tomorrow we have all of our ducks in a row, so to speak. 🦆🦆🦆

We don’t imagine them dealing with the problems there and then, if only, but we can make them aware of our intentions. I’ve now found an email of where to send our complaint higher up the chain to Executive level. So, we will see what their reaction is and take it from there.

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that when we started our hike up Mount Jo, in the car park was a Tesla charger! That surprised us rather! 🤔

The Tesla charger!

Tomorrow we leave this wonderful place to travel to Boston, ready for our flight home on Sunday.

Hope you’ll join us there!

As always, thanks for reading!

The day started cloudy with a definite chill in the air, but at least it wasn’t raining! ❄️

We spoke to a couple at breakfast this morning who live in New Jersey. We told them how we were big Bruce Springsteen fans (he lives in New Jersey) and the husband was telling us how they use the same barbers and sometimes Bruce just drops in to use the toilet there. They said how ordinary he is, not like a lot of famous people! 😁

After a lovely breakfast, served by Nigel, who was very jolly and kept calling me ‘the Mrs! and Si, ‘the Mr! we decided on a hike.

Si, first of all found a two-mile ‘easy’ one but I thought we were capable of more than that, so we decided to climb to the summit of Mount Jo in the Adirondack Mountain Range. It’s classed as ‘moderate’ and reading the blurb about it, it seemed one we could manage. 👍⛰

Mount Jo

When we arrived at the trail head, the young man in charge said his advice was to take the long trail and not the short one, as it was more interesting and the short one had lots of boulders and high step-ups.

We set off and at first, all seemed okay, quite flat, not too hilly, but that soon changed and we found ourselves climbing up and up and up over boulders, tree roots and fallen trees. Of course, parts of it were very muddy too! The summit is about 877 metres (2,877 feet) but it felt like a lot higher climb.

Starting the climb!

This looked rather daunting!

We saw three other people on the trail, two men and one young lady. They were all moving much faster than us of course. We saw the young lady at the summit and Si said to her that we moved slower than her and she replied that yes, she was younger! How to make friends and influence people! 😂

Reaching the summit!

At the summit

On the way up and down we saw some grey squirrels with red tails! Very strange! They were moving too quick for us to get photos.

Grey squirrel with red tail

It took us 80 minutes to get to the top but only 60 minutes to get down. On the way up it didn’t rain and we even had a little sun but on the decent it started to rain quite hard at times. Luckily, we had wet jackets with us.

At the summit

View from the summit, you can just see Heart Lake below

Heart Lake

Good grief! 😂Well, it had started to rain. 🌧️

This shows how steep we were climbing!

Considering that just a few weeks ago, we didn’t know if we would be able to do walks, let alone hikes on this holiday due to Si’s bad back pain, I think he’s done extremely well to achieve all he’s done and without complaint. 👏👍

Just to go back to yesterday’s blog about John Brown’s house, I forgot to mention that apart from the two original pieces of furniture, the structure of the house is also original as are all the wooden floors inside. I find that just amazing! They knew how to build things back then!

Tonight we are fine-dining at the award-winning restaurant here at the Inn called, The View. There is a dress code and special rules apply, e.g. no mobiles are allowed in the dining room (in fact theres a notice when you enter the front door to say all mobiles must be turned off!) and if guests are bringing children to eat they are expected to behave and will be seated somewhere appropriate! Oh my! Expectations are high!

More tomorrow from Lake Placid. It’s our last full day before we move on to Boston to fly home!

As forecast, the day started wet and chilly! ☔️💨 It’s been raining on and off all day, sometimes very heavily so most of our activities were indoors.

After breakfast, we decided to go and visit the home of the abolitionist, John Brown. You may know the song, “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave”?

John Brown, born 9th May, 1800, owned a farm in North Elba, situated in New York State’s Adirondack Mountains. He loved the farm but spent hardly anytime there as he was following his cause of abolishing slavery.

Si outside John Brown’s house

There are only two original pieces of furniture in the house:

John Brown’s  bookcase/china holder

The top cupboard is was built by John Brown’s son-inlaw

Part of the upstairs where the children slept!

The spinning wheel

He was married twice and had twenty children, nine of whom died in childhood. He married his second wife, Mary Ann Day in 1833 when she was just 17. She possessed great physical stamina and was devoted to her responsibilities managing the household and raising the children. She and John had 13 children, but only six survived to adulthood and just four survived their father.

John Brown

Mary Brown with two of her daughters

A shaving bowl made from the gallows where John Brown was hanged!

A statue erected in memory of John Brown and a slave boy

In a story he told to his family, when he was 12 years old and away from home moving cattle, Brown worked for a man with a slave boy, who was beaten before him with an iron shovel. He asked the man why he was treated like that, and the answer was that he was a slave. According to Brown’s son-in-law, Henry Thompson, it was that moment when John Brown decided to dedicate his life to improving African Americans’ conditions.

On the night of 16th October,1859, Brown and his followers assaulted the U.S. Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, planning to use the captured arms in an extensive campaign for the liberation of the slaves in the South. Brown was captured on 18th October, 1859, imprisoned at Charlestown, Virginia, tried by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and hanged on 2nd December, 1859.

We visited Harper’s Ferry back in 2013 and learnt all about John Brown’s adventure there!

Harpers Ferry – Photo taken during our trip in 2013!

Mary brought his body back to the farm in North Elba and he was buried in front of his home on December 8, 1859. The remains of several of Brown’s followers, who fought and died at Harper’s Ferry, were moved to this small graveyard in 1899.

Although John wanted Mary to stay on at the farm after his death, she decided she could no longer cope on the farm, so In 1863, she and her children moved to California where she died on 29th February, 1884 at the age of 68 and is buried in Madronia Cemetery, Saratoga.

Slavery was eventually abolished in the US on 6th December 1865. Although Brown did not live to see the day, he was certainly a major contributor to its ending.

In 1999, 140 years later, John Brown Lives! was born and there is an annual gathering at his farm in North Elba. Their mission, quote, “is to not just honour John Brown’s forceful voice in bringing an end to slavery, but to take his lead and follow in his footsteps, promoting social justice and human rights through reflection and activism, awareness and exploration, kinship and individual action”.

We spent a long time in the house talking to a lovely young man called Patrick. He is the Historic Interpreter or Guide, as he calls himself, at the farm. His knowledge of all things relating to John Brown was vast and it was obvious that he has a great deal of respect for John Brown and what he was attempting to achieve with regard to slavery.

Patrick, the Historic Interpreter (Guide) 😊

Next, we decided to visit Lake Placid’s Olympic Museum, where we learnt all about the two Winter Olympic Games held there in 1932 and 1980. As a two-times Olympic Host City, they are home to North America’s second-largest Winter Olympic artifact collection.

Suits us, don’t you think? 😂

The USA beat Russia in the semi-finals of the ice hockey in 1980 before  going on to beat Finland for the Gold medal!

Original tickets to the 1932 Winter Olympics

Linda Fratianne wore this dress at the 1980 Winter Games. Pinned into the left shoulder is a tiny pouch blessed by the Pope, which contains several good luck charms. She secured a silver medal in the free skate performance.

The original scoreboard used when the US beat the Russians in the 1980 semi-finals of the ice hockey. The US went on to beat Finland in the finals so winning the Gold medal.

Finally, we headed to High Falls Gorge to experience, quote, ‘The Adirondacks’ Most Breathtaking 30-Minute Walk!” We didn’t know what to expect really, apart from the fact that there was a waterfall. Well, we were blown away by what we actually found there! 😱

We thought Ricketts Glen’s waterfalls were amazing but this surpassed everything for sheer volume of water and noise. It was also blowing a gale, so please excuse any wind noise on the videos! 💨

The same type of rock was found by Astronauts who visited the moon!

High Falls Gorge Waterfall!

Yes, that’s a tree!

The calm before the storm!

As we returned from High Falls Gorge the rain started to lash down, so we decided to stop quickly for some dinner to save us having to venture out again this evening. We stopped at the Black Bear restaurant just down from the hotel and Si had ribeye steak and for me, fish and chips. Everything was delicious!

So, even though the weather has not been good today, we managed to pack a great deal in and to even stay dry! ☔️

Tomorrow looks chilly again but at least it should stay dry! 🤞

Hope you’ll join us tomorrow for more of our adventures.

As always, thanks for reading.

After all of the previous day’s adventures, we slept very well. 😴

As home to both the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games, Lake Placid is incredibly proud of its rich Olympic heritage. It is the only venue in the USA to hold the Winter Olympics twice.

The Mirror Lake Inn has been family-owned since 1924, when it was owned by the the Wikoff family. It was originally known as the Mir-a-Lac Inn and quickly became known as a high-quality resort attracting very wealthy clientele from all over the state and especially New York City.

It survived the Depression years and in 1932, the inn was winterised for the Winter Olympics and the Norwegian Team rented the entire Inn.

The Inn is currently owned by Ed and Lisa Weibrecht, who continue with many of the old traditions. Good food, always warm and hospitable service were a tradition then and are now at the Mirror Lake Inn.

Our room is just lovely and the view magnificent.

Si relaxing!

We awoke this morning to bright sunshine but a chilly wind. 💨

After a delicious breakfast, we decided to walk the Mirror Lake Loop. It’s just a 2.82 mile walk and enabled us to acclimatise ourselves with the local area. Here are some photos of our walk.

Ironman Si!

Um! Potbellied Pigs in a tree!

I always measure a hotel by two things.

First of all, do they serve chamomile tea and how it is served. Top marks go to the hotel if they serve chamomile flowers in a silk bag and not just as a tea bag. I’m very pleased to report that the Inn serves flowers in a silk bag. So, top marks to the Mirror Lake Inn. 👏

From our room this morning we saw two men, Dave and Bob, fishing out on the lake and during our walk we met them bringing their boat into shore and they told us they had caught seven lake trout.

This is the view from our room. Can you hear the Loons calling?

A Loon

After a short break for a coffee and to write yesterday’s blog, we set off to visit the Lake Placid Olympic Ski-Jumping Complex.

The complex consists of a Sky Flyer Zipline, Skyride (gondola ride) and the Ski-Jump Tower. It is not fully open until June, so today we were only able to go to the top of the Tower which stands 420 feet tall (128 meters) and is famous for being one of the only free-standing ski-jumps in the world!

The ski-jump tower

The ski slope from the top

The view from the top is magnificent and kudos must go to the brave souls who are willing to stand out there in the open and then launch themselves down the slope with large planks of wood on their feet!! ⛷️🤣It’s not something either of us could do, that’s for sure. 😱

View from the tower

The landing area from the ski jump!

Tonight we dined at The Cottage, it’s the casual option here at the Inn. It sits right on the lake. The food was delicious.

Ann, here are the car photos! They are pretty much the same.

The first beast – the Lincoln Navigator

The second beast – the Chevrolet Tahoe

Funny event of the day ………….. well there has to be one doesn’t there? 😂🤷‍♀️

We set off to drive back to the Inn and heard a strange noise but it wasn’t immediately obvious what it was. Oh, oh we think, what’s wrong now? 🫣Suddenly, Si realises that we are driving along with the tailgate (boot lid) open!! Dear me, will it never end!? 🤣

At the moment, the weather for tomorrow is not looking very promising, rain and thunder is forecast, so we may be forced indoors. Fingers crossed the forecasters are wrong. 🤞

See you tomorrow!

Hi, we are back!

We had breakfast at the hotel, I had the kid’s plate today, Si had his usual breakfast sandwich and then we set off for Lake Placid. It was sunny and warmer at 63ºF (17ºC) and as we expected it to be cold in Lake Place, we donned our winter woollies! 🥶

We travelled through New York, into Pennsylvania and back into New York.

Also saw signs for Amsterdam, Hague, Worcester, Chester, Bolton and Rotterdam. Nice to see such familiar place names along the way!

We’ve been noticing a lot of Florida licence plates on this trip! We wonder if perhaps they live in New York and go to Florida for the winter? Answers on a postcard please! 😂

Also, we noticed on our trip that New York has a new tolling system, Cashless Tolling. It’s meant to reduce congestion, enhance safety and reduce pollution! All it did for us was to cause confusion! We don’t know if we were charged or not. Guess Hertz will let us know at some point. Mind you, as Hertz thought we were driving a different car anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens! They closed down the rental while we were still driving the Lincoln Navigator and thought we were driving a Corolla and the reservation has disappeared from their system. You couldn’t make it up! Good job we can laugh! 😂

Here are a few more photos taken during our five-hour trip!

We had quite an uneventful drive, apart, of course, from a few roadworks, to the Mirror Lake Inn, Lake Placid but unfortunately, that all changed when we arrived!

We checked in, the Mirror Lake Inn is just fabulous, staff very friendly. Went back out to move the car and it just wouldn’t start! 😱

Very long story short, Si called Hertz, not very satisfactory. They called the local garage, who were great, they came out and got it started. It seemed to be a computer problem. We didn’t want to keep a car we couldn’t rely on so we asked Hertz for a replacement. Yes, that’s okay but they wouldn’t deliver it to the hotel. We had to drive to Burlington Airport to exchange it. Shout our for Seth C. at Hertz, he was great and did everything he possibly could do to help us.

The whole journey took five hours. We didn’t get back to the hotel until 11 p.m. We’d only had breakfast and it was too late for dinner.

Still, we visited another state along the way, Vermont! Very pretty.

We thought we could stop somewhere en-route for a quick bite but even McDonalds was closed! The season hasn’t completely started yet. 🤷‍♀️

Oh, and when Si drove out of the Inn on our trip to Burlington Airport, he was on the wrong side of the road again! Of course, a car came round the corner, he must have been in total shock as Si realised and swerved to the right! 😱

The journey back to the Inn was awful. It was pitch black, no road lights, driving on very bendy roads in a car we’d just collected. Hertz will be receiving a very long letter when we get back. 🤬

There’s a lot more to the story that I won’t bore you with! 🥱

Tomorrow can only ger better! Right!🤞

As always, thanks for reading. 🤗

Sorry folks, but today’s post has been delayed due to more car problems! 😔

Will post as soon as possible.

We noticed this morning that the flags outside the hotel were flying at half-mast and asked reception why and were told it was to remember 89 firefighters who had died in the past year. 🇺🇸

As forecast, it rained this morning and it’s cold again. ☔️🥶

That didn’t stop Nat doing her early morning run before the rains came though! She’s very dedicated! 🏃‍♀️Bless her!

It looks as though the rest of our holiday will be cold, as Lake Placid’s temperatures are currently ranging from 38ºF (3ºC) to 64ºF (17ºC). We expected it to be cold there but we’ve been rather spoilt, as we were not expecting hot weather in Babcock and Rickett’s State Parks so now it’s turned cold here in Corning, it’s all been a bit of a shock! 🥶

Today’s plan was to have breakfast and then walk down to the Corning Museum of Glass. It’s only a five-minute walk from the hotel and is a great place to visit.

We saw some amazing exhibits before watching the glass blowing, they make it look so easy, before buying some beautiful glass to take home.

The following photographs are of items all made of glass.

Sadly, Dot and Nat have left us and travelled home. 😔We had such a wonderful time all being together again, the time went very quickly and are sad it’s over. Fingers crossed it won’t be too long before we can all be together again. 🤞

The three Twilight buddies back in 2013!

The three Twilight buddies today!

After the girls had left, we decided to drive into Corning for a quick pizza lunch before returning to the hotel and getting ready for our departure tomorrow.

We will be leaving Corning to drive to Lake Placid in New York State’s Adirondack Mountains.

As always, thanks for reading. Comments always welcome. 🤗

Today started drizzly and cold …. 59ºF (15ºC) and the most it got up to was 62ºF (16ºC) so it was a day for jeans and jackets! 🥶💨

We had a leisurely breakfast here at the hotel and discussed what we wanted to do for the day. We decided on a trip to Bully Hill Winery in Hammondsport for wine tasting.

Hammondsport was first settled in 1792 with the village being located at the south end of Keuka Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. It is considered to be the heart of the grape-growing region in New York.

On the way we stopped at a place called Hickory Hill, where Dot has a summer home. It’s a great place and was lovely to see it again.

The Gang at Hickory Hill

Bully Hill is situated high above Keuka Lake. It is one of the major Finger Lakes in the U.S. state of New York. It is unusual because it is Y-shaped, in contrast to the long and narrow shape of the other Finger Lakes. Because of its shape, it was referred to in the past as Crooked Lake.

The View from the Winery

The wine tasting was great. There were two hen parties and one birthday being celebrated, so you can imagine how raucous it was! 😱The guy in charge of the wines was called Dustin. He was a real hoot, loud and booming and had us all in stitches. The cost of the tasting also included us keeping our Bully Hill wine glass.

Dustin!

Looking our best!

The original owner of the winery owned a goat!

A beautiful table at the winery!

After purchasing the necessary mementos we made our way into Hammondsport for cake and coffee. We found a lovely shop called the Crooked Lake Ice Cream Co. and instead of ice cream, enjoyed a Red Velvet muffin and one called French Toast. They were delicious.

Hammondsport Town Square Band Stand

Dot’s husband, John, joined us for dinner this evening and we decided to visit the Texas Roadhouse, a favourite with us all. The steaks are all hand-cut and just melt in the mouth. One particular favourite are the hot dinner rolls they give you to start the meal, with the famous cinnamon honey butter! Deeeeeeeelicious! The secret is not to eat too many or there’s the possibility of not being able to eat the meal! I could easily just have those rolls alone. Fabulous!

The gang at the Texas Roadhouse

Relaxing after dinner back at the hotel!

Dot

Nat

Si (just in case you didn’t know!)

As we drove through the small towns today, we noticed banners hanging from the lampposts. They were Hometown Hero pole banners. They are a lasting expression of gratitude and remembrance, honouring the service and sacrifice of local military heroes, both past and present, with each pole banner telling a unique story. Each banner has the name and photograph of each hero.

Memorial Banners

It was quite a moving sight, honouring people that way.

It’s been another lovely day, even if it ended as it started, rainy and cold. ☔️🥶 We are hoping for better weather tomorrow for Dot and Nat’s last day with us. 🤞

As always, thanks for following along on our adventures!

After a quick breakfast this morning we set out for Corning, New York, to meet up with our dear friends Dot and Nat. 👏

The temperature first thing was 65ºF (18ºC) but reached 80ºF (26ºC) later on. In fact, it’s been a lovely sunny day with a light breeze, so comfortable. 🌞

As one of the roads on the trip was closed, Margaret, our sat-nav, sent us on an alternative route that took us through lots of small towns like Milan, Athens and Ulster. Even though we took an alternative route, it didn’t add anything to our driving time of 2.5 hours.

Nearly there!

I was telling Dot how we named every sat-nav we have, Margaret, because in the past, one of Dot’s saying has been “punch it Margaret!” meaning to get a move on. Now we know that Margaret, was the name of Dot’s mother-in-law! So every time we mention Margaret’s name we are giving a shout-out to her husband John’s, mother. 😀

It’s been just great meeting up with Dot and Nat again. Even though it’s been a few years since we’ve all met face to face, it felt as though we’d seen each other yesterday. Such is the way with good friends. 😊

The hotel has put us all on the fifth floor with Dot in an adjoining room to us, so I think it’s party time! 🥳

We decided to go into Corning for dinner and ate at Mooney’s – Home of the Mac ‘n Cheese.

As the name suggests, it’s everything Mac ‘n Cheese. For instance, I wanted the Philly Cheese Steak, so they mix that with Mac ‘n Cheese. May sound strange, but boy was it good! 😋

The door for the little people!

It can be ordered as a side or main portion. We all chose the side portions after our waitress told us it would be rather large and my goodness, we were amazed when we saw the size of the meal! It would easily have fed two people comfortably. The starters were all of a decent size too, so there was no way we were going to eat everything.

The four together again!

Needless to say, we came out with leftover boxes and enough food to feed us for the rest of the weekend! We have microwaves in our rooms, so if we need a snack in the middle of the night, it will either be Philly Cheese Steak or Si’s choice, The Stinger (spicy beef)!

Mind you, afterwards, Dot suggested we should go for ice-cream! Funny how there’s always a little room for something sweet! 😂 So, we went to Dippity Do Dahs for homemade ice cream! Silly me, you would think I would have learned by now that portions are always large here, but still ordered two scoops!! Needless to say, I couldn’t finish it. What’s the saying ….. eye’s bigger than my belly! 😂😔

Sand’s Lucky Leprechaun!

Interesting!

Enough room for ice-cream and milkshakes!

When we got back to the hotel it was still a lovely evening, 🌞so we were able to sit outside around the fire pit for a drink before heading for bed, ready for a full day tomorrow.

The forecast is for some rain tomorrow, 🌧️ …………. fingers crossed the weather forecast here is wrong, just like it is in the UK! 🤞

I discovered today, that on Day 7’s post (the one where we lost our car!) I kept referring to the Lucy Rose parking lot ……………… it’s no wonder we couldn’t find our car because it’s real name is the Lake Rose parking lot!! I guess that’s why people kept looking at me strangely when I kept saying the Lucy Rose instead of Lake Rose, but no one corrected me! 😔Dear me, I think I need to lay down in a darkened room with a cool flannel on my head! 🤯

All in all, it’s been a great day and we look forward to another one tomorrow! 😊

Hope to see you then!

As always, thanks for joining us on our adventures!

Another day, another waterfall!

But first of all, dinner last night.

We decided to try out the Ruth’s Chris Steak House (yes, I know, strange name!) at the Mohegan Sun casino here in Wilkes-Barre. Regular followers of the blog will now we like a little gamble now and again and after our big £10,000 win in Las Vegas last year, we thought we would give it a go.

First of all, on our way to the restaurant we saw the same machines we had our big win on last year and well, well, well, there was a lady being paid out $19,000! Those machines, Dragon Link, have got to be the luckiest ever or maybe not! We played them today and had quite a few little wins but nothing big. Hey ho! 😔

The winning machine last year!

Anyway, to get back to last night’s dinner. We both had steak and to say they were delicious is an understatement. The steaks are cooked using a patented broiling method developed by the founder (Ruth Fertel). They’re seasoned to perfection, and then served sizzling on 500º plates. Needless to say the food stays piping hot throughout the meal. Just don’t touch the plate! 🔥

Si with his steak dinner at Ruth’s

We decided to go back to Ricketts Glen again this morning to try and photograph the remaining waterfalls that we were advised not to try and reach as the terrain was very difficult and potentially dangerous.

Careful on those steps!

Dodgy!

Instead of climbing up as we were doing yesterday, we actually went and parked in the Lake Rose parking lot (that’s where we thought we were yesterday) and walked down to the falls. We now understand what we were being told yesterday, as the hike in parts was difficult and after photographing four, we had to give up on the remaining two, as the climb down would have been suicidal. So, out of 22 waterfalls we managed to photograph 20.

On the way to the waterfalls

To get down to the next waterfall we would have had to climb down and round the rock, bottom left at the end of the video! I don’t think so! 😱

Time to get back to the car!

Anyway, by now we were hot and glowing, it was 72º (22ºC) at 10.00 a.m. and being bothered by flies, so we felt we had done our bit and it was time to make our way back to the car, where the temperature had reached 85ºF (29ºC). It was now 12.20 p.m.

During our hike yesterday, a lady stepped aside to let us carrying on climbing and she laughed and said she didn’t want to interrupt our momentum. Momentum! Si told her we had left that back in the parking lot! 😂 However today, we had it back with a vengeance.

There was no repeat of yesterday about finding our car as we took the advice of our dear chum Si Smith and used what3words to record its location. Thanks Si. 👍

We didn’t need the help of Ranger Mike today. He was a very interesting guy. He was telling us yesterday that he’s the only full-time ranger at Ricketts Glen. He’s been there 20 years and before that he was in the military and served in many different locations around the world. He gave us all kinds of information about the Park too and also informed us that they have bears too but they are black ones, so wouldn’t harm us! Don’t think I want to be testing that opinion anytime soon, thank you. 😂

One of the questions he asked us yesterday, when trying to find where we had parked our car was, had we seen the dam? Dam, what dam, we replied? Well, we saw it today and it was right by the Lake Rose parking area.

Now, a trip to the east of the US would not be complete, for me at least, without a visit to a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurant. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I love them. They describe themselves as a ‘homey chain restaurant serving American comfort food, with an on-site general store’. We had lunch there today. Every time we drive past a Cracker Barrel sign we raise our arms in homage to this great store/restaurant.

Tomorrow will be a very exciting day for us as we will be meeting up with our dear friends Dot and Nat in Corning, New York! We keep in touch all the time, but it’s been a long time since we were last all together in person and to quote the character Red, from what’s got to be the best film ever, The Shawshank Redemption: “I find I’m so excited that I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head”.

Don’t be surprised if the blog is late over the next few days ………………… the four of us have a lot of talking and enjoying to do! 👏

The only photo I have with me, is this one of the three of us back in 2013 ……………. I’m sure you won’t think we look any different when I publish the latest one of us all together again! 😂

The three Twilight buddies back in 2013!

As always, thanks for reading.

We decided on an early start today as we wanted to get to Ricketts Glen before the crowds and before it became too hot.

So after a lovely breakfast here at the hotel we sped off and arrived at the car park and there were only six other cars. The temperature was 59ºF (15ºC) and rose later to 75ºF (24ºC). Under the tree canopy it was rather pleasant but when out in the sun it was burning. Of course, being near the water means flies and bugs!

Map of Ricketts Glen Waterfalls

Ricketts Glen State Park is one of the most scenic areas in Pennsylvania. The large park covers13,193 acres and it is the most beautiful place to visit and the waterfalls are amazing.

The 94-foot Ganoga Falls is the highest of 22 named waterfalls. Old growth timber and diverse wildlife add to the beauty.

We were there for a total of four hours hiking mostly the black trails (the most difficult). It was very strenuous and at times very slippery.

We only missed three of the falls and that was because we met someone who said to do those would mean another two-hours hiking and the terrain was very dangerous so we decided against that and turned back.

We met quite a few people on the trail and some stopped and talked and we discussed the falls. One couple were from Corning and that’s where we will be heading to from here on Friday to meet up with our dear friends Dot and Nat.

There were quite a few dog walkers and Si bent down to tickle one and it bit him! Luckily, no blood was drawn! 😱

Here are a few photos and videos of just a few of the beautiful waterfalls.

Sand on the hike – resting!

Si looking superior!

At the end of the hike!

I believe the weather in the UK is not very good at the moment, ☔️so what I’m going to tell you next will probably brighten your day somewhat! Prepare for a good belly laugh!!! 🤣

The Barretts had to be rescued by Chief Ranger, Mike Maneval …………….. oh! the embarrassment and shame. 😳

We were hiking our way back to the Lucy Rose Trailhead Parking as that was where we had parked our car  ………………. or so we thought! 🚙🤔

We walked from the woods triumphant that we had achieved so much and were high-fiving each other and then we stopped as we couldn’t see our car anywhere! We looked at each other in amazement as we realised the car park we were in was not the one we had parked in!

Out comes the map and even though we were 100% convinced we were parked in the Lucy Rose, it was obvious that we weren’t. We saw a sign that directed us back to the main road so set off thinking we must be parked just up the road somewhere. Eventually, we arrived at the Park Centre and managed to find a lady to help us.

She asked us our registration and when we hesitated she asked the colour and make, well we knew that, it was a black Lincoln. She radioed for help and up turned two men, one of which was Ranger Mike.

He asked us if we had driven in on I18? …………. um, we shrugged and said we had just followed the sat nav!

Had we driven past a lake? …………….. eh, don’t think so!

Had we driven in up a steep hill to the parking lot? …………… eh don’t think so!

Had we climbed up hill or own hill at the end of the hike? Hang on, we knew that one, the answer was up! 👍

The questions went on and on and we didn’t have any answers. We felt like such fools. Like those who set out on long hikes with no food or water.

Eventually, he asked if we had had to hike a while before we actually saw any waterfalls and boom, 💥 we had! From that little piece of information he told us we had parked in Glen Falls parking lot.

He ushered us in his car 🚗and set off at speed. I was still convinced he was wrong and when mile one became mile two and so on, I was sure we would not find our car there. After about eight minutes driving and wondering where on earth he was taking us, we turned a corner and there it was ………………… the car! As we drove in I noticed a sign that said ‘Glen Falls Parking’.

I apologised for our stupidity but he said it happens all the time ……….. not to us it doesn’t, and he said not to worry about it. I bet he’s having a good laugh with his family tonight about the dumb Brits. 😔

Anyway, this is a lesson learned. Always take a photograph of where the car is parked and put a pin in the map on the phone.

Driving back we had a good laugh about it as we relived all the questions and us standing there shrugging and saying “we don’t know!” 🤣🤷‍♀️

I’ve just realised while typing this that I wasn’t so dumb after all, just forgetful. I actually took a photo of the map at the parking lot showing exactly where we were! 🤷‍♀️

If you click on the map, you’ll see it says ‘You Are Here”. Well, we ended up at the Lucy Rose Trailhead Parking towards the top of the map. That’s how far out we were. Big shout-out for Ranger Mike! 👏

Still, we had a good day. The waterfalls were magnificent and we are thinking that we may return tomorrow after all to tackle the three we didn’t see today …………………. you can be sure we’ll be making sure we know exactly where we are parked!!

Thanks for reading. Comments (replies) are always welcome.

We left Beckley early this morning, 7.45 a.m. to be precise, as we had a long drive to Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania. We anticipated a seven-hour drive and that’s exactly what it took to get here. There were a few roadworks along the way but none of them delayed our journey.

Once again, most of the 470 miles was driven through beautiful scenery of mountains and lovely green trees. We were surprised at how little traffic there was.

It’s been hot again, rising from 59ºF (15ºC) to 85ºF (29ºC) and we are assured it should be lovely and warm for the next couple of days. 🌞

As usual, on long trips, we listen and sing along to music. Today of course, as we were partly in West Virgina it seemed appropriate to include John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’:

A river on our trip today

I was going to say it was an uneventful journey today but we did have some excitement!

First of all, we were about thirty minutes down the road and I remembered that I had left a whole bag of mini Twix in the fridge at our last hotel! I hope whoever found them appreciated the treats! 😔

Also, one of the first things we saw just as we left were deer on the side of the road, but we flew by so quickly I couldn’t get a photo. Likewise, near the end of our trip, right in the middle of the Interstate, a mummy duck and goslings were walking right across the middle of the road. 😱We don’t know their fate! The van behind us slowed down but we didn’t see what happened to them. 🦆

Partway into our trip a car just ahead of us shed its tyre! Rubber was flying everywhere and we were lucky to avoid it. Thankfully, the person driving the car was able to pull off onto the grass at the side of the road. 😥

Photos to make you smile!

Go Chicken!

The largest tin of Egg Shell paint in the world!

The most hilarious thing that happened today has happened to me!

After dinner we came back up to our ‘suite’ …………… did I mention that we are staying at the Hilton for three nights and we have a two-room suite, it’s very nice!

Anyway, I digress! I’m sat in bed writing this blog and suddenly remembered I needed to charge my Apple watch. I lent over with the watch in my hand to plug it in and as I did so, I knocked my cup of Cappuccino, ☕️ the drink flew everywhere, including all over the Hilton’s lovely white sheets and duvet. 😱

I leapt out of bed shouting for Si to bring towels, 😳 whilst trying to find the precious watch but was unable to find it anywhere! Eventually, after cleaning up the mess we both set about looking for it and it was just nowhere to be seen. 🤔 It was a complete mystery until 💡……………….. something told me to look in the coffee cup. It was still half full and sure enough, there’s my watch drowning in coffee! Lucky they are waterproof! I rinsed it off and touch wood, it seems to be working okay. 🤞That will teach me not to be so lazy. I should have gotten out of bed to put it on charge. Still, I’m doing a penance …………….. I’m now going to be sleeping on partially wet sheets! 😔

We had dinner this evening here in the hotel. I had the most wonderful beets and goat’s cheese salad to start followed by a crab cake. Si had crab cake to start and then the Cowboy Burger and fries. It was all very delicious. No pictures unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view!) as we were both very hungry as we hadn’t eaten anything all day and forgot to take any! 🤷‍♀️

Tomorrow we will be visiting Ricketts Glen State Park and undertaking a four-mile hike so that Si can photograph all the waterfalls. There are approximately 20, so it may take us a while! 🤷‍♀️

Thanks for reading.

Back tomorrow!

The day dawned sunny and hot and after another wonderful breakfast we set off for our day at the Biltmore Gardens.

Today’s Breakfast complete with delicious ginger bread

Biltmore’s 8,000 acres are comprised of six formal and informal gardens, a Conservatory, and nature trails connecting them to the French Broad River, the estate’s Deer Park, Lagoon, Farmyard, and woodlands.

Sadly, the tulips, daffodils and most of the azaleas had been and gone but there was still plenty to admire in the beautifully kept gardens and grounds.

As it’s been a walking/seeing day, not much has happened so here are some photos from the gardens and the conservatory for you to enjoy! Just click on the photo to make it larger.

The Lake

Can you see me waving from the bridge?

The Conservatory

Sand in the Italian Garden

???

The Conservatory

Again …. ???

Here’s a short video of the Bass Pond waterfall.

It was quite a tiring day, as the temperature reached 80ºF (27ºC) and we had forgotten how humid it can be here! 🥵

Tonight we went into Asheville for dinner at the Chestnut. Sadly, the good old satnav (Margaret) took us in the wrong direction so we were late, but got there in the end. The food was excellent, Si had ribs and I had my usual fillet, and the staff very friendly. I wanted an amoretto sour but they had run out of amoretto so the barman devised an alternative and it was excellent. It’s all about customer service, right! 👍

Same cannot be said for the parking charges …………… $25 (£20) for 90 minutes parking!! 😱

Tomorrow, we leave our lovely B&B and head in the direction of Beckley, West Virginia to visit the Glade Creek Grist Mill in Babcock State Park.

Hope you’ll join us there. 😀

We woke to a lovely sunny day and a temperature of 57ºF (14ºC) this morning. A big change from yesterday. I forgot to mention that when we had the car trouble, it had also started to rain very heavily. As they say, it never rains but it pours! ☔️

Dean, one of the owners of the B&B, very kindly arranged for us to have an early breakfast this morning as we had early entry tickets into Biltmore House. Our breakfast was delicious and very filling, but it set us up for the day. He had even arranged for our favourite teas to be available. Nothing like a good cup of tea to set you up for the day. 🫖

We started with yoghurt, fresh fruit and granola and then a Croissant filled with cream cheese, pecan nuts and maple syrup with two link sausages.

Feeling very happy and full, we set out for the Biltmore Estate. It was only a short drive from the B&B, so we arrived in good time. We were advised to allow for a 45 minute drive once we arrived to allow for parking and getting to the house. We were still amazed when we passed through the entrance to see a sign that said it was 2.5 miles to go to the parking area and then an eight-minute walk to the house!

The Biltmore Mansion

The house is huge and the contents quite magnificent. It took us approximately two hours to see everything and we felt quite overwhelmed by it all.

The Atrium

The Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum spanning 175,000 square feet, which is more than four acres of floor space. The 250-room, four-storey, French Renaissance chateau includes 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces and was built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately-owned house in the United States. It is still  owned by George Vanderbilt’s descendants.

The Dining Room

In the 1880s, George Vanderbilt began to make regular visits with his mother, Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt, to the Asheville area. He loved the scenery and climate so much that he decided to build a summer house in the area, which he called his “little mountain escape”.

He eventually bought 125,000 acres (506 km²) of land, comprising nearly 700 parcels, including over 50 farms and at least five cemeteries. Upon his death in 1914 at the age of 51, at his request, Edith sold some of the land to the federal government to create Pisgah National Forest, one of the first national forests east of the Mississippi leaving approximately 8,000 acres today.

Where Cornelia, his daughter was born

Construction of the house began in 1889 and took six years to complete. In order to facilitate such a large project, a woodworking factory and brick kiln, which produced 32,000 bricks a day, were built onsite. A 3-mile (5 km) railroad spur was constructed to bring materials to the building site. 

Construction on the main house required the labour of about 1,000 workers and 60 stonemasons working seven days a week.

The Bowling Alley

He made extensive trips overseas during construction to purchase decor. He returned to North Carolina with thousands of furnishings for his newly built home, including tapestries, hundreds of carpets, prints, linens, and decorative objects, dating from the 15th century to the late 19th century. Among the few American-made items were a more practical oak drop-front desk, rocking chairs, a walnut grand piano, bronze candlesticks, and a wicker wastebasket.

The Kitchen

The 1991 Vanderbilt Cecil Family Portrait

He opened his opulent estate, on Christmas Eve of 1895 to family and friends from across the country who were encouraged to enjoy leisure and country pursuits. The mansion reportedly cost £5 million (equivalent to $180 million today) to construct.

After completing the tour, it was time to purchase a few souvenirs of course! There was a wonderful selection of goodies to buy and I think it’s fair to say I made a jolly good job of it! 😂

When we left the temperature had reached 75ºF (24ºC). It was just like a summer’s day! 🌞 It was a 4.5 mile drive to actually leave the estate. 😱

We shall be returning tomorrow to see the wonderful gardens.

For dinner this evening we went to a local restaurant called Tall John’s, just a short walk from the B&B. The staff were very friendly and the food excellent.

Si’s Steak Diane

Sand’s Ricotta Cavatelli

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying ‘happy hour’ with some of the lovely guests here at the B&B, swopping some very interesting stories! 😉

The funniest event of the day was when we drove away from the B&B this morning and suddenly there was a car approaching us head-on ………………….. Si was driving on the wrong side of the road! 🚗😂 Hey ho!

See you tomorrow!

We had an excellent night’s sleep at the Marriott, Atlanta Airport and are now refreshed and raring to go, go, go!

Just a couple of things I forgot to put in yesterday’s blog ………… well, it had been a long day!

All Virgin’s planes have names and yesterday, we flew on an Airbus 350-1000 called Red Velvet. What a wonderful thing to do, name a plane after a delicious cake!

There were only 195 passengers, so, plenty of room for everyone. I believe they can usually take between 350-400.

With our meal we were given salt and pepper shakers and usually these are silver coloured but yesterday, they were gold. Of course, they went straight into my bag to go with the silver ones I’ve collected in the past! I wasn’t being naughty by taking them. On the feet of the shakers it says ‘Pinched from Virgin Atlantic’. 😂 Lots of passengers take them home and Si did clear it with one of the cabin crew first. No bail money necessary on this occasion! 😂

Today was scheduled to be a driving day as we were due to make our way from Atlanta, Georgia to Asheville in North Carolina, ready for our visit to the Biltmore Estate, so the first thing we did was to collect our hire car from Hertz.

We are Gold members, so that means we should be able to just walk in, look for our name on the information board and that tells us which bay our car is in. We hop in and off we drive receiving our paperwork at the exit gate, very simple and very quick, ………………………….. or that’s what should happen!! But alas, things don’t always go to plan do they? 😔

We arrived at the relevant bay and found that instead of the SUV we had ordered, we had been given a larger alternative. It was huge! It seats six people and has running boards that come out when the doors open. Good job in my case, because being only 5 feet tall, there was no way I was going to be able to climb in from ground level! 😂 Regular readers of the blog will remember an occasion, some years back now, when a similar thing happened and I ended up falling out of the car because it was so high off the ground I couldn’t climb out in one go!

Anyway, we open the door and there’s no key. After searching all through the car we went back and asked where it was, but to no avail. Eventually, a man appeared with a small plastic box and produced the missing key! By now we had been waiting an hour to get away! So much for the benefits of being a Gold member! 🤷‍♀️

The funniest thing was when we said we were unable to open the boot (trunk) and were told that that was because we were trying to open it by pressing the rear camera! We can be so stupid at times! 😂

So, after familiarising ourselves with all the bells and whistles, believe me, that took some time, we set off towards Asheville and to the bed and breakfast we are staying in.

Another reason never to fly to Atlanta is the traffic. It was horrendous this morning, so slow due to sheer volume, road works and accidents, but hey, the sun was shining and it was a barmy 75ºF (24ºC) so we just went with the flow.

It was going to be a four-drive but the car was very comfortable so we settled and off we went. The drive was very uneventful until the last quarter of the journey, when a man pulled up alongside and told us there was a problem with the car and that the oil pan cover was hanging off. We pulled over and sure enough, it was. Luckily, a policeman was stopped on the side of the road too and he told us there was a Hertz facility just around the corner.

Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t a full Hertz facility but a franchise and they didn’t have an equivalent vehicle that we could swop ours for. All they had, was what they call at sedan, a Toyota Corolla that seats four people and would probably not have room for all our luggage. Well, as you can imagine, Si had steam coming out of his ears! 🤬

We thought we were going to have to make a three-hour round trip to another Hertz facility in the Corolla to do a second swop for a larger vehicle but our luck turned and we were told their mechanic had just returned from lunch and he felt he would be able to fix the problem, which he duly did and so we were able to continue our onward journey and arrive at the B&B at the scheduled time. 👏

Fingers crossed, that will be all the drama for this holiday, thank you! 🤞🙏

We are staying at the Abbington Green Bed and Breakfast and Spa in the Montford Historic District in Asheville, North Carolina and it’s wonderful. The history of the house dates back to 1907. It has seven gardens, all of which have been laid out in the style of designer/artist Gertrude Jekyll, who over 100 years ago in Surrey, England, was influential in setting the style that we think of today as “the quintessential English garden”.

We have just enjoyed ‘happy hour’ of drinks and cheese with the other guests staying here and a great bunch they are too! 🧀🍷🍇

Tomorrow our holiday really begins, as we are visiting the largest privately owned house in the USA, Biltmore House, built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and where the gardens we are lead to believe, are just spectacular. Fingers crossed the sun will shine and we will not be disappointed.

Thank you for reading.

More tomorrow!

The day has arrived at last and here we are at London Heathrow. ✈️

Dave, our driver, arrived on time and we had a straight run through to the airport. We know Dave as he’s driven us a few times now. He has ten grown-up children, who he’s obviously very proud of, and one of the girls ran the Marathon last Sunday and did a very respectable time. 🏃‍♀️

As always, Si and Security turned out to be interesting! Long-time followers of the blog will know that Si and Security are not a match made in heaven!! 😂

We usually have a dedicated Virgin security channel to go through but as it’s being refurbished we had to use Fastrack instead. That wasn’t a problem as it’s only a two-minute walk from our check-in area and they are now using the new 3D scanners which means you do not have to take laptops out of bags and are no longer restricted to 100ml of liquids, you can take through up to two litres in your bag.

Well, I sailed through but when I turned round there was no sign of Si!! Oh, oh I thought, here we go again! 🤷‍♀️ Sure enough, although we were told to keep everything in our bags, they failed to mention it was still necessary to empty pockets and of course, Si still had his wallet in his pocket so the alarm went off and he had to go to the back of the queue to go through again. Luckily, the guy called him forward to jump the queue. Unfortunately, the alarm went off again, this time because he had his earbuds still in his pocket and so this time the man said he would run through the machine and Si could come on through although he had to be ‘paddled’

By this time I’m through collected everything and are waiting patiently wondering what on earth is going on! 🤷‍♀️He eventually arrives and thinking we have everything, move out onto the concourse do go to Duty Free. Oh no you don’t you two! Suddenly Si asks me if he could have his belt! Belt, what belt? Well, I hadn’t seen that when I was collecting everything else. Luckily, we were able to walk back into security and sure enough, there was his belt hanging up just waiting to be retrieved! 😅

Next was Duty Free, perfume purchased and of course, a couple of extra goodies for on the plane and we were off to the Virgin Lounge and breakfast.

We started with the champagne, well who wouldn’t and although I’m not vegetarian I decided to have the vegetarian breakfast. It was delicious and just the right size for me. Si decided on the trout and scrambled eggs on toast and he enjoyed it so much he asked for a second one!! 😱

I like to think I’m a very organised person and most of the time I think I am but today I’ve missed a step. We’ve just discovered that we left Si’s cap at home! Not good for someone with a bald head. Guess our first purchase when we get to Atlanta will be to buy him one! 🧢

Our flight was 30 minutes late departing but the trip was shorter than we were originally told as it took just 8 hours 15 minutes. The staff were all very friendly and we loved the Upper Class seating ‘pods’.

There was plenty of room to stretch out, the seats were large and even had lumbar support. The touch TV was the largest we’ve ever seen on a plane. The food was delicious. Once again, we were too full to partake of the afternoon delights but we did have the ice-cream. The headphones were noise-cancelling and very comfy.

We had quite a lot of turbulence en-route and the landing was not the best we’ve ever had! At one point it sounded as though we were going to take off again and it was a very bumping landing.

We won’t be flying into Atlanta again! Going through Security took one hour!! There were hundreds of people and where we had to queue there were only two officers checking all the passports!

The USA have a special scheme called ‘Global Entry‘. That basically means there’s no queuing when you arrive at Security, you more or less march straight through. That’s one thing I will definitely be checking out when we get home!

Atlanta Airport is the world’s busiest apparently and we confirmed that today!

We’ve made it to our overnight hotel at the airport and tomorrow we will be up bright and early to collect our hire car and start making our way towards Asheville, North Carolina and the B&B we shall be staying at over the weekend.

Catch you there! 😀

I write this as Storm Nelson batters the south of England. It seems to have been raining for months and months. Will it ever stop? ☔️

As it’s such an awful day, I decided it was time to start writing about our holiday this year commencing on 25th April.

We are very excited about our holiday as this will be our first visit to the East Coast in seven years and we will be visiting new places as well as catching up with dear friends who we have not seen since 2017.

We are visiting the States a little earlier than usual as our first port of call will be to visit the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. The estate consists of a historic house museum and beautiful gardens. It was built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States. We are told the best time to visit the wonderful gardens is in April. Hence, the reason our holiday is starting a little earlier than usual.

We will be flying into Atlanta, overnighting there and then driving to Asheville and it’s there that we will meet up with the first of our dear friends, Denise and Desiree.

Followers of our blog may remember that they are the sisters we first met up with in London in 2012. Denise was the winner of the Sony Worldwide Landscape Photographic Competition in 2012 and she and Desiree had travelled to London to collect her prize. Simon knew Denise from his days on Flickr the photographic site. We’ve remained friends ever since.

We will then travel to Babcock State Park in West Virginia, staying overnight, before driving to Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania to visit Rickett’s Glen State Park to see the numerous waterfalls. There is also the possibility of us doing a little gambling too as there is a casino in Wilkes-Barre! 😱

Fingers crossed, we may be able to replicate our large win at the end of our 2023 holiday in Las Vegas last year!🤞

From there, we will travel to Upstate New York to meet up with our other dear friends, Dot and Nat. Again, followers of the blog will know that we first met them both in the good old Twilight Saga film days, that was 15 years ago😱and our friendship is still going strong!

Our final destination will be to Lake Placid in the Adirondacks, New York State. The winter Olympics have been held there twice, in 1932 and 1980.

From there we will drive to Boston to fly home.

We look forward to you joining us on our new adventure.

See you soon! 😀