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! 😀

21st – 22nd May:

My night may not have been good but the day certainly started very well!

Si and I went down to the casino for a little gamble before being picked up and transported to the airport. We went for the first machine we saw when we entered and it was one called Dragon Link Happy & Prosperous.

Well, Happy & Prosperous we certainly were. We put in $50 and spent $3 on our first spin and up came the Grand Jackpot ………….. $13,376.82 to be precise, approximately £10,000. You can imagine the shock! Especially for the guy who had sat on the machine next to us! Definitely a ‘if only’ moment! 😔

The winning machine

People immediately began to gather and to congratulate us. The senior managers came down too. In the past tax would have been payable but the U.S. and U.K. now have an agreement that no tax payable. We have won in the past, not as much, but we had to pay tax so arranged back then to get ourselves a U.S. tax code just in case but that is no longer necessary.

A shocked Si!

The winnings!

We knew there was a limit to how much currency you are able to take out of the country before having to declare it so we did some investigation and found that we needed  to declare it to the U.S. Customs. When we reached the airport they sent two men up to the Virgin Check-in and completed the forms there.

When we reached the U.K. Customs and went through the ‘Red’ channel meaning we had something to declare it was very busy! Who knew there were so many honest people around! The Custom’s man told us to go on-line and declare it there! 🤷‍♀️So, we more or less just walked straight through. So no hassle at all.  

Passport Control and baggage check was a nightmare. Another reason never to fly to, or leave Las Vegas on a weekend. The queue was huge. It reminded us of Heathrow! Today everything had to be checked and they wanted us to remove everything shoes, belts, empty pockets and put the laptop in a separate tray. 

At least this year, my carry-on wasn’t chosen for an extra check.

We enjoyed our stay at the Park MGM. It is a non-smoking hotel but we didn’t realise that until we arrived.

Our chauffeur came to collect us and we had an uneventful trip to the airport. We’d been in the hotel all day and when we stepped outside wow, it was hot, hot, hot. 🌞🌞🌞Luckily the Tesla was lovely and cool.❄️

As it was a Sunday, Virgin Atlantic check-in had opened early. We didn’t know they did that but it made sense as Sunday is a very popular day for people to fly home.

We were a little disturbed when the lady told us she would have to allocate us our seats! What! I had booked them months ago. She soon realised she was confusing us with another couple.

We were surprised when she weighed the cases to find they were more or less the same as when we flew out. That’s because I managed to put most of our purchases in the small carry-on suitcase. That weighed very much more. Muscles (that’s me) had to help Si lift it into the overhead locker. 🛄💪😂

We had booked the same lounge as last year so that we had somewhere comfortable to sit while we were waiting to board.

Last year we were unable to complete all the hikes we wanted to do due to Covid. This year the same thing happened but this time due to the snow and bear activity as they were just coming out of hibernation.

We wanted to see the Tetons in the snow and we certainly did that although some of the days were a lot warmer than we expected.

We drove a total of 2,631 miles.

There were two highlights of the holiday, the first of course was the two days we spent on the Rocky Mountaineer. We had waited so long to experience it and was well worth the three year wait!

We hope to do the Canadian Rocky Mountaineer in 2025.

The second highlight was Si having his Schwabacher Landing photo published in the Cowboy State Daily.

Our flight home was uneventful and only took nine hours and twenty minutes. We were late taking off but managed to make up the time.

We noticed that there was a majority of men in our cabin. We think they must all have been in Vegas for a boxing match over the weekend. I sleep most of the way back but did wake up long enough to take these sunrise shots.

The window shades change to different colours according to the time of day the flight is. As this was night-time they were dark so giving the lovely colours.

Sunrise board

Sunrise on board

When we arrived at Heathrow it was heaving with people but most were using the automatic passport control gates and by the time we had collected our cases the whole thing took us just 25 minutes.

Seems strange to be back home and for life to be returning to normal. We haven’t watched a television in two weeks. 📺

I don’t think I’ll be unpacking the suitcases today as we are very tired. The eight-hour time difference takes its toll! 😴

Thank you to everyone who took the time to follow our adventures, leave comments and ‘likes’.

Thank you too, to all the lovely people we met along the way for making our holiday so special.

As usual, it just remains for us to say ………. 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 see you all on our next adventure. 😀 ✈️🚙🇬🇧🇺🇸

It is now the 21st May!

This post is a day late due to the photographs not wanting to behave and malaise of the author! I was unable to get the photographs to load yesterday. A notification kept coming that I did not understand at all or could find out what it meant so what did I do ……………. shut everything down, rebooted and of course, it then worked like a dream! As for the author well, she blames the very rich food and drink she imbibed last night. 😔

20th May:

We left Salt Lake City (SLC)  bright and early at 7.15 a.m with the temperature at 65ºF and by the time we got to Las Vegas it was a stomping 92ºF. We noticed the difference! 🌞🥵

We didn’t stop for breakfast as we were eager to be on our way. Luckily, being Saturday the roads were not too busy.

For the first time on this holiday I was able to get out the summer gear and put my cut-offs on.

The journey was going to take us six hours. It took us an hour to get out of SLC and most of that time we drove in the Express lane or HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane. As long as you have two or more people in the car you can travel in that. The other five hours was driven on the Interstate so there’s was nothing of particular interest to see.

HOV Lane

I took a few photographs along the way.

All roads to Vegas

Our musical interludes today were by Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams and Mary Chapin Carpenter. I bet there are those out there who are asking “who are they”?!

The temple

Today we travelled from Utah to Arizona and then Nevada.

Welcome to Arizona

One thing I wanted to explain was about the drinking situation yesterday. A lady explained to us that the reason the Texas Roadhouse were unable to accept our driving licences as proof of age is that American driving licences, or the Utah ones at least, have a barcode on the back that can be scanned to check your details whereas British ones do not! 🤷‍♀️

Welcome to Nevada

Well that’s good!

St. George – Si’s favourite bit of road …. not!

Lots of black and white cows

Sew Sweet!

A lonely cloud

Once we were settled in to our hotel we popped over to the Bellagio to look at the Atrium. We think this is the best we’ve ever seen it! Sadly, it was packed with people so we were unable to take one complete video.

Bellagio Atrium

Sand in the Atrium

The colour is fabulous

Beautiful arches of flowers

This evening we dined at Bavette’s Steakhouse & Bar here at the Park MGM. We stayed here many years ago when it was the Monte Carlo.

Bavette’s describes itself as an acclaimed Chicago classic that has arrived in Las Vegas. 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 towers, 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.

We had a lovely meal and great cocktails (until it all caught up with me later!) We shared the best crab cake we’ve ever eaten, followed by a 6oz filet mignon, petite duchess cut, each with Béarnaise sauce, I had blue cheese, watercress and steak salt accompanied by wonderful mashed potatoes and charred Brussel sprouts with parmesan. We couldn’t manage dessert but had coffee and two glasses of Frangelico instead.

We leave Las Vegas tomorrow afternoon for our flight home so tomorrow’s blog will appear on Monday, fingers crossed, once we have arrived home. If I’m too jet-lagged it will be the following day.

This is the 10th anniversary of when we first started the blog so I will be doing a special post to cover the ten years once we get home.

Thanks for reading.

See you ‘across the pond’ in good ol’ Blighty! 🇬🇧

19th May:

It’s a sad day as we have left our favourite place, the Grand Tetons and made our way to Salt Lake City ready for our trip back to Las Vegas tomorrow and our flight home on Sunday.

Welcome to Jackson …….. rather goodbye!

Rather Goodbye to Jackson!

As it’s been a driving day there’s not a lot of action to report but I did take a few photographs as we travelled along. Our trip took about 5.5 hours and was uneventful.

One large cow

The long road

Interesting!

A farmer hard at work

This will take a while!

What a beautiful tree!

On the Oregon Trail

We did thank you very much!

I was going to describe the chicken photograph a different way but Si wouldn’t let me for for fear of upsetting some of our lovely readers as it could construed as rather crude!! 😂Answers on a postcard please!!

A sweet little house on wheels plus chimney!

We were serenaded on our trip by the lovely John Denver.

The majority of our journey was on small country-like roads. It wasn’t until we were about two-thirds into the journey that we joined the Interstate with it’s 80mph speed limit!. 

The only animals we saw were cows, lots of them and one dead elk!

Is this Switzerland?

On one occasion we saw something in the road, it was a marmot and we thought it was dead but it wasn’t until we passed, good thing we didn’t run over him, we realised he was playing dead and as soon as we were by he scuttled back to the side of the road! 

Some parts of the journey reminded us of Switzerland.

Once in Salt Lake we decided to eat immediately and so drove down to the Texas Roadhouse. Somewhere we’ve eaten at many times.

However, there was one problem today, they wanted to see our ID to make sure we were old enough to drink!!! 🤷‍♀️The only ID they would accept were our passports. Good grief, we don’t carry our passports all the time now that we have photographic driving licences but they were not good enough. We walked out in high dudgeon. 🤨

We went along the road to the Olive Garden instead. They were rather more sensible about the whole thing and agreed that we looked old enough to drink so we stayed there and had a fabulous meal of soup (as much as we liked) with bread sticks, then I had sirloin steak with fettuccini, Si had chicken and prawn carbonara and then we shared doughnuts with chocolate and raspberry dip. Yummy!!

Si enjoying his dinner today

That’s two places we will not be returning to …………… Denver because of their ridiculous taxes and the Texas Roadhouse in Salt Lake City. 

It was a lovely 52ºF when we left this morning and by the time we reached Salt Lake City it was a barmy 78ºF. 🌞 We travelled from Wyoming, through Idaho, back through Wyoming and then Idaho again and finally into Utah.

Thanks for reading. See you in Las Vegas!

18th May:

We had another late start today …….. 10.30! This is becoming a habit!😴

Although the day was warm there was a definite chill in the air and there was a strange cloud-like cover on the mountains all day.

Misty Tetons

We had quite an exciting start to the day when we discovered one of Si’s sunrises had been published in the Wyoming Cowboy State Daily, a digital newspaper. I subscribed to it when we were here last year and I noticed everyday they published a sunrise of the day. I decided I would send in one of Si’s he took earlier in the week at Schwabacher Landing. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it had been published this morning! 😱was my reaction.

Schwabacher Sunrise – Published in the Cowboy State Daily digital newspaper!

Today was our last full day in the Tetons so we decided to check out the wildlife one last time. We were quite successful ………. apart from Grizzly 399. We went back twice today and while the road was still packed with people we don’t know if anyone actually saw her  but we certainly didn’t. It appears she must have crossed the road at some point with her cub as all the photographers were on the opposite of the road this afternoon.

We went to check out where we found the bison yesterday but they had moved on, there was not one to be seen. When we drove back 45 minutes later there was a whole herd of them. Where they had been hiding goodness only knows.

Bison

Likewise with the elk, apart from two lonely ones off in the distance, the whole herd had vanished too. Something strange’s going on with the wildlife we thought!

Who is that?

However, on our drive out this afternoon we saw this fine chap right on the side of the road. We drove round the corner and bam, there was an elk jam. Air bags were very nearly deployed!! 😱

Elk on the roadside

We did mange to see a moose in the Gros Ventre area.

Moose in the woods

In between chasing wildlife we came back to the cabin for lunch. A big shoutout here goes to Stefan and Stephanie in the cabin behind ours. Stefan used to be a chef and last night they brought round two plates of pork chops with the best sauce ever, mashed potatoes with corn, carrots and gravy. Well, to say it was fabulous would be an understatement. Si said it was the best meal he’s had since we arrived in the Tetons. 😀 I told Stephanie that we would adopt Stefan and take him home with us. I would never need to cook a meal again! 😂

Lunch courtesy of Stefan

They have both had a few very difficult days as their beloved dog Lola, aged 13.5 years, has been very poorly and sadly today, she passed away. All the pet lovers reading this will understand how heart-wrenching it is to lose such a well-loved best friend. Even though they were going through such a bad time they were still thinking of others. Another kindness shown to us. 🥰

We went back to check on the Sandhill Crane this afternoon and although the eggs haven’t hatched yet we did manage to catch the bird standing up and if you look carefully at the bottom of the photographs you can just see the eggs. 👏 At one point she seemed to be moving the eggs around in the nest.

Sandhill Crane plus eggs

Sandhill Crane with the eggs

We don’t know what was going on in Jackson today but there were dozens and dozens of cyclists on the cycle paths. We assume it was a charity ride. There were all ages and many different types of bikes.

Cyclists in Jackson

Jackson has great cycle paths that people use for cycling and running.

A couple of days ago I put on a photograph of a bird that we didn’t know the name of so just called it a flycatcher. Today however, Si was chatting with a young lady who knew the correct name ……. it’s a Yellow Crested Warbler. You learn something every day.

Yellow Crested Warbler

Tomorrow will be a driving day as we leave to overnight in Salt Lake City before driving to Las Vegas for our flight home on Sunday.

I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that I’ve done a practice pack today and am pleased to report that everything fits in nicely so no need to purchase an extra suitcase this year for the flight back home. 👏

We’ve had the most fabulous time in the Tetons. It’s such a beautiful place. We weren’t able to do all the hiking we wanted as a lot of the trails are still closed either because of the remaining snow or bear activity. It’s at this time that the bears come out of hibernation with their cubs so it’s a very dangerous time for us humans. 🐻😱

Please join us tomorrow in Salt Lake City!

17th May:

Hello from the Grand Tetons!

You will remember that last night I closed saying it had started to rain. Well, rain it did and so much so we ended up with a double rainbow. 🌈

The double rainbow over Dornans

So, to today.

It was another early start for us this morning …. up at 5.00 a.m. and out at 5.20 to photograph sunrise over John Moulton Barn. Regular readers of the blog will know that in the past we have photographed sunrise over the T.A. Moulton Barn hence doing the other one today!

John Moulton Barn

We arrived at 5.30 and it was a rather chilly start, 36ºF in fact. There were already photographers eagerly awaiting and anticipating the sunrise. As always, everyone’s chatting with each other as we wait and wait and wait. There are stamping feet and clapping of hands trying to keep warm as we stand in wet grass. Crazy or what!?

Sunrise is supposed to be at 5.58. You can hear all the cameras clicking every few seconds as people start to record the build up and then the time arrives. Everyone’s peering rather nervously over their shoulders to where the sun will appear to cast the beautiful red shades over the Teton mountain range and down onto the barn below.

Only on this occasion a horrible black cloud moved straight over the sun and ruined the whole thing! ⛅︎ When it became apparent that today was not the day for the perfect sunrise most picked up their tripods and camera gear and slunk off muttering as they went.

Just as we were leaving one of the photographers rushed back to say that T.A. Moulton barn was in sunlight so we rushed down there instead and although it wasn’t a sunrise shot the barn did look lovely in the daylight.

T.A. Moulton Barn

Being a photographer and a photographer’s assistant can be very frustrating at times! There are many disappointments to bear before the one perfect shot is captured. 😔

We decided it was a good time to return to the cabin and go back to bed. It’s now 7.30 a.m. The next thing we knew it was 10.30e t a.m. We decided not to bother with breakfast but would have brunch instead in Jackson.

Before brunch we decided to do one thing we’ve been meaning to do for ages and that was to go up in the cable car to the top of the ski slopes as we’ve told the view is magnificent. En-route I look up what time they open and lo and behold they do not open until 31st May!

So we head off back to Jackson to the Snake River Grill, another recommendation and find they only open for dinner! It doesn’t appear to be our day! 😂

Instead we go to a place we had seen earlier called The Bistro. It looked very inviting and I see from the outside menu that one of the drinks they serve if a French 75. I conclude this eatery must be okay if they serve those to drink. One of my favourites.🥂It was such a lovely day we sat outside on a small patio.The food was excellent.

Brunch at The Bistro

When I asked for directions to the bathroom I was amazed when I was told to head to the lobby and turn left. Lobby! In a restaurant. What we didn’t realise was we were actually eating in the restaurant of the Marriott Autograph Collection hotel called The Cloudveil.

We had quite a successful afternoon looking for wildlife! We came across herds of elk and bison and saw a uncommon bird.

Bison

Bison below the Tetons

Elk Herd

Elk Group

The White Faced Ibis

At one point Si was in panic mode as he said there was something wrong with his camera as it wouldn’t focus. I pointed out that he needed to remove the lens cover to take photos everything was okay! 😂We all know it takes a woman …………..!

The news of the day is that Grizzly 399 came out of hibernation with one cub on Tuesday. Grizzly 399 is very famous and even has her own website. She’s very old at 27 years and people were worried she had not made it through the winter but she did much to everyone’s delight. She had four cubs in 2020.

Once she had been spotted at her favourite place, word soon spread and this is the result today. A bear jam!

Last of all on our agenda for the day was to visit a cabin we keep meaning to see but never do. It’s called the Cunningham Cabin.

The entrance to the Cunningham Cabin

The Cunningham Cabin stands as one of the valley’s few remaining structures from the homesteading era when settlers filed nearly 400 claims in Jackson Hole. In the 1880s, John and Margaret Cunningham staked a claim for the Bar Flying U Ranch. Cunningham built his cabin in 1888 in the Appalachian style, commonly called “double-pen” or “dog-trot.” John lived in the cabin until 1895 when he finished his main residence, and it later became a smithy and barn.

The Cunningham Cabin

Cunningham ran a profitable ranch until drought ruined his crops and cattle prices fell at the end of World War I. As an agricultural depression persisted through the 1920s, Cunningham and other ranchers recognized the valley’s potential as a “playground.” Cunningham teamed up with neighbor Josiah David “Si” Ferrin to write a petition signed by 97 valley ranchers. The petition proposed a buyout of ranches to create a national recreation area for public enjoyment. In 1928, Cunningham sold to the Snake River Land Company who later donated 35,000 acres for park expansion.

A violent dark side of the ranch involves a gunfight at the Bar Flying U Ranch. Two Montana wranglers approached Cunningham in April of 1893 to purchase hay. Cunningham allowed the strangers to winter on his ranch. Rumors spread that the men were horse thieves. Next spring, a man claiming to be a U.S. Marshal, with three deputies, rode into Jackson from Idaho. Joined by Jackson recruits, the marshal’s men surrounded the ranch at night. In the morning, the posse gunned down the alleged thieves. The men’s guilt, the allegations and the marshal’s identity were never confirmed.

The Tetons from the Cunningham Cabin window

Finally, I’m pleased to say the snow outside our cabin has almost disappeared. We’ve noticed since we arrived how the landscape is changing.

Join us tomorrow for our last full day here in Grand Tetons.

16th May:

We decided to have a lazy start today. All the early mornings have caught up with us plus ……….. we’ll have another early morning tomorrow as we’ll be chasing the sunrise again!

We had breakfast in the cabin and I tried out the huckleberry jam on toast. Of course, it was delicious.

The weather’s been fabulous today. It started at 36ºF and this afternoon had reached 71ºF. It was supposed to rain this afternoon but that never materialised. Update: It’s just started raining! ☔️

As we drove out of Dornans this morning we noticed a large collection of cars parked off the side of the road. A sure sign there’s wildlife about. Sure enough, Mangy moose had returned for his breakfast. At one point he started walking towards everyone so they moved back out of the way apart from one idiot who thought it a good idea to take a selfie with the creature. Luckily, Mangy, just kept on walking and didn’t seem at all bothered about all the fuss.

It seemed as though everyone were out moose hunting today. People kept asking if one had been spotted. I guess we were just lucky seeing mangy again.

Mangy moose

Mangy moose

First stop today was the Visitor’s Centre to get our National Park’s Passport stamped. It’s a great system and one that our own National Trust in the U.K. has started.

Since 1986, visitors to the National Parks in the U.S. are able to buy a Passport To Your National Parks, to collect ink stamps from each of their explorations. We take the Passport to any National Park visitor centre or park store and stamp the passport with the date and location of our visit. We can then personalise the Passport even more by adding stickers from the area visited. It’s a great way to record and preserve memories from every holiday. 

National Park Passport

Sandhill Crane on the nest

After that we went back to check on the Sandhill Crane to see if the eggs had hatched but sadly, no, nothing yet. We’ll check again before we leave on Friday.

On the way back, once again, we saw cars parked on the side of the road so we stopped to see what all the excitement was and lo and behold there was a grizzly bear on the hillside. It had been spotted by a young lad of about seven who had very sharp eyes indeed.

Distant Bear

Sandhill Crane on the nest

We got talking to his mum and dad who had another four children, all girls, and who are home-schooled. They live in California but are doing a road-trip as one of the daughters has just graduated from high school and she wanted to see what lay outside of California.

The mum was born in Ukraine but married an American. She asked me if I wanted to borrow her binoculars to better see the bear. She called me ‘ma’am! I’m know I’m not young anymore but it did rather make me feel 100! 😂

The young lad who spotted the bear had a bear t-shirt on as he loves Paddington Bear. When I asked if he had seen the films his mum said he hadn’t as they don’t watch those kind of things, they prefer to read books.

We went into Jackson for lunch at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar and were served by a lovely young lady called Nicole. She has just moved with her husband, Dillon, to Jackson from Las Vegas! In conversation she told us that Dillon’s a chef and used to work at Spago in the Bellagio and at Caesars Palace. We told her we had eaten at both venues, the last time being during our visit last year and so we would have eaten his food. It’s a small world indeed.

We both had a very unhealthy lunch. Si had a cheeseburger and I had the Million Dollar Bison Burger (fabulous). Si had a Grand Teton Tres Lager (Mexican Lager) while I had a Cowboy Mule followed by a Cowgirl Cosmo. I think that’s why I’m having trouble staying awake to write this post! 😂

We did a little more shopping while we were in town. I bought a pair of hiking trousers earlier in the week and love them so much I decided a second pair was required. Si managed to find himself a casual jacket too.

The shop I was in was the one I bought the pancake mix from last year!!!!! I told the man serving how the mix nearly got me arrested. We had a good laugh about it. Wasn’t funny at the time though! 😞

This year it’s being sold as Huckleberry Scone mix. I didn’t buy any!!

For those who do not know the story, take a look at last year’s post – Day 23 – Home! That’ll give you a laugh! 😂

The weather was so nice today, Si decided it was time to show off his legs in his new shorts, also purchased earlier in the week. It’s not just me buying things! 😂

Just look at those legs! 😂

For dessert we went to an ice-cream parlour called Moos. We follow a couple on YouTube who live out of a converted van and on their last visit to Jackson they tried the ice-cream and said how fabulous it was. They were not wrong. I had the Wild Huckleberry (two scoops) and Si had a scoop of pecan and one of vanilla. Another reason it’s hard to stay awake …………. we’ve eaten too much!

We had a quick drive around the Elk Refuge just to see if there was any wildlife to photograph. Sadly there wasn’t, but Si spotted this beautiful Yellow Headed Blackbird.

Yellow Headed Blackbird

On the way back a Ranger had stopped someone, we assume for speeding. Quite right too! There’s a limit of 55 mph during the day and 45 mph at night to protect the animals but people do not always adhere to that. 😞

I don’t think these signs could be any clearer:

Caution, Caution, Caution

No Joke, Go Slow. 45@Night

Wildlife Ahead!

We were hoping to drive out to a spot called Blacktail Pond Overlook to capture the sunset this evening. We’ve never been there before but it’s supposed to be a perfect spot. Sadly, now it’s started raining, it will not be worth going so we shall have to try again tomorrow.

Better set the alarm early for the morning as we need to be at Morman Row for 5.55 a.m. to photograph the sunrise. They are usually spectacular there!

Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome just so that we know there are folk out there reading all this! 😀

When leaving a comment, please make sure to leave your name otherwise is just says that ‘Anonymous’ has left a comment and we do like to know who you are! 😂 Many thanks.

Back tomorrow!

15th May:

After I posted yesterday’s blog I realised I had made two omissions! Well, it was a long day and I was rushing to get the day’s post done before we went to dinner! 😔

First of all a belated “Happy Mother’s Day” to all those celebrating in the U.S.

The second thing was our visit to Oxbow Bend. One of Si’s favourite places to visit.

Oxbow Bend

Now for today ……. rather our fine dining experience at the Blue Lion in Jackson last night.

Hence, the Blue Lion

It was fabulous, we enjoyed every mouthful. The restaurant is lovely as are the staff. I’m not one for clearing my plate but last night I could have licked the plate clean. 😂Si was so amazed he took a photo of it.

Sand’s clean plate!

I didn’t bother with a starter but Si had mini mushrooms stuffed with crab and parmesan cheese and we both declined the salad that comes between courses. I had the elk tenderloin with wild mushroom port sauce, mashed potatoes and asparagus. Si was going to have his favourite, scallops but changed his mind at the last moment and had the 17oz New York strip, one of the specials of the day and it came with crab, salmon roe and asparagus. We were too full for desserts so we both had coffee and for me a glass of Frangelico on the side.

The elk tenderloin

Si’s very large steak!

The libations!

There is also live acoustic guitar music every Wednesday to Sunday played by Marco Solis. It was lovely soft music that did intrude at all.

Marco Silas

There were lots of families celebrating Mother’s Day together. Every lady received a rose.

The lady and the rose

As we headed back some our neighbours in the other cabins were enjoying a drink or two and invited us to join them. Well, it all got rather raucous and Zoya, the manager iin charge at Dornan’s, came along and pointed that it was rather late and could we please tone it down a little! 😞 Oh my!

What a bunch! 😂

So, to today’s adventure ……………..

We had excitement at the start of today’s adventure as first of all we saw elk but didn’t stop to photograph them as we were in a hurry. But, the next animal we saw made us stop and jump out of the car ………….. we saw a grizzly bear! 😱Even though it was early there were quite a few photographers excitedly waving their huge lenses about. The bear was fast-moving but Si managed to get a few shots.

Grizzly!

It was another early start, 6.15 a.m. The temperature was 36ºF so a little chilly but as the day wore on it warmed up and the sky was blue and sunny. We were going to Yellowstone National Park and it’s always best to set out early as the traffic can be horrendous.

During the drive we once again passed over the Continental Divide, this was the third time during this holiday!

The Continental Divide complete with lots of snow

A few Yellowstone facts (I know some of you like a few facts!):

1. It was the world’s first National Park.
2. It covers 2,219,789 acres.
3. Wildlife – it has seven species of ungulates (bison, moose, elk, pronghorn being the favourites), two species    of bear and 67 other mammals, 322 species of birds, 16 species of fish and of course, the grey wolf.
4. Plants – There are over 1,100 species of native plants, more than 200 species of exotic plants and over 400 species of Thermopholes (bacteria).
5. Geology – The Park is home to one of the world’s largest calderas (a caldera is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is gone) with over 10,000 thermal features and more than 300 geysers. It has one of the world’s largest petrifiied forests. It has over 290 waterfalls with the 308′ Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River as its showpiece.
6. Yellowstone Lake is the largest (132 sq. mi.) high altitude (7,732′) lake in North America.
7. Has nine Visitor’s Centres.
8. 12 campgrounds (over 2,000 campsites)

The drive from the Grand Tetons to Yellowstone is approximately 54 miles. We made it in good time and there was no queue to get in. We were amazed at the amount of snow and the lack of traffic. There wasn’t any!  I think it will be autumn before all the snow disappears, just in time for the next lot. ❄️

One area in the Park where everyone heads to it Grand Prismatic Spring. It’s so beautiful and some years back an overlook was built so that people can look down on the Spring to appreciate its beauty. Sadly, as with a lot of trails at the moment, the area was closed due to bear activity. Also, as the days can be quite cold still there is rather a lot of steam that rises from all the Springs and although with many this is not a problem, today it meant that Grand Prismatic was clouded in mist and so we couldn’t see it at all from ground level.

The Grand Prismatic Spring on a clear day!

All we could see of Grand Prismatic today!

Part of Grand Prismatic. Look carefully and you can see Bison hooves!

Sand on the way to Prismatic Spring

We saw quite a few bison today, some of them actually sitting right next to the hot springs.

Feeding Time!

Keeping Warm

In the steam

Another favourite with visitors is the eruption of Old Faithful a cone geyser. It was named in 1870 and was the first geyser in the park to be named. It is a highly predictable geothermal feature and has erupted every 44 minutes to two hours since 2000.

Old Faithful

The Old Faithful Inn stands right by the geyser.

The interior of the Old Faithful Inn

We were also lucky to see the eruption of Beehive Geyser.This geyser is an unpredictable one as it erupts every 8-24 hours.

Beehive Geyser

Bison Trouble! Near Old Faithful

On the way home we saw two bison just sauntering down the road, not a care in the world. Probably on their way to a dinner date! 😂They are not afraid of the traffic at all.

As Si was taking bison photos today, this cheeky chap came right up to the car door looking for food! I gave him a piece of my huckleberry scone. He loved it!

Cheeky chap!

We also visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Artist Point, Brink of the Lower Falls and Biscuit Basin.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Sand and Si at Artist Point

Brink of the Falls

Biscuit Basin area

Here are some other geysers we saw today.

This is a photo of the Yellowstone River complete with snow.

Yellowstone River

On the drive back to our cabin we saw this waterfall right on the side of the road and thought how lovely it was.

Yellowstone waterfall

It’s been another long day but a very enjoyable one seeing lots of amazing things.

Please join us tomorrow for more adventures in Grand Teton National Park!

13th May:

After our exhausting hike yesterday we retired early and I’m pleased to say we slept very well indeed. We were up and out at 7.30 a.m. this morning.

Before we headed for breakfast we walked to the town square where a very kind lady offered to take our picture in front of the antler arches. They stand at each corner of the public square, outside George Washington Memorial Park.

George Washington Memorial Park is a central park in Jackson. The park was dedicated as a park in 1934 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the first president’s birth. The very first elk antler arch was built in 1953 by the Jackson Hole Rotary Club. Over 2,000 antlers were used for the first of the four arches. All of the elk antlers used for the arches are from discarded antlers. Male elk grow their antlers to impress the females and fight off other males. They are made of bone and can grow up to an inch a day. The male elk naturally shed its antlers when their testosterone drops after breeding season and the process begins again every year. The National Elk Refuge is down the street from Town Square and has an estimated local elk population herd of 11,000. During antler shedding season, it is easy to find the antlers everywhere on the refuge.

Each arch is supported by a steel framework and is constructed by hand using 14,000 pounds or more than 2,000 elk antlers each. They are held together by friction and gravity but need to be rebuilt about every 50 years. Eventually, the antlers decompose and the structures lose their rigidity. In 2006, the Rotary Club began fundraising efforts to replace the arches once again. With the donations made from auctioning off the original antlers, the club could replace them with new frames and newly collected antlers. These unique arches are a well-known Jackson Hole icon. The arches are decorated with Christmas lights during the holiday season and are a magical sight when there is falling snow.

We went to the The Bunnery in Jackson for breakfast. It’s a very popular restaurant which a huge menu to choose from. The last time we went we had to queue but today we were seated straight away. Si decided to have their famous Lorraine quiche with smoky bacon and Swiss cheese, baked in a flaky pie crust, served with fresh berries and O.S.M.((oats, sunflower seeds and millet) toast with fresh fruit, strawberries and blueberries. I had a favourite of mine, the Bunnery parfait made with O.S.M. Granola with Greek yogurt, strawberries and blueberries. Sadly, Si’s quiche didn’t quite meet expectations while my parfait was delicious.

I forgot to photograph the quiche!

Sand’s parfait

They have some delicious pastries that are easily enough for two to share. Of course, we had to buy some for later! In here we have a huckleberry turnover, an almond stick and a blueberry scone.

Don’t they look delicious ….. and huge!

Si paid the lady and suddenly she looked at us and handed him back a $50 bill! He had given her what he thought was one $50 but two had stuck together. She said it happens all the time with the new $50 bills they have. What a lovely lady!

There’s a lot of really lovely bronze street art in Jackson and this is just one!

Slim the cowboy

We then managed to do a little more shopping. The U.S. is suffering the same as us in the U.K., a staff shortage. The lady who had served us today had just arrived here with her husband all the way from Florida. Her company has paid for her to do a three-week stint here in Jackson to cover staff shortages. Lucky lady, being paid to visit the Grand Tetons for three weeks!

On this trip we are visiting some of the places we have not seen before. One of those is the Snake River Overlook Si visited the other evening. We went back this morning to take a few more photos as I didn’t go the other evening. It doesn’t disappoint that’s for sure. A beautiful spot.

Si’s Ansel Adam’s effort!

Snake River Overlook today

Sand at Snake River Overlook

Si at Snake River Overlook

There were people rafting on the Snake River even though the day was rather chilly!

Rafting on the Snake River

We then headed off into the Grand Teton National Park. We still had our Annual Pass from last year’s holiday so we saved ourselves $80 this year.

We stopped off at the Colter Bay Visitor’s Centres and were surprised at how much snow there is yet to melt. Much more than where we are staying.

Colter Bay has a marina that is fed from nearby Jackson Lake but it has been closed for the past couple of years due to low water levels in the Lake. Jackson Lake has been down to levels only seen three times in the last 30 years. The marina is now completely dry due to very low natural flows and the need to supplement downstream reservoirs. Due to drought conditions throughout the U.S west, water supply in the form of reservoir storage is in critical need.

Jackson Lake showing low levels

We visited the Jackson Lake Dam. It was built in 1906 to provide water to farmers and ranchers in southern Idaho that is 800 miles away!

Jackson Lake Dam

We still haven’t seen any bears or bison, but did see elk this morning.

For dinner this evening we are doing fine dining and will be eating at the Blue Lion in Jackson. We’ve eaten here before when I had among other things, bison with huckleberries. Regular views will know I’m heavily into huckleberries but sadly, the only thing on the menu this time with huckleberries is scallops, the one thing I never eat!! 😔

More on the Blue Lion tomorrow.

While we were shopping this morning I found huckleberry popcorn, gummy grizzlies and jam. I’ll be having the jam on my toast in the morning.

It will be another early start tomorrow as we will be visiting Yellowstone National Park. We didn’t visit last year as there were lots of road works but we’ve been advised things are much better now even though they are still dealing with the aftermath of a 500-year flood event that occurred on 13th June 2022.

Catch you all tomorrow!

13th May:

We were up with the lark this morning at 4.45 a.m. and off to Schwabacher Landing at 5.30 a.m. ready for the sunrise at 6.01 a.m. We had a bag of goodies with us, water, coffee, bananas and crisps as it was our intention to do a hike to Phelps Lake straight afterwards.

The temperature was 36ºF and it didn’t feel too cold, although we were well wrapped up in our hiking gear.

On the way down to the landing we saw two large elk.

Elk

We arrived to find four other cars already there but there’s always plenty of room for all. We found our position and waited. Sadly, it was quite a breezy morning  and that means ripples in the water and that disrupts the reflection of the mountains. The ideal photograph is the sun shining on the Grand Teton mountain range and reflecting in the pond below.

As we were stood waiting for the sun a fox suddenly appeared opposite us on the other side of the pond. We got a photograph of him but didn’t get a photograph of him catching  a vole for his breakfast!! 🦊🐀

The Fox

Today was not the day for the perfect photograph as it was quite breezy. Si got a few good shots and I took a half-decent video. Perhaps we’ll try again in the next few days.

Schwabacher Sunrise

The goose was still sitting on the nest, no chicks yet! 🐣

Taking in the view

Hello!

After we left Schwbacher Landing we headed for Laurence S. Rockefeller Preserve to do a hike to Phelps Lake. There was a sign at the start warning us of the deep snow. In the summer time this hike would normally take about 1.5 hours. Because of the snow, it took us 3.30 hrs to complete 4.26 miles.

We spoke to a Ranger yesterday and she said the hike was doable as long as we had good hiking shoes and walking poles. She said the best time to do it was first thing in the morning as by about 3.00 p.m. the snow is slushy and makes hiking more difficult.

Warning! Warning!

I forgot to say in yesterday’s blog that when we went shopping in Jackson we purchased walking poles especially for today.

It’s always advisable to get to the Preserve early anyway as the parking is limited.

Hike to Phelps Lake

We set off and the first thing I commented on was lack of snow! Well, that soon changed. Before we knew it there was rather a lot of it and of course this obscured the trail. Luckily, we have the AllTrails app because without that we would probably have gotten lost.

Here are some photographs of our hike.

A group of young people passed us at one point carrying their skies. They soon put those skies on and ski-planed instead of walking. We were lucky that someone had walked through before us and for the most part we were able to walk in their tracks.

Unfortunately, where there were no tracks it was a game of poker. I fell backwards twice, held down by my backpack. Lucky I was able to pull myself up with my poles. At one point when I fell down and my backpack had opened up and the bananas I had packed for the half-way point fell out and I didn’t realise it until we got to the lake and found they were gone! No breakfast for us. Luckily, we had hot coffee to keep us going.

Resting in the snow!

It was very hard going and we said it was the hardest hike we had ever done. Not because of the distance but the intensity with all the snow.

I fell forward many times and got stuck up to my knees but poor Si had the most awful experience when he fell down a huge hole so large it was up to his hips. HIs foot was well and truly stuck and he couldn’t pull his leg out at all. We started trying to clear the snow with our walking poles but in the end and I had to dig him out with my bare hands. 😱

Where Si got totally stuck!

We wouldn’t have been so panicky about the situation if it wasn’t for the fact that before this happened we heard growling in the trees and were convinced a bear was nearby. We had the bear spray handy just in case the situation turned nasty!!!! 😱

It was a relief to reach the lake to have a sit down and some coffee!

Phelps Lake

There are two routes to take to the lake. Some people just do half the route but of course the Barretts had to do the whole thing! The Laurel and Hardy phrase “Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into” came to mind a few times! 😂

As we reached the end of the walk another phrase, this time from the film Forrest Gump came to mind ……………. “And just like that my running days was over” but in our case Si said our snow hiking days were over. 😂

Poor Si fell down so many large snow holes that his socks and bottom of his hiking trousers were soaking. Mental note to ensure spare socks are packed in future if we ever do happen to go hiking in the snow again.

We did eventually make it back to the Tourist Centre car park and made our way back to our cabin.

When we were at Schwabachers Landing this morning a lady told us they had seen a Sandhill Crane sitting on a nest in water quite near the side of the road but it was quite hard to spot. On our way back I happened to spot it so Si managed to get some really good shots. Sandhill Cranes can be quite hard to find.

Sandhill Crane on the nest

Then, just a little ways down the same road we saw a huge moose feeding. Again, we managed to get a shot.

Mangy Moose

So, the day wasn’t all bad. We had seen a sunrise, albeit not that good, completed a very difficult hike and seen some wildlife. What could be better? Well, an early night I think to prepare ourselves for more adventures tomorrow! 😴🛌

12th May:

Good evening from the Grand Tetons!

First of all, I told you yesterday that Si had gone to take sunset shots at the Snake River Overlook to try and emulate the famous one taken by Ansel Adams in 1942. Well, I’m pleased to report that he did manage to get a couple.

Snake River Overlook

Snake River Overlook

The original Ansel Adams photograph of the Snake River Overlook taken in 1942

Si’s version in black and white

You can see how the trees have grown up since 1942. How do you think he did?

Today has been another lovely warm day. 🌞

We had to change our plan of going to Schwbacher Landing early to catch the sunrise as we realised late last night that we hadn’t purchased any bear spray! 😔 Not advisable to go too far without bear spray around here! So we drove to the area known as Gros Ventre (pronounced Grow Vont) instead.

The French are the ones responsible for naming both the Grand Tetons mountain range (Grand Tetons meaning big breasts) and Gros Ventre (meaning big belly)! Oh my! 😂

Gros Ventre was so named because the Indians who inhabited the area were large, well-fed people.

Elk move from the Elk Refuge, where we visited yesterday, through Gros Ventre and return to the upper peaks from late May as they feel safer from predators.

The most common animal in the Gros Ventre area are the moose. They remain here from late May until the beginning of September when the rut season begins. Cow moose go up into the Gros Ventre campground, followed by the bull moose, to carry on the rut as they feel safe from predators because humans are there, but it makes it precarious for humans as large moose are there cavorting but usually there’s no problem.

There is a natural warm spring at an area called Kelly Warm Springs, that was founded by a man called William Kelly when he built a sawmill in1907. It is a natural warm spring but a brain eating bacteria has been found there so it is advisable not to going swimming or soak in it! 😱

Kelly Warm Springs

We also saw two Sandhill Cranes, albeit a long way away but Si still managed to get a photograph.

Sandhill Cranes

We had another cloud inversion over the Grand Tetons this morning. Until yesterday, we had never seen that before.

Cloud inversion over Grand Tetons

As we drove around the Gros Ventre area we came across this old cabin and outbuildings. There wasn’t any indication as to what these buildings had been but after some investigation we discovered the are was called the Luther Taylor homestead. You could still see the axe marks on the logs. Someone had spent a lot of time building the cabin. It turns out it was used in the making of the film Shane back in 1953.

Luther Taylor Homestead

Sand at the Luther Taylor homestead

Our next stop was the Visitor’s Centre to purchase the necessary bear spray and to have a refresher on how to use it! 🐻Still quite a lot of snow here! ❄️

Snow at the Visitor’s Center

We then decided to take a quick drive to Schwbacher Landing to check it out ready for our early trip for sunrise tomorrow. On the drive down to the landing there’s some snow but not enough to cause any problems.

Schwbacher Landing

Sand at Schwbacher Landing

While we were there we saw something we have not seen before on our visits and that was a Canada Goose sitting on a nest in the middle of a beaver pond! Who knows, by the time we return tomorrow there may be some chicks to see. 🤞

Canada Goose on the nest

We decided we needed a few more spring clothes as it’s been so warm and that was our mission after having some lunch. We are now all set for whatever nature throws at us! 😂🌞❄️🌧️

On the way back to our cabin we saw two moose that were causing quite the traffic jam but we decided not to stop on this occasion.

When we arrived back at the cabin we found we had a little lodger!

Our lodger!

So, we need an early night tonight as we have to leave here at 5.30 a.m. for the sunrise photos. Fingers crossed for a clear morning and sun! 😴🌞

Thanks for reading. Comments always welcome.

See you tomorrow!

11th May:

Today has been a day of hot sunshine and wildlife! 🌞🐏🐦‍⬛

We decided today would be a late start. After all the early starts we’ve had recently we thought we deserved a more leisurely start to the day.

Considering we arrived here yesterday in a snow storm and it was so cold I was shivering, we can’t believe how hot it’s been today. This afternoon it was 63ºF.

As we were not anticipating it being very warm here in the Tetons we didn’t pack many summer clothes. If this heat remains we will have to go and buy some new clothes!! Oh dear, what an awful task that will be! 😂

I did manage to buy another pair of La Sportiva hiking shoes this morning in a sale for half price. We first discovered the brand when we were here last year and they are the most comfortable shoes I have every owned.

After breakfast in the cabin Si went out to get some early shots of the Tetons and was rewarded for his trouble with this lovely shot.

A cloud inversion at the Tetons

We then set out to visit the Elk Refuge. During the winter months the herds come down to the Refuge from the mountains and it’s usually about this time they migrate back up again but we were hoping a few remained.

Sadly, we didn’t manage to see any elk up close but we did see Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep in the Refuge instead.

There were adults and babies and even though they were right on the road our presence didn’t bother them at all.

Big Horn Sheep

Nature can be very cruel ….

Carcass of a dead sheep

We then decided some lunch was in order to visited the Roadhouse Brewing Compay and had Duck flatbreads accompanied by a Smokey Pete (A Smoked Apple Cider Margarita with Vida Mezcal, Triple Sec, Lime Juice, Maple Syrup, Apple Cider) for me and a light beer for Si. Everything was delicious. I had some flatbread left over so it was boxed for me. Sadly, we walked out the restaurant without the box! 😔

As we finished lunch we got into conversation with a lovely couple, Brian and Christina from Connecticut, New England. They were on the hunt for grizzly bears. We told them about the sheep we had seen and as they were the one animal they hadn’t seen they decided to take a trip to the Refuge to see if they could see any.

We stopped off in the Elk Refuge Tourist Centre on the way back and Si took some lovely photos of birds and I managed to find a few things to buy! 😂

Red Breasted Blackbird

Flycatcher

Si has signed up to a special app, Parkwolf, that sends notifications when wildlife is seen and tells you where to go to see them. Well, Si got a message to say there was a moose right outside on the Dornan’s road so he rushed along with his camera and this is the result.

Mangy Moose

As we had lunch today we didn’t bother with dinner and instead Si went to photograph sunset at the Snake River Overlook. This is a famous spot where Ansel Adams, a famous photographer, once took a photograph of the Snake River with the Tetons in the background.

Fingers crossed we’ll have some good photos in tomorrow’s blog.

Visits to the Tetons never disappoint and today has been really lovely.

As I close for the day I thought you may like to take a look at the beast of a car we are driving. I told you yesterday how I once fell out of a Chevrolet Tahoe. When you see this photo you’ll understand why! 😂 Si’s decided he doesn’t like the car’s gear selectors.

Our beast!

The gear selector

Si’s just returned from his sunset trip and now the sun’s gone down he said it’s freezing and he only took a thin jacket with him. ❄️Silly boy! 😔

As we are visiting early this year and there’s still snow about, there are lots of areas that haven’t been able to open but we’ve just found out that Schwbacher Landing is opening up tomorrow so we want to get down there to take sunrise photos ……. again!

Still some snow on the ski slopes!

I do hope you are enjoying reading the blog. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Catch you again tomorrow!

10th May:

First of all I must right a wrong! When I wrote the blog yesterday I was very tired and although I make copious notes throughout the day so that I remember what I want to put in the blog, I forgot to mention two lovely people we met at breakfast yesterday at Daily Bread.

Matthew and Marianne were sat next to us and of course we got chatting, as you do, and they told us they had recently come back from a lovely holiday in Scotland! I was embarrassed to tell them that although we had travelled all over the U.S. we had never visited Scotland. We must put that right in the very near future.

Matthew, although not used to driving on the left-hand side of the road was okay and didn’t really find the roundabouts too difficult.

Today is a driving day to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Approximately 485 miles and should take us about eight hours.The day started dry but it’s raining now and is much cooler than the warm days we’ve been experiencing.

We have stayed in a lot of hotels over the years but the Grand Hyatt Denver has to be one of the best we’ve stayed in, apart from the Bellagio in Vegas of course. The suite was lovely and the shower was something else. I could have stayed in there all day. The towels were huge and fluffy, and were taller than Si and he’s 6ft tall!

We took an Uber to the Hertz Car Hire and were surprised to see how many Teslas they had for rental. Apparently they are very popular.

A couple of days ago I was checking out our rental on-line and I noticed that the one-way drop off fee had increased by $250 to $700! We spoke to a very nice young lady called Audrey who said she had never seen one that high before. Luckily, I had taken all the Hertz paperwork with me so she could see what the original quote was. She agreed that we shouldn’t have to pay more than was quoted and set about taking the extra cost off the bill. Even after she had done that the final bill was still $200 more than we were expecting. She eventually discovered the reason, it was the Colorado State tax, it was a whooping $212. 😱When you book a hire car it always says local taxes will be added and charged locally so we were expecting that but never in all our years of coming to the U.S. have we been charged a State tax that high. We’ll certainly think twice about hiring a car in Colorado in the future.

Audrey said Colorado will tax you for just about everything!

We ordered a GMC Yukon or similar and have been given a Chevrolet Tahoe which we are quite happy with. It seats seven so we have plenty of room for us and our luggage.

I have a Chevrolet Tahoe story to tell! Dot and Nat, if you are reading this you will probably remember what I’m about to say!

We were in the U.S. to see one of the Twilight movies with some of our Twilight friends so had hired a car to accommodate all of us. When I opened the door to get out I didn’t realise how high off the ground it was and promptly fell out instead!! 😂Si reminds me of this every time we hire a large SUV, as he did today. To get in the car I have to climb on the running board and then heave myself in by means of an appropriately placed grab handle. Hey ho, the perils of being vertically challenged!!! 🤷‍♀️

I’ve started writing the blog as we travel along to Jackson as I hope to make a start on our special Rocky Mountaineer post when we finally arrive at Dornan’s. The only problem is, I get rather car sick so fingers crossed that won’t hold me back!! 🤮

This was an interesting sign …. Stinker!:

Stinker!

The journey passed fairly quickly and we had sun and blue skies most of the way apart from one area where the clouds had descended so low it was like fog and we had to drive very slowly with our hazard lights on. 🌫️

It was only when we were about 40 miles from the Grand Tetons (Jackson) that we met rather a lot of snow and ended up driving through a snow storm! ❄️The temperature dropped very rapidly to 36ºF.

This video was just after the snow storm so the windscreen’s not good and it’s a little shaky!

By the time we arrived in the Tetons a lot of snow on the fields etc had disappeared but there’s still lots of snow on the Teton range. The temperature was up to 56 F.

Welcome to the Tetons!

We were surprised how quiet the roads were. We drove most of the way with just us and no-one else. As we were driving from Denver we came in a different way to the Tetons and drove on roads completely new to us so it made a change to see different scenery.

We saw lots of cows and some Pronghorns. As we entered the Tetons we saw two large elk at the side of the road who looked at us rather suspiciously and decided not to cross the road in front of us and ran off into the fields.

We arrived rather weary, again, and whilst we were checking in we both had the weird sensation of feeling very giddy. It felt as though the cabin was moving. I think it must have had something to do with all the hours we had spent in the car. Very strange!

Our cabin, Osprey, still has some snow! ❄️

Our cabin, Osprey, still with snow!

After checking in went to the store to purchase all the necessaries and then a quick dinner at the on-site restaurant. Si had beef and shrimp Gumbo while I just had tomato and basil soup. It was all rather tasty after a long drive and nothing much to eat!

Si and his Gumbo!

Sand, her soup and a Tetons Lemonade!

It will be early to bed tonight so that we are fit and raring to go for our first full day here in the Tetons.

See you tomorrow!

9th May:

Good morning from the Hotel Denver in Glenwood Springs. 😀

The Hotel Denver

I am very pleased to report we slept much better last night. It would appear we have returned to something of a regular schedule as we woke at six this morning. That’s not to say we didn’t wake up in the night too. I told you we are opposite the train station ………… well that means that trains do pass through the station during the night and that’s what woke me in the early hours. One went through at great speed, whoosh. 🚉 It didn’t wake Si of course, he managed to sleep through it.

Our room is large and beautifully furnished, it even has the king bed we asked for but didn’t really expect to get.

I never thought I would say this but …………….. we’ve been sleeping in a brothel!! 😂 😱Well, what used to be one. The Hotel Denver has a very rich history. I know some of you like a little history so click on the two red links, they are worth the read.

Our train journey this morning is starting out a little later than expected due to maintenance on the track. Where have we heard that before I wonder …….. those reading this in the UK?

That means that instead of being on the train for breakfast and lunch we will now have lunch and dinner and arrive in Denver about two hours later than originally planned.

Glenwood Springs is a resort city in Colorado known for its hot springs. It sits in the rugged Rocky Mountains, surrounded by the vast White River National Forest. Glenwood Canyon is rich with wildlife and features Hanging Lake, with its striking turquoise waters. Glenwood Caverns are ancient underground caves. Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park has roller coasters and canyon swings overlooking the Colorado River. It has a population of just over 10,000 people.

The day started with clear blue skies and warm sunshine so we took an early walk to take a quick look around before eating breakfast in a restaurant called the Daily Bread. Si had a huge omelet called a Polmek that consisted of Polish sausage, jalapeño chillies and cheese. It seemed to me to be rather a bad idea as we were boarding at 11.00 a.m. and brunch was going to be served shortly after. I just had a bagel and cream cheese. 🤷‍♀️

We have spent another wonderful day aboard the Rocky Mountaineer (all today’s excitement will be included in the special post later in the week) and have now arrived in Denver for our overnight stay at the Grand Hyatt Hotel where we were delighted to be told that we had been upgraded to a corner junior executive suite! 👏

We collect our hire car bright and early tomorrow morning for our journey to the next part of our adventure, our visit to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. 

See you there!

8th May:

We were awake early again this morning so I was up and raring to go at 3.30 a.m.!

Si’s currently watching Millwall versus Blackburn Rovers on the TV! Just can’t escape the footie. 😔

We’ve already taken our cases over to the Hoodoo Hotel. They had to be there by 11.00 a.m. That’s where the Rocky Mountaineer staff have two rooms to meet the passengers and to hand out boarding passes and baggage tags. That hotel is only about 150 yards from our hotel so we’re just able to walk them over.

Cases in waiting!

A thank you goes out to our friend Ann regarding hotels. You were right, it was a very easy walk over to the Hoodoo and as we were out so early there wasn’t anyone about. Your advice was spot on! 🥰

The cases do not travel with us on the train but go on ahead by road so they are in our room waiting for us when we arrive at tonight’s hotel, the Hotel Denver in Glenwood Springs.

It’s important to make sure we have everything we are going to need during the day in our hand baggage plus we were told to carry any valuables etc. with us.

It’s just like flying!

Dress onboard is casual but is that casual casual or business casual? Who knows! It took me about six changes this morning before I could decide what to wear. We’ve been told to dress in layers and to take a light waterproof jacket as the temperatures can vary from hot to cold. I’m assuming they are referring to when we may be standing out on the viewing areas. 🤷‍♀️ I’m not anticipating that the train will be roofless!! 😂🌞❄️

When we arrive in Glenwood Springs this evening the train will stop right outside the hotel so we’ll just have a short walk from the station.

We were advised to just have a light breakfast as our first meal on the train will be lunch so that’s just what we did.

Train passengers in waiting!

View from the breakfast terrace

It feels very strange not having a car waiting for us in the car park, we feel kind of rudderless. 😂

We’ve got late check-out as we are not being picked-up from the Hoodoo Hotel until 1.15 p.m. so I think now’s the time to take a stroll along the shops just in case I’ve missed something I would like to buy! 😂

After our short, but successful shopping trip, we made our way to the Hoodoo Hotel and  met some of our fellow passengers who all seem very nice.

The coach arrived to take us to the train and there was definitely a sense of excitement in the air as we boarded for our short trip to the siding where our train was waiting.

All aboard!

Our first day on the Rocky Mountaineer has been nothing short of just wonderful and has exceeded our expectations. Everyone in our carriage are really friendly and we all got on like a house on fire and look forward to the second leg of our trip to Denver tomorrow.

In order to do the trip justice we will prepare a special post to cover the whole trip and will post that later in the week. In the meantime ………………

Cheers!

and goodnight from Glenwood Springs. 😴

7th May:

Yes, just one more sleep and we’ll be off on our train adventure on the Rocky Mountaineer!

We’ve been and collected our luggage tags and boarding passes and will be off tomorrow at 1.15 p.m. We will take our luggage to the collection point in the morning and be picked up by bus and taken to the siding where the train will be waiting. 🚂

The day started very wet here in Moab this morning but it didn’t take long before the sun was shining and the temperatures rose, currently it’s 68ºF.

We will be taking the hire car back shortly but before that we thought we would take a

Sand, our chariot and the suitcases!

quick run to Canyonlands National Park to have another look at the very famous Mesa Arch. 

We visited there some years back and Si took this great photo.

He has a new camera this year and was hoping to be able to really try it out for the first time today. He took a few photos on the way into the Park but alas, we were going in at just about the worst time of day and there was at least a 30 minute wait to get in and as we have to get the car back for 3.00 pm we decided we couldn’t wait.

The best time to arrive at any of the National Parks is as early as possible. We would normally arrive just before sunrise.

We went back to Zak’s for dinner tonight as all of the other places we wanted to go to are closed on Sundays.

I enjoyed another Raspberry Margarita and Si ordered another Blackberry Sour but this time he had a large one, 25 fluid ounces! The glass was so heavy I had to help him lift it to his lips!! 😂 He then had to order fish and chips to soak up all that beer. I had a bowl of beer and cheese soup with vegetables. A first for me and I imagine for most people too! 😂 It was very tasty.

Two things to report about our hotel:

1. Con: Our bed has a metal frame and every time we take a breath it squeaks very loudly!😂

2. Pro: It has Tesla chargers so it’s doing something right!

Tomorrow’s going to be a day full of excitement, lovely scenery plus excellent food and drink so we must get to bed early tonight so that we are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for a full-on day. 👏👏

Until tomorrow …………..

It’s the 6th of May and it’s Coronation Day! 👑

I expect, as I begin writing today’s blog, that most of you are glued to the television watching Charles being crowned.

We are watching it too! (That will surprise some, I know!) We are wide awake even though it’s only 3.00 a.m. and it’s showing on NBC News. Only problem is they don’t have Alistair Bruce, the Royal historian from Sky TV. He’s a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to all things Royal Family.

Today was our first full driving day and as we found it difficult to sleep last night we were up and out quite early. ….. 6.30 a.m.

After a quick breakfast in the hotel and buying goodies to keep us going on the road, we collected our hire car, a Dodge Charger, and set off for Moab. We would normally hire an SUV but as this was only to get us to Moab we went for a smaller one. Mistake! It wasn’t particularly comfortable. I wasn’t able to adjust the seat height and that’s a big problem for me as I like to sit high in the car and poor Si couldn’t get comfortable as his back ached all the time but that didn’t stop him reaching speeds in excess of the speed limit of 80 miles per hour!! 🥹

We had ordered a sat-nav for the journey but it was hopeless! It could tell us where we were at that moment but wouldn’t take an address. We think Margaret, the sat-nav lady, must have decided to take time off so that she could watch the Coronation. That Margaret has always been hard work over the years. 😂

We had paper backups but ended up using Si’s phone. It’s a good job he’s got free roaming in the U.S.!

We may not have been in the country for the Coronation but we did have our Buckingham Palace mints to enjoy on our long journey.

The journey took six and a half hours driving through some magnificent scenery. Mother Nature’s a wonderful thing carving the cliffs into amazing shapes.

Some of the roads were very bumpy and winding to and fro and up and down so that didn’t suit me as I suffer from motion sickness and the fact that we were over 7000 feet in altitude just made things worse. I started to feel a little queasy 🤢  but once we came down from the mountains and the roads smoothed out I started to feel a little better.

We arrived in Moab to blue skies and warm sunshine and were surprised at how busy it was.

For dinner tonight we wanted something quick and nothing fancy so found a very popular local establishment where I had a pizza and a raspberry Margarita and Si had their version of a Philly Cheesesteak and a beer. Needless to say, there is cold pizza for breakfast tomorrow.

Seated next to us were two other Brits and we had a very pleasant conversation with them talking about their journey. They are here for just over three weeks and it’s their intention to pack as much in as possible, including visiting Utah’s five National Parks known as the Mighty Five. They are not staying in accommodation but sleeping in their car!! 😱The mind boggles!! 😂

Hope those of you who have been celebrating Coronation Day have had a wonderful time. 👑🇬🇧

See you tomorrow.

5th May:

Here we are more than halfway into our flight and currently flying over Canada and as sleep alludes me at the moment I thought it a good idea to start our next post.

Virgin have their own security for Upper Class passengers so we sailed through very quickly with no problem at all. 

Some of you will know that more often than not, Si gets pulled aside for a pat down or body search when going through baggage check.

Well, not today, it was me! But not your usual pat down and search.

When we arrived at the gate to get ready for boarding I was told that I’d been chosen for a security check. The guy doing the check said I had been chosen by the U.S. security people for the check and that’s why I couldn’t check-in on-line. My boarding pass was marked SSSS and that’s what it means.

Who knew, certainly not me. 🤷‍♀️

They took me to one side, no screens to go behind and in full view of everyone proceeded to check my hands, shoes and all my carry-on luggage by rubbing a wand-like stick over everything and then passed a wand over my body and I had to lift up my top to show her the top of my trousers to see if I was wearing a belt.

We’ve had a similar check, but just our hands, when exiting the U.S but never leaving the U.K. I assume they were looking for traces of explosives, that’s what it’s usually for. Oh my! 😱

It was a little unnerving as I was the only person pulled aside.

One good thing was that the guy called Si over and said we could sit in the search area as it was close to boarding Gate B and that was where we would be going through. It meant we would be first on board. Thing was, we were in Group 1 to board anyway but at least we were first to be seated on board.

Fingers crossed there won’t be a similar occurrence when we get to Border Control in Vegas.

Grumpy elderly person now speaking! 

We were certainly reminded earlier today in the Virgin Lounge as to why we do not usually travel on a Friday to Las Vegas! We were ‘lucky’ enough to have a stag party, about 20 men, in the lounge being loud and very boisterous and as they were enjoying the Upper Class lounge, we knew there was a high probability that they would be travelling on our flight in our cabin.

They are not exactly youngsters but still made their presence known.

There are eight of them sat in our cabin and the rest are seated elsewhere. They are going to Vegas for a four-day jolly. Lucky Vegas!

Thank goodness that once they had imbibed more alcohol and eaten plenty of food most of them decided to ‘turn in’ or watch films.

I’m all for people having a good time but not to the annoyance of others!

Grumpy elderly person moan over!

We were welcomed back on board by name no less and all those looking after us are very attentive. 

Once seated we enjoyed champagne and crisps and a lovely warm hand towel. We couldn’t have the usual nuts or pretzels today as there is a nut allergy sufferer on board. 

We didn’t eat a lot for dinner as we had already had lunch in the lounge but I managed a bowl of delicious spring vegetable soup with a cheddar, spinach and plum chutney toastie followed by a Pimms o’clock summer pudding served with a glass of Whispering Angel. Whispering Angel is new to us, only recently coming into our orbit. It comes in the most wonderful bottles.

Si had salmon gravadlax with pickled cucumber with grain mustard mayonnaise and pumpernickel bread followed by a warm apricot and almond cake infused with lavender and honey. He ordered a glass of Malbec but when it arrived it was in a can!!!! 😱The wine drinkers among you will understand that he declined it for wine out of a bottle. Our server explained that they are unable to serve it in a bottle as it would come with a cork and so could prove dangerous on board! 💥 

Next on the agenda is going to be afternoon tea. As there’s only 3hrs 39 minutes until we land I think that may be imminent. Have we got room to eat it, that’s the question? Having tea at this time of night, it’s currently 11.09 pm is certainly a little weird. Hey ho, we’ll certainly give it a go.

Well, before afternoon tea, tubs of ice-cream have appeared, at midnight!! Crazy! 🤷‍♀️

In the end I didn’t partake of the afternoon tea and Si had a ‘light bite’ instead.

Our flight took less time than expected and when we arrived in Vegas we were the only flight so no queues at Border Control and were through in two minutes!! We didn’t even have to take our glasses off for the security camera. Si went first and the security guy immediately knew it was him before he looked at Si’s passport! Big brother’s watching!

Our bags came off the plane first so we were out of the terminal so quickly that our car hadn’t even arrived.

Check-in at the hotel was quick too. We are staying at the Vdara Hotel and Spa for just one night as we are due to collect our hire car early tomorrow, the 6th, for our onward journey to Moab where we pick up the Rocky Mountaineer train on Monday. 

Bed calls, we are worn out! 🛌😴

The day is upon us, the cases are packed and we are all ready to go! 👏

There were no arguments this year about the weight of the cases, they came in well under our allowance. That’s got to be a first! Considering that we will be experiencing hot temperatures first of all in Las Vegas and Moab and then winter ones when we reach the Tetons in Wyoming, it’s a miracle. Note: When we re-weighed them just to make sure they had increased in weight! 😱How on earth is that possible!?

We are actually allowed to check-in six cases but we won’t be doing that. We have one large case each plus our carry-ons. Can you imagine Simon’s face if I presented him with six cases! 😂😱🧳

First stop is the Virgin Upper Class lounge to partake of food and beverages and then board the plane for more food and beverages.

Cheers!

Delicious …… but naughty!

The drive to Heathrow was a little slower than anticipated due to a coach having broken down in the second lane on the M25. Still, it didn’t delay us too much.

When I went to check-in on-line last night a message appeared saying it was not possible for me to do that, but not to worry as it could mean I’d been chosen for extra checks!! What! Did that mean I may not be able to fly?😱

When we arrived at the Upper Class check-in, a lovely lady called Dee welcomed us and couldn’t understand what the problem was as I had already completed all the necessary paperwork. 🤷‍♀️

She didn’t even comment on my black eye! For those who wouldn’t know, I had a fight with the corner of an oven door! 😔It’s turning a nice shade of yellow now. Luckily, with my glasses on you can’t really see it. 🕶️

We’ve eaten lunch in the lounge accompanied with the odd glass or two or champers 🥂🍾and now await our boarding call which should be about 3.40 ready to take off at 4.30. 🤞✈️

Next stop Las Vegas!

So, after a long, often very cold, snowy winter and the wettest March in England for 40 years, spring has finally arrived. The daffodils are glorious, the tree blossom beautiful and our thoughts have turned to our holiday starting on 5th May.

We considered visiting Canada this year to complete the second half of our original Golden Wedding Anniversary tour that was cancelled due to Covid restrictions, but we’ve decided to do that in possibly, 2025.

This year we will fly into Las Vegas and overnight there before driving up to Moab for a couple of days before boarding the Rocky Mountaineer train for a two-day trip to Denver. For those who follow our blog, you will remember that as part of our original Golden Wedding Anniversary trip we were booked to travel on the Canadian Rocky Mountaineer but that trip had to be cancelled due to Covid restrictions. So, for this year’s holiday, we will be enjoying their new route in the USA travelling from Moab to Denver. The train is slightly smaller due to the tunnels in the US not being large enough to accommodate the Canadian trains.

After overnighting in Denver we will be driving to our most favourite place, the Grand Tetons in Wyoming where we will once again be staying at Dornans in the same log cabin ‘Osprey’ as last year.

We are starting our holiday a little earlier this year as having experienced the Tetons in the summer with rather warm temperatures, we are hoping to experience some left over snow so that we may have some different photographic opportunities. The Tetons have been experiencing some very heavy snowfall this winter so, as the saying goes, hope springs eternal! ❄️

Some of you will remember that due to both of us catching Covid during last year’s holiday it meant we lost a few days. Fingers crossed things will be better this year. 🤞

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

See you soon!

As you know, we saw Blondie and her three cubs on the 8th June during our stay in the Tetons so are very sad to receive the following news. 😔

Mum Blondie

Blondie’s Cubs

Buckrail Daily News reported the following last Friday 16th June.

MOOSE, Wyoming. — Park officials confirmed on Wednesday that the popular Grizzly 793, also known as Blondie, lost her three cubs at the end of last week.

C.J. Adams, the public affairs specialist for Grand Teton National Park, said the last confirmed sighting of Blondie with her cubs was around dark on Friday night in the Pilgrim Flats area of the park. Park officials who have managed bear jams throughout the spring and summer spotted her. By Saturday morning, she was spotted again, this time without her cubs. While the exact cause of the cubs’ death is unknown, Adams says it was most likely predation by a male grizzly.

“We did observe a male grizzly in the area on Saturday,” Adams says. “The mortality rate of grizzly cubs of the year is around 45%, and predation by a male grizzly is the most common cause of death.”

This is the third set of cubs Blondie has lost.

One good piece of news from The Washington Post is that parts of Yellowstone National Park will be reopen Wednesday morning, after dramatic floods forced the national park to shut down last week. Click on this link to check out what happened.

We’ve visited Yellowstone three times and it is the most amazing place but will it ever be the same again? 🤞

The Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone National Park!

Before I sum up our holiday let me jump back a step to finish off what happened yesterday.

Our chauffeur came to collect us and we had an uneventful trip to the airport. We’d been in the hotel all day and when we stepped outside wow, it was hot, hot, hot. 🌞🌞🌞Luckily the Tesla was lovely and cool.❄️

When we arrived at the terminal we had to wait 30 minutes for the Virgin Atlantic desks to open but we were first in the queue. When the young lady took our suitcases, Si told her to be careful as they were heavy and she replied that she didn’t think they were heavy at all! 🦾One case was 27kgs (59.5lbs) and the other one 29kgs (63.9lbs). We are actually allowed four suitcases each weighing 32kgs (70lbs) each. So I think we did okay. 👍

As we are flying Upper Class we get complimentary entry into the Lounge for eats and drinks. So at the moment we are very comfy.

Waiting for our flight!

We were not so laid-back 30 minutes ago though! There was no queue at Security so we were straight in, through the body scanner where the lady said she needed to pat down my left leg and whereupon she immediately patted down my right! Don’t know what she thought I had down my left trouser leg!! 🤔

From there we put our bags through the security scanner and immediately my carry-on bag went down the left channel!! Oh, oh, I thought, there’s trouble ahead!! I’ve seen what happens when the left lane is used!

Well, even though I knew I didn’t have anything I shouldn’t, I started to feel a little nervous and was trying to think what I had packed. The security guy asked me if I had anything dangerous inside and I said I didn’t. Then he asked me to open a box that had  a buffalo ornament in it. Then he ran a drugs paddle over it. I knew it was a drugs paddle because we’ve had our hands checked in the past. OMG I thought, what if someone who’s handled the box previously had been taking drugs, they would think I was responsible. I thought I could be arrested! 👮‍♀️🚓

I repacked the bag and then realised I couldn’t find my carry-on suitcase! That too had taken the left channel! My God I thought, what now? Another one of the security personnel asked me if I had any food in the case and of course, I did ………….. I’d put the huckleberry pancake mix in there! Sure enough, they opened the case and there was the offending item. He unwrapped it and pulled out the contents! Dear Lord, it looked just like a bag of either heroin or cocaine!! Now you may ask how do I know what those drugs look like? Well, I watch the airport security programmes don’t I! 🤷‍♀️Again, he took out the paddle and rubbed it all over the package which thankfully was clear. Well of course it was, I bought it from a store in Jackson for goodness sake. I’m thankful that I put the two items in my carry-on because if I’d packed them in one of the suitcases they would definitely have been opened.

He also remarked about the bag of blueberries in there too. I told him they were actually huckleberries but now I’m worried about Customs at Heathrow as I don’t think we are supposed to take fruit and veg into the country! When I purchased the pancake mix I didn’t notice that it had actual berries in the bag too. I guess they must be dried ones. 😱

Bail money may be required! 💷

Regular readers of the blog will know our history at airports. It’s usually Si who’s taken to one side and patted down, as you know he looks seriously suspicious, or nine times out of 10 our suitcases are opened by Security and everything gets thrown back in with a note saying they are not responsible so don’t even bother complaining and to read their leaflet on better packing!!!!!!

I’m just having a large hot chocolate to calm my nerves! 😂 ☕️

Once on board we settled into our seats. After dinner we had the seats changed into beds. I was surprised how comfy they are. The seat back comes forward to create a full-length padded bed, a mattress topper is added together with a duvet and pillow. It’s great to be able to stretch out.

Si on board

Sand on board

Sand’s starter – mozzarella and pesto with baby tomatoes

Si’s prawn starter

Sand’s pud – peach cobbler

So to sum up our holiday. We had a wonderful time even if there were a couple of hiccups. Covid being the biggest one of course.

We are both clear now, we took tests again yesterday just to be sure and both were negative, but that doesn’t mean we are back to how we were previously. Si in particular is finding himself very out of breath by just doing the simplest tasks. I guess it will just take time. We were both so lucky to have mild doses. Things could have been so much worse. 😔😷🩺🏥

One disappointing thing is that we couldn’t do as many hikes as we had hoped. Never mind, it’s a good excuse to come back again. As if we needed one. 😂

The second disappointment was the first car we collected from Avis. We had booked a SUV, Ford Edge or similar. They didn’t have a Ford available so gave us a Hyundai Sante Fe instead. We were told it was much more comfortable! It was very disappointing and with hindsight we should not have driven off in it but gone back in and asked for a different one. It didn’t have electric seat adjustment, and I couldn’t even make the seat higher, but we wanted to get on so just took it. It was quite dark when we picked it up but did notice it had not been cleaned very well and had a couple of dents but didn’t notice the large crack in the bumper or the hole in the carpet on the driver’s side. It also had 49,000 on the clock whereas most rentals would not have more than 20,000.

Since Covid a lot of rental companies have either sold off their stock or been keeping them for longer. It wasn’t until we got to Capitol Reef we noticed the tyres were practically bald and the windscreen wipers wouldn’t work properly!! We telephoned customer service and they told us to take it into the Avis rental at Jackson airport and get it changed. That’s what we did and they gave us ‘the tank’. A Toyota 4Runner meant for off-roading. That was much more our style.

We actually did some off-roading driving through deep water. that was scary. It got filthy, all covered in mud but luckily we had that rain on the drive from Jackson to Vegas so that gave it a much needed wash. ☔️

Covid also stopped us from doing horseback riding and river floating. Another two things to add to our list for next time.

We loved the Grand Tetons as we knew we would from previous holidays. It is such a beautiful place with lovely people. It’s very laid back and has lots of great restaurants and shops.

One sad thing that happened as we left Jackson, is that Yellowstone National Park has suffered the most horrendous flooding washing away houses, roads and bridges. The Park has been closed and at the moment it is not known when it will reopen. We met a lot of people in Jackson who were travelling on to Yellowstone so I just hope they are safe. This is a very busy time for Yellowstone and it seems that a lot of staff have had to be laid off. Lots of students work there in the summer months.

There are of course, all the animals too. It’s a very sad state of affairs. The severe flooding was caused by late season snowfall and then very high temperatures that caused the snow to melt quickly along with a day of torrential rain. It’s been blamed on global warming.

I’ve been meaning to post some a pic of our Dornan’s Cabin. Dornan’s also has its own well for water. Boy, it’s cold but tastes great.

Dornans

Our cabin, Osprey

Here too are some of the photos that didn’t get published earlier in the blog.

Panorama of sunrise at Schwacher Landing

Balsam Root

Church of Transfiguration

Si in contemplation!

Sand in the Church of the Transfiguration

Elk Antlers in Jackson Square

Floating Bears

Elk Crossing!

Panorama of Moulton Barn

Teton Waterfall

One thing we noticed on this trip was the changes in Vegas. In the old days it was a shady place, then there was a ‘family friendly’ period but sadly, now, it’s changing again to the point where it’s not necessarily a pleasure to walk down the Strip. There are quite a few homeless on the pavements and women walking along practically naked asking people if they would like their photographs taken with them and pay for the pleasure! We first noticed in 2019 that things were changing and it’s worse now. We were talking to a lady at Security and she said she felt happiest just staying in her hotel!

Our flight home was good and only took nine hours. When we arrived at Heathrow people were mainly using the automatic passport control gates but when it came to our turn, I went straight through but Si couldn’t get through and had to seek help! He was allowed in eventually and within 30 minutes we were on our way home. Wouldn’t be a holiday if Si didn’t have problems at airport security! 👮‍♀️

Seems strange to be back home and for life to be returning to normal. We haven’t watched a television in three weeks. 📺

The suitcases will have to wait until tomorrow to be unpacked. We feel very tired and will be having an early night. It was hot when we first arrived in the UK but it’s cooling down now so hopefully we should get a good night’s sleep! 🛌😴

Thank you to everyone who took the time to follow our adventures, leave comments and ‘likes’. Like a lot of people over the past couple of years, we waited a long time for this adventure but it was worth the wait.

So, it just remains for me to say ……….

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 see you all on our next adventure. 😀 ✈️🚙

So, it’s here, the last day of our holiday! 😔 It’s gone really quickly.

We are all packed and ready to go. We will be leaving the hotel at 3.00 p.m, and our flight leaves at 7.35 p.m., 3.30 a.m. UK time and we land at 1.35 p.m. UK time.

Once again, the Tesla Model X will be taking us to the airport. The temperature is forecast to be 107 degrees! Hot, hot, hot! 🌞

As we won’t be eating again until much later this evening on the plane, we both decided on hearty breakfasts at Sadelle’s this morning.

Happy Si

Couldn’t manage the hash browns!

It’s Father’s Day here too on Sunday and Sadelle’s added this little touch to the tables.

Happy Father’s Day!

Not so much somewhere to hang your hat but your handbag!

Here are a few photos from the Bellagio.

The glass ceiling in the Bellagio reception is very famous. It was constructed of Chihuly glass, in 1998, by Dale Chihuly, a master glassblower. It is made up of more than 2,000 pieces called “Fiori di Como”. The cost …………. $10 million and well worth every dollar.

Bellagio Reception ceiling

Some photos from the Atrium.

Si’s got a Toucan on his shoulder!

It’s now sitting on my head!

Cheeky frogs!

Chocolate lovers will love this little piece of trivia!

Bellagio chocolate fountain

The ‘World’s Largest Chocolate Fountain’ is located here at the Bellagio. Designed by award-winning Executive Pastry Chef Jean-Philippe Maury and Norwood and Antonia Oliver Design Associates, Inc., the fountain took a year and a half in planning and design.  The floor to ceiling sculpture circulates more than 2,100 pounds of melted milk, dark, and white chocolate through 500 feet of pipes 24 hours a day. It’s designed to operate continuously for over a year without having to change or replace the chocolate. Since chocolate contains no water, there’s no evaporation. The chocolate cascades down 14 feet from one suspended glass vessel to another. Between the unique hand crafted glass basins and the visually stimulating flow of three different colours of chocolate.

So, this is our last post from the USA. 🇺🇸 Our next one will be from the good, old and I understand, very, very, hot, UK. 🌞🌞🇬🇧

Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll join us one more time on Friday or it may have to be Saturday if I can’t stay awake!! 🥱 😴 🛌 😂

Today is our last full day at the Bellagio here in Las Vegas, our adventures conclude with our flight home tomorrow.

We decided against the pool as it’s so hot today, currently 96 degrees and supposed to reach 100 degrees by 4.00 p.m., so we slept late and then went for breakfast at Sadelle’s. As we were much later than usual it was very busy.

Susan and Mike, our two lovely servers were working today so I took their photos and said I would include them in today’s blog. Thank you for taking such good care of us and making us feel so welcome. We’ve known Susan for many years and besides having a wonderful memory, she always has a smile for everyone . We look forward to coming back soon.

Susan

Mike

One thing I find a little strange about the breakfast menu at Sadelle’s …….. they don’t serve cereals!! Some days you just want a bowl of cereal, preferably Frosted Flakes. Note to the powers that be …………. please include cereals on your next menu. Thank you. 😀

So, after breakfast we had some luck on one of the Monopoly machines, we couldn’t stop winning! Then we managed to find another couple of ‘momentos’ that we couldn’t possibly leave behind! 😱 Oh dear, I think we’ll have to sit on the suitcases to close them!

I need to start re-packing the cases ready for lift-off tomorrow. I hope Virgin Atlantic have factored in that the Barretts are flying so there will be rather a lot more poundage in the hold!! 😂 ✈️

As I mentioned yesterday, we are off to the Petrossian Lounge (I keep calling it a ‘bar’ but they call it a ‘lounge!) this afternoon for cocktails and of course, the cheese plate. Even though I will have had three by the time we leave tomorrow, I know I shall be dreaming of  it again once we return home. 💭🧀🍽

I certainly hope I will not have to wait another three years for one!! 😱

We decided it would be a good idea, now the cheese plates are a lot smaller, to have one each plus extra bread and that’s just what we did! As always it was delicious.

The cheese plate and Champagne

Si enjoying the cheese plate

Sand savouring her last cheese plate for a while!

Managed it!

I did record a video of our visit to the Petrossion Lounge but when I played it back it was so awful I decided it would be best to leave it out. When I saw it I laughed until I cried! 😂I looked and sounded like some old lady who had forgotten to put her false teeth in! Truly shocking, but good for a laugh! 😂

After I posted yesterday about the Spiky Lemon dessert I had at Spargo, I realised that I had forgotten to mention that when it was delivered I wondered how I would start to eat it but I need not have worried as a lovely waiter came over with a knife and said it should be cut in two. The spikes were made of crunchy marshmallow. My, it was fabulous!

Spiky Lemon dessert with 24ct gold!

This is what it was like inside:

Inside the lemon dessert

Thought this flower display deserved a mention!

Bellagio Flowers

We’ve just received a message from Virgin Atlantic to say we can book in for our flight tomorrow. When I did, an interesting message came up asking for volunteers to take an alternative flight and be rewarded with lots of miles! It would seem the flight is overbooked!

Some years ago we volunteered and in return were given free flights to anywhere in the world! Decided against it this time.

I’ve repacked the suitcases and managed to fit everything in. Si was really impressed! How could he even doubt me!? 🤷‍♀️

We leave here tomorrow at 3.00 p.m. for our flight at 7.35 p.m. As it’s a night flight we will get the chance to try out the ‘beds’ for the first time in Upper Class. Looking forward to that.

Thanks for reading and hope to see you again tomorrow.

As our adventures are coming to an end, today’s post is rather thin on the ground. It’s been a lovely quiet day getting over the long drive yesterday and the recent very early mornings.

We decided against going round the pool today and instead had a late breakfast at Sadelle’s here in the Bellagio before going to visit a couple of other hotels. We then visited the Petrossian Bar for lunchtime cocktails but decided not to have the cheese plate as we are fine dining this evening at Spagos and didn’t want to ruin our appetites!

Si’s healthy breakfast!

Bellini Cocktails

As tomorrow’s our last full day we were planning on having afternoon tea at the Petrossian Bar but sadly that’s now only available over the weekends! 😔 So, we will be doing the cheese plate again instead. Can’t get enough of the cheese plates! 😀

Boy, I wish I’d completed this post before going to dinner! We’ve now drunk and eaten a little too much but had a fabulous time at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago!

We were so lucky to have a table on the open terrace right next to the Bellagio fountains. Had a great time. We decided we should choose tonight for our final ‘posh’ meal as we didn’t want to find ourselves on Thursday with hangovers when we have to fly home. Great decision on our part!

There was a huge ceiling fan that kept us cool even though we were seated outside.

The ceiling fan!

As it’s been a slow day photo-wise, I’ll bore you with a few of our meal this evening!

Si’s happy!

Si’s cocktail – Whole Lotta Love!

Sand’s cocktail – Too Much Too Young!

Our starter – Rosemary Focaccia with Hummus

Hope you can hear Celine Dion singing in this video! It’s not the best video ever as there’s lots of background noise and people but for anyone who has never seen the Bellagio fountains it gives an idea of how wonderful they are. It’s best watched in full screen mode. Yes, that’s my thumb in there too! 🤷‍♀️

Si had Lobster ‘Fra Diavolo’, Linguine, King Crab, Thai Basil, Spicy Pomodoro, Calabrian Breadcrumbs

Sand had something she doesn’t normally eat!

Si had gelato and sorbet

Sand’s dessert was Spiked Lemon
Japanese Yuzu Cream, Chiffon Cake, Citrus Mousse and 24 carat gold!

S&S enjoying their dinner

It wouldn’t be a good meal without finishing with coffee and Disaronno!

These are the next big thing in fashion from Bottega Veneta! They are on sale in the shop next to Spago! May be I should try on a pair!🤔

To finish we had a quick visit to the Bellagio Atrium but it’s very busy at night so this video doesn’t do it justice but gives an idea of how wonderful this season’s display is! It’s best watched in full screen mode.

Tomorrow’s our last full day so hope you will join us then as we wind up our adventures!

As always, thanks for reading and sharing our adventures.

Today was a driving day back to Las Vegas and we had a nasty surprise this morning when we woke up to rain, heavy grey clouds and the temperature was only 51 degrees! ☔️ It was supposed to be hot and sunny! 🌞

Being a Monday the roads were much busier so add in the rain, wind and roadworks it all had the potential for a long seven hour drive! Salt Lake City is huge, there were twelve lanes of traffic and seemed to go on forever. The one lucky break was the fact that there was an Express lane so we spent the first hour driving in that. The Express lane is solely for cars carrying two or more people and means no Toll fees have to be paid.

The Express Lane

The one good thing about the rain was the fact that it washed much of the dirt off the car so it actually looked respectable when we returned it today. I couldn’t take a photo as I said I would as all the dead bugs had been washed off.

Looks nasty!

We had two very scary incidents where the wind was so strong in exposed areas that the car was pushed across the road into the next lane.😱 Considering the car was like a tank that was some strong wind!  If there had been another vehicle driving next to us it could have been very nasty. 😱

The weather can be crazy. Back in Jackson in the Kelly area there was a flood warning for today.

For today’s driving snacks we changed things up a notch and had sandwiches, corn chips and hot drinks. Si had a Turkey Club and coffee while I went for Tuna and hot chocolate. There’s something so soothing about hot chocolate. Now hot chocolate and a tuna sandwich may sound a little strange but I drink it with just about everything.

Vegas here we come!

Only 312 miles to go!

We drove through Arizona for a while.

Welcome to Arizona

Feeling a little whimsical, this cloud made me think of William Wordsworth’s poem “I wondered lonely as a cloud”. 🤔

Landlocked Lighthouse

On our journey we saw this landlocked lighthouse in Cedar City. It seemed a rather strange place to put a lighthouse as it’s 450 miles from the nearest ocean so I investigated further and this is what I found out:

The lighthouse was built in 2000 and stands at 88 feet tall. Developers claimed it was the tallest inland lighthouse in the United States when constructed. It has never guided any ships, and it doesn’t have a lighthouse keeper.

It was originally built to be an icon that would set Providence Center apart from other developments in Utah. But there’s also an underlying reason for its construction. According to Thomas A. Pugh, managing partner of the Providence Center and CEO of Quantum Construction, it was built in preparation for a big earthquake when California may drop off into the ocean, at which time the lighthouse in Cedar City, Utah will be the only lighthouse standing on the ‘new’ Pacific Coast of the United States. He obviously has a sense of humour! 😂

Thought this was interesting ……………. Love’s petrol! Not at the current prices we don’t!!

The Love’s story is an interesting one dating back to 1964. If you like a little history, check it out here.

Interesting!

A long way from the UK!

Leeds!?

Could be tricky!

Si’s favourite road ……… not!

We eventually left the bad weather behind, the sun came out, the temperature gradually increased and by the time we arrived in Las Vegas it was in the high 90s. It’s much quieter here than when we first arrived nearly three weeks ago. It was Memorial weekend back then and was just crazy busy.

I expect we will!

The first thing we did after checking in at the Bellagio was to have my favourite cheese plate with cocktails at the Petrossian Bar. We both had a Conservatory Cup consisting of Haku Vodka, Pimm’s No. 1, English Cucumber, Fresh Ginger and Fresh Lemon. Very refreshing.

The Petrossian Bar

Just arrived!

Waiting for my cheese plate

After our long drive today I think an early night is in order. 😴Thanks for reading, hope to see you tomorrow.

We woke this morning to very heavy rain ☔️and thunder ⚡️ with the temperature being 45 degrees. Snow is forecast for Tuesday in the Grand Teton area. I think we left at just the right time. ❄️

Today we were driving to overnight in Salt Lake City before driving on tomorrow back to Las Vegas for our final few days before flying home on Thursday. The drive today was five hours and by the time we arrived here the temperature was 99 degrees! 🌞

It was a lovely drive with long roads seeming to go on forever with just us on them and beautiful green hills and mountains but as we drove through the Wasatch National Forest, elevation 8,934 feet (2,723 meters), we saw snow on the side of the road and on the hills!

Snow on the hills!

One thing we have noticed on this trip is the amount of bugs that have been killed on the front of the car and on the windscreen. I do not exaggerate when I say we have killed hundreds. We would like to apologise to those poor little creatures. We also saw four dead deer on the side of the road. 😔

We’ve decided  in future when we come to the US that we will always make sure to travel on a Sunday. The cars are very few in number and there are no roadworks so the drive is a delight rather than a hassle.

Just as on the drive to the Tetons, we once again passed through the States of Utah, Idaho and Wyoming but the difference this time was that we are driving a much more sophisticated vehicle and each time we passed over the State lines a lady’s voice was heard in the car (rather creepy!) welcoming us to Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Big Brother is definitely watching!! 👀

We had our usual car journey snacks along the way and a good old singalong with John Denver.

It occurred to me on today’s drive that we haven’t mentioned our dear friend Margaret (the sat nav) at all on this holiday. Well, Margaret’s getting a little old in the tooth now and when we woke her up this morning after a week of non-use she was rather disgruntled and refused to accept our destination into her memory. I must have tried six times before she eventually agreed to co-operate. Note to Avis “Me thinks it’s time she thought about retirement”.

You remember I said yesterday that I thought packing the cases would be a challenge? Well, I was right. We had to open the extenders! When we arrive in Vegas I think a complete repack will be in order. It’s Simon’s fault, he’s been making a rather large amount of purchases in Jackson!!!! 😉

For dinner tonight we went to another one of our favourite restaurants, the Texas Roadhouse. Our dear friends, Dot and John, first introduced us to its delights some years ago, particularly the hot bread rolls covered with runny honey and cinnamon butter. As far as I’m concerned they are my starter, main and dessert! I ate three! 😂

Tonight I enjoyed a 6oz fillet, just right for me and Si had the 12oz prime rib. He started with garlic shrimp, his favourite. My beverage this evening was a ‘Kenny’s Cooler’  inspired by Kenny Chesney’s (American Country singer) island lifestyle and consisted of Blue Chair Bay coconut rum, DeKuyper Peachtree Schnapps blended with Minute Maid Lemonade, sweet and sour and Monin’ Blue Curacao. It was fabulous. Si stuck with his beer.

The delicious bread roll!

Sand enjoying her three bread rolls!

Si’s shrimp

Si’s prime rib

Sand’s steak

Sand and her cocktail

Tomorrow we will be up and out early, again, as we need to be back at the car rental establishment in Vegas by 5.00 p.m. Can’t wait to see the look on their faces when they see the state of the vehicle. I’ll post a pic tomorrow of what it looks like. Well, it is an off-roader after all and we have been off-roading!!

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!