Monday, February 18, 2008

Eagle Day... plus



Finally, we are healthy!!! Well...kinda better. Having 2 days of slow workouts, without coughing fits and sleeping through the night I think the flu has now had it's run. Today was a gorgeous day out and we decided to go see the bald eagles up in Farmington at the bird management site near the lake. I think Karen counted 49, toal at the site plus a couple in flight!! It is always an amazing thing to see one of these monsterous birds in flight. Didn't see any fishing, just watching!!


We took a drive down to the end of the dirt road and DID get a reward. We finally saw Owls in the wild! Even one that dove to catch a rodent, then ate it for lunch, yum!! They are the coolest looking birds. Great eyes!! Just amazing to watch them turn their heads, seems like they just keep going!! Anyway, a great afternoon. A great wintertime activity, if anyone is coming out this way!!
rich

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Jackson Hole

Rich and I headed to Jackson Hole, WY on Wednesday, Feb 6 until that Sunday for a little skiing and conferencing. Fortunately, for me, Rich had a conference there and I was able to tag along for some skiing. This conference is so harsh on it's participants (not!) as they attend sessions from 7:00 - 10 am. then are off until 4:00 so that they can ski for the day. Nice, huh?

The drive up was great, it takes about 4.5 hours in good weather to get to Jackson and it us about 5 hours this day as it was still a little snow covered and slow. We were fortunate, though, as the next two days brought road closures and avalanches along the way keeping many people from making it to the conference on time. We arrived in the evening, just in time for a drink and some relaxing before dinner. We stayed where the conference was held, at the Snake iverLodge, http://snakeriverlodge.rockresorts.com/info/rr.asp , which was really nice, really really nice. :-) The ski area is all contained in Teton Village, with shops and hotels and restaurants right there. It's small, but nice, with skiing right out of your hotel. We enjoyed a couple of dinners at the Mangy Moose, http://www.mangymoose.net/restaurant_photos.php, and drinks at the saloon.
Jackson is such a great place to ski! The vibe there is very laid back with lots of locals and obvious ski junkies. The mountain has TONS of terrain, seemingly endless, and when we were there, there was no shortage of fresh powder as it had been and was snowing endlessly. We were definitely tired at the end of each ski day!

You might be wondering what the heck is up with the paper cut out of a girl! That is Flat Zoe. Rich's niece sent her to us, it is a project their 1st grade class is doing based on a story called Flat Stanley. The request was to take Flat Zoe on adventures with us and send pictures back so they can display all the adventures of their "flat" classmates. So.... we took flat Zoe skiing with us!