Antlers, breaking Geodes and "Bear" hands.

When I posted the photo the other day of the antlers Chi-Town & Jenn thought is was a bad thing.....like someone hurt the deer the antlers belonged to.

Not the case at all. We learned that Elk shed their antlers each year. (And moose too!)

In Jackson hole, the boy scouts are allowed to collect all the shed antlers from the Elk Refuge and then they are auctioned off to all sorts of folks. (Who doesn't want an antler chandelier or candle holder? I want one for my future dream mountain house!!!!) 

The boy scouts keep 20% of the $$ and the rest goes back to the Elk refuge. 

In the town center of Jackson Hole there are four of these antler arches.

Cool no?

All I can think of is, the Girl Scouts must be p*ssed that they did not get this sweet antler collecting deal. $$$  Surely they would have given up that whole cookie selling gig for this. 


Next subject:

We found the coolest store/gallery in Jackson hole. It was more of a gallery, cause we could not afford anything that we liked. They had the jaw from a wooly mammoth. A real jaw. (It was found in the peace river in Florida...well, if I ever stumble upon one of those....) This place was just chalk (chuck? Chaulk?) full of old things...fossils, dinosaur skulls, eggs and you know, stuff you don't find at super wal-mart;
Small and GINORMOUS geodes.

ginormous geode.


Do you know what a geode is? Me neither.  Until I got edumacated.  Who knew I would learn something on vacation????


Anyhoo these geodes are all harvested in Mexico. They look like cryptonite round rocks..... UNTIL you open them up.

 

Inside they are filled with crystals and magical powers.

Ok, not so much on the magical powers...but I had you going right?

In this sweet store/gallery, you can choose your own geode and then they help you OPEN them up. Seriously...I was not falling for this gypsy hob nob...but someone else was. And he was holding the wallet and looking into the four blue eyes of his offspring. 

Linds: Crank crank CRACK! Voilia. 

Now, it was Lolo's turn. I don't know who came up with this whole crank system..it involved a bike chain, a plastic bag and an old steering wheel. Sounds like a MacGuyver operation to me....But it worked. It cracked the geode ball right in half. 

Here is what came out of Lolo's chosen geode. 

Hello? it is a heart filled with amethyst.

And now, a larger geode is growing out of her head...can't wait to see the bill for that one.

And Lindsay's was quite the find. I don't remember the details of WHY it was so wonderful but the 'guy' said one similar to this was sold recently for $200 bucks. 

Of course when she heard this she was ready sell...even before she 'paid' for this one. And by paid, you know I mean the Coach paid. 


Since this post was full of educational stuff (I apologize for that, I hate it when I learn unintentionally too) I feel the need to add in this one funny photo.
While in the Jackson hole visitors center, Linds grabbed this hand puppet and said  to me: (her sweet and demure mother)

"I will get you with my BEAR hands."


yeah. I don't know where she learns these things...
Have a beautiful weekend. THAT is an order. :) 

Gettin' all artsy fartsy.

With my photography that is....there will be no real fartin' in my presence. 


I know I said I would share my favorite 325 photos the other day, but I failed to do so. I only shared 13, but it felt like 32.

The following photos are of Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and where our hotel was located; Teton Village. 

Sorry Betsy, some of these just don't get any titles. :)

I was....totally enthralled with all the beautiful fences. They were everywhere. I wish had take more photos of them...Just don't try to fence me in. 

Of course, I have already shown this barn. I believe it was called the John Moulten barn. John Moulten was one of the first explorers to visit this area...if not for him, there might not be a YELLOWSTONE Park.  We were told that this barn is photographed a LOT for wedding parties and such.

I declared then and there that I wanted to get re-married and have our wedding photos taken in front of this barn.

I was the only one on board with this scenario. 

Our guide Collin almost snapped our necks stopping to see this female bluebird on the sign. Not kidding. He was so excited to see her...in his words: "When you see the bluebirds, you know summer is on it's way"...apparently it has been a loooooooong winter in Wyoming. 

And, if you could see that blue bird on the sign,  I will give you a HIGH FIVE...cause it was hard for me to see her in person. 


Our first moose sighting. She was not very close...so the Coach used his iphone through the telescope. Purty cool huh?

I never got used to seeing these beautiful snow covered mountains. Never.

An old dried up tree near the geysers...I thought she had some personality. Frail, but personable. 

THE waterfall in Yellowstone. I really was not expecting THIS....so gorgeous...so beautiful and so freaking HUGE. If I had to rate it to all the waterfalls I have seen, I would give it a 10. With 10 being tops. 

The daddy Osprey. Just minutes after our guide picked us up the first day we were entering into Grand Teton park (with our destination being Yellowstone) we stopped to see a large osprey nest...and the Mama was clearly there.

But if we looked just to the right of the nest, you could see the proud Papa sitting on a house/property sign. Gorgeous. We have ospreys here in Florida...but not with the backdrop of the grand Tetons!

Another cool old barn. Lo captured this shot for us.....again, would make for lovely wedding photos. Hello? any takers?

Lolo captured this lovely reflection...I was almost irritated that there was a duck/swan swimming there and it kinda broke up the reflection. Can you imagine? Me? Getting annoyed with nature....

You gotta love this:

And this was lovely to see as well: 

This sky tram was just outside our hotel....people rode up and down this all day long enjoying the views of Jackson hole from above. No, I did not ride on this. I lovingly referred to it as "The Death Tram." 

Why yes, I am terrified of heights.

Ok, that was 17 more photos, but it really felt like 53. I am almost done talking about Wyoming. Almost. 

If you are ever thinking about visiting this lovely area, let me know...we stayed at a deluxe hotel (GREEN/Eco friendly) expensive, but so is everything else in this area. And our guide was so great...and again: Eco friendly. We just loved him and the Company's philosophy. 

None of us were ready to leave Jackson hole...and on our departure we had such drama that I wished we had stayed. It was a once in a lifetime drama that we will never forget.  The sharing of that will come soon. 

Wyoming photo dump.

We only took 326 photos over four days and since I know you are busy I will share with you the best 325.

But first, you might like to know why we chose to visit Wyoming.

We have never been there.

Isn't that reason enough??? I thought so. 

We threw around many trip ideas....mostly involving Europe. Between the four of us we could not decide on ONE area to visit...so I said: Hey, since our economy is so crappy...why not spend our hard earned cash in OUR COUNTRY??? And you know I mean Coach's hard earned cash. Like I have said before, what is mine is ours and what's His is mine. 

Anyhoo...we had two days of tours set up

 with a guide. This was a great choice for us since we were on a time restraint and the Coach's driving makes me ill. Kidding. Not.

 We spent 13 hours with our guide on the first day. He was awesome....full of so much information I am surprised it was not dripping from his ears. 

We were able to see most of Yellowstone this first day. Our guide picked us up at our hotel at 6am. Yes, I know...vacation and we were up at the crack of..well, the crack of TOO early. 

Yellowstone was gorgeous. There was snow on the ground still...the girls were freaking out a bit because they have never seen snow. Don't feel too bad for them...they live 7 miles from the beach...not everyone can grow up near the Gulf of Mexico.  

We learned all about geysers, painted pots, volcano's, earthquakes and so many other things that I can't remember. Our guide gave us the full story of the first travelers, Indian tribes and more. I even brought a little notebook...but forgot to document all of it!  

Some of the info that I do remember was so interesting...of course I can't share it here with you cause then I would be YOUR guide and you can't afford me. 

Old Faithful. I don't want to whine too much, but old faithful was late if you ask me. By about 10 minutes. Who should I email my complaints to?

My favorite old barn photo~cool right?

On the second day of our tour we visited Grand Teton National Park. Oy...breathtaking. But again, at 6 am. This day our tour was over by noon.

 

 We found ourselves in the middle of a Bison herd. They were right next to our car...we stopped, rolled down the windows and just took them in with our eyes...they are really large and SEEM gentle. You know, with huge brown eyes. They were still shedding their winter coats. 

I have seen videos where they are not really gentle, they should be feared. They can run 30mph. Can you?? I can only run about .5mph. 

Just call me dead meat.

One thing I WILL share with you so we can all stop this buffalo nonsense....there are no buffalo in the states. They are all BISON. Buffalo are in Africa. 

That is a misnomer. 

What we were most interested in seeing in Wyoming was the wildlife....and we did.

We saw 2 moose. (meese)

4 bears; grizzly and black

bison

pronghorn (look similar to antelope)

Elk, mule deer, Osprey, and lots of little critters that we don't have in Florida. 


Like these little unita ground squirrels. They were everywhere....of course the girls wanted one as a pet too. Try getting that through security...might be easier than the baby bison though. 

I did not cry that we could not see any wolves or mountain lions....ok, I cried just a little. 

I have much more to share...but it feels like you are getting bored. I can feel these things you know. 

xoxo

Oh, give me a home...

Where the buffalo bison roam

and the deer

and the antelope pronghorn play....

Can you guess where we have been???

Eight glorious days away from home....four spent in the depths of nature and beauty and four spent surrounded by man-made gluttony.

Back to reality...trying to get my bearings.

"Bear"ings. Get it??? I swear, that is a photo of a bear.

Unpacking, paying bills, cleaning dogs, scooping poop and getting used to the {flippin'} humidity again!!

Oh, and Lolo wants to trade in ALL THREE cats for ONE baby Bison.

{cause they are soooooo cuuuuuteeeee}

I think this might be a fair trade.

Have a beautiful Fourth of July!!!