Days 7-11

Well after the Grand Tetons, we drove to Idaho Falls, ID....then Missoula, MT...then Coure D'Alene, ID. There wasn't much to see other than countryside.







After a couple days of driving through Idaho and Montana and Idaho again, we arrived in Washington. We went to a resort area in Lake Chelan for a couple days and had perfect weather. We stayed at a great place called Grandview for 2 nights. It was right on the lake and they had a cool outdoor pool that we enjoyed. It was nice to stay put for 2 nights in the same place and make all our own meals!









While in the Lake Chelan area, we visited a farm with a petting zoo...




and several wineries and vineyards











This "shark" souvenir store was right next to our hotel at the beach. We had planned to stay in Seattle or Tacoma...somewhere near the Puget Sound, but we kept on driving and ended up at the Ocean! Unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy when we got there and the beach was not very clean....but it was still good to see the Pacific Ocean!


Syd and Kay were thrilled to see this giant snail

and these giant slugs





Finally we arrived in Portland today...on Kevin's 36th birthday! We have one more night in a hotel and will get the key to our rental house in the morning. Hopefully the moving truck will arrive by noon and we'll begin unpacking and getting settled in!

Day 6 - Grand Tetons

After such a great day in Yellowstone, I didn't think it could get any better. But then we drove 20 miles south and stayed between Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. We kept commenting on how different the terrain was as we drove through Yellowstone...and then we got to the peaks that create the Teton range...WOW.






The place we stayed in did not have breakfast so we decided to drive into the park and have a breakfast picnic. It was a brisk 28 degrees, but we had fun making eggs, oatmeal and hot chocolate. This was the view from our picnic table.





Kevin told me to take a picture of the eggs and I think he meant take a picture of him cooking the eggs...


But since I'm a literal person, I took a picture of the eggs




Jenny Lake...This was definitely the highlight of the trip for me...breathtakingly beautiful!
















When I was younger, my family took a vacation to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. We rode horses around Jenny Lake and the horse my grandpa Domnick was riding tried to cool off in the lake. I remember it was a point in the trail where we were really close to the lake. As we were hiking around the lake on this trip, I think this is the spot...this was the only spot that got really close to the lake. We didn't make it past this spot as Kayleigh tripped and got quite wet...so we turned around and hiked about 2 miles back to the car.






We saw quite a bit of wildlife in the Grand Tetons, too..

ELK


GROUSE


MOOSE (in the appropriately named Moose Pond)



Big Horn Sheep Syd


Antler Kay