The Journey to (what looks like) the ends of the earth...

Here are some photos of our trip. I share them to remember and also to inspire people to get out and explore the world. It is a beautiful place.
Throwing stones in the Colombia river at Celilo Park. We played T-ball in the grass and saw some windsurfers getting ready to get out on the water. On the other side of the river is Washington, the rolling hills were beautiful.
Further up the Gorge as we went in to Washington. The rocks looked amazing and I saw pelicans. I didn't know that they were and inland bird, but we saw some again when we were in Colorado.
Striped hills in Washington, I thought it looked very quilted.

The hills were also covered in a purple wildflower, it may have been Camas. I don't know but the relief of the hillside was beautiful.
Our first night, the Holiday Inn Express in Lewiston, Idaho. I mention the name only because it was a wonderful place for a traveling family. It was sited on the top of a bluff overlooking the Snake River valley (where it travels to Hell's Gate State Park). It had a beautiful and clean pool, also over looking the valley. The staff was wonderfully kind and very helpful. And the free "continental" breakfast included eggs, sausage, biscuits, yogurt, 3 kinds of cereal, fruit.... And it wasn't disgusting...it even tasted like real food. It was the the least expensive place that we stayed and the DEFINITELY the best value. (I will never stay again at the Super 8 in West Yellowstone...it was weird, weird, weird. I don't know why but it reminded me of the movie Swingers...and not in a good way.)

The next day took us over Lolo pass from Idaho to Montana. It was beautiful. (Even though I accidentally left my camera charger behind at the hotel and we had to backtrack about an hour and 15 minutes.)
The beautiful mountains of Montana.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I saw a bit on Photojojo about this woman who made a collage video of her feet pictures...I realized that I take quite a few of those myself...we will see where I go with those.
The boys taking dip in Yellowstone River.
A weird sulphur-y pond in the foreground with an orange bacteria mat in the background. The colors were awesome!
Old Faithful. We had seen so many geysers that day that my husband thought that he really didn't need to see this oldy but goody. We finally decided to stay. There is something surreal about waiting around for a natural event to occur with a huge crowd of people from all over the world. We later discussed how we felt like we all a group of "returnees" just sitting and staring at each other. AND then she/he blows and WHOA! It is worth the wait and still surreal.
We finished the day off by driving through Grand Teton National Park. To me, these are THE mountains...in my brain dictionary these mountains are the photo. I saw them for the first time when I was 11 or 12 and I was in awe then. I am still in awe at age 33. They are just so beautiful, so otherworldly.

The pictures of Rocky Mountain National Park will keep for a bit. I am giving the Tetons some breathing room. After we left their beauty we had to drive through southern Wyoming...it was bright, hot, hot, and long. We did see a lot of pronghorn antelope and that made it bearable.

JMB