We woke up Wednesday in Jackson Hole, WY. I had less than 40 hours before I had to be at LAX to pick up Tanya. Home was about 1,000 miles from here, if we took the long way. It should not be a problem. It was very overcast in Jackson Hole, but that made for some great photo ops when we got to the mountains overlooking the Snake River and what I think was Swan Valley. We headed into Idaho Falls, where I got to attend my first live cattle auction. After leaving the auction we found out where Idaho Falls got its name. Totally unexpected, but very cool.
I had a gift I wanted to give to my son and since he lives down by Temecula I decided I would kill two birds with one stone and pay a visit to the Temecula wine country. After securing a room, Tanya, Buddy and I headed out to the Inland Empire. After arriving at my son\’s home we tried to find a winery, with a restaurant that stays open past 5:00 PM. I had only attempted to go wine tasting in Temecula once before and noticed that 5:00 seemed to be last call at most of the places I tried to stop at. My daughter-in-law reminded us of our prior visit to South Coast Winery Resort and Spa a couple years ago. We went online and discovered that they had a Happy Hour that started at 4:00 and dinner started at 5:30. We dropped Buddy off at the hotel and headed over to South Coast. We skipped the wine tasting and went for the Happy Hour and dinner instead. All I can say is that if I lived an hour closer I would be a regular there. Their Happy Hour is great and the dinner was fantastic.
The next day we made plans to meet up with my son and his family at the Ponte Family Estate. Since we got there early, I decided to go for the wine tasting. Not only does Ponte have some very nice wines, but they have extremely generous pours. By the time I finished the tasting and lunch (which was delicious) I was really glad I had my own personal designated driver.
Both South Coast and Ponte wineries had very good food and nice wines. The wine country itself is not as photogenic as say Napa, the Rhine or Catalonia but so far I have really enjoyed the wines and foods served there. We will be back to check out the others.
Last weekend, Tanya and I were headed out of town when we saw a small truck that was skinned with an advertisement for DaddyScrubs.com. Since my son, Daniel, and his wife are currently pregnant with my first grandson, at the first opportunity I went to the Daddy Scrubs website to order some scrubs for Daniel.
When I got there I noticed that the pants of the scrubs had the domain name going down one of the legs. I liked the outfit, but I did not like the idea of the URL on the pants so I simply used their contact form and asked if I could get them sans the URL. Almost immediately, I received a response from the owner. After a couple of exchanges it was decided that I would come down to their offices and pick up the scrubs directly from them. It turns out that they had been having some discussions as to whether or not to include the URL on the leg. My request had helped give them an outsiders opinion.
I brought the scrubs to Daniel yesterday. He loves them. When talking to him this morning he told me he wore them for the rest of the day. His 8 year old stepson told me he wanted me to get a matching pair for him and his new baby brother. I guess Daddy Scrubs may have a new market available that they had not thought of.
[Not a valid template]Shortly after exiting the south gate of Yellowstone we entered Grand Teton National Park. I must admit, I fully expected Yellowstone National Park to be the highlight of this trip. In fact, I changed our route a couple of times to make sure that we got as much of Yellowstone as possible. After visiting the Tetons, I decided that they were the most beautiful part of the journey. My only regret was that we were running out of sunlight, so did not really get to explore much. I will change that as soon as possible.
We ended the day in Jackson Hole, WY and had a great time at the Snake River Brewing Company. My cousin appreciated that they had a gluten free pasta and I appreciated the great beer. All the employees we spoke with were fun and our Travelocity gnome got lots of attention and he loves attention.
Shortly after leaving Cody and the Buffalo Bill Dam we entered Yellowstone National Park\’s East Entrance. I had not visited Yellowstone since I was a youngster, maybe 45 years ago. Since Yellowstone is extremely large and we only had one day to see as much as we could, we took the long way around the park. From the east entrance we drove alongside Yellowstone Lake to the Fishing Bridge junction. After a nice lunch we took Grand Loop Road to Canyon Village, across to Madison then dropped down to Old Faithful and eventually out the south entrance leading to the Tetons.
Old Faithful erupts every 40 minutes to two hours. We decided we would wait up to an hour before moving on. Luckily, Old Faithful went off about 10 minutes after we arrived. Timing is everything.
We ended day four and began day five in Cody, WY. On the way to the Cody Rodeo the night before, we noticed what looked like an old frontier town in the fields between Cody and Stampede Park. We decided to check it out the next morning. It turned out being the Old Trail Town which was the original townsite of Cody, which was named after William F. (\”Buffalo Bill\”) Cody. If you are into Old West artifacts, you will definitely appreciate a stop by Old Trail Town.
After leaving the city limits and heading into the mountains we came across Buffalo Bill Dam. This dam was built in 1910 with no steel reinforcement and was the highest dam of the era. Another cool place to visit if you are in the area, and it is free.
Day four of our journey ended in Cody, Wy. We were taken aback when we discovered that Cody was a very difficult town to find an available hotel or motel with a vacancy. We eventually found what passed for a motel, but I think they borrowed beds from the jail display at the Old Trail Town. When we asked why rooms were so scarce we were told that Cody, the \”Rodeo Capital of the World,\” had the Cody Nite Rodeo which was held every night June 1st through August 31st. That was all my cowboy cousin needed to hear. Since the rodeo was scheduled to begin in less than an hour, we settled on a quick dinner and blasted over to Stampede Park to watch the show.
After leaving Red Lodge we headed on towards the Beartooth Mountains. Since I had not been driving and had never visited this part of the country, I believed my cousin when he told me we were in the Tetons. It wasn\’t until that night, when I brought out a map that I realized where we really were. Shortly after crossing the border into Wyoming we found ourselves on the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. There was no question that as far as scenery was concerned, our trip had just been bumped up a couple levels.
A viewing tip; try using the \”Slideshow\” link. When you click it you will see the photo ID and a couple icons. Click the one on the far right as this will give you the full scree mode. It is faster viewing and you will be able to enjoy the full effect.
Day four of our journey began in Miles City and a beautiful morning. The storm clouds looked fantastic and made for great photos. As we headed across on I-94 I spotted a sign for the Little Big Horn battleground, so we made our first detour of the day. The signs were not very accurate, but due to another u-turn we soon came upon it. One thing my cousin and I both noticed was how solemn people seemed to be there.
As we came into Billings my cousin asked if I had even been inside a Cabela\’s Sporting Goods store. As I had not, he insisted that we go in one and urged me to bring my camera. Very cools displays and great taxidermy. After leaving there we headed to Red Lodge which is at the foot of the Beartooth mountains. We stopped at Sam\’s Taproom for a sampler plate of their brews and I was not disappointed. Very nice beers indeed.
I went to my first baby shower today. My son and his wife are bringing a new life into this world. He has a lot of things going for him from the gate. Parents, a big brother and a very large extended family that will love him. On top of that, he will be a 7th generation Californian. That is pretty cool. Anyway, today was the baby shower and here are the photos.