#88

In the Spring of 2006, my sister told me of a nonprofit organization that makes blankets for kids in need. The organization, Project Linus, (www.projectlinus.org) has a simple, yet important mission:

1) provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers”
2) provide a rewarding and fun service opportunity for interested individuals and groups in local communities, for the benefit of children.

Through a series of fortunate events, the co-chair of the Sacramento Chapter is a shirt-tail relative (my brother-in-law’s nephew’s wife) and I knew her. Since that fateful day, I’ve crocheted 88 afghans for Project Linus. I love what I do. Every blanket I make goes with a message that one person cares! I believe we all need to give back, and this is just one little way I can give back for all the good that has come to me.

Walking the Naked Lady Trail

Long before we moved to the Star Valley, there were shepherds and sheep here. In fact you can still find sheep on the Idaho side of the Star Valley, but alas, there are few on the Wyoming side. I’ve heard tell that the life of a shepherd is lonely and that might explain why the grove of trees near our home is the start of the “Naked Lady Trail.”



At first, it is said, the shepherds notched the aspens in order to find their way through the forest. Later, one (or maybe more) of the shepherds discovered that aspens were a fine medium for carving and thus was born the Naked Lady Trail. There was a trail of Naked Lady Aspens leading from Muddy String to Prater Canyon. I’ve only seen one of the Naked Lady trees over the years as they are mighty old, and aspens are not known for their longevity. I wonder how many there were in the "old days?"



As more people moved into the area, the trees have been cut down, fallen, died, or marred somehow by the passage of time. If you look carefully, you can see places where a lonely shepherd, to wile away the sweet summer days in the Rocky Mountains, might have carved Naked Ladies.



Nowadays, that same shepherd is greeted with a “more civilized” landscape with homes dotting the countryside, large expanses of alfalfa and hay, herds of dairy cattle, a few longhorns, a few bison (pretty tame) and of course a vast expanse of aspen forest with wildflowers littering the floor.

Summer Flowers

The summer wildflowers bloom in a very predictable order. Today I saw the first aster.

This is important. Asters, in the mountain west, are called "the last flower of summer." Its mid-July and the last flower of summer is starting to bloom. Last year, the aster started blooming at the end of June, so it's better this year than last.

If things follow Mother Nature's predictable plan, we'll have about six more weeks of summer. I hope mama is wrong.

A Walk in the Park

In case you are wondering, the Park, is Grand Teton National Park, one of my favorite places in the world! Yesterday, we had a wonderful day enjoying the Park.



As usual, Mt. Moran is the highlight, but yesterday, there were a couple of others.



Air Force 2 was sitting in the General Aviation portion of Jackson Airport. Since Vice President Dick Cheney lives in Wilson (outside of Jackson) it's not a surprise to see the jet there, but it is a treat as not many people see Air Force 1 or 2.



The other treat were the fields of wildflowers. As you might have guessed, wildflowers are a passion of mine and yesterday, I was in wildflower heaven. A drive through the Park was a feast for the eyes.

Wild Flowers

Lupine
The wild flowers are starting bloom in western Wyoming. The first flowers to come out are the yellow blooms of arrowleaf balsamroot. Unfortunately, we do not have any on our property. Then come the dandelions. Now we are getting the more colorful blooms.

Yellow Salsify or Goat's Beard
On Sunday the lupines started followed by the Paintbrush.


Paintbrush

Wild Rose
Last night we saw the first wild rose and today the garden is filled with yellow salsify and flax with a few dots of yarrow. We have a few wild geraniums (Bicknell's) and of course the lush green of the grasses and bushes.

Flax

Yarrow
And once in awhile, you get to see a butterfly!

It's a colorful time to be in the mountain west.

Dandelion Diary

Take a look at the life cycle of the dandelion.

Cruise to Alaska

When we left the Caribbean Cruise, I was offered an Alaskan Cruise. Since we had never taken that cruise, and since we had not been to Alaska since 1979, we thought it would be a lot of fun. We were right. The cruise was a lot of fun. If you want to take a short cruise that has easy water, the Alaska Cruise through the Inside Passage is the cruise to take.



We started and ended in Seattle. The first stop was Juneau where we took a shore excursion to the Mendenhall Glacier. This was important to me as I remember reading about the Mendenhall Glacier when I was in the third grade. I was so excited to see it, which we just about could do. It was cold, gray, rainy, (did I mention cold) day. The visibility was horrible. We saw the glacier, then, all bundled up in slickers, boots, PFD (you cannot call them Life Jackets anymore), we boarded river rafts and floated down the Mendenhall River. On a nice clear warm sunny day, it would have been a wonderful excursion. On the day we had, it was an endurance test.



We passed the test and went back to the NCL Pearl and got warm. The next day we were in Skagway. It was still gray, but not longer rainy or as cold. We took the White Pass and Yukon Railway to the border of Canada. A 3 hour round trip through the high mountains. We oohed and aahed over the old wooden trestle and we looked for wild animals. One person in our train carriage saw a bear cub up a tree, but by the time we could run back to see it, the train had passed.



The next day we enjoyed a day on the ship looking at the spectacular scenery of Glacier National Park. There were a couple of National Park Rangers onboard, giving excellent commentary. The ship slowly circled the bay as we all took pictures. This was the highlight of the cruise.




Our next stop was Ketchikan, an island town, south of Skagway. We had the picture perfect day to be there. We took a Jet Boat Excursion with hopes of seeing lots of wild animals. We did one Sitka Deer, (which is about the size of a German Shepherd) and lots of Bald Eagles. In fact, I just sat at the lodge and looked at the eagles, which are huge, magnificent birds, as they argued over which bird was going to get the best piece of fish.



As we were cruising to our last stop, I enjoyed a game of bowling at sea. What a kick. This is not your typical game of bowling. You might aim for the pins at the end of the lane, but the ship has another agenda. What you do and what you get are not related. Bowling on a cruise ship is not for the proud. It was great fun...and I did beat Obama with a score of 85. The highest score I saw was 96! (and that fellow said he had a 250 average...he was not happy).



Our last stop was Victoria on Vancouver Island. We decided not to get off the ship as we landed after 6 PM. So, we stayed onboard and we shared a huge cruise ship with about 100 passengers. That's kind of fun. That evening I saw "Enchanted" at the theater.



On Sunday, we disembarked back in Seattle. We used valet parking, courtesy of Republic Parking. They took care of parking the car, getting our luggage to the ship and getting our car back to us with a smile. When I purchased the parking permit online I thought I was just getting a parking space for a week. I had no idea there would be service too. A real treat to get more than what you expect.

If you want to see a lot more pictures of the trip, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/ihsnowphd/AlaskaOnThePearl