A Good Kind of Jealous

(Minor side note before I get started: in my last post I briefly mentioned child sacrifices... Just to clarify, the city of Megiddo was conquered and rebuilt 25 separate times throughout its existence! The people who lived there and made those particular kinds of sacrifices were not Christians and they were directed to pagan gods.) 

Day 3 dawned gloomy and cold.  (Which was funny because the night before Jeremy had encouraged us all to wear shorts the next day!)  I am glad I made the decision not to though because we were up quite high in elevation and the wind was blowing.  I was wearing all the layers I had brought with me on the trip and was still shivering!  The wind just cut right through.  Our first stop of the day was up in the Golan Heights.  We connected with the owners of an off-road tour company. The itinerary had mentioned that we might be taking a Jeep tour but the picture below shows quite obviously that we did not end up in Jeeps. They provided us instead with these ATV-style vehicles called "TomCars" which are possibly more effective than actual Jeeps at off road travel.  The shocks on these vehicles were so efficient that you could drive over a pothole or a giant rock and not feel a thing.   The only problem was that they were open body vehicles and so the cold became worse while we were moving.  

I volunteered to drive first!  I was in a vehicle with 3 other women.  Halfway through the tour we stopped at an abandoned building.  The tour leaders had us go up inside the building.  They told us it was an old Soviet building which had been lent to the Syrians while the land was under their control but then the Israeli's took the building back when they re-acquired the land.  It has since sat empty because at some point it had been attacked with artillery and was no longer inhabitable.  Our guide gave us a wonderful summary of the Arab/Israeli conflict while we were standing around an open window looking across at the Syrian border!  The reason he said he feels so safe so close to the border is because of Israel's far superior military capabilities and technology. 

Not pictured in this blog is the Olive Oil factory that we visited after the "Jeep" tour.  Needless to say I purchased a souvenir there so that will take the place of a picture.  After that we had lunch in a Druze restaurant.  I forget if I already mentioned this, but Jeremy explained to us that the Druze are an Arabic religious group in Israel. Their beliefs may indeed be a bit strange but their food is out of this world!  I tried fried falafel and lamb kebabs at lunch and both were fantastic!

After lunch we went to another national park. We visited Caesarea Philippi.  Here we listened to Carl preach out of Matthew 16.  One particular part of that passage stood out as extremely interesting.  Jesus said that upon "this rock" his kingdom would be built and that the "gates of Hades" would not be able to stand against it.  The "rock" referenced was most likely the mountain we were sitting next to at Caesarea Philippi and the cave located in the mountain was historically called Hades by the locals who worshiped there! They believed that their gods lived in the cave and that they had to pray to certain idols and perform certain rites to awaken their gods and entice them to send rain for their crops.  (Pictured left are little niches carved into the mountain where their idols would stand to be worshiped.)

 Leaving Caesarea, we continued on to Tel Dan where we went hiking.  Part way through the hike we stopped again and heard a passage read from 1 Kings about Jeroboam building a golden calf for his people to worship.  (Are you sensing a theme here?) Pictured at right is the actual altar where the calf was placed and where people would come to sacrifice animals to the fake god.

Our hike through Tel Dan also included views of the Jordan River which originates there and some beautiful views of the country side.  In the foreground of the photo below are military trenches leftover from when there was fighting over the country's borders.  Jeremy pointed down to a dirt road just below the trenches and told us that we were looking at Syria!  He marked out visually where the borders of Lebanon and Syria and Israel are today.  It was really quite remarkable how precise they are.  So much so that a single town is split in half between Israel and Lebanon!

I have been reflecting on how I wish that idols today were as obvious and physically represented as they were back in Bible times.  I can't help but think that we might be able to recognize them more quickly for what they are and destroy them more efficiently than our modern, abstract idols of the heart.  But then again, we might choose to set them up anyway.  In our sin our hearts wander so far away from their true purpose.  Without our sinful tendencies though we might not ever recognize or appreciate the crazy, jealous love of our God (a good jealous, that is). So could sin, if it eventually leads us closer to God than we could have been without it, actually be a good thing in a way? Until next time, chew on that.......

National Parks Abroad

Let me tell you something.  I'm sitting here in my hotel room after a full day of touring and sight seeing and I realized just now that I'm thinking in a British accent!  Well now you might begin to wonder why that is... Don't worry, I'm most certainly not in the UK, I am still in Israel! However, our tour leader (whose name is Jeremy and can be seen in the blue striped shirt just to the right of me in the picture above) has lived in Britain and in New Zealand prior to coming to live in Israel and his accent is very strong still.  He is absolutely a wealth of information!!! We love having him as a guide but someone has given him a microphone on the bus and in between stops he narrates the entire journey.  Anything from cows to mountains is fair game.  Sometimes he prays, sometimes he sings, sometimes he tells stories but no matter what it is, he is always always speaking.  Then, when we get off the bus, we have little ear pieces called "Whispers" that are like radios.  Jeremy uses a microphone for that too and his voice enters directly into my brain through my ear during each tour.  So, basically, its as though my own thoughts have taken on an British accent.  Jeremy has a wonderful way of infusing our tour group with joy each day and I am severely impressed by his energy and seemingly boundless enthusiasm.  He must be an extrovert....

 We went to 3 Israeli national parks in one day!!! I was thrilled at each stop that I had the privilege of visiting such amazing places.  Parks are similar here in that they protect special places of natural and historic national significance but different in that they seem to not care much if people collect flowers and rocks as souvenirs or walk off the designated trails.  I have had to keep myself from yelling at some of my fellow tour members as I see them doing things that would normally be prohibited in national parks in America.

The first national park was in Caesarea Maritima.  I'm not entirely sure of the spelling of that second part but the distinction is important because there are other Caesarea's in Israel and this particular one is by the sea.  Here, we learned that this Caesarea was established by Caesar Augustus and then shortly thereafter King Herod the Great built a city there for the Romans.  Several active archaeological sites exist here and so far they have uncovered many significant ruins.  One definitively proves the existence of Pontius Pilate.  

 

 Another impressive feature of this city is the theater (above).  Remember back to my last post? About Peter receiving a vision from the Lord? Well Peter took that message all the way from Jaffa, north to Caesarea Maritima.  He probably came directly to that very theater and stood in front of a large crowd and delivered his message there regarding the equality of Jews and Gentiles in the salvation message.  It was incredible for me to be sitting in that spot thousands of years later and imagine that Peter himself had stood and preached on that very same ground.

The picture on the right, with Jeremy in the foreground, shows more of the city that King Herod built. Off to the left in that picture is a piece of land that juts out into the sea.  Herod built a large palace for himself right on that piece of land.  You can just see the pillars on the left that once marked the boundary of that palace and still remain to this day!  If I was a king in that day, I must say I agree with his choice of real estate.  The views from that palace would have been amazing every single day!

(I think I must learn to cut back on details.  I have learned so so so much already!  I want to share it all with you.  But I also think some of this cannot be shared and must be experienced first hand.  You all will just have to come visit Israel for yourselves to fill in the blanks I may have to leave here in order to conserve space.)

Our next stop was the city of Megiddo.  Highlights here were learning about human sacrifices and seeing the altar where they actually happened (circle of stones, left), walking through an underground tunnel where the cities inhabitants gathered their water, and most of all seeing the valley where the battle of Armageddon will literally take place!  Looking at it, it makes total sense.  The valley is wide open and empty.  So vast you can barely see the edges of it.  And directly above the valley and overlooking it is Nazareth, the village where Jesus grew up.

 The next stop was to Mount Carmel.  This was the mountain where the prophet Elijah had a bit of a spiritual battle with the prophets of Baal in the book of 1 Kings.  Again, I could not believe I was standing in the foot prints of a "character" I had only ever read about in the Bible.  These people come to life when you wander in the places where they did. I was reminded here that God speaks in whispers, not just in fire or thunder and also that God is infinitely more powerful than idols or the numerous gods with a lowercase "g" that distract us and make believe they are more powerful than they actual are.

 

Our day ended up at the top of another mountain.  This one was called Mount Arbel and it overlooks the Sea of Galilee and the city of Tiberius.  I cannot emphasize enough how lush and beautiful this country is right now!  I have been told it gets hot and everything green turns brown in the summer but its hard to believe when everything around you is so vibrant.  The picture below shows the Sea of Galilee and the city of Tiberius.  All the yellow flowers are actually wild mustard!  These pretty yellow flowers are scattered everywhere and really add a nice pop of color to most landscapes.  We have stayed for 2 nights in a place not far from Tiberius called Kfar Blum and I must say, they have really outdone themselves with the accommodations here!

Shalom

Greetings from the Lord's country, Israel! I have been here for 2 days now but it feels like closer to a week.  Our leaders have packed an incredible amount of activity into each day but have punctuated all of it with aptly placed breaks so that it is not overwhelming. Tonight I have a bit of free time alone with my friend wifi and I have been longing to update this blog which is long overdue for some new travel tales!

Getting here was more unpleasant than I had expected. The flights were long but largely uneventful. The second flight from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv however was nausea inducing for me because of turbulence and exhaustion and I was thrilled when we finally landed and were re-introduced to solid ground again! I was sitting next to a girl on my first flight from Philadelphia to Frankfurt.  Neither of us spoke much until we landed in Frankfurt.  At that point I asked whether she was continuing to Tel Aviv or staying in Frankfurt and when she replied that she was continuing on, we discovered that we were actually part of the same tour group!  We were randomly seated next to each other on the second flight as well and are now roommates for the entire trip (also "random").   There are 5 of us young, single females on the trip and I am thrilled to have others my own age to spend time with!  

After a day (or more?) of traveling, our group (43 in total), arrived in Tel Aviv at 3:30 in the afternoon. Needless to say, the last thing on my mind was sight seeing at that point.  I just wanted to take a shower, brush my teeth, and go to bed.  However our leaders, who had already been in the country for a week or more, were ready to go and they whisked us onto our tour bus and away to our first tourist site!

The bus stopped in the port city of Jaffa and we enjoyed a walk around a bustling town with shops and people enjoying their Saturday evening.  Our official destination was Simon the Tanner's house in the middle of the old city of Jaffa.  His house is important because he allowed Simon, who was also called Peter, to stay with him.  While Peter was staying there he received a vision from God who told him that the good news of the Gospel was to be for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews.  This is truly good news for those of us saints who are not Jewish because it means we also are chosen by God and can equally partake in the salvation that God offers!  (More in Acts chapter 10 on the details of this story but that's the gist of it...)  It was so appropriate to start our journey here, at the literal doorstep of the place where the Christian message was offered and extended to us all.  It is here that the Gospel became truly all-inclusive.

Eventually we got back on the bus and drove to our hotel for the night.  The leaders encouraged us to force ourselves to stay awake until at least 9 so that we would be able to sleep through the night.  I slept very well last night!  Except for one dream during which I sat up and grabbed my roommate's leg and mumbled some unintelligible words and surely scared her half to death, I did not wake up once.

The food here has been lavish and delicious!  I have been very careful to avoid pineapples but I learned today that of all the produce this country grows for itself (which is practically everything you could imagine), they do not grow their own peanuts or their own pineapples.  Thank you God!

Our leader, who has lived in Israel for close to 20 years, specifically mentioned the fruit and said that Israel does not do much cooking or eating of it at all.  I think this is the right place for me, then. Despite this news, I am still avoiding anything fruity and yellow just to be safe.

I will write again as soon as I can but tonight I need to shower and sleep so that I can be ready to go for tomorrow.  I heard we are going on a Jeep tour first thing!!! (And anybody with a driver's license from the US is allowed to drive!)  Wish me luck ;)

The Poconos

 

Once you stop writing, its hard to start again.  What's important is that you do.  I never wanted this blog to be a source of stress but it could have easily become that if I let it.  My most recent travels have brought me from my old home in Salem, MA to my new home in the Poconos in Pennsylvania.  I think this is potentially the most important form of travel to undertake.  It is an incredibly difficult thing to undertake the moving of one's belongings and life and bring them from a place of familiarity and comfort to a new, different, uncomfortable location.  And yet I believe that without change like this, life would be incredibly boring and stagnant.  Without it, I wouldn't have the opportunity to learn more about myself.  I would simply be repeating patterns that are tried and true and safe.  So although moving creates anxiety and uncertainty in the present, I have to trust that it will also cultivate new strength, adventure, and confidence in the future. 

Some observations since the move:

First and foremost, we all know that people operating motor vehicles in Massachusetts have a reputation for being bad drivers.  It has been said that they are rude, impatient, and reckless.  However, after moving to this particular area of PA, I do believe we ought to cut them a little slack up north.  Truly, the drivers here are 10 times worse than anything I ever experienced in the Boston area!  (And I haven't even been here a week yet!)

Second, let me note that I feel blessed to be living in the hotel that I am.  The outside and inside are beautiful, the staff are helpful, my room is comfortable, the laundry facilities are free, there is always plenty of parking, and they serve free food every day (sometimes multiple times a day)!  I can walk down the hall and work out whenever I want.   And better still is that housekeeping comes to clean my room and give me fresh towels every day!  Its almost like being at FLETC again (minus the towel pyramid and my awesome friends).

Although the hotel is great, its not sustainable in the long run for my needs.  So, since day 1 I have been looking for an apartment to rent.  No luck yet.  Of most interest to me is that apparently buying a house is much cheaper than renting an apartment here!  Usually its the other way around, right?  Should I consider buying?  I think about that for a minute or two and then dismiss it again.  There's no reason to do that yet as a young, upwardly mobile, single individual.  And it would tie me down more than I want to be right now.

Another thought: people complain about their jobs so often!  Our society works for the weekends. People admittedly live mostly for the two short days of freedom where their happiness supposedly surpasses what they have during the other 5 days of the week.  You know what?  I want more than that.  I experienced 11 weeks out in Wyoming where I was NOT working for the weekend.  99% of the time out there, I almost dreaded weekends!  I  know there were other factors involved there (i.e. wanting training to be over so I could get on with real life) but I honestly had fun doing my job in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks so much that I didn't want to go home.  I was excited to go to work every day and I looked forward to it!  I loved the adventure and I knew I was getting better at my job every moment.  THIS is what I want to find.  Not just in training, but every single day.  I am seeking joy (which is a little different than happiness) for all 7 days of the week.  Some might say its not possible.  I am hopeful that it is. 

I've been learning lately that life isn't perfect (that would be putting it mildly).  That no matter where I go there will always be "Kevin's".  There will always be people who do bad things (job security, I guess....) and those who will want to stand in my way.  But I also believe that there is a niche for everybody where the good outweighs the bad.  Where, although there is still clearly sin in the world and storms come to toss and blow and howl and try to destroy, there is something, Someone, to be an anchor of hope.  Where there is enough good surrounding me that it becomes easy to focus on "whatever is good, pure, and lovely". 

Salem was not that place for me.  Pennsylvania may or may not turn out to be that place either.  But what I learned in Salem is that beauty. blessings, and good things (in the form of friendships, nature, local culture, etc.) can come from the most unexpected places.  Unfortunately, most of these things aren't realized until they are gone or about to be gone.  I know now to look for the beauty as it is unfolding, for the story before its finished being written - to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.  I want to take the time to look around and appreciate what I have before the time comes to make a change.  Despite my tendency toward believing that Salem was a God-less territory, I have come to be proven incredibly WRONG!  Despite a lack of Christian radio, God is most definitely working and moving in the lives and hearts of the people there as He was in my own life, though I was largely blind to it at the time.  I was leaning on my own understanding, which is exactly what the Bible says not to do.  Long story shorter, I want to shift my perspective away from my own understanding from now on.  Somebody else deserves my trust more than myself.

Night Shifts and Day Dreams

Roosevelt Arch

I am SO incredibly overdue for another post!!!  I've been so absorbed in the travel and experiences themselves that I haven't been able to take a moment to write about it.  (Also, I haven't had easy access to internet.)  But never fear, I have found the perfect place to write about my Yellowstone adventures.  It's a place in Jackson Hole called The Bunnery.  Its a bakery/restaurant that has free wifi as well as Starbucks coffee!  I think I could stay here all day.  Fortunately for them I also have to get groceries (because some wild animal got half of mine the other night) and I have plans to hike this afternoon.  All of this is part of my master plan to make myself extremely tired by approximately 9 pm so I can go to bed and wake up in time for work at 6.  UGH! You try doing that after 6 weeks of night shift and see how it goes,.. It's relatively painful adjusting to being awake during the day again.  

So indulge me a bit while I reminisce about my time in the world's first national park....  I started out at Old Faithful.  I watched it erupt twice, the second time actually being better than the first!  I found a place at the Old Faithful Inn where I could order a special coffee drink and sit on the upstairs balcony in the sunshine to watch the geyser erupt.  It may not have been up close and personal but it was still really special.  My favorite part of watching it erupt was waiting for it.  The predictions were for set for every 90 minutes, give or take 15.  The most fun was listening to the comments of other park visitors sitting around me waiting for the same thing.  The most common saying was that because almost everyone had driven "all this way" especially to see Old Faithful, "just watch, it won't actually erupt this time!"  Its amazing the lack of faith humans have in the world in general.  We tend to not trust the things that have proven themselves extremely reliable and instead trust many things that have been proven not to.  

The geyser has a bit of an ego, I think.  It knows people from all over the world come just to see it erupt so it gives teaser shows.  For 5 or 10 minutes before it actually goes off, it sprays off little bursts of steam and water in intervals.  You sit up on the edge of your seat, prepared with your camera to take awesome pictures and then it simmers down again and the wait continues.  But then, when it finally does go off, it's TOTALLY worth the wait!!  What a spectacular thing to see! The force with which the water sprays upward is incredible.  The eruptions last around 3 minutes and shoot upwards approximately 180 feet.   I hope someday I'll get to go back and watch it from a different angle.  

Old Faithful eruption

Half way up Bunsen Peak

While I was in Yellowstone I was blessed with some incredible weather!  Low humidity, temps in the low 70's, and plentiful sunshine made for perfect hiking days.  Some of my favorites include a trip up north to Mammoth Hot Springs and the north entrance to the park.  The very first picture at the top of this post was of the stone entryway marking the boundary of the park and announcing entry into history, essentially.  Since 1872, very little has changed in Yellowstone National Park.  The arch is known as Roosevelt Arch. Across the top is written "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People".    

Later that same day I hiked Bunsen Peak Trail.  It was 2 miles up and 2 miles back but it was one of the more physically exerting hikes I've done simply because of the extreme elevation change that occurred during that short distance.  I climbed to the top of a mountain in 2 miles!  The views along the way and the incredible panorama at the top made the hike well worth it.  The most difficult part of the hike, though, was persuading myself to not continue on.  I had read about a waterfall on the other side of the peak and desperately wanted to go visit it, but I was running out of daylight.  My motivation was still high, but I wasn't entirely sure I would be able to make it down and back (another huge elevation change) before the sun set.  So I suppose that hike will have to wait until my next visit to the park.

Mammoth Hot Spring Terraces

Along with the hike to Bunsen Peak, I also drove around some of the park's hot spring terraces.  The picture on the right is of a giant formation created by the hot water coming out of a spring and the bacteria associated with it. The colors are beautiful and the formations are kind of otherworldly.

Fairy Falls

One of my favorite hikes in the Old Faithful area was called the Fairy Falls Trail.  I started this hike later in the day because earlier I had already hiked 6 miles down to Shoshone Lake with a friend.  I enjoyed that hike very much but I also wanted to keep going and get more mileage that day.  I thought I had read somewhere that the Fairy Falls Trail was only a couple of miles long... I hiked it and realized that it was a lot longer than I had expected.  I ended up hiking a total of 12 miles that day between the two trails!  When the scenery is that beautiful, I could keep walking forever and not mind it a bit.  Fairy Falls waterfall was so tall I could barely fit the entire thing in the camera frame!  The water, being so feathery and light in volume, got its name "Fairy" for good reason.  I couldn't help myself and continued down the connecting trail another half mile or so to find Imperial Geyser.  The extra distance was worth it because the evening sunlight reflected off the water of the geyser pool and made the colors inside even more brilliant.  The geyser was in the process of erupting while I was standing there watching it.  Also, next to the geyser was a boiling mud pot.  Those craters of boiling mud are fascinating to me.  They smell terrible and they look gross and yet I find myself wanting to stare at them and analyze them.  They're mysterious natural occurrences.

Specimen Creek

These hikes are in no particular order.  I upload these pictures and arrange the words around them depending on how they pop up on the screen.  Moving the pictures around is way too frustrating to spend much time on.  Specimen Creek was not really one of my favorite trails but I still found value in it.  The trails on the west side of the park are a bit longer and more remote.  More appropriate for back country camping trips, it seems.  I had heard that this trail was a good place to see wildlife from a safe distance.  I didn't see any wildlife the entire time I was out hiking.  I hiked 4 miles in to a place where the creek crossed the trail.  It was so peaceful and surrounded by beautiful rock features and meadows that I decided to stay for a while.  The sunshine was warm and the water was bubbling by and I lay down by the creek and took a nap for an hour.  Then I got up and turned around and hiked 4 miles back out.  Probably the highlight of that day was dinner after the hike!  A friend had recommended a BBQ place in Big Sky, Montana.  It was called Riverside BBQ.  I stopped in, ordered the brisket street tacos and sweet potato fries, and stuffed myself before I drove the long way home.  That meal was a true treat :) 

    

The view from Purple Mountain

One of the hikes I went on happened to be quite by accident but ended up being probably my favorite one.  I woke up late one day and figured I'd get a coffee and then just be lazy around the house for the rest of the day.  But when I got to the coffee shop, the lady making my drink asked me what my plans were for the day.  I didn't have a good answer and told her I was considering a short hike.  She suggested Purple Mountain.  I didn't have any other reference for the trail.  I didn't really know how long it was or what the elevation change was like or what I would see along the way.  But I decided to try it anyway.  Turns out that at the top of the mountain I found the best view of the Madison, West, and Old Faithful areas of the park!  The picture doesn't even show half of what I could see from the top.  A winding river, winding road, geyser steam rising in the distance, cliffs and hills, mountains, and valleys, meadows, and much more, captivated me for a long while before I realized I was freezing and had to get down the mountain before nightfall.

Grand Prismatic Spring

Every weekend in Yellowstone I had the amazing opportunity to explore on foot.  I truly believe that you can't really know a park unless you leave the pavement and boardwalks.  In the places where few tourists every go, a person can really start to understand and make close acquaintance with the wild side of our national parks.  But perhaps the real reason I enjoy walking single track trails through the woods by myself at my own pace is because I gather a deeper understanding of who I am and my thoughts sound clearer in my mind.  The woods have a way of calming and relieving stress.  When I leave a trail I always find myself more at peace than I have been in a long time.  

I'm going to miss Yellowstone.  The time I spent there was special in many, many ways.  I look forward to the next time already.  

A Spectacular Weekend in the Tetons

 

I've had a few weekends this past week... Although not the Saturday/Sunday kind.  I had one of my weekends on Wednesday and Thursday which was the best one by far!  Then I had a quasi day off on Saturday and Sunday although I technically worked both.  And now, I have Monday and Tuesday off!  Although this is weird as well because the weather forecast is for rain both days.  I was hoping to get out into Yellowstone to explore but that may have to wait a bit.

 

I work the night shift now.  That means its absolutely normal for me to be sitting up this late at night blogging, right?  Also totally normal for me to be sitting in the middle of a hotel lobby taking advantage of free wifi, right?  Wrong.  It's really weird.  And totally abnormal but I'm pretending that its okay because I have no other choice. 

 

 The picture up above is my newest purchase.  I went into Jackson on Wednesday and bought hiking shoes!  I had no idea what I was really looking for in a pair of hiking shoes but I tried on a lot of them and decided to take the advice of the helpful man at the store.  He heard what I told him about the kind of hiking I would be doing and the location of my hikes and suggested I try the pair he brought up from the secret shoe cache.  Even though I wasn't a fan of the color, he pointed out that comfort is most important and also that there hopefully wouldn't be many people out on the trail in the first place to see my shoes or care about the color of them. 

His advice turned out to be right and it allowed me to experience one of the best hikes I've had in a long time.  I had heard a lot of people recommend the trails around Jenny Lake.  I decided to hike up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration point.  However, that turned out to be much more of a feat than prior hikers in the area because a section of the trail was closed due to some type of landslide and the reconstruction of the trail.  So I had to make my way back down and all the way around to see Inspiration Point.  After a quick break for food and water and an absolutely gorgeous view, I decided I wasn't quite done hiking yet for the day.  

 

  I retraced my steps to the string lake trail and considered my options.  The decision was clear to me - leave the crowds of people behind and continue on to see some of the more beautiful lakes in the park.  I hiked around the west side of Jenny Lake and took the trail around to the east side of String Lake.  The water was so inviting!  Clear, blue, cold, and sparkling.  I had to take my shoes and socks off and wade in water.  It was cold but so refreshing!  I also couldn't have asked for a better view.

 

 I wanted so badly to continue on to Leigh Lake but I was running out of daylight and energy and decided to turn around before I regretted not doing so.  I knew I still had 3 more miles left to travel and I didn't want to short change that portion of trail.  Turns out that was a good decision.  I was hiking alone and the sign at the beginning of the 3 miles Jenny Lake stretch warned of bear attacks.  I decided to pull out my phone and play some loud music to scare away wildlife.  The first song that came on was Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off"... apparently the wildlife like that song as much as I do!  I rounded a corner in the trail and some elk were standing in the middle of the path grazing.  When they heard me, instead of running off like I had hoped, they simply looked at me with interest and curiosity!  I imagined they had never heard Taylor Swift before and were considering sticking around to hear the rest of the song!  Eventually they did run off but only after I yelled at them and made more noise.

 

I was absolutely exhausted after my hike but my soul was refreshed.  When I got home I calculated the length of the route that I traveled.  As it turns out, I went 11.1 miles!!  I was proud of myself.  And excited by the fact that my new shoes were so comfortable!  I didn't get any blisters and I had really good traction on the trail.  It was a good day.

 

 (below: String Lake trail looking back toward Inspiration Point)

 

 

 (below: river section connecting String Lake and Jenny Lake)

 

Keep reading, I had a lot more pictures than I did words in this blog.....

 

 

Tonight I researched restaurants in West Yellowstone.  My friend Bonnie recommended an Italian place called Serenity.  It looked good and was open late so I decided to check it out.  It was totally worth it!   I had feta, basil, and sun dried tomato crostini as an appetizer, butternut squash ravioli with brown butter, cinnamon, and walnut glaze, and salted caramel crème brulee for dessert. 

You'll have to check out the picture of my dessert below.  It didn't look like crème brulee to me but it tasted great so I didn't question it.  Maybe they made the dessert differently in some parts of Italy?  Or Montana? 

OH!  I visited another state!  I'm in Montana right now, not Wyoming.  Its pretty neat that I can drive 45 minutes and be in a totally different state.

I hope to find a place closer by my house with wifi so I don't have to poach it from places in town. 

My inspirational quote for the night is, "Life's short.  Eat Dinner for Breakfast."  ;)

I'll let you know how it works out for me...

Fun Stress

 

There's so much to do and so little time!!!  So much that its stressing me out.  I'm only here in Jackson for another couple of days, yet so much of the town and the park remain unexplored...  On Saturday I drive to Yellowstone.  I'm going to be much more isolated there than I am here and I won't have a Starbucks to sit in and write blogs.  However, I will still find ways to post here whenever I can.

 

Last weekend I went hiking up a place called Avalanche Canyon in Grand Teton NP.  It was one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever done and so I posted a million pictures and bragged about it despite the fact that it was also the worst hike of my life.

 90% of the trail wasn't even a real, park designated trail.  It was what we rangers call a social trail.  That means it wasn't well marked and one can easily find themselves lost if not careful.  Well, apparently, we weren't careful enough.  We tried to follow the rock cairns by the side of the trail but there weren't nearly enough of them and all the fallen trees laid across the trail from the previous season's avalanches made it hard to relocate the dirt path we were trying to follow. 

Another thing that made the hike difficult was several boulder fields over which we had to scramble and in which there wasn't any hint of a trail.  So a lot of that involved guess work and keen observation skills both up and down the mountain. 

We hiked for about 8 hours round trip.  We went up to 9,000 feet elevation where the air is more rare than it already is here and the rocks were loose enough that one wrong step could send you slipping and sliding all the way back down the mountain side!

The part of the trail that we could see was also covered by brush and sticks and pokey things that tended to slap at my legs as I walked by so that when we were done I was bleeding and scratched.

All in all, I would say that's not something I plan to spend a lot of time doing in the near future.  Although it was extremely beautiful, and there were no other people on the trail the whole day, I think I'll plan to stick with the more well-traveled paths while I'm here.  I'd like the opportunity to finish my training in one piece and to explore other parts of the park and the world in the coming weeks/months.

 

Above is the waterfall we hiked to.  I forget the name of it again...   Something like Shoshobe Falls I think.  Anyway, it was a nice reward at the end of the hike and a nice place to sit and rest before beginning the hike back home.

Today I made it into Jackson again.  This town is really neat.  It's got an old western type feel with a modern twist.  There are a lot of green spaces and parks.  The main park has 4 giant arches each made out of collected antlers!  I had my picture taken in front of one just to play tourist.

For the rest of my afternoon I'm hoping to visit a thrift shop recommended by a friend here.  Apparently its got a lot of really nice clothes donated by rich people who bought them at full price, wore them once or not at all, and then donated them because they bought the next newest item and had no need for the "old" item.

I also need hiking boots and maybe a souvenir t-shirt.  We'll see what I can find.

Tomorrow the plan is to actually wake up early enough to hike Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point/Jenny Lake.  Its a hike I've been wanting to do since day 1.  Also one I need to do before I leave for Yellowstone!  Once I get to my new park home I'm sure there will be many more hikes to add to my list. 

OH! One more comment before I finish here... The night sky here is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Its unlike anything I've ever seen before being from the East coast with all its light pollution.  Here, with no lights and a new moon, the stars are brilliant and brighter than I've ever known possible.  No picture with a man-made camera could ever do it justice.  The constellations jump out to me and the stars twinkle just like in the children's song.  I've seen shooting stars and what I believe to be the Milky Way, although I'm no expert for sure...  The long moments I've spent standing out staring up at the sky with my jaw dropped in wonder re-affirmed to me the presence and proof of God and the fact that I daily underestimate Him and His power.  Its nice to feel small sometimes.