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Published: November 29th 2009
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30 is just a number...
The Grand Tetons in the background. Liz posting:
Mark celebrated his 30th birthday the Friday before last, November 20th. Wanting to make it special in a place where we know a total of two people and have no real money for extras, I made him a birthday dinner. I know, I know, who wouldn't want this gourmet cook to make you a special plate for a special day? Oh wait.... Per Mark's request, I did whip up one of his favorite dishes- Beef Stroganoff. Even though it doesn't sound that special, let me reassure you that it is plenty rich and decadent for a birthday celebration. My aunt and uncle joined us for dinner and rounded out the group to a nice four. We had a really great time, lit some candles and even had a delicious rum cake at the end.
However, before any of the merriment at dinner, Mark had to prove that 30 was just a number. Starting on a trail in the town of Jackson with my aunt we went on a 4 hour "walk" before dinner to the top of the local snow hill- Snow King- and beyond. The first hour seemed quite steep, but we made it. We passed
Moose butt
This is the best shot we got of the moose cow and calf! a number of people along the way. This area has some of the most fit people I have ever encountered. We even saw a girl running down the mountain and had no doubt that she had also run up it. So as we were huffing and puffing our way along the nice trail, others were doing circles around us. This only fueled Mark and he lead the pack during most of our time outside. At the crest of the "walk" we were rewarded with beautiful views of the Tetons and clear skies.
As we closed in on the last 30 mins of the "walk," we started to see very large tracks in the snow (yes, snow). Not thinking much of it, we just continued on our merry way. My aunt and I stopped for a few seconds and Mark continued to walk down the path. And BOOM- a very startled moose cow and calf popped right out ahead of him. The pair scuttled up the other side of the path into heavy wood cover and stayed their until moved on. It was frustrating to know that the pair was so close and yet we couldn't see them! It was
Birthday cake
Luckily the cake didn't catch on fire. probably for the best since cow moose with calves are known to be aggressive when confront by humans.
Mark's birthday request was to watch football all Sunday. Such a Joseph! His wish was granted and that is all he did. The Patriots game was not on TV here, so I dropped him off at a bar and went for a workout. There he found that there are an impressive amount of Patriot and Red Sox fans in the area. Grrrreat! Everyone in Jackson seems very laid back and nice. Also, they wear sweat pants out and about. That is something we can support!
One of the activities we have taken up since moving here is looking for the International Space Station (ISS). We live at roughly 6200 feet above sea level and there is no light pollution. When clear, the night time skies are absolutely stunning. My aunt and uncle passed along a website called
Heavens Above which asks the user to enter his or her longitude and latitude. If you do, it spits out a custom chart that details how visible the ISS will be in the sky, what time and the direction it is going for each
Grand Tetons and Elk Refuge
The area to the right is the National Elk refuge. Herds of elk come down from the snow covered mountains and spend the winter in the valley on the refuge so that they have plenty of food. Soon it will be filled with 1,000s of elk, but so far there are only a hundred or so. day. So a minute or two before the space station is scheduled to pass, we go outside and watch for it. The website has not failed us yet and it is great fun to watch. It looks like a star that is moving quite fast, faster than an airplane. The last week has been especially interesting because the Shuttle Atlantis just docked at the ISS. So the last couple passes we could see the ISS and the shuttle behind it getting closer and closer in preparation for landing. That was so cool!
I can't publish without confessing that I drug Mark to the
Pacific Coast Sectional Figure Skating Championships that were held in Jackson last Saturday. The winners at the event go onto the national championship and compete for a slot on the Olympic team. There were no big stars there, but there was some good skating toward the end. We may have gone too early, though, and ended up sitting through over four hours of skating. We saw the good, the bad and the ugly. My favorite skater was a young girl who needed a lot of refinement, but had an awesome pants suit with gold lame. Hello! A couple years ago, my
Gross skeleton
This guy didn't survive his "walk," luckily we did! roommate and I were big fans of an MTV reality show called something like Ice Queens that followed a couple young girls and their families, really their mothers, as they prepared for a regional championship. The amount of time and money required to get the girls to the level they were at was astounding. Also, the show portrayed the mothers as ice skating versions of a pageant mother. There was no way I was going to miss that in person!! While we saw a lot of girls with waaaay to much make up on, we didn't see much in the way of diva behavior from competitor, parents or coaches. One girl cried for an hour before her performance, skated just fine and then cried for at least another hour after that. It was very dramatic, but I think maybe something was really wrong, so I decided to give her a pass. We did observe that the better the skater, the less makeup. The best men's outfit goes to guy whose one piece was made of dark blue crushed velvet and had a light blue heart embroidered on it. He skated to the Titanic theme song, so the patch was actually
Phelps Lake
this beautiful lake can be found in Grand Teton National Park and is where we had lunch one day on a little walk we went on. It was a great walk when the tourists aren't around- we saw no one! meant to be the heart of the ocean gem. Ummm, it was the best get up ever! It was entertaining to see the skating in person, but I'm not sure I'd do it again. Also, the big dramatics must go on behind the scenes, so I need to figure out how to get an all access pass. Maybe I could get a press pass and say I'm representing the blog?
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