Presidential Day Off

Oh, how I love school holidays! Oh how I love it when Max is not travelling and takes an afternoon off work to spend time with his family!

Also, I'd like to thank George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for having birthdays so close together as well as the 1880's Congress who initiated the holiday originally called 'Washington's Birthday.'

Whatever the history of today, we spent an enjoyable day together: sleeping in.... reading over breakfast.... long hot showers.... ahhhh.... nice and relaxing!

After lounging 1/2 the day away, we decided we needed a plan to get out of the house! After all, from now until the end of school, there are precious few days off. We needed to take advantage of this opportunity! So we made some sandwiches, called Max and told him to come home, loaded up the car with water bottles, coats and gloves and headed east -- over the Tall Pointy Mtn. Range to the land of Why-oh-mun . Our objective was to see the huge elk herds that migrate there each year -- and (hopefully) some beautiful scenery.

IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY!!! Blue skies with high white clouds. The temps when we left Florin were in the upper 30's but as we gained altitude dropped to the mid to lower 20's. The roads were clear of all snow and ice. It was perfect for this time of year.

Once we reached our destination, we drove down our favorite road -- the road Shack (who used to live here) told us about -- Grow Vont. We always see wildlife when we drive this loop off the main highway. And today, while the animal spottings were fewer, we weren't completely disappointed! (Of course, we always promise a cash payout --never more than $1-- to the first person to spot a wild animal, so most everyone is busy looking out their window in "hot spots.")

Max was the first to spot this little lady: (he earned a quarter. Had the children seen it first, I probably would have paid out 50 cents.)

He also spotted a bald eagle resting in a tree (and required no cash for that sighting)!!!

We were looking for bison, but unfortunately, the road wasn't plowed all the way through the loop where they usually are, so we had to turn around, disappointed.

The Pointy Mtn Range was unusually beautiful today, with the Tallest Peak enshrined in wispy clouds. We were thrilled to find this little guy -- species unknown -- by the roadside.

We found him when we stopped to take a quick family picture.

And when I say 'quick' I mean QUICK!!! Half the family was cold and didn't want to get out of the car. I set the camera on 'timer', put it on top of a book on the hood of the car and ran like crazy to make sure I was in the shot before the 10 seconds were up. Don't let the photo deceive you. It was farther than it looks and I made it in 9 seconds!! And -- per the deal I made -- I only had one shot. That's why it's crooked and blurry... I probably should have turned the car off.

We finally made it to the Elk Haven and weren't disappointed!! Inigo was disappointed that we didn't ride the sleigh out to the middle of the herd, but I think we got a pretty good view of them from comfort and warmth of our car.

Along the way, we also saw a coyote scavenging something -- probably a small rodent -- in the snow. We also saw a small herd of Mtn. Goats. Oh so cute!

In our joy to see the cute/wonderful/magnificent creatures God created, we didn't forget the beautiful scenery that was before us. These mountains are magnificent any time of the year.

All-in-all, we feel pretty good about our 1/2 day's travel. We saw almost everything we wanted, ate a fabulous meal at the best BBQ place in town and got home with enough time to get Inigo in bed on time!!!

I wish we could have President's Day every week!