Riding with Moose

Photo complements of Wikipedia.

I've heard rumors about the moose that lives under the Aprés Vous chairlift, but I hardly believed my eyes when I saw it today. There I was, riding the Nez Perce traverse from Casper over to the north side of the mountain when a GIANT animal appeared trudging through the bushes just below the traverse. It wasn't more than 10 feet away from me! I would have loved to stop and get a photo of Mama Moose, but I thought the thing would have trampled me if I pissed it off. Plus it was a traverse so I wasn't moving too quickly as my board is having an issue with holding wax. How crazy it was, though. Never thought I'd say I'd be snowboarding in the presence of a moose.

Christmas in the Park

First of all...Merry Christmas! It's been a pretty crazy week, like most weeks are leading up to holidays, but it's definitely been fun. After a grueling five days of shooting photos of tourists, I was able to have Dec. 23-25 off to unwind and celebrate. I was ready to get out and shoot some real stuff. Luckily Jackson Hole has installed a decent little park for us to play in. David was kind enough to buy me a new battery for my 1D Mark II N, a much needed Christmas gift. With my new battery in, I realized that my pro camera is quite the powerful instrument. You hardly miss a shot with 8.5 frames per second. I set up shop at the biggest jump in the park and watched David do his thing, all the while firing off my machine gun of a camera. The jump isn't that big, but David was somehow able to pull off backflips, backside 540s and backside 3 tailgrabs. It was a blast and it felt good to get some shooting of my own in. Enjoy!

In case you wondered how my Christmas was, I will give you the low down. On Christmas Eve, we went snowboarding. David and I could hardly wait to open presents so we opened eachother's that night. Obviously like I mentioned David gave me a new Canon battery for my beast camera and I got him a down jacket (pretty much essential for JH living). Then we drank delicious eggnog cocktails and roamed around the city looking at the lights in town square. Christmas morning was present time and we checked out what our families had gotten us. I definitely scored some pretty great gifts this year (thanks mom!). We went shredding again and came home a little early to start cooking dinner. I invited my friend Alex over to share David's mom's recipe for a traditional German dish of bratwurst and sauerkraut with potatoes. Then I made my mom's heavenly holiday mint pie for dessert. The night was filled with fun stories, good food, wine, and friends. Being with family would have been unbeatable, but I think we had some good times anyway. So long for now!

Adventures on Teewinot

I am so lucky. Oh yes. I live 20 minutes from the greatest mountain resort in North America. And it even has a big beautiful tram that takes you from bottom to top. No effort required. Today I took my first tram lap. I arrived at the top of Rendezvous Mountain with the most incredible sight before me. It was about 12:30, and this beautiful golden light was gracing the peaks of Cody and No Name, with a giant cloud layer hovering between me and the valley. I felt like I was in heaven, whatever that looks like. I can honestly say I've never been more in awe of the scenery here than I was today. I navigated my way through the rocky face below, and then disappeared into the mystical woods. The cloud layer hovered around the Thunder and Sublette chairlifts where I weaved in and out of the woods. Then I burst into the lower mountain, back to the tourists, back to reality. That one run made my day. It was back to work after that.

Speaking of work, I have quite a story about the quality of tourists that I've been encountering lately. One piece suits, 1980 skinny skis, and step-in bindings have no match to the character I met today while I was shooting action photos on Teewinot (i.e. bunny slope). The first thing I saw was a snowboard whizzing down the hill...sans owner. Now, it's pretty hard to have your snowboard get away from you on the slope. You have to strap your feet into the bindings, and there's no way those would just both "pop off" unless they actually broke away from the board. So little old me, afraid for everyone's safety, ran as fast as I could run (I had a camera around my neck with a huge lens and snowboard boots on) to catch this runaway board. Luckily I was able to kick it a bit and it crashed into a bush. Moments later, I saw a very large human bumbling down the hill, obviously the board's owner. When I got closer, I realized the kid was wearing jeans, had his boots undone, and wasn't wearing tall socks. Yikes. With a southern drawl, he explained to me that he didn't know how to snowboard and his boots were too small so he actually "sledded" down the hill on his board. When he got going to fast, he bailed and the board went flying, ready to destroy anything that got in it's path. Wow. Really? Who let this happen? There were so many people and little kids out today, I couldn't believe that this kid was actually allowed on the slope. I wonder what happened when he unloaded the chairlift.

Anyway, this next week is going to be quite an adventure. It's Christmas week, and the tourists are in abundance. I've already noticed a big change in my photo sales, and I'm excited about it. Bring it on Christmas! I'm ready :)

Gondola!

Locals stand in line anticipating the opening of the gondola at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

I woke up yesterday with a big surprise in my email inbox. I regularly receive the JHMR snow report, which comes at 7 a.m. every morning. This time, it announced the opening of the Gondola on Thursday. You can bet that David and I hurried up to the mountain this morning to get the goods.

Snow just waiting to be ripped.

The ride up greeted us with views of untracked powder. We were all stoked to see that they hadn't really groomed anything. We flew out of the car at the top and strapped on our boards as fast as we could. Before we knew it, we were floating down Sundance, looking over the valley of Jackson Hole.

There were definitely some good powder turns to be had. You could even go through the trees in some sections. We had to be pretty conservative though, because rocks were in abundance, just barely covered by the thin layer of powder. I think I was pretty lucky to leave the mountain with only a couple of fresh scratches on my board. After five hours of pretty hard riding, my legs were burning and I decided to call it a day. It was awesome to see everyone stoked about riding again, and I can't wait to see what else the winter brings.

A fairly clear Village Road.

My daily ride.

The Outsider

Even though I used to live in Jackson Hole, I definitely feel like an outsider now that I'm back. I guess I forgot about the fact that my truck's 4WD was busted in 07-08 and I didn't really get out much. Much of the reason for that is because I was broke, and the other part is because I missed David. I wasn't the happiest person, even though we had a 600" season that year. Oh well, I never once regretted moving back to Seattle that February.

Now that I'm back, I feel like I have a clean slate. All of the locals that I knew that year still remember me from my lift-ops days. The mechanics, b & a dudes, lift foremen, liftys, and hosts. It is good to be back. Luckily I have a few friends here who have been kind enough to invite me out of my little cave and into the social world. I've spent a few really fun nights here with girls only. I'm stoked to meet girls that are also good at snowboarding. It's a nice change of pace.

Last weekend local fashion designer Laura Hall threw a fun little shindig at her house. It was called a Salad Bar Party, where everyone has to bring a salad topping, or wine of course. We spent the evening eating salad and then heading out to the Stagecoach in Wilson for Disco Night. Since Thursdays is ladies night, all girls get a free drink and a free cab ride back into town with 3+ people. Tonight, I went to a gift exchange. My original gift I received was a Snuggie, something I was secretly proud of. I could already see myself cuddling up on the couch reading the latest issue of TW Snow. But no, it was stolen away and I ended up with a hand-knit scarf. I guess I'll get more use out of the scarf anyway.

So, I'm starting to feel like I fit in here in Jackson. It's going to take time, but I think I'm on my way. Sometimes when you stay in one place for a while you forget how hard it is to make friends and fit into a new circle of people. When you move, you start fresh, and you never know who you're going to meet.

Good Morning Snow, I've Missed You

Walking down my street to the bus stop on Pearl.

So, after all of the complaining I've done over the past few weeks, the snow has finally arrived. I spent the last four days at work, standing at the top of the chairlifts while it dumped and the rest of the locals skied. The most recent storm brought us 14 inches on Saturday, 7 inches on Sunday, and today, it's still snowing. This is exactly what Jackson needed. The mountain doesn't look so brown anymore. Check out this week's forecast on NOAA. Looks pretty good, I have to say.

We definitely needed plows this week!

All of this white stuff has made my mornings, and job, easier as well. I open the door to a brisk 15-18 degrees, walk down the snowy streets to the bus stop, and enjoy the 20 minute free ride to work. When I get there, I load up my pack with photo gear, and ride up the lift. I then proceed to stand outside for the next five hours asking people if they want portraits taken. I might even get some action shots in off of the beginner runs. Those are always entertaining. like I said, all of this is easier when it's 20 degrees outside instead of last week's -5. For example, yesterday I got to shoot the Minnesota Ski Challenge race. When the racers had their results meeting, I brought a laptop and some framed demo prints from that day. I ended up selling one of the demos and a couple of prints. Since I work off commission, I'd say it was a pretty good day. Oh and the best part -- when I was done shooting the race, I got to poach all of the powder on the side of the course that was closed to the public. Knee deep.

Today was pretty good as well. I shot photos of people from Florida, Dallas, and Alabama. Not sure what the deal is with Southerners coming to Jackson, but there are a lot of them. I saw more than one person wearing jeans on any given day this weekend. Ha! Plenty of gaper gaps are in store for the next couple of weeks. Anyway, the weather was pretty chilly at the top of Aprés Vous, with winds up to 25 MPH. Not fun to stand in. The sun kept peeking through the clouds which made for a beautiful sight.

Sun peeking through the fog at the top of AV.

I have the next three days off, so expect me to be raving about all of the powder I get to ride after the next couple of days. Tah-tah for now!

The Ice on My Windows

So I've been pretty fascinated with the fact that ice actually forms on the inside of my windows. I guess when it gets down to 20 below (i.e. this morning) that stuff is normal. I will say though, it made for a difficult experience when I was decorating for Christmas. We have two front windows in our apartment and I wanted to put colored lights around them. Every time I stuck on a piece of tape, they all fell off. I guess adhesive doesn't work when it's frozen. After decorating, I wanted to take some pictures of my creation. David and I also put up a Christmas tree, and there are some pictures of that in here too. Enjoy my abstract holiday art.

Chairlift Conversations

Stevens Pass Brooks Chair. Photo by Amy Galbraith.

I woke up to a blanket of snow on the ground this morning. I gathered up my gear and headed out to the resort for some solo turns. I like riding by myself to a certain extent. It's fun listening to my music, and I never have to wait for anyone. On the flipside though, I get bored. I don't always feel like talking to whoever is sitting next to me on the lift. Yes, it's great to get to know people, but sometimes I just want to chill out and listen to my own thoughts. Whenever I sit down on the chair with a stranger, I get that anxiety that forms when you sit down on an airplane. "Do I talk to them?" "What if they never stop talking?"

I don't know. When I think about it, I've never had a bad conversation on a chairlift. I've met all kinds of characters. One time I was night riding at Stevens Pass in WA and a crazy big dude with long hair, and a beard even longer than his hair, told me that he got buried head first 15 feet down in an avalanche in Wenatchee Bowl the week before. I guess his buddy saved him within minutes. Believable? Maybe...Another vivid memory is when I got to ride the Thunder chairlift in Jackson Hole with the man who always wears fur. Not just a fur coat (which is extremely long and gaudy by the way), but a fur top hat and I believe fur pants as well. The only words I remember him saying were "Yep, the animals know how to do it." ...what?? I always wondered how bad that suit smelled at the end of a long day of riding. Maybe I don't want to know.

Job Update: Yesterday, David went and interviewed with skateboarding website and got the job! He will be working customer service, internet, and many other unknown tasks for Go Skate or Go Home , a skateboard merchandise site. I am also going to be filling in the gaps of needed money by working for Jackson Hole Babysitting . Sounds like a pretty sweet gig, and I'll be able to make a little extra dough when I need it.

On another update, I just wanted to give my congrats to my wonderful boyfriend whose photo was chosen as the "Editor's Choice" in the Washington Trails Association photo contest. It will be featured in their January/February magazine...so proud! Here's the photo:

Little Polka Dot Dress. Photo by David Duffy.

Dear Weatherman...

Please stop predicting snow in the forecast if it's not going to happen. I wake up every morning before the sun rises, throw open the door, and there is still no more snow. This -14 degrees that you are giving me tonight is not enough. I need something more. I need the fluffy white stuff. So, if you would, please don't tease me with those silly little snowflake icons. This is one of those circumstances in which I would be happy for you to be wrong. I would rather expect sunshine and be pleasantly surprised when I wake up to a gray blanket sky and a heap of snow on my porch. I realize that I used to live in Seattle and you may think that I'm sick of gray skies, but I'm sorry to say that you have failed. No more sunshine. Please give me snow. Raise the temperatures into the 20s so that we can get those big fluffy flakes that us powder hounds dream of. What did Utah do to deserve such a gift anyway? So, if you could, please tell those storms to move north. We are all longing for some powder turns here in Jackson. Thank you.

P.S. I need at least 14 inches to be happy.

Riding the KTP

Hello again, from Jackson Hole. This week has been pretty uneventful in the forecast, so the "White Ribbon" remains the only ice-ridden run that Jackson Hole locals have shredded. Like I said in my last post, we are very fortunate to have two rails and a few jumps molded into the "Ribbon" by our wonderful Park & Pipe crew. At least it provides some entertainment after the crowds have demolished what was left of a decent groomer.

That being said, David and I made our way out to the resort yesterday to have a little fun. I guess the main excuse for dragging ourselves out to the Village was that we really had nothing else to do in town. The ice is now forming on the inside of our windows now, so any outdoor activity besides skiing or snowboarding is pretty brutal.

The usual suspects, kids dressed in tall tees, loud colors, mismatch prints, and sticker-laden helmets, arrived at the KTP (short for Kiddie Terrain Park) around the same time we did. They were all on skis, which is lame. Sorry, I want to learn how to ski like you too, but freestyle + skis doesn't look cool...especially when they fall because one, or both, of the skis always falls off.

Anyway, David is working on perfecting his frontsides, so I spent part of the afternoon trying to get a good shot of that. He took a pretty good blow to the lower back the other day after catching an edge on the same rail, so I could understand why he was a bit hesitant to get completely over the top of his board. Don't blame him. I'm just the photographer, not the park rider. Here's the best shot though. Not bad for the way he was feeling.

David, frontside boardslide.

After hanging out on the hill and getting a few more cruisers in on Teewinot, we hung outside of Nick Wilson's Cowboy Cafe for a bit. Unfortunately, our beloved Nick's hasn't opened back up for the ski season yet. Can't beat their $6 PBR pitchers after a long day of riding pow.

A tall boy and the tram. Life is good.

Snow is in the forecast all week, so expect some excitement coming from this end of the interweb. Cheers!

Rippin' the Groomers

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort: A work in progress.

It's been pretty dry here out in powder land. The last three days we had were sunny and practically warm up on the top of the Apres Vous chairlift. I was starting to get worried. Today I had the day off of work, so David and I decided to go for a day of shredding on the "White Ribbon of Death" at JHMR. David still doesn't have a pass yet due to lack of job (boo) so he bought a "beginner" lift ticket and was able to ride Teewinot all day for $12. It actually isn't that bad because they've thrown a little mini terrain park in there. After starting off a little rough (I realized I forgot goggles and sunglasses right when we got to the resort and had to borrow some from one of the maintenance dudes) we had a blast. David hit some rails, and I took a couple of runs on the icy slopes off of AV, where it started dumping snow later in the afternoon. Jackson-ites rejoice! Winter is on the way!

On a side note:

After a fun night of celebrating some real photo sales with David, my co-worker Alex and his buddy John last night at the Caddy, Alex actually convinced me to learn how to ski on Wednesday. Oh that's tomorrow. Shoot. Well, I've never skied before but I've always kind of wanted to, so I'm going to don some dark clothing and be a gaper for the day. Wish me luck!

Opening Day of Jackson Hole

Opening Day fun. Photo by Tristan Grezko.

Opening day is an interesting phenomenon here in Jackson Hole. I actually had my first day of work with Elevation Imaging (yay!). I hopped on the bus at 7:45 am and arrived at the Village around 8:10. The only people around were employees. There were no people waiting in line, no tourists. It was hard to even tell that the chairs would be running. After grabbing my photo gear and getting started in the shop, I could see the local color trickling onto the Teewinot chairlift.

First chair of the season! Photo by Tristan Grezko.

The only two lifts open today were Teewinot (the beginner chair) and Apres Vous (AV). AV is usually a pretty awesome chair. It accesses Saratoga bowl and the northern part of the Crags. It also provides backcountry access to Granite Canyon. Today's ride up AV was over rocks. I even saw a deer frolicking through the brush. Rumors told me that there was a moose hanging around as well. It felt like spring. Luckily, the mountain has been making snow all week, so what the locals call "The Ribbon of Death" was perfectly groomed up for some early season turns. They even had a jump, a box, and a rail. But veer from that one run and you'd be tumbling through rocks and dirt. To give you some perspective, check out the grooming map below.

That dark black line represents the runs that are open. Ha!

Onto my experience. My job consists of taking action photographs of people while they're skiing and also taking their portraits in front of some of the beautiful backdrops that Jackson Hole provides. Since there are only two lifts open, there are definitely limited options to choose from. I'm talking about people. Today was no special day for tourists (I mean, why the hell would you come to Jackson for the amount of terrain that they offered today??). Tourists tend to be the main source of clients that my company gets...and there were none. Let's just say that it was a little bit tough to get the crowds to stop and take a snapshot. Luckily I got moved down to take some action shots midway through the day. That was fun, and I didn't feel like I was pestering people so much.

Oh well. Like I said, opening day was really nothing special here. No 60" base, no powder, just a sunny day with one groomed run and a lot of familiar faces. Give it two weeks though, and this place will be a totally different scene...

A Trip to Targhee

With only two days and counting until official opening day at the J-Hole, I'm still getting antsy about riding. Plus I have to work on opening day, so I won't be able to take full advantage of the two lame lifts that will be open. Snow King has been fun, but after hearing stories about the epicness of Stevens Pass and Baker up in Washington, I decided I needed to go get myself some powder.

For those who aren't familiar, there's a lovely little resort called Grand Targhee just on the west side of Teton Pass about an hour and a half from Jackson. This resort actually gets more snow than Jackson Hole, believe it or not. The only reason it's not as popular is because it's not as steep. The locals here prefer hucking themselves off of cliffs, and Targhee just doesn't have that steep, scary terrain. Anyway, David and I threw our snowboards into the truck and off we went over Teton Pass.

The pass usually scares me with its 10% grades, but the roads were really clear. It hasn't snowed the past couple of days, so the driving was easy and the sun was shining. Many of the backcountry stashes at the pass had clearly been taken advantage of. Looked like someone even attempted Glory Bowl. Not enough cover for me. The south side looked pretty good but I think you need skins for that. Just another $1,000 for a split board, no big deal.

Chivers Ridge, Titty Mouse Ridge, and Olympic Bowl on Teton Pass. Photo David Duffy.

After passing through the lovely towns of Victor and Driggs in Idaho, we headed up a winding road, through Alta, WY and after a few more turns arrived at Grand Targhee Resort. Not really knowing where to go, we looked straight up at where the powder was, and started hiking up a groomer. The lifts don't open at Targhee until tomorrow, so only the hardcores were there "earning their turns" as most would say. After about an hour and a half of serious hiking (2,000 feet to the top of Fred's Mountain), we made it. I was relieved to take my pack off (I had all of my photo gear and my snowboard attached to it, probably about 35-40 lbs.) for a bit and scope out the beautiful powder lying below us. From the looks of the trail map, we descended down "The Face" and then through the trees of "Ladies Waist". It was beautiful, knee deep, sunshine powder. Believe me, it was worth every second of the hike.

I'm way down there. Photo David Duffy.

We hiked all the way up from those little buildings.

Beautiful day for this.

David, taking full advantage of pre-season powder.

Snow King Jump Session #2

Checking in from another icy night here in Jackson Hole. Current temperature: 21 degrees. Forecast for this evening: Lows of 2 to 7 with a 20% chance of snow. Brrrrr!!!!

Icicles on my truck.

Today's rider. He's a hottie, I know.

After walking around with friends "downtown" last night and realizing that it was snowing about an inch an hour, David and I figured that another jump session at Snow King would be in store. Giddy with the fact that the snow cats hadn't yet plowed down all of the big mounds of snow, we got our gear together and hiked up.

Jump construction.

Today's jump turned out way better than yesterday's. David was able to cut into one of the big mounds of snow and form a nice little lip. The landing was also good, as it was the opposite side of the snow mound. It wasn't long before David was sessioning. Luckily, my flash decided to fire today! Maybe it was because I put the batteries in my jacket for as long as possible. On the flip side however, my 1D's battery was loosing momentum fast. I couldn't even take advantage of the 8 frames per second sequence shots because the battery was just drained. Looks like I'm going to need to invest in another one of those. Lame. Luckily I had my 20D with me so I did get some decent pics.

Yep, I got sprayed with snow in this one. David, stalefish.

The last shot from the 1D. It was the second frame in what should have been a sequence.

Snow King Jump Session

Snow King lifts.

It's snowing. I mean, it's really snowing. We've been getting dumped on all day. Being Sunday, and that there is really nothing else to do other than make a big breakfast and sit around, we thought it was the perfect day to go snowboarding. Snow King, the little resort just a few blocks from us, has had their snowmakers going strong all week. Now that we've got some real snow, it's actually starting to get fun over there. The lifts aren't open yet, but it gives us a chance to work off that beer we've been consuming all week by hiking to the top instead. Seeing all of my fellow photog friends unveiling winter 09-10 snowboarding photos, on Flickr and Facebook I thought it was time for me to get shooting.

We hiked up to this big mound of snow where David had discovered a "jump" yesterday, or at least a wind lip that could easily be converted into a jump. As we were hiking up, these two other dudes, Toby and Jason, were hiking up the other side. They ended up having the same idea we did and decided to help build up the lip. David and the two of them hiked up to an area that seemed like it would provide enough speed for the jump. After a few hits and the ice finally wore off their boards, they were able to catch a little bit of air. Before I show off these lovely photographs, let me just justify a few things...

1: It is really hard to shoot photos when it's dumping snow. It's cloudy, my LCD screen is covered in water droplets, and I can barely focus on the point that I want to...so some are a little bit out of focus.

2: My flash is a work in progress. Right now, the only flash system I can afford is one Vivitar 285HV and two Pocket Wizards. The Vivitar is powerful, yet has a really slow recycle time. About 10 seconds. Oh yah, and the battery power reduces to about 60% in the cold. That means it only fires when it wants to. It probably didn't even fire 50% of the time. I don't know. I couldn't see. That also means that when the flash didn't fire, photos were only taken at 1/250th of a second, making the rider blur.

So, here's what I got from today. Notice the huge amount of snow puking out of the sky.

David BS 180.

This is Toby. A rare moment with flash.

Jason method.

Building up the "MONSTER."

David, best photo of the day probably.

Testing the flash...no, it's not firing.

So yah, that's it. I guess they turned out okay considering the size of the feature and the conditions, but let's just say, it was good practice. And it was fun. I can't wait to get out there tomorrow when there is even MORE snow! Oh and also, David is going to make me a battery pack for my flash so that it recycles faster and lasts longer. Then I won't have to carry around 2 lbs. of AA's. Yay!

P.S. It's 23 degrees and still snowing!

Stoked!

This is so awesome. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort had a contest to see who could get the most votes or "likes" in Facebook language on their photo with the prize being two 5-day passes to Jackson Hole! After an intense three days of spamming all 900+ contacts that I have on Facebook (I think that's a result of being the twirler for the UW marching band for five years), I received over 300 likes and won. It was pretty awesome. The contest was really in no way a photography contest (you should have seen some of those...) but more of a popularity/see-if-you-can-get-your-friends-to-vote contest. I feel special. In case you're interested, this was the photo I used:

I know, I have better, but I think this one's pretty sweet anyway. Thanks to all who voted.

On another note, I've decided to start selling my photographs to any and all who are interested. My website allows me to do such things and make profit, so it only makes sense. As of right now I only have a Seattle gallery available, but I promise there are more to come. Check it out on Powder Photo Prints. Guess that's all for now!

You could own this photo! Think of the gift ideas....

Just another day in Paradise.

Good morning! As you can see I have brewed myself a French press full of delicious bold coffee. The perfect start to a beautiful day. What am I doing today? Oh yeah, nothing. I still haven't started my job yet (that will change on Saturday) so I'm continually taking advantage of all of this free time, or at least trying to. The day is young though so I can justify sitting around for a while.

Yesterday David and I went on a little photo drive. It was sort of stemming from the disappointment that occurred after we tried to go snowboard on Snow King and then watched as the cat plowed down all of the "fresh" fake snow. There wasn't much going on there anyway.

The fake snowmaker. Photo by David Duffy.

Our drive took us out onto the highway that goes to the airport and then into the Gros Ventre campground. We really wanted to see some wildlife but that didn't happen. The closest we came were some elk tracks that were scattered on the ice of a frozen pond.

We kind of just milled around for a while shooting photos and exploring this foreign land that is Wyoming.

Gros Ventre campgrond. Not bad.

On the way back to the car, David found a bamboo stick on the side of the road and decided it would be a good idea to practice his javelin skills.

Our next destination was a straight-on view of the Tetons. Pretty stereotypical, yes, but pretty much essential. It's funny how people are always in awe of these shots. Maybe I get annoyed by the fact that people are obsessed with this view because it's practically in my backyard. Life is tough, I know.

I am a tourist for taking this photograph. But oh well, it's lovely.

We stopped by the Elk Refuge on the way home hoping to get some shots of the elk but could only see one lonely guy with a huge set of antlers way out in the middle of the field. He was a little too far away to get a decent picture. We did see a fox running through the field though.

Nothing too exciting happened last night besides yoga class and making a delicious dinner of Chicken Marsala. Cooking makes me happy :)

On another note, the Herbst Whiskey is a-brewing. This is David's holiday creation. It should be done by next week!

Herbst Whiskey. Photo by David Duffy.

Tah-tah for now!