Winding Down . . .

It's the last day of our trip . . . early tomorrow morning we fly back to reality. We weren't quite sure what we wanted to do on this last day, so at breakfast we asked our waitress for suggestions, and she said we absolutely had to take the gondola ride in Teton Village to the top of the mountain and have lunch there. Sounded good, so off we went . . .

Our first look at Teton Village -
the most popular ski resort in Wyoming

The Gondola Ride to the top of the mountain

A Closer Look at the Gondola

The Two Johns

Ruth & Me
(the guys made us ride backwards both ways)

The view from the top of the ski slope

John doesn't like heights at all (we were at about 7,500 ft)
but he finally ventured part way out for this photo

This was my very first time ever to be at the top of a ski area in the winter. I've been on ski lifts in the summer which is definitely not the same. What fun it was to watch the skiers and snowboarders doing their thing. The most intriguing part to me were the little little kids . . .

These kids were probably 4-6 years old
Notice they are not using any poles

And off they went - totally fearless!
The kids are all the way down at the bottom - Yikes!

It scares me out of my mind to even think about shooting down that mountain on a skinny little piece of wood (or whatever skis are actually made of!) My hat is off to all of you skiers out there - you are very very brave! Or very very crazy! Or probably a combination . . .

Lunch time came and we were seated by the window, where we had this amazing view . . .


But then, not more than 30 minutes later, the clouds rolled in and it started to snow . . .

The whole time we were on this trip I was hoping it would snow, and finally on the last day it did. So pretty to see it floating down. Oh, something I think I forgot to mention, and that I couldn't capture with the camera. The fields of snow that we were seeing all through Yellowstone and the surrounding areas sparkle as though someone had sprinkled glitter all over them. It's so pretty to see these huge fields of white snow sparkling and shining like diamonds, I've never seen that before. Ruth told me it's got something to do with the chemicals in the snow itself (or in the water that becomes the snow flakes). Whatever it is, it is so beautiful, but sadly it didn't show up in any of the photos. (Sigh).

Anyway, it was snowing! I was so excited! It wasn't a lot, but at least we finally got to see it snow!

The view as we came back down the mountain on the gondola

Can you see the outline of the cowboy just beyond the trees?
That's the cross-country ski trail.

This is the "kiddo tram" for the kids

That evening, the wind kicked up and the wonderful snow that I was so excited about accelerated into a blizzard. I discovered that snow really hurts when it hits you in the face. It was then that I realized how truly blessed we had been with the weather and how very not pleasant it could have been if we had been out on the snowmobiles when the blizzard hit. I felt sorry for the next group of people, because the snow continued for several days after we left.

It snowed for most of the night and was still lightly falling as we were on our way to the airport. Everything was so pretty with the fresh coating of snow on the roofs and tops of cars. But, the planes weren't able to land at the airport. Our plane was the only one that somehow made it in, and we were able to leave almost on time - after getting to watch them de-ice the plane, which was very interesting. Had I been thinking, I would have taken pictures. They have this big huge sprayer that they drive out on the tarmac, and which sprays this orange liquid (picture Tang) all over the surface of the plane to remove the ice that has already formed and to prevent any further ice from forming before take-off. Our friends John and Ruth were stuck at the airport for several hours, and we had actually made it all the way home as they were just barely taking off from Jackson Hole. How lucky we were that a delayed flight was the only hiccup in our entire trip.

One last look at the Tetons!

So that's the end for this adventure. Now it's back to normal life for awhile . . .