Kathleen, James' sister, is attending BYU-Idaho in Rexburg. This is her first semester, so she decided to fly into Boise and spend Labor Day weekend with us (see Backpacking Vanity Lakes post) and then we enjoyed driving her to school. We did a little sight seeing on our way - drove out of town on Warm Springs avenue and spent a few minutes at the Idaho Botanical Gardens out by the Old Idaho Penitentiary. We definitely want to spend more time there - Kathleen's major is horticulture, and she's interested in landscape design. We also stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument and did some very very very quick exploring. It was extremely windy!
Lava formations in Craters of the Moon National Monument.
We stayed one night at my sister-in-laws' parents home in Idaho Falls (thank you Bruce & Pam!) and barely saw the family because they were trying to get their twin college freshmen daughters moved up to Rexburg as well! Once we got Kathleen settled into her apartment, we left her to orientation and all the other freshmen events that precede a new semester and drove to Yellowstone National Park.
Jessi and James at the North East Enterance (near Silver Gate, MT).
This trip we saw so many more animals - even wolves from a very long distance. Looking through someone's spotting scope we could see some wolf-shaped black spots that moved around.
Ravens - at every parking lot and every store.
Deer - on the road into Tower Campground.
Chipmunk - this guy was near Old Faithful.
Antelope - this one was on the one-way dirt road on our way to the North Enterance near Gardner, MT.
Bison - everywhere!
Sheep - along the highway in the park between the North Enterance and Mammoth Hot Springs.
Elk - hanging out in the town around the park headquarters - Mammoth Hot Springs.
Moose - Grand Teton National Park - finally saw moose in the last eight miles of road on our way out of the park.
Frog - scared me as I came out of the restrooms one night!
Lower Yellowstone Falls
Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park
This is my very favorite geyser. It is the Anenome Geyser. It doesn't spout very big, but it does erupt pretty often. Every 7-15 minutes. And you can see the sequence of things.
The geyser drains and all is empty and quiet.
The geyser fills up with water.
Sploosh!
On our way back to Boise, we stopped back in Rexburg.
Jessi James & Kathleen near Kathleen's apartment. Good Luck Kathleen - study hard!
Mountain Home's airshow featured the Air Force's Thunderbirds. We went to the Saturday show and realized that the Thunderbird weren't performing. They were in Reno, NV for their airshow on Saturday and then flew into Mountain Home at the very end of the Saturday show to do their orientation flying before their actual performance on Sunday. So we did get to see the Thunderbirds fly in formation across the airfield and fly around quite a bit. We also explored some of the other aircraft. Some of my favorites:
James and "The best thing in the air" The F-22 Raptor. This one is based out of Alaska.
Another picture of the Raptor - pretty intimidating military fighter jet!
The Air St. Lukes helicopter - this one doesn't have a tail rotor! It uses a vent exaust system to do the job of the tail rotor.
The predator - an unmanned aircraft for observation and advanced scouting. They sometimes have air-to-ground hellfire missiles. Pretty cool!
F-18 Hornet used mostly by the Navy and Marines - we saw the pretty version in Twin Falls when the Blue Angels performed!
This particular Hornet says "409 Nighthawk Squadron Activation - July 6, 2006." My mom's birthday and the day James & I got engaged. So I had to take a picture!
This is the C-17 Globemaster - the enormous cargo transport plane. We toured one that had some statistics about how big it is and how much cargo it can hold. The sign said it could carry 11 African elephants. I asked one of the airmen if they'd ever transported an elephant. No, but they did transport the whale from "Free Willie" - he said the water in the tank shifted as they landed and the weight and the shifting water broke the landing gear (no harm to the whale).
The white aircraft at the top of this photo is the F-4 phantom - the Air Force's primary fighter jet in the Vietnam War Era. The small aircraft in the center is the P-51 Mustang - from World War II. The gray aircraft at the bottom is the F-15 Eagle - the current fighter jet (until the Raptor phases them out). They call this flight the "Heritage Flight" showing the history of the Air Force fighters.