It was foggy this morning in Idaho Falls!!! The fog lifted as we headed to the Bistro (same restaurant as last night). When Brenda learned we were too late for breakfast food she said she would prefer to have pancakes and eggs instead of “lunch” food. Harlan’s hunger prevailed and we stayed there, where Brenda was subsequently very happy with the homemade chicken noodle soup and some of Harlan’s open-faced roast beef sandwich and his salad, and her “taste” of the pumpkin cream pie for desert left almost half for Harlan. We liked the tee-shirts they had, but the only remaining sizes were S & M (no jokes…), so no dice.

We then headed to Jackson, Wyoming around 1:00pm. Beautiful drive through the mountains. We arrived at Old Faithful Snowmobile Tours around 3:00 and got fitted with jackets, leggings, shoes, helmets (yes, helmets!!!!), gloves and face coverings for the 4 day snowmobile trip tomorrow. We were told to arrive tomorrow fully dressed with only a duffle bag for a ‘carryon’ on the snowmobile. We will not be taking the laptop which means no updates on this log until Jan 25th. The tour tomorrow includes all food, lodging, tour guides, our own individual snowmobile (Harlan and Brenda will NOT be on the same snowmobile!!!) Yeehaa!!! We are hoping to get great pictures of it all.

We checked into the Quality Inn in Jackson and also booked rooms here for Jan 25th and 26th.

Brenda ate leftovers from last night for dinner this evening and Harlan had a Mountain Mike’s Gyro sandwich. They also had nice tee-shirts, and we’ll probably get some when we get back in town.

We also got 2 rolls of 35mm film developled. One roll contained the last pictures from Zion and Grafton (the ghost town where they filmed Butch and Sundance), plus some from Sun Valley this trip, and the other roll contained shots from the other day when we travelled around Craters of the Moon.

The folks at the photo shop said I should only use the polarizing filter in summer, and that Kodak film is better used on the east coast, where there are more browns and yellows. Out west, they recommended Agfa, Konica, and Fuji film.

Oh, we did laundry tonight! 6am wakeup. ugh.

The front desk called at 10:15 to say the hot water would be off for an hour, so we didn’t get out of the hotel until 11:30. We finished last night’s leftovers for breakfast and Brenda consumed the rest of the amazing bread we had with dinner. We went about a mile and a half to the Fred Meyer’s so Brenda could deposit some checks she received the day we left while Harlan got more water.

We headed north from Twin Falls to Shoshone, where we headed east to drive by Craters of the Moon National Monument. Harlan was hoping to visit the Crater Butte geocache but Brenda was driving and had a brain fart at the turn in the road so we just kept on going. We continued along US 20 and turned in to the park to see if we might cross-country ski to the first of the three geocaches there. Unfortunately, the first geocache was a 7-part virtual and Harlan was still sore from yesterday’s skiing at Sun Vally. The other two caches are listed as “extreme” for summer access (they are 3 and 7 mile hikes into the hot deset with no trails over lava rocks) and just plain dangerous for winter access (as the snow can cover 3′ wide and 100′ deep chasms in the lava).

We decided to geocache Rock’n Around instead, as it was sunset and the mostly full moon looked good too, so we could take some photos as an additional excuse for getting out of the car. Let’s just say the snow turned out to be a bit deeper than we expected and we didn’t find it.

We used our first “free night stay” at the Comfort Inn in Idaho Falls, and had dinner at The Bistro Off Broadway. We got there just before they closed, and enjoyed dinner (Brenda loved the bread) and shared a great dessert. We’ll probably have lunch there tomorrow on the way to Jackson to try their Friday-special soup and perhaps a slice of pumpkin cream pie. Probably.

Gary Gerber called last evening and suggested we go to Sun Valley, Idaho since it was so close to Twin Falls. So we headed out for Sun Valley around noon today. We were supposed to leave earlier, but since Harlan likes to stay up late Brenda woke him up around 9am and then she fell asleep for a couple more hours. It was about a 2 hour drive.

The weather was the best since we departed Santa Clara. Blue skies and warm with lots of snow on the mountains. The drive up Rt. 93 & 75 to Sun Valley was beautiful. We found the Nordic Center at Sun Valley and decided to cross country ski for a couple of hours. The views were gorgeous as we weaved through the mountains on very nicely groomed trails. Harlan gave Brenda some more cross-country ski instruction, which helped her quite a bit.

We stopped by a camera shop in Sun Valley and Harlan bought an adapter for his camera. And of course we couldn’t resist the chocolate shop right next door. Had to buy some very fine dark chocolate for some very fine special occasion…like tomorrow which is Harlan’s birthday!!! We then headed back to Twin Falls to the same Holiday Inn Express that we stayed in last night, but this time got a whirlpool tub in our room. We ate dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant next to the hotel called Johnny Corino’s and then stopped off at Best Buy to buy binoculars.

Update – the tiramisu from Johnny Corino’s was as good as the stuff I (Harlan) remember from Vaccaro’s in Baltimore (although the last couple of times I had it I thought it had changed for the worse). The other bits of the dinner made a very good late breakfast, and Brenda thinks this was the 2nd best restaurant we have been to this trip (the Cottonwood Grille being #1).

The phone in the next room rang Early, and since the room was pleasantly dark and we were apparently exhausted we slept until about 11am. We made more progress on the trip website stuff and left the hotel about 1pm. We had breakfast at Elmers, and were very impressed with it. We then went shopping for a “vest” to hold the photography stuff, and finding nothing at either an outdoor place or a fishing gear place, we headed off to the World Center for Birds of Prey where we had a surprisingly good time and took a bunch of pictures and some video. We left there at closing time (4pm) and decided it was too late to drive around the Snake River Birds of Prey Natural Area, so we headed to Twin Falls on 84 with a quick stop off at a camera shop Harlan noticed on the way to breakfast. There we found a nice camera gear vest at Idaho Camera. Harlan figured he’d use the opportunity to ask a question about one of the lenses he got with his 35mm camera, and the net result is that we bought a used 28-135mm lens, too!

We got to Twin Falls about 7pm or so, and Brenda was jonesing for a really good burger. The hotel clerk recommended Idaho Joe’s, and the food there was inexpensive and good. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and the cashier said that she thought breakfast was their best meal. I suspect we’ll find out in the morning.

We left the hotel about 10:30 and decided to have breakfast at the Black Bear Diner on the way out of town. About 11:30 we were on the road again (with another piece of their coconut cream pie), looking for Route 20 to take us to Boise. 55mph is kinda slow when there is so little traffic on the road. Around 2pm or so Brenda saw a herd of something off to the left, so we turned around and headed back. They were a little spooked by us, but there were so many of them we were able to get the video camera out and record their journey up a little butte as they moved on. We drove another quarter mile or so and got a bit more video. Another half-hour or so down the road we saw a bald eagle dining at a deer carcass on the side of the road, and got some digital and 35mm shots of it. Once in Boise, we chose the Holiday Inn over the Holiday Inn Express with regrets. We did not have wireless access and no king beds available (gosh we are getting spoiled!). Had an Amazing dinner at the Cottonwood Grille in Boise – Brenda had the best trout we have eaten, and Harlan had a pretty good NY Strip with some great potato casserole. Brenda had a green salad with a great dressing, and Harlan had some really good venison chili. For dessert we shared a Crème Brule, which the chef has won awards for. Harlan did not lick the bowl, but was tempted…

In the morning Brenda went for a short walk around Fort Klamath while Harlan researched some items on the internet. We also spent time reorganizing the car. Didn’t leave the motel until 12:30pm. We drove to Crater Lake hoping to do some cross country skiing before we left, but the snow was wet and heavy from the rainfall earlier in the morning. Plus the lake was almost clouded over. Since the rainy cloudy weather was predicted for at least another week, we decided to head to Bend, Oregon. We arrived in Bend around 3:30 and drove around looking for a 3-star restaurant mentioned in the AAA guidebook, and when we finally found it we learned they had changed to a members-only golf club restaurant. After another false start we headed off to the Black Bear Diner (always great food at a nice price). After dinner Harlan went to visit some family friends (Kent and Beth) in Bend while Brenda decided to stay at the Holiday Inn Express and soak in the 4’ by 6’ whirlpool tub in our room. Great tub and the best room we have ever stayed in!!!

We drove to Crater Lake for a 1:00pm ranger guided snow shoe walk. It was a 1.25 hour walk around the park headquarters. They usually do the walk near the rim but couldn’t because the brakes in their ranger vehicle were not working properly and it’s a Bad Idea to drive around up there with no brakes. The park provided the snow shoes. It was very informative and we loved walking in the snow shoes. They are definitely better than cross country skis in powder snow, which is what was at Crater Lake. After the hike we watched a video on Crater Lake at the visitor center and went to the rim to view the lake. It was cloudy but the lake was visible and Harlan got some great pictures and a video. (The audio is another story, however! A car alarm was going off most of the time…) We then drove back to Fort Klamath and spent some time chatting with the owners and played frisbee with their dog. We also saw a bald eagle fly over us at the motel as we were heading out for a nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant (Vallarta?) on 97 about 10 miles from our motel. The rest of the evening was spent at the motel watching TV and doing internet stuff. We had a modem connection. Slow at times, but better than nothing. We learned the best time for us to go back to Crater Lake to enjoy better weather for cross country skiing, lodging at the lake and boat trips (particularly at Wizard Island) is in May before Memorial Day and Sept after Labor Day. The park ranger told us snow is there until July and the busiest season is Memorial Day thru Labor Day.

We left the caboose motel around noon, went into Dunsmuir for breakfast and then tried to find a geocache we located during our Sept 2003 trip up at Castle Crag. The road to the cache was closed due to snow so we headed into Mt. Shasta to repair a pebble ding in our car windshield. While it was being repaired we stopped off at the ‘HasBean’ for coffee, tea and internet access. We picked up the car and headed to Fort Klamath to the Aspen Inn, which is about half hour outside Crater Lake. It is a great place and was purchased about a year ago by a nice lesbian couple. They did some renovations and our room (#12) is very comfortable. There aren’t any restaurants within 10 miles so we stopped at a grocery in Klamath Falls for some canned food. So dinner was canned soup, granola, chips and nuts. Very romantic….

Ate breakfast in the car at the motel this morning and then headed to the Mt. Shasta Ski School. We were the only 2 who showed up for the 1:30pm group cross country ski lesson. Harlan was a pro and Brenda ‘french fried’ when she should have ‘pizzad’ many times and got individual attention most of the lesson. She fell down only once during the lesson and won a powerbar from the instructor. We then did some cross country skiing on the trails and Brenda only fell down twice on these trails. Gorgeous views of Mt. Shasta from the trails. We finished up about 4:30 and headed to food, food and more food at a recommended Thai restaurant in Dunsmuir called SengThong. They make the best (fresh) spring rolls anywhere. We inhaled appetizers, a main course and Harlan ordered 3 desserts (but we didn’t finish one of them – too sweet). We then went to the Caboose Motel in Dunsmuir. It is a motel park where the rooms are train cars that are located just below gorgeous views of Castle Crag. We stayed in the #1 caboose from the ‘Erie’ line. It was COLD when we got in and it took way too long to heat up. We were told by the ‘caboose keeper’ to keep the water running in the bathroom so the pipes don’t freeze. Plus the toilet didn’t work. Harlan identified the problem…broken chain in the tank. Since the plumber couldn’t get there until tomorrow, we were stuck with manually pulling the tank chain every time we had to flush. Plus they had a small hot water tank and we ran out of water trying to fill the ‘claw foot’ tub for baths. Guess this is how it was for people traveling on trains way back whenever!!!

Left Petaluma around 2:00pm after a wonderful lunch with Gail. Headed to Chico to visit Susan and Bruce (Harlan’s friends). We met them at 6:00pm and ate at the Black Crow in Chico. We also bought 2 sleeping bags at the Target in Chico. Left Chico at 9:00pm and headed to Redding. Stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.