Grand Teton National Park (June 10)

Since it was only about 8 am when I entered the northern boundary of the Tetons, I had 6 hours before I needed to be at the Jackson airport for my flight. It was a beautiful day out, and right away spotted a colony of prarie dogs.
Wild flowers

Jackson Lake
Leeks Marina near Colter Bay
By Willow Flats, I saw a bunch of cars pulled over along the road. I stopped and got out and looked. There was a big group of grizzley bears!

I watched the bears for about a half hour before they wandered out of view. After most of the cars pulled back on the road, I headed up the road a little ways. I saw a forest service road, that looked like it went the same way the bears went. I pulled onto the road and slowly followed it for about a mile.
I was rewarded with this site of mama bear and her cub.

They walked out of site again. I waited about 10 minutes then continued up the road, to find the cub playing in the wild flowers.

Once back on the main road, I decided to take the outer road through the park.

I stopped at Oxbow Bend to take pictures. I loved the way the trees reflected in this lake.

Look at all the gnats flying around these flowers.
Chipmunk
I loved the reflection of the mountain in the lake.
I found another forest service road, and got off the main road again.
I spotted a beaver's dam.

And reached the top of a hill. When I went to turn around, I saw this brown bear.


wild flowers
Antelope flats was appropriately named.

Last view of the Tetons as I headed back to Jackson.

I stopped at a park with a pond, located on the outskirts of Jackson.


After about an hour, I returned to the airport for my flight home.

Sedona Arizona

Airport Mesa
Bell Rock
Boynton Canyon

Church of the Holy Cross
Sedona - Oak Creek Bridge Oak Creek


Oak Creek Canyon

St. Louis - Arches and Historic Buildings

No trip to St. Louis is complete without viewing the Gateway Arch. The arch and Mississippi Riverfront park were just across the freeway from my hotel. While my room wasn't perfectly aligned to the arch (I could only see half of it from my hotel room) there were spectacular views from the hotel bar.

Before the rain moved in, I was able to spend a couple hours at the end of the day relaxing at the park and under the arch. I thought about taking the tram to the top, but the scheduling didn't work. Also, it was easier to view the St. Louis skyline from the rotating restaurant/bar at the top of the Millennium hotel.

Under the arch is the Museum of Westward Expansion. There is a fairly large Lewis and Clark display in this museum. The obligatory gift shop is also under the arch.

A series of bridges crossed the Mississippi River to the Illinois side. There were many other tourist attractions near the arch - riverboat cruises and horse drawn carriages.

Near the southwest edge of the riverfront park is the Old Historic Cathedral.

To the west of the arch is the Historic Courthouse, which was built in 1828 and was the site of the early Dred Scott hearings.

Missouri Botanical Gardens

What better way to end a long day of talking science education policy than finding a monument to honor American Science. We found such a monument at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

After our conference ended for the day, we piled onto a bus and headed to the gardens. We had about an hour and a half to explore the gardens. We couldn't have picked a better time to visit. Most of the bulbs were in full bloom, as were many of the flowering trees.

The star magnolias were just finishing their blooms, but the saucer magnolias were spectacular.

My favorite area was the Japanese Gardens. The weeping higan cherries were blooming all around the lake.
The area around the lake was very peaceful and relaxing. On the far side of the lake, the Yoshino Cherries were in full bloom. I'm not sure what this tree is but the bright pink blooms along the branches were quite unusual.

After touring the grounds, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the Spink Pavillion that consisted of grilled chicken breast and grilled beef tenderloin with roasted garlic sauce accompanied with cabernet gorgonzola whipped potatoes and roasted mixed vegetables. Yum!

After dinner, it was back to the hotel to catch up on some work.

New Orleans

A business trip sent me to New Orleans last week. I was stuck in the hotel's conference rooms during most of the day, but I did have the chance to get out during the evenings. On Wednesday and Thursday night, I went back to the hotel after dinner to catch up on some work. Friday night, I went to listen to some music after dinner. At first we went to a club on Frenchman street called d.b.a. to hear Hot Club of New Orleans. They played a mix of traditional, fusion, and gypsy jazz. When their set ended, we didn't want to hang around for another hour for the next band to set up, so headed across the street. Hint about d.b.a. - the cheap wine is really really cheap. One taste and I knew it was a hangover in a glass. I couldn't even finish it because it was so bad.

The bar across the street (The Spotted Cat) had a great blues band with lots of sax. It was a tiny little dive bar, but the music was fun and the crowd was just chillin to the tunes. We stuck around for an hour until the band's set ended. My smoke allergies kicked in, and it was back to the hotel for me. (I also had to work all day Saturday.)



On Saturday night we wanted to see the Mardi Gras parade by the Krewe du Vieux. It was going to head along Royal and then turn up Bienville through the French Quarter.

We decided to eat at Arnaud's since the parade would go right past the restaurant. We reserved a table in the section of the restaurant with live jazz; it was quite nice. We had a table next to the Bourbon Street window, so we got to watch all the crazies, drunks, and bums walk past. It made for very interesting people watching.

After dinner, we waited at the corner of Bienville and Burbon for about an hour, but the parade still hadn't arrived. We decided to head down to Royal, and got there just as the parade was passing by.
This was a smaller parade than those that will come next weekend, but it was fun and laid back. After depriving some children of beads, we headed further down the road so we could snatch up beads guilt free. It was a lot of fun!

New Orleans still isn't fully up and running, but everyone there was extremely friendly. The staff at restaurants, shops, and the hotel repeatedly thanked everyone for coming back to New Orleans and supporting their economy. If you are thinking about heading down that way, please go. They can use the tourism!