Don't Run, You Look Like Food!!

It's really kind of a disturbing thought, isn't it?

At least, we felt that way when we were being charged by a grumpy 700 pound Siberian Tiger.

This kind of behavior on the Tiger's part does nothing to give you any confidence that that skinny little chain-link fence will hold up if he hits it hard enough. It might as well be rice paper dividing mankind from savage albino beast.

I guess if Mom and I died from a white Siberian Tiger mauling, it would make for some interesting conversation at our funeral........

Let me explain - Jim's mom came to visit us a few weeks ago, and we thought it would be fun to take her to the North Idaho equivalent of a Zoo. That would be our local Large Cat Refuge.

Cat Tales is a very cool place set back in the woods, startlingly near to a housing development. They have all kinds of Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh my!), not to mention, Cougars, Cheetahs, Lynx, Panthers, and even several housecats that strut about with a self-important sort of gait.
Apparently at least one of these housecats has met an early demise because they would mess with the large cats and then got too close one day..... (true story as told by the keepers!)

So here we are, standing in front of the White Tiger's cage, when he suddenly his head perks up, his shoulders tense, and I think to myself "he looks like he's gonna pounce".... A split second later, he did exactly that! Mom and I jumped about three feet in the air as 700 pounds of Tiger covered ten yards in about a quarter of a second and stopped abruptly at the fence.

Then he got this look on his face like, "Yeah I coulda just snuffed you right there", and strolled off trying his best to look cocky.

Thankfully, not everyone at the park had that kind of attitude. This full grown African Lion is named Jamba. He would occasionally stand up and roar at the Tiger in the next cage (which sounds incredibly cool) but other than that he was as calm as a sleepy lap dog.

The great thing about Jamba was that he lolls his tongue out like a dog. This, by the way is not normal for lions at all - they just don't do it in the wild. It turns out that Jamba was raised with the security Dog that guards that park. The two of them would share a cage for years, and the keepers think that Jamba picked up the hanging tongue thing from the Dog!!

While we were there, Mom got the chance to feed one of the big male Tigers by hand. It's really neat to be that close and watch them eat. Thankfully, the tiger is behind an extra thick sheet of Plexiglas, and you feed him through a hole in the glass. Nonetheless, it's a really cool thing to see.

We also got to see some other big cats while we were there - A Panther, a Cougar (go BYU!) and most notably, a LIGER !! That's right Napoleon Dynamite fans - the Liger is NOT just a mythological creature, although this one didn't seem to display any magical powers. She was bred from a lion and a Tiger and displays faint stripes on her body.

In any case, our trip to Cat Tales was very cool, despite being a little bit scary. Did we mention that the cats weren't being fed that day. I bet we looked pretty tasty!!

Trailer Park Moment of the Week (9-18-08)

Hey there everybody!! Sorry it's taken us so long to post on the Blog, but we've been experiencing technical difficulties with our home Internet for a long time here. You could call it our Trailer Park Moment of the MONTH. Our Internet people represent a level of ineptitude that is generally only exhibited in the manufacturing of British Automobiles and the cleaning of fast food restrooms.

In any case, we are FINALLY back up.

This Trailer Park moment should have happened a long time ago. We were parked at the local gas station - the one located about 150 yards from our humble abode. Mom was inside buying (guess what) a soda, when we noticed a different kind of soda machine on the side of the building.

That's right - this one dispenses live worms and nightcrawlers.

This one should be categorized under "things you only see in Idaho". I absolutely love this state, and part of me actually thinks that it's totally awesome that we have Soda Machines filled with Bait, but it's still pretty Trailer Park in my book.

Bear World

Okay, this post is a little out of sync, but we had too many pics and stories from our trip to Utah to show and tell them all at once. On the way home from Utah, we spent a few days in Idaho falls to visit with Amy's Grandma and here Aunt, Uncle, and cousin.

While we were down there we decided to make a little trip to a place that is simply called "Bear World" This is a great little animal refuge north of Idaho falls. They have bears, elk, a rare albino elk, baby bear cubs, and a petting zoo.

To see most of the animals, you drive your car right through their paddocks. The bears walk right across the road in front of the cars and there are no fences between you and them. The park staff reminds you, in a loud and repetitive fashion , to keep you windows rolled up at all times.

However, despite the admonishment of the staff to keep your windows up and don't feed the bears, you can pay to ride around in a big truck and throw hunks of meat at the bears instead!!

We didn't do this, but the bears really love that truck. We just happened to be right behind it in our small, low to the ground car, with rolled up windows and no meat. Greeeeaaaaaat!!

The baby bear cubs are REALLY cute, and they run around and wrestle and climb on things. They MUST be boys. The one in this picture loved to play with a stick.

I just loved the baby fawns. I nearly had my Man Card revoked for making silly voices and cooing at the baby deer. If you have never touched a deer, the grown ones have fairly coarse fur. The baby fawn was the opposite - its fur was wonderfully soft.

More animals from the petting zoo - clockwise we have some goats, a ginormous rooster, turkey, a guinea hen, a midget (Bantam) Rooster, and a tiny baby duckling. The midget rooster was really funny - he seemed to think he was ten feet tall and bulletproof. He had one heck of a strut on him for a creature that stands about 8 inches tall.

The deer would eat grain right out of your hands. I don't mean to sound morbid, but the only deer I have ever touched were dead ones after I shot them during hunting season. I have always had a lot of respect for deer, so it was a real treat to get to pet a live one.

Bear world is a cool place, and ironically, the grown man was the one who seemed to enjoy the petting zoo far more than any of the kids that day. Go figure.

I must be getting Old.....

WARNING: This may be a boring post.

I hear that as you get older, you start to realize how many boring stories you end up telling people. Here's one from me:

So we went to the store today to get a few groceries and thing s we needed for the apartment.
Well, I ended up in the housewares section of our local Wal Mart (I know, I'm a bad person for shopping there) staring at the giant wall of light bulbs.

As I stood there, I got to thinking, "You know, the bulb I'm replacing was a 150 watt bulb. I bet I could save a lot of money on my electrical bill if I got one of those energy saving fluorescent bulbs."

And like that, I suddenly discovered that I was 65 years old. I remember when we were kids, and the household fluorescent bulbs first became available, my father went and spent a bunch of money on these newfangled fluorescent bulbs and put them in all the lamps in our house. He too was trying to save a little money on the electrical bill. They gave off that cold, greenish white industrial glow, and I remember how much we hated them - we would actually cheer with joy when one would die and we could replace it with a normal 75 watt bulb.

I'm not sure if Dad ever knew this, but we would occasionally try to give the bulbs a little extra nudge to help them shuffle off this mortal coil a little faster. I guess you could refer to it as some type of electrical euthanasia...... we might knock over a lamp by "accident" or know into the ceiling bulb with a broom handle as we went by.

And now, here I am, 28 years old, standing in the housewares section, and doing exactly what my dad did. Crap!!

I used to be cool.... I swear!! My mom says I'm cool!!

Trailer Park Moment of the Week (8-8-08)

Ok, so this "Trailer Park Moment of the Week" thing should probably be a weekly occurrence. At least that's what the title implies. However, I am lazy and forgetful, so these little golden moments will probably only occur when I remember to do them. In this case, I was shocked into memory by the sight of something so wonderfully trashy that I HAD to post it up here!!

I suppose it's a bad sign that I would give give my right arm (or other things) to own this fantastic item!! I hope you all enjoy this one!! If those two great men by the names of Smith and Wesson were looking down from heaven right now, I think they'd be grinning from ear to ear!

I don't think I need to say anything else. If you don't understand it, you never will. Wives, please support your husbands in making the necessary sacrifices so your family can obtain one of these fine, stainless steel, beauties. I guarantee that they'll only go up in value, and your home just won't be complete until you have one!

I HATE Blogger....

Man, Blogging is nice, but there is something wrong with the software on this site. I can never seem to get all of my photos to enlarge when I upload them. On out last post, they all enlarged at first, then some of them randomly decided to stop doing it. Anyhow, it's late, I give up, and Blogger now owns my soul.

I'll probably delete this in the morning, but I needed to vent! Grrrrrrrrr!!!!

The Best Trip Ever!!!

Glacier National Park!!

Words cannot express the awesome.

This last week we were lucky enough to get a visit from Aunt Suzanne, Uncle Jim, and our cousin Grant. They flew all the way from New York to visit us and to take a trip to fabulous Glacier National Park. We were overjoyed to see them, as they are some of our favorite people on the planet!

If you have never been to Glacier, I express my condolences. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! This trip was fairly short, but we packed a ton of stuff into those four days. The weather was beautiful, the views were exquisite, the lodgings were comfortable, and even the food we ate was splendid (although we don't recommend the fresh whitefish au blanc beurre at the local diner in West Glacier - the sous chef must have been off that day). Anyhow, I'll let the pics do the talkin'.

Here we are, just outside of Glacier Nat'l Park!! Can you believe they let this ragged bunch through the gates?

Home sweet home!! The "Staggerin' Inn" was a fantastic place to stay, despite the flagrant use of puns exhibited in it's colorful name.

Berry pickin' fools. Grant and Jim decided to reach for the good stuff rather than settling for 'low hanging fruit'. Check out Grant's nimbleness - he actually stood like that for about ten minutes straight. True to form, Jim fell off the fence every 60 seconds.

What could be better than fresh picked berries to sprinkle on your cereal at breakfast time?
The beautiful falls along the Trail of the Cedars

Some ferocious local wildlife along the Trail of the Cedars. Do NOT feed the animals!!After a rousing hike, the group paused for a delicious (and nutritious) lunch by Avalanche Lake. This picture was taken just inches from the spot where we saw an unidentified snake several minutes earlier. Thankfully, the Snake Gods were smiling on us that day, and the snake didn't steal anybody's sandwich.
A magical cascade by the Avalanche Lake. It's so magical that Unicorns come from far and wide to drink from it's crystal clear waters.

Uncle Jim and Amy enjoy a cool, refreshing beverage after a long day of hiking.
On the second day, we got stuck waiting for construction for 25 minutes. However, there's ALWAYS something to climb on around here, so nobody got bored.

This is the place where we got stuck for 25 minutes - it was such a boring, ugly place to be stuck - if you don't believe me just look at the picture we took!!
Here we are hiking up to the Hidden Lake - we hiked in the snow uphill both ways!! You kids have it EASY these days!!


Speaking of kids, we saw the cutest baby mountain goat hanging out with it's momma along the trail to Hidden Lake. It was really cute and fuzzy, and even the burliest lumberjacks among us said, "Ooooooh - isn't he CUTE!!"

The slightly less cute Bighorn sheep.
Behold!! The Majesty of the Hidden Lake!!

Okay, let me just say that Photoshop is AWESOME. This fantastic panoramic view was actually four pictures taken by Amy that we stiched together and color corrected in Photoshop. The program actually has a tool that does this for you and we think it did one heck of a job!!

With all of that Majesty just lying around, we figured we needed to get a group shot next to it.
The Mountain Goat says, "I'll show YOU majestic!"
Further on down the road: An overlook of Saint Mary LakeAnd FINALLY.........

What would a trip to Glacier Nat'l Park be without a picture of a real live glacier? This is a shot of Jackson Glacier, which is, ironically, one of the only actual glaciers you can see from the road.

This trip was the best trip we have been on in many years - thanks again to Uncle Jim, Aunt Suzanne and Grant for coming to see us and making this happen!!!