Cody Powwow 2014

 On Saturday I had the privilege of attending the 2014 Plains Indian Powwow in Cody. This is the third year I have been to the event and I continue to be amazed at the costumes and the dancing.  I wish I could have stayed a little longer but that was not to be this year so all my images are from a two hour period on the first day of the event. That is why I don't have any images of the women dancing - they performed later in the day and on Sunday when I was not there.

Old Faithful

 I have so many images from our recent trip to Old Faithful!

Ken and I make it a habit to visit Snow Lodge at least once every winter. This year we were accompanied by four long-time friends from Cincinnati who went in with us once before a couple years ago. The last time however, we were experiencing warmer-than-normal, spring like conditions. Not so this year! Lucky for us we had lots of warning that we would be facing record cold temps so we were all able to prepare both physically and mentally.

The photo to the left shows Tim and Dee on snowshoes and Ken on skis on our way to Black Sand Pool on our last day at Old Faithful. This was actually our warmest day of the visit with a high of 0 degrees.

Winter wildlife is generally easy to spot in the Park. For a few minutes this coyote and I were the only two creatures on the Old Faithful Boardwalk. He did not seem the least bit interested in me. 

One of the treats of traveling in on the snow coach from Mammoth is the chance to see Trumpeter Swans in the Firehole River.

There are many cross country ski trails right out of the lodge but if you want to do a longer trek it is possible to get a jumpstart with a Bombardier shuttle to a drop off point. On this morning Ken and I left the hotel at 8:30 am to ski to Lone Star. At -22 degrees, we were the only ones on the shuttle. As it turned out the next day was even colder!

Our timing was amazing. We arrived at Lone Star with seconds to spare before the geyser erupted. We had a private viewing of the performance. Barry, Karen and Dee caught the 10:30 shuttle and snow-shoed in to meet us for lunch by the river. It turned into a beautiful day. 

The following day Ken and I decided to attempt one of the most difficult trails at Old Faithful, Mallard Creek. Everyone from our breakfast waiter to the shuttle driver tried to talk us out of it, for good reason. The trail had only been skied twice before us this winter so there really was no trail and the terrain is pretty difficult at the best of times. We have done it numerous times and knew we could again but the problem was that any small difficulty could spell disaster at 36 degrees below zero. As it turned out it was truly one of the toughest cross country skis I have done. We had to break through approx 2' of snow the entire way  until we reached Mallard Lake Trail at about 5 miles in and we discovered we couldn't stop for more than 2 minutes without our fingers and feet going numb from the cold. We slept well that night.

A shot of the run off from Daisy Geyser.

Swan Lake Flats early one frosty morning. 

People Watching

 Today's post is less about the landscape and more about the people. In many ways Bavaria is a caricature of itself - in a good way. The people seem healthy, happy and very aware and proud of their heritage. Beer is certainly an integral part of life. The drinking age is 16 and it is not unusual to see people consuming a beer at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 The fellow to the left was demonstrating woodworking at one of our events while the trio above entertained us with their music.

 I couldn't resist snapping these girls playing on a swing. Look at the smile on the one in the middle!

No photo album of Munich is complete without at least one bicycle picture.

These Bavarian Horns are impressive but they must be tough to carry around!

Tony Blair

Today's photos are not the typical tourist pics of Bavaria. It just so happened that the key speaker at the event we attended was none other than the former Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair.

He arrived in the German countryside via helicopter and spent a considerable amount of time talking to the group before taking questions.

I was lucky enough to be near the front of the audience and we were not discouraged from taking pictures.

 Over the years I have had amazing opportunities to hear former Prime Ministers and Presidents. I am always impressed by their "humanness"- even those with whom I have fundamental differences. Mr Blair spoke intelligently and openly on many subjects and it was an honor to hear him talk.

 The event was held inside an un-airconditioned tent on a day that was much hotter than normal in the German Alps!

Photo Friday

I have decided to start taking part in an on-line group called Photo Friday. The goal is to increase the width of my photo subjects by participating in their weekly theme challenges.

This week's theme is "Youngster"so I am posting a photo of the flower girl I took at a wedding earlier this summer.