Marita goes Walkabout

On Tuersday morning I flew with DELTA air from Salt Lake City to Portland, Oregon where my dear cousin Elaine met me at the airport. Portland is a city of approximately 640,000 people. So far I have found it clean and the people friendly. Not as many homeless on the street. Yesterday we went to Mount Hood, the Columbia river and Vista House. Mount Hood  Mount Hood - from the ski resort The elevator door made famous in the movie The Shining The snow left at the end of the winter season is really dirty The Columbia River Vista House And I had my first real "truck-stop diner" experience. Yum, the best burger I had in a very, very long time.  Today we went downtown, had Mediterranean food for lunch (shawarma and baklava) and went for a walk along the river front and then a walk through the rose garden. The merry-go-round is coming to town At the waterfront The rose garden

Wow, just wow! So on Friday, my day 18, we left Salt Lake City, Utah, and drove to Jackson Hole, a real Cowboy Town, via Idaho. This is bear country and white water rafting is the sport! Mural of an Elk The park in Jackson Hole had 4 arches built out of many, many antlers. Next on the list was Grand Teton National Park. Grand Teton is a stunning mountain range in Wyoming. At the end of May there was still lots of snow. Then we proceeded to Lake Jackson, a stunning lake that mirrors the sky, clouds and trees on the shore. Then it was on to Yellow Stone National Park which we entered from the South Gate and exited at the West Gate for our first night. This old Bison allowed us to get quite near. He is malting and was rubbing up against a tree to get rid of his winter wool. The next morning we re-entered at the West Gate and drove eastwards through the park, stopping at the thermal area and eventually exiting the park t