Today we drove to Crater Lake National Park. This lake is the bluest colored lake and the deepest lake in the world. You have to see this lake in person to appreciate the color of it. John and I hiked to the edge of the lake, and we were surprised that the lake is crystal clear.
After spending some time exploring Crater Lake, we then drove to Redwood National Park. Once again another jaw-dropping sighting by Mother Nature. The sheer beauty and size of these trees are breathtaking. John and I have ever seen anything like them before.
Today we drove from Boise, Idaho to Klamath Falls, Oregon. We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway. One cool thing is the landscape on the west coast it is very different than the east coast.
The highlight was the petting farm we visited. I love farm animals, and today I got to feed and pet goats. If I can re-do my life, I would have a farm full of donkeys, goats, horses, pigs, cows, dogs and cats. That is my ultimate love animals!
Today driving from Jackson Hole to Boise, Idaho we saw some interesting things. We visited the world’s first nuclear power plant called EBR-1. I have to say even though it wasn’t used anymore it was pretty eerie and at the same time cool walking through it.
The next cool thing we saw was Craters of the Moon which is this mind-blowing place that has miles upon miles of nothing but volcanic rock and volcanic caves and lava tubes. John and I climbed through which made me nervous because they’re unstable and can collapse at any moment.
Boise is a cool city but we arrived late so we didn’t get a chance to see much of it we walked to a restaurant to have dinner and walked back to the hotel.
Today we drove through Yellowstone National Park towards Jackson Hole, WY and once again seeing nature at its best. We saw this pretty and very colorful hot spring called Morning Glory Pool which is in the Yellowstone Upper Geyser Basin part of the park. The next thing we saw was Old Faithful it erupts every 44 to 125 minutes. After driving around and exploring the park, we decided to drive to our hotel The Rusty Parrot Lodge and check out that area since we were only there overnight.
We decided to have dinner in the hotel restaurant called Wild Sage which was a AAA 4 diamond awarded restaurant. The food was good the only problem we had was with the waiter he was obnoxious and didn’t like answering questions we had about the menu. We liked Jackson Hole and wanted to see more of it one day so we will visit again one day in the future.
January 03, 2016 – January 09, 2016                              Today we flew to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and we were in luck because it warmed up a bit. We checked into the Four Seasons Hotel which was great it’s one of my favorite hotel chains. We were told that the past few days the temperature was in the single digits. Our friends Mike & Christy met us there luckily they don’t have to fly they drove from Utah. We had a great time with them we had dinner the first night at the White Buffalo Club which was great. John was happy because he skied pretty much every day, but I didn’t ski at all because it was too cold for me.
Today we finally arrived in Yellowstone National Park. As soon as we entered the park, we saw three buffalo’s walking along the road. It’s amazing when you see how big they are in person. Along the way driving through the park, we stopped and saw a lot of sulfur pools which was unbelievable that they are all natural and extremely dangerous. We also saw the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
After about a million stops and pictures, we drove to our hotel which was the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. Upon check-in, we found out that there was no air conditioning, television or internet which was a hard pill to swallow since we were spending two nights here. We need the internet to run our business so it was difficult to stay somewhere for two nights without it.
Once we settled in we went to eat at the restaurant in the hotel. I ordered the Quail entree. I have to say that I am still dreaming about that dinner. I told John that we have to go back there soon because I want to have that Quail again. After dinner, we decided to go to the front desk and cancel tomorrow night we found a different hotel called the Rusty Parrot Lodge which is a boutique hotel in Jackson Hole, WY and it’s updated.
Today on the way to Yellowstone National Park we drove to Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. The park is located in Whitehall, MT. We took a tour of one of the most decorated limestone caverns in the Northwest. It was lined with stalactites, stalagmites, columns, and helictites which were lit up electrically. It was a cool experience.
Today we started our road trip to Butte, Montana from Walla Walla, Washington. We drove past a few copper mines. One was The Steward, and other was The Con which was pretty cool.
We also visited The Berkeley Pit it’s a 1700 foot deep hole. It is filled to a depth of about 900 feet (270 m) with water that is heavily acidic (2.5 pH level), about the acidity of cola or lemon juice. As a result, the pit is laden with heavy metals and dangerous chemicals that leach from the rock, including copper, arsenic, cadmium, zinc, and sulfuric acid.
Today we had a lovely scenic drive from Queenstown to Franz Josef Glacier we drove on Crown Range Road which had wonderful views of the valley. We saw a change in landscape and lifestyle while driving through.  We saw lakes and farmlands with amazing mountain and valley views. We arrived and checked into our Bed & Breakfast called Westwood lodge which is owned and operated by a female named Kaz Gilmore.  It was really cute it’s right by the village and has a great view of the Southern Alps.  The next day we had a glacier hike.  We drove to a secluded area and walked through the forest with a guide to a big open space where we proceeded to walk to the edge of the glacier which was about 1/2 mile walk. We had a helicopter ride to the do a glacier walk but the accident that happened in Queenstown made me nervous so we canceled the flight and decided to do the tour on foot.
Today we flew to New Zealand we had a bit of a mishap at the airport. They are so strict with people coming into their country that they hassle you. Â They checked the bottom of our shoes they even took my purse that was handmade by palm leaves. Â We understand why they go through this but they should go about it in another way. It was uncomfortable especially since they had multiple signs that said we will be charged a lot of money if we had dirty shoes.
We checked into The Dairy – A Boutique Hotel and we were greeted at the door by the owners and we had a great experience. Â The hospitality, service, and breakfast were amazing. Â I would definitely recommend everyone who visits Queenstown stays at the Dairy.
Once we got settled into the hotel we decided to take a walk around town and took a lot of the pictures of this beautiful place.  After having a quick bite to eat we decided to get back to the hotel and get ready for tomorrow.
February 19, 2015
Today we had a Milford helicopter cruise over the Southern Alps to see glaciers and frozen lakes. We woke up in the morning and while we were getting ready we got a phone call that the helicopter tour was canceled due to weather. Â Since we had the day to ourselves we decided to take a scenic walk around town. John wasn’t feeling good so we decided to go to the doctor and get him some antibiotics other than that we stayed local.
February 20, 2015
Today we woke up to horrifying news that a helicopter from the same company we hired had gone down even though they had bad conditions the owners son and a seasoned pilot decided to go up and check things out and somehow flew into a mountain.  Since that happened I had told John to cancel the helicopter ride that we had scheduled at the Franz Josef Glacier. I was a bit nervous going on a ride since that happened. After dealing with the news we finished getting ready because we had a wine tour scheduled. The winery tour was amazing we tried some really nice Chardonnay’s and John and I preferred Pinot Grigio but now we are fans of Chardonnay. We visited the Gibbston Valley Vineyard and the Felton Road Vineyard. I ended up purchasing lavender oil, lotion, and ironing water which were made by a local in the area. If anybody knows me well they know I LOVE anything handmade or homemade.
Today we flew to Hamilton island to visit our friends Keith & Kerrie who live there full time. The island is unique most people get around on golf carts.  The only people who drove cars were the people who worked for the island.Â
There are some really good restaurants and a lot of wallabies and at night or I should say at dusk there were hundreds of bats flying up in the sky. We found out that one person owns the island and therefore owns all the retail stores and the restaurants which is wild!Â
We took a helicopter to The Great Barrier Reef the ride was amazing it looked like another planet.  We saw Whitsunday Island and the famous Heart Reef. Snorkeling and scuba diving is world renowned many people come from all over the world just for that.
The next day our friend Keith took us to Hamilton Island Golf Club it was one of the best courses we ever played on. We had to take a boat to the island where the golf course was. Mostly every tee had a view of the water.
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