UDSF Retreat

Gary and I headed up to Fish Haven, Idaho, which is on the very northern end of Bear Lake to attend the 2nd Annual UDSF Retreat.  We missed last year because I was running a high fever and ended up with a cold for a week as well, so this was our first trip to Gerald's cabin on the lake.

This was the view from our bedroom window on Friday afternoon.

And this was the view from the same window in the morning after a storm went through the area.

By mid-day most of the snow was gone and the lake was turning back to its beautiful blue color.  Gerald that the blue color is due to a certain mineral that is found in the water.  It is the same mineral that causes the blue of Lake Tahoe as well.

Gerald and his wife have eight children and they decided to build this family retreat for the entire family to gather.  They only have four grandchildren currently but they are planning for those big gatherings in future years.  We loved our stay and were able to get a lot of planning done for the next year for the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation. And we introduced some of our board and their spouses to the game "Wits and Wagers,"one of our old favorites.

The fall colors have already faded in the higher elevations so we headed back the Wyoming route which takes you along western Wyoming to Evanston and then over to Syracuse.

And we ran into a Wyoming traffic jam.  There was a whole herd of cows moving along the road at their own pace.  They would run back and forth across the road at unpredictable times, mooing all the time.  You could especially hear the mother cows mooing when the babies headed over to the other side without them.  I videoed a 25 second clip to share with Jena when we got home.  It was quite amazing and I didn't mind the 10-15 minute delay it took us to get through the herd.  Fortunately we had lots of time to get home.  Some cars behind us must have been in a hurry because they kept honking their horns...which the cows didn't care about at all.

The cows were traveling with their two cowboys who weren't too concerned about getting the cows up the road as you can see.

As we came down in elevation, there was more color in the mountains.  This is a shot as we headed up Hwy. 89 in east Layton on our way home.

It was a quick trip but it was productive and also a little break as well.  Gary spent the time reading a books, working on indexing and taking a nap.  Spouses didn't have to attend the working meetings, just the fun stuff.  I appreciate Gary's support of my passions.  I couldn't do it without him.

Jessica, Elessia, Liam and Zander came up and stayed with Jena while we were gone.  We heard they had some fun times, especially Liam and Jena who are close buddies.  Thanks for hanging out with her while we were gone.