My Friday Off

I took Friday off work... My plan was to get my son off to school, grab the dogs, my camera bags, and make my way, 100 miles north of Boise, to McCall, Idaho. My destination, the McCall Winter Carnival. I took the Garden Valley turn about 45 miles into my trip, and found these photos along the South Fork of the Payette River. In the photo above, the water was crystal clear and this incredible emerald green.

I love the zoom on this camera... This photo, and the photo below, are basically the same shots. If you look closely in the photo below, you can see the ripples in the water, just above the rocks that spill out into the river on the right. I love this zoom feature, 10x Optical!

No snow... I zoomed out on this photo, the mountains are so striking, so tall, so steep. But, did you notice? There's no snow! The groundhog saw his shadow here the other day, so we're supposed to have six more weeks of winter. Boy, do we need it! Storms keep passing us by.

Lucy... She was not a happy camper! The whole time I was taking photos along the river above, (ten minutes, tops!), she was hanging out the passenger window of my truck, almost howling at me. Not quite barking, not quite crying. Her ears would stay back and she would just "ya-owl" at me!

Photo Credit: Katherine Jones / The Idaho Statesman

The tub, set up for photos and called "Relax in McCall," was awarded the Most Photogenic award. It's by Indulgence Day Spa.

I didn't capture half of the sculptures to be had. The air was warming and many of the sculptures were melting away. This was the 40th Anniversary of the McCall Winter Carnival.

"Heroes of McCall"... The title of this scupture, featuring an airplane on top of the sculpture which honors smokejumpers who train in McCall.

Whitetail Club, McCall, Idaho... One of the most beautiful hotels I've ever stayed at. I was here for a conference with my job a couple of years ago. We watched a thunder storm cross the lake from the windows of the conference room, at the bottom left in the photo above. I stayed in an upstairs room, facing the front of the hotel.

The view... from the back of the hotel. I was standing about 1/4 a mile to the right of the hotel when taking this photo. The lake, Payette Lake, is frozen over.

Cracking Ice... You can't see this spot in the photo above this photo, but this was about 20 feet out from where I was standing. (Remember, I like to zoom. lol) While I was facing the hotel, taking the backside of the hotel photos, I could hear the ice cracking and moaning, just short spurts of sounds. At first, it startled me. I couldn't remember if I was on land or ice! I found some boulders showing through the snow and realized I was fine. This end of the frozen lake is starting to melt. The lake pours into the Payette River just to the left of this photo.

Heading home... This is just above my favorite photo opp bridge, heading south on Idaho Hwy 55 along the Payette River. I took a photo of the bridge last weekend, of the south facing side. We had turned around then and headed back to Boise.

So on Friday, I got out of town, drove a very scenic 100 miles to McCall, Idaho, and back. I found some snow, ice sculptures, a frozen lake, and some much needed "me time." This highway, as you can see, is very narrow and windy. I saw so many things I would have liked to have taken a photo of, but there was no where to stop. I had a wonderful day.