Idaho Falls and the Grand Tetons!

Tomorrow we perform in Bozeman, Montana.  That gave us a couple of days to see some of the amazing sights in this area of the country.  Ever been to the Grand Tetons?  Until today, neither had we.

First, though, we were in a place that we had visited, but only briefly.  On our "50 shows-50 states-50 days" tour, we had spent the night in Idaho Falls but had to hurry on the next day to get to our next show.  This time, we'll occasionally have a day to look around- and we knew we wanted to see more of Idaho Falls!

This is really a beautiful city.  They've got a river with a gigantic waterfall running right through the center of town!  Here's the start of the waterfall:

. . . and here's the river a little ways down:

This is all surrounded by a beautifully maintained park on both sides with picnic tables, restaurants, and a paved walking path.  It's really a beautiful place!

As you might imagine, a town with a name like Idaho Falls has lots of waterfall-related features all around town:

I've always said that if I had the space, my yard would have a waterfall like the giant ones at our Cincinnati zoo!

Of course, when you're in a new place, you have to see the places that the locals recommend.  Here's a neat museum:

This place is run by a couple who have been assembling various collections of EVERYTHING, and they've been at it for more than 70 years!  You'll see a neatly organized display of everything from antique fire hose nozzles, to military uniforms, to toys you remember having when you were younger.  My favorite was this dollar bill from the currency display:

This made me laugh, because as a magician, I know that it's 'technically' illegal to write on U.S. currency.  So, here's a bill that has been signed by the two people whose signatures are already printed there- but they actually wrote on this one, so what's the legality there?

Thanks to Nida and Jim for the neat place!

When we travel, each member of our family has something they like to do every chance they get.  Eli likes to play hide-in-the-fort-made-of-luggage:

Faith hunts for "pressed penny" machines:

Ever seen these?  For 51 cents, you get a pressed penny (usually containing a design from the area you're visiting).  Quite an inexpensive souvenir and she's got these from everywhere!

When you drive along the Snake river, this is the scenery you see all day:

Isn't that beautiful?  That's something you don't see very much in the east!

So, it was on to the Grand Tetons!  Now, I should mention something here- when we did our tour which took us to all 50 states in 50 days, we had a number of folks who absolutely did not believe us.  They blatantly said that we were making this up, that nobody could travel like that and do that many shows in that time frame.  Well, we have photos, we have witnesses in every city, we absolutely did it!

I mention this because the photos that I'm about to show you were taken with our cell phone cameras, but this is such a beautiful area that they almost don't look real- it looks like we've been photoshopped into the backgrounds.  I assure you these are very real!

Here are the Grand Tetons:

Looks like we're standing in front of a cardboard background, doesn't it?  These mountains are truly incredible.

The distinction for the Tetons is that they have no foothills.  They appear to just come right out from the ground.  As you drive along, there are tons of spots you can pull over and see new views.  We were hoping to find somewhere to get the famous "reflection" shot- and we found a good one here:

Check out the Grand Tetons if you ever have the chance!

So, next is our show in Bozeman, Montana.  We're looking forward to seeing all our friends there!  On the way, though, we'll be passing right through YELLOWSTONE!  We've heard some amazing things- can't wait!