On Rhubarb and Rodents

While every trip has an official destination (the recent one was the Vancouver-Yellowstone trip), and most have some personal significance (this one was Women's World Cup - my Mother's big birthday- Mister's Parents' 50th anniversary [and possibly our 10th]), many also acquire an unofficial agenda.

Columbian on guard in Canadian Rockies

Yellowstone-Glacier 2004 (what I call our engagement trip) became the Quest for All Things Huckleberry.  Canadian Maritimes 2008 was the Where Eat Seafood in Canada trip and last summer we embarked upon "I states can be interesting" or something like that.

Uinta grooming in Yellowstone

This trip was about rodents (but then they all are) and rhubarb.  We weren't crazy about rhubarb like we were about huckleberries in 2004, but we did have  rhubarb several times before we left and proceeded to buy a rhubarb-strawberry gallete-let at the Farmers' Market in Osoyoos, British Columbia, ate the most rhubarb-y rhubarb pie I have ever experienced (along with a piece of intriguing Rhubarb-Raspberry-Jalapeno) at the Purple Pie Place in Custer, South Dakota. drank a fresh rhubarb shake in Murdo, South Dakota, sampled a wonderful Sour Cream Rhubarb pie from Broken Bow, Nebraska and there picked up some rhubarb stalks to fix into something wonderful here.  We also ate rhubarb yogurt in Vancouver, because it was something different and sorta Canadian.  Independently, my mother just sent a photograph of her third large rhubarb harvest of the season.

Notice the shoulder humps!

As for rodents, well, I would have to consult the Mister's exhaustive animal list, but it includes this Columbian Ground Squirrels from Canmore, Alberta, this Uinta Ground Squirrels in Yellowstone, and this Yellow-bellied Marmot in Custer State Park (just a few yards from where we saw his relative 8 years ago).  Non-rodents included bears (both black and grizzly, like these at Banff), bald eagles and sea otters, and big horn sheep in many places, including the verdant (!) pastures of Badlands National Park.

Prairie Dog picked up two new provinces (British Columbia and Alberta) and we probably received full value of our National Parks Interagency Pass (Rocky Mountain, Dinosaur, Golden Spike, Glacier, Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Jewel Cave, Badlands).  Canada, along with Idaho, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota were all new for both Dianthus and Aster.

Green green badlands

Otter directly below the eagle at water line

Always up for a new adventure.
Moraine Lake in Banff National Park