Yellowstone: the world's first national park

Yellowstone is such a unique place. I wouldn't say it was the prettiest place I've ever been (although don't get me wrong, it is pretty), but it does have an incredible amount of thermal features and wildlife. It is one of those places that you have to go at some point in your life, but I don't feel the need to go back for awhile.
I think the easiest way is to just go by day so that I remember everything we did.

Day 1:
We drove into the park through the west entrance, which was very scenic. We picked up groceries and firewood in Cody (which was a good idea, so much cheaper than inside the park!) The first night we got into the park around 6 and to our campsite on the shore of Yellowstone Lake around 7. We saw a big-horned ram on our way into the park!

Day 2:
We headed toward yellowstone canyon, which was just awesome. Huge waterfalls and beautifully colored rock walls. We ended up hiking down one rim around to the other and back again. It was probably close to a 5 hour walk, and after we were exhausted. I would say that there were some parts of the hike we could have skipped, but it was nice to not just drive from overlook to overlook.

After we hiked we ate a quick lunch and stopped to take a shower and then just headed over to our next campsite at Madison. The Madison campsite was not as nice as the bridge bay campsite by the lake. However, it was very conveniently located. 

Day 3: We drove north to mammoth hot springs which are where boiling water comes out of the earth and colors the rocks and creates interesting formations due to the minerals in the water. Before we explored the rocks we did a hike called beaver creek trail. It was okay, supposed to see some wildlife and we didn't see much, but did get some nice views of the hills. It would have been better if it hadn't started to rain when we were about 20 minutes away from the end. It was a cold rain and I had to pee. Hiking with a guy that can just pee wherever he wants is really frustrating...

After the hike we explored the hot springs. It was interesting, but not my favorite. After that we stopped to eat at a nice lunch spot and on our way back south we passed a ton of cars on the side of the road. They were all stopped to look at a grizzly and her two cubs in the field. It was a great bear interaction. They were close enough that you were in awe of their size, but far enough away that it wasn't scary. 

We also stopped at norris which is a geyser basin, with lots of mud pots and hot springs. It was again - okay - not my favorite. 

Day 4: Old Faithful! of course we had to go to old faithful. Our start was delayed by having to wait for a herd of bison to cross the road - it took forever! We made it to old faithful area and realized we were just in time to see Castle erupt - it was awesome. Huge and came with a lot of steam. Right before it started, Chris realized he had dropped his phone somewhere, which became a bit of a distraction - needless to say. We then had to go back to the visitors center and ask if they had his phone. They didn't, but said that it just might not have been turned in yet, and to check back later. It was made more difficult because my phone didn't get good service, so we couldn't call it. 

We decided to not let it ruin the day and went ahead and saw the next Geyser, Daisy, erupt. Then we walked through the boardwalk and were trying to get back to old faithful in time to see it, but we didn't get as close as we planned, because we found out another geyser which isn't regular was about to erupt. So we stopped at a place we could see both old faithful and beehive and got to see them both erupt at the same time. It was a little overwhelming, trying to get photos of both at once!

Then we stopped at a gift shop because we wanted to get some beers to have with lunch ( I wanted my old faithful ale at old faithful!) but the gift shop was in complete disarray and we had to wait in line for like 30 minutes before we were finally checked out. So frustrating, because everything was on a tight schedule. We headed back to the car to make lunch and chris went to go check on his phone. He came back and told me that a park ranger had his phone at the old faithful inn and he was going to go get it. That was such a relief, so I finished our sandwiches and met up with him. We ate as we bustled over to the next geyser. There were two geysers that were going to go off close to each other. Giant geyser and riverside geyser. We decided to go watch riverside (since it was supposed to go first) - but it wasn't that impressive because the wind was blowing it away from the river. While it was going off, Giant erupted so we missed it. I think Chris was disappointed, but overall we got to see a lot of geysers that day. 

Then we had to wait and see old faithful go off. I was cranky because of the heat, so I stayed in the visitors center to cool off, while Chris went to get some gas. We were able to get a good seat for old faithful, and it is just amazing. I'm so glad we waited to see it go off. 

We were tired and decided to go see some of the other themal spots around old faithful. We saw some cool hot spring pools. We also hit up west thumb, which is a region of hot springs and mud pools right next to yellowstone lake. This was beautiful, probably the best thermal area in yellowstone besides old faithful. 

That night we went out at dusk to look for wildlife. We "just" saw a herd of deer and some bison, but we saw a beautiful full moon right next to beautiful mountains. Just incredible in person, and something that a camera really can't capture, but we sure did try. 

Day 5: We woke up and headed out of the park and down to Grand Teton National Park. More on that later!

To see the links to all of my travels click here.

What on earth is in South Dakota

Observations about South Dakota in random order

1. South Dakota is very windy. The first night we were there I couldn't fall asleep because I was just listening to the wind whip through the trees and I was terrified our tent would fall over or our wind flap would blow away. I ended up getting up at like 3 am to take it down because I couldn't sleep.
2. South Dakota is very empty. Very straight roads with nothing as far as you can see (occasionally a dinosaur skeleton)

   3.  The Badlands are really cool and totally worth a stop on your way through.

  4.  It is a lot more fun to leave the trail and explore. We were hiking through the rock formations, and lost the path, which was great because then we just got to explore. We ended up wandering up a valley up to the top which had a great view of everything. We even saw a couple deer hiding in the shade of a tree or two.

  5.  Bison are really not scared of cars and also enjoy staying at the campsite. In the picture right below you can see the bathroom of the campsite and in the second one you can even see a camper. The bison were up there wandering. It scared me but not as much as it scared Chris who didn't even want to drive by these guys. 

  6.  Mt. Rushmore is of course a must see, but there isn't much to do there besides take photos of it. Hence why I ended up with about 200 photos of it.

Overall, this was a great addition to the trip - but not worth a trip on its own, because the highlight was the national parks that we were headed to.

Those later. Read about yellowstone here

Better Late than Never?

I know, its been nearly 2 months since I wrote a blog. It's terrible, but to be fair, I've been super busy living - which means I have a TON of stuff that I want to write about and just haven't had the time or desire to write it all done.
So what all have I been doing since graduation in May? Well, I had a week at home where I was unpacking and organizing all my stuff and packing to get ready for Chris and my road trip. Then Chris and I left for our road trip. We traveled from Batavia to South Dakota and hit up the badlands and Mt. Rushmore. Then we headed into Wyoming and stopped at Devils Tower and then headed into Yellowstone. We were in Yellowstone for 4 nights and 3 days before we drove south into Grand Teton National Park. We were there for 3 nights and about 4 days before we drove south to Denver and did a quick brewery tour (New Belgium, Left Hand, and Avery) and the next day drove back home. Great very long trip with lots of details to come.

We got home on Sunday at like 1am and my mother and I left for the Amazon on Tuesday morning. We were in Ecuador for 9 days and spent 4 days in the jungle - observing the amazing wildlife and learning about a lot of the issues that the native people are facing as they try to make a living without destroying the rainforest.

When we got back we took a short 2 day trip up to Michigan for my cousin's high school graduation open house and also got to see my grandfather who has been very weak for awhile. We saw him saturday evening and he could barely keep his eyes open, it was very sad. Sunday morning he was doing better and was able to have a conversation with us and even made a couple jokes.

After we got back, I headed down to Lexington to help Chris move into his condo and help him decorate it. It was a great trip and nice to explore Lexington a little more. It also meant I got to see dear little Daisy.
Came back from Lexington on July 2nd in time to hang out with our Australian friend, James, who has been traveling around the US for the last couple months. We had a lovely 4th (although it was a little tamer than the celebrations I have had the last few years).

Then, on July 5th, we learned that my grandfather passed away. It was of course sad, but I know that he was so unhappy in the nursing home, and it is nice to know that he is in a much happier place. We were able to rush and get everything together and were able to have the funeral this weekend, which allowed us to race back home Sunday evening so I could start my first day of orientation of the new job bright and early on Monday morning.

A little bit of a crazy month and half isn't it?

So here are the blogs that I want to write over the next few weeks - I'll link them here once I actually write them all down.

• Badlands and Mt. Rushmore
• Yellowstone
• Grand Tetons
• Ecuador 
• Starting the job

On to the next one

Returned from the last vacation tired and a little dirty, but with lots of wonderful photos like these ones

I'd share more about the trip but I've been busy unpacking and re-packing for the next trip to Ecuador and the Amazon. So updates will come a plenty when I return. Until then, hope everyone is enjoying their summers!

Graduation and post-grad vacation plans

Last weekend was graduation! It was a great time to spend with family, and I'm sooo happy to officially have both degrees now. YAY for no longer having to explain to people how I'm a graduate student, but don't technically have my bachelors degree yet!!

I posted photos of the day on facebook, but I had to include this one of me and Ms. Daisy, after all 90% of this blog is about her...

I'm now back home, and actually unpacked at home for the first time in years! (I haven't been at home for longer than a week or so in sooo long it is ridiculous)

But even though school is over and my apartment has been packed up, driven up to Batavia, and then unpacked here... I still am super busy because I'm busy planning this...

In case you can't tell, that is a 3000 mile roundtrip plan from Chicago to the Badlands to Mt. Rushmore to Yellowstone Natl Park to Grand Teton Natl Park to Denver back to Chicago. 

Chris and I leave on our roadtrip and camping extravaganza on Monday and I have discovered that trips taken without your parents require a lot of planning. I have also discovered that I really really like planning all these trips. Heck - I might even write a blog about all the planning - although I doubt I'll have time.

On a positive note, Daisy is staying at home with my and my parents and our elderdog, Sydney, until Chris and I get back from the trip and Chris takes Daisy home with him. Daisy and Sydney are doing great together! Daisy is actually showing submissive behavior towards Syd - something I didn't know if I would ever see. So proud of her. I know that all of this is confusing for her, but I know that my parents will take good care of her while we are gone. And I think she will love the backyard of Chris' new home. 

Paddle-boating in Forest Park

I'm quickly checking things off the St. Louis bucket list, but I keep forgetting to bring my camera to document these experiences. However, I did take photos of paddle-boating. I've wanted to do this for awhile, and it was a lot of fun, if only it wasn't so super hot the day we did it. It was probably at least 87 which, if you ask me, is waaaay too hot for the first weekend of May.

Going under these bridges provided a way too short break from the sun

But art hill, was as usual, beautiful.

And if you went close enough to the fountains you got a nice little misting - which was more pleasant if you didn't think about how nasty the water was

Then a little duck came and followed us for awhile. She was a pretty thing, but I think she was hoping we had some food to give her. Sorry to disappoint Ms. Ducky.

In other news, the boyfriend officially adopted Daisy. So they are both just thrilled about that. And it looks like Daisy will be getting a lovely home with a nice backyard for her in Lexington. I'll put up some photos of it, once all the details are set. I'll be sure to visit her there plenty. (Maybe, while I'm in Lexington I'll go visit the boy too, we'll see)

Graduation is on Thursday/Friday and then its a whirlwind of family and packing. I'm hoping to head out of STL (sad!) on Sunday and spend a week un-packing and re-packing for the road trip which I haven't been very busy planning. (My mother gave me a sickness- I plan with way too much detail...)

So excited for the road trip and then my trip to Ecuador! June will be very busy and I'll likely be very MIA from here. But - considering the number of views I got from the blog post about Thurtene was more than all the page views before combined.... I don't think there will be too many people broken-hearted about my blogging absence.

Kansas City! Home of BBQ and Boulevard

So awhile ago I was thinking that I would love to go do a Boulevard Brewery tour in Kansas City. Kansas City is an easy drive away from St. Louis and I've never been, but at the same time it's not like KC has enough to offer that it would be worth taking a trip there from farther away. So KC and especially the Boulevard Brewery tour came a priority. This was way back in January
I figured it shouldn't be too hard, we could go any friday/weekend of pretty much the entire semester. Then I went to Boulevard's website. Did you know it is nearly impossible to book a tour with them? There wasn't a single tour slot that had space for 2 people for the next 3 months. And they only allow you to book a tour three months in advance. So we quickly figured that if we wait for them to post tour slots for the very last weekend in April and by checking on a daily basis were able to book a tour slot for April 28th way back at the end of January.

We decided to just do a quick 30 some hours in KC because we didn't want to pay for two nights of hotel and I had to get home to write a paper (woot!)

Friday night we went to get barbecue at Jack Stack which  is a nice sit down bbq restaurant. It seemed weird to me, BBQ shouldn't be served in a dimly light restaurant. After that we hung out at the hotel for awhile until it was late enough and then went down to the power & light district. This was kind of weird too, it was like a giant outdoor dance party surrounded by different bars. The bar we went to was called flying saucers (apparently it's a chain) and they had a ton of different beers on tap. It was a cool place.

Saturday we first went to KC city market. Its a lot like the Soulard Farmer's Market in STL, but less crowded and claustrophobic. It was cool. They were selling a lot of plants and it seemed like a lot of the farmers were small farms instead of the large distributors that sell at Soulard.

So many spices! And they were so cheap!

Next it was time for the main attraction! Boulevard! It's a pretty cool brewery. They have grown a lot in the last 20 odd years, quite impressive! They are now the 10th largest craft brewery and the 17th largest brewery in the country. 

The most exciting thing was that their bottling line was running while we were there. They said it is quite unusual that they bottle on Saturday and they must be behind somehow! Impressive considering I've done the STL Anheuser-Busch Brewery tour 3x and they are supposed to be bottling 24/7 and yet it has never ACTUALLY been running when I'm there. = LAME!

After the tour you get to sample 4 of their different beers. Most of the ones they had available I had already tried which was a little disappointing. But, it was fun and I'm glad I went!

After the tour, Chris and I went and explored the various parks throughout KC. They were very nice and have sooo many fountains. Fountains always make things look prettier!

For lunch we tried another BBQ joint - more our expected hole in the wall type place. Turned out to be even more hole in the wall than I expected. It was in a gas station! With a line of at least 120 people stretching out the door. And it was good! The meat was delicious! Especially the ribs. I'm always going to compare every BBQ place to Pappy's, but I'd say that the meat was just as good but the sides and the atmosphere completely lose out to pappys. 

Kansas City was a great trip! Worth the gas and one night of hotel!