Yellowstone Day 2

Gooooooood Morning Yellowstone!  This photo is brought to you by Bug.  I took one too, but I liked this one so much better.  We woke ourselves up pretty early on day two hoping to see some animals, but all we saw were the two legged hungry kind on their way to the main lodge for their cup of joe. The view from the lodge's considerable front porch (minus the construction) was probably as much of a draw as the joe.

I gave the kids a choice of a slow day driving up and stopping at whatever we wanted to see along the way and going on a hike.  The yells of "hike" are still echoing across Lake Yellowstone today.  After a quick check-in with the front desk on what hike would be good with two small children and we were on our way to Storm Point trail which begins right next to Indian Pond.

Isn't it pretty?  We followed the trails into the woods which even at 9am was better than being out under the direct sun.   It's always nice walking through the woods.  We've done a ton of hiking as a family and there is just something about walking through the woods that slows everything down.  I don't know if it's the quiet and lack of distractions, or if it's just us being alone as a family, but we do love our hikes.  

We were walking along talking about this and that when this view popped up out of no where.  Such an amazing view of the lake and we walked along beside it for a while before we hit this very cute wooden bridge.  I love wooden bridges.  I have no idea why, but there's nothing like the sound and feel of walking on one.  I say we convert all sidewalks to wooden walkways.  I bet we'd all be a lot happier!

About half way through our hike we found ourselves at this beautiful overlook.  

We were all having a good time, enjoying the view when Bunny - my fearless girl - walked right up to the edge of that 30 foot drop behind them down to the water and large boulders sure to crush her little bones. And then I lost my mind.  Now, *I* am afraid of heights, but neither of my kids seems to have inherited that little trait. So seeing my beautiful baby so close to what, to me, is obviously clear death, sent my poor heart into a tizzy.  Once I'd managed to pull her back from the edge and she'd managed to remove my death grip from her arm, we had a long talk about safety.  With only me on this trip with them, we all needed to be extra careful.  And that included not going to close to the edges of death drops and stopping mama's heart. 

And with that, we moved on down the edge of the lake until we found this beautiful sandy beach complete with rocky point.  If you zoom in on this picture, you'll even see my two little monkeys down at the very tip of the point.  And while we were down there, these two little monkeys came out to play with us - as long as we were very still and very quiet that is. These are Yellow Bellied Marmots for those not in the know, and they apparently love this area.  Cute little guys, no?

We wrapped up the hike and started our long trek north to Montana out of the North entrance.  We hadn't gone more than a few yards when we came across this old man wandering next to the road.

I got a little too close and was the recipient of some dirty looks from one of the many wonderfully helpful park rangers.  And despite my error in judgement, she was more than happy to answer questions for us.  

As we continued to make our way North, I worried he was going to be our only encounter with a buffalo when we found this guy just chill-axing on the side of the road.  We stayed a safe distance this time.

I was thrilled to see two whole Buffalo on our trip, but we had no idea what was waiting for us just around the river bend.. just around the river bed.. (okay, name that song!)

We were stuck in traffic that didn't move for over a half hour.  Have you ever sat in bumper to bumper non-moving traffic with a 6 and 8 year old?  You do whatever it takes to keep them entertained.  And that included taking photos of lots of trees and singing Pocahontas Disney songs.  

The wait was so completely worth it.  

After sitting in the car for so long, we stopped at the first hot springs / mud pots we came to. This is Dragon Mouth Springs.  A wonderful bubbling, steaming cave that even sounded like a dragon roaring.

Bug, however, was clearly less than impressed with the smell.  

I don't know why though.  The buffalo didn't seem to mind it.

We decided to move along, but got caught behind this buffalo for a few minutes instead.  Best game of follow the leader, ever!

He led the way to the biggest herd we saw (and one of the best views) of our whole trip!  We didn't know it at the time, but there are only about 4,000 buffalo living in all of Yellowstone.  It just doesn't seem like enough considering how prevalent they used to be back in the day. 

The Tweedles and I talked a lot about why Yellowstone was protected, and why there was a need for places like this.  I don't know how much sunk in, but at least we're giving them the beginnings of a conservation education.  And with views like this, it's never to early to start.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

End of Summer Last Hurrah

We took one last hurrah trip to Yellowstone right before school started this week.  And by we, I mean the Tweedles and myself.  It was a 3 day drive up to the park.  Three days of really really long driving.  The Tweedles did amazing.  Honestly, I think I watched Bunny mature overnight on this trip!  Seriously, OVERNIGHT she turned into this helpful, well-mannered, good listener. I was amazed.  Watching this little girl grow, is pure joy.. PURE JOY.

And now, onto the photos from our trip:

When we came into Yellowstone from the West Entrance and drove all the way around to the Lake Cabins.  And here was our home sweet home for our first night.

And this was our view.  Can I tell you how many times I used the words 'amazing', 'wow' and 'just look you guys'?  It was, a lot.

It was a mad dash to the lake...

stopping only long enough to take some photos,  (Awww, my budding photographer).

And maybe a quick game of hide and seek.

He's a hide and seek expert.

You'd think they'd been cooped up in the car for three days, the way they acted.  Oh wait...

But could we have found a prettier place to celebrate our freedom?

Heaven.  Simply heaven.

Seriously... Thoughts?

3:10 To Yuma

Friday night we dropped The Tweedles off with their Aunt and Uncle (THANK YOU!), grabbed LW and GG and drove down to San Diego on our way to Yuma, AZ..... in August.  Normally, heading out to Yuma in the height of the summer heat, wouldn't be on our top list of things to do, but our good friend Bear was turning 40, and his wife said to us "Come out and surprise him." and we of course, always do what we're told.

A quick pit stop in San Diego for the night at Tamlin and Joanne's to wrap presents and play with duct tape and the next morning we were off.

Yuma is a desert.

It's where our friend Bear, his wife and two kids hangs their hat.

And despite Tamlin's best efforts to let the cat out of the bag, I think he was a little surprised to see all of us. As our reward for driving all that way?  They took us to the local lake to cool off.

We did some of this..

And some of this...

We did a lot of this.

Then we did a little more of this..

There was some love dovey stuff on the boat..

that we promptly made fun of.

Some of us showed off our natural talents..

and what we weren't so talented at.

And some of us were just (wind) swept away by it all.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

Oh To Be Sure To Be Sure

Once upon a long long time ago.. I went to Great Britain.  My best friend, Cris, spent her Junior year of college in London (thanks to that wonderful Study Abroad program!) and at the end of the year, I flew all the way from Idaho (yes, you read that right, I used to live in Idaho) to London, in the non-smoking section of the flight.  Which would have been great, except the smoking section started, quite literally, in the seat in front of me.  *cough cough gag gag* It was a wonderful flight.

Naturally we started our travels in London, which I didn't love.  I mean, I liked seeing Big Ben and those cute lions in Trafalgar Square.   I'm not sure the locals like it when you call them cute lions, but it's years later and I live in SoCal now.  I would be really surprised if they came all the way across the pond to do something about it.  So neener neener neener. 

Please excuse my blindingly white legs.

I liked riding the tube and hearing the "Mind the Gap" announcements and the museums were pretty incredible.  The palace was fun to see and those guys with the big black fuzzy hats.  But I found London on the whole to be a dirty and busy city and all around a bit much for this girl.  I liked the trips outside of London better to the more touristy places and quaint old villages.  I remember being there, and seeing the pictures makes that part of the trip a little more clear, but the part of our trip that really stays with me was when we flew over to Ireland.

I remember quite clearly being scoffed at by the airport bus driver when we tried to pay for our fair in British Pounds instead of Irish ones.  They're a little persnickety about their money.  I remember a night spent at a B&B in Dublin and going drinking late one night.  I remember Cris and I being a tiny bit intoxicated walking down the streets of Dublin saying "Oh to be sure to be sure, the Land of the little people." while her very English boyfriend muttered something about one Englishman and two American girls getting killed on the streets of Dublin by an angry Irish mob. We just giggled and continued on in our best Lucky Charms voices.

But the very very best part of our trip happened here.  Cris and I knew we wanted to go to a B&B further into the country and we wanted to be able to ride.  We went to the tourism board in Dublin and stumbled across the Laragh Trekking Centre - Glendalough, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.  They don't appear to have a website, which just makes me want to fly out there and offer to make them one if they let me stay for free, but by all appearances on a quick web search they're still in business.

You know how in Cinderella, the prince took the glass slipper around to all the maidens in the kingdom to find the shoe that fit his mystery woman so he could marry her?  Well, I wasn't going to marry him, but this is the foot of the biggest thing I remember from our trip.

His foot, was bigger than mine, by a LOT.  His name is Parnell and he was the biggest horse I had ever seen.  The second biggest in Ireland if the owner was to be believed.  And I believed.  He was also the gentlest horse who always followed commands and made me smile every time we rode together.

Keep in mind, I'm 5'6.  This was a HUGE horse.  He was part of the stables attached to the B&B we stayed  at and the whole experience was heaven.

We woke up every morning to this incredible view.

When we were wandering through the woods we stumbled across this old church.

And getting to experience it all with my best friend made it, quite frankly, the best trip I've ever had.  Even better than the Sequoias!  And I'm telling you all of this, because someday I am going with The Hubs to Scotland.  I hope it will be even better than this trip.  I've built up a lot of expectations of what my Scotland trip will be like, and I only hope it can live up to my hype.

Moonbay, Hebrides Isles, Scotland

So while I wait for the money for this trip to fall into my lap, I'll listen to my celtic music, watch Brave Heart a few more times, and be content with the knowledge that at least I'm still a Scottish Lady, even if I've never set foot on my land.  What about you?  Have you ever been to Scotland?  What did you see? What is your can't miss?

Lady Seriously.. Thoughts?