My Old Faithful Moment

Old Faithful

Ok, so I felt that last one was a bit somber, or maybe too personal, I don't know.  It just didn't hate the tone that I like to maintain in this.  Maybe it was a wistfulness.  But lets move on to something I never thought I'd fall for.  Geysers.  Sure like everyone you see it and you go "oooh" "ahhh", but after awhile it is like ehh, whatever.  But then you see one you never seen before, or and old classic in a different light and all of a sudden you are "ohhing" and "ahhing" again.  It is a pretty neat cycle.

Great Fountain

Castle

Cliff

Old Faithful from Observation Point

So this totally happened to me.  I was all jaded on old Faithful, maybe it was more of an act than I let on.  Hell I don't even think I'd been in the Park for more than a season or two at that time but it is kinda a park thing, unless you are geyser gazer then you are like meh old faithful.  I'd seen it several times by then and honestly as far as geyser go it is average.  Everything about it is average, it is not oldest, newest, tallest, shortest, longest, quickest, most frequent, but it is the most known.  And it is centrally located and it does that every 90 minutes give or take 10 thing.  Which makes it popular.  So as I was saying I had my "oooh" "aaah" moment one night.  It was a full moon.  A big one that totes lit up the entire basin, and to see Old Faithful in the moonlight like that was breathtaking.

Old Faithful again

Old Faithful in Winter

Beehive (I think)

So there you have it my old faithful moment.  Don't get me wrong, I still don't go out of my way to see it when I am in the park, if you miss it you miss it... chances are it will erupt again sometime in the next two hours.  The winter eruptions are kinda the same way.  They are neat to see because of all the steam and the fact that they sometimes freeze before the geyser water hits the ground.  Hosting one morning, all you could see was steam after Old Faithful erupted- crazy!  I saw Grand Geyser a few times in the winter, talk about amazing.  Somethings never get old.

Exiled in Paradise

  I've had Yellowstone on my mind lately.  Probably because I am going to be in a different National Park for the summer months.  It is kinda a surreal feeling knowing that I might be over Yellowstone.  I have no desire to go back except maybe for a visit.  Sure I miss my Yellowstone peeps and I don't have the same circle of people here in Minnesota... (I am working on that slowly).  But sometimes you just have to move on.  So I figured with it on my mind, knowing how beautiful the spring in Yellowstone is, I'd give The Park some attention.




So as I mentioned I spent the majority of my Yellowstone life at Lake, but I did one summer in exile (as I sometimes grudgingly refer to it) at Old Faithful.  I had to work at Old Faithful, I needed to put the demons of my previous summer to rest.  My previous summer was very odd, it was both wonderful and horrible.  I was supposed to be back at lake, but I honestly couldn't do it, I was filled with dread just thinking of it.  I had managed the year before, and that summer would have been going back as a cook (which is always a little strange).  I pre-seasoned at the Old Faithful Lodge and I honestly really liked it.  And they needed cafe cooks, and I didn't want to go to lake, so I burned a bridge and stayed.  And thus became an exile (self imposed, but still exiled)




I had an awesome roommate, Amanda, she was the EDR cook and a loud Texan.  And she put up with me for several months, it was tense at times, but that friendship is pretty damn strong still.  We did a lot together, I dragged her many places.  I spent a lot of time with another friend (at the time anyways) we both were in "exile".  We'd visit lake a lot, having many friends there.  I was up at lake every weekend.  It was, if you will, a great place to visit.  The nice thing was, you knew everyone and everything, but were completely removed from the drama... and if there is one thing lake knows it is drama!


But anyways, I loved my Old Faithful Exile Summer.  It was funny seeing how it changed over the season.  Having wintered there, it was covered in snow.  Then the pre-season it wasn't.  It was a little disorenting, but you firgue it out.  The funny thing was, you still kinda think that your Snow Lodge people are there, but the summer crew is so different that it kinda shocks you.  But you get used to it, you get used to the crowds, you the noise, the sulfer, and you learn tricks.  And you find yourself waiting hours for a geyser.  You almost become an old faithful person, but deep down you still belong to lake.  And it was that exile that led me back to lake for the last summer.




This post wasn't as fun as I was hoping--- but I guess it had to be written.  So I promise the next one will have more pictures and a good chance for some geyser action!  Hmm boy!

Wild Thing: Creepy Crawlies

Velvet Ants

 
Going through my pictures I have found a bunch of bugs.  I am not a huge bug person, they are kinda creepy.  Sometimes they are interesting and like to get pictures of them.  Well so long as they are behind glass... I like them that way.  Yeah, I am a girl... what of it!

Some sort of Malaysian Beetle

Scorpion

Grasshopper from the Grand Canyon

Grasshopper from Malaysia

Black Widow

So I have a bad habit of taking pictures of flowers that have bugs on them.  They are really cool and I never notice the bugs.  I am trying to figure out how this happens.  Cause I am sure if I tried I would never manage it.  It is kinda funny.  And this is the only one I can find that is any good.  Pretty sure I've lost several over the years.

Wild Thing: Pelicans

So back to Monterrey with you blog!  I can't stay away from the coast it would seem.  Maybe I need to travel more. My posts seem to be Monterrey...Yellowstone...Yellowstone...Niagara...Monterrey....you get the picture... So Pelicans...yeah they're pretty flippin' cool.  And there are tons of them.  (I've seen 'em in Yellowstone too)  I don't know a lot about them as birdies.  But I kinda like them!

So the Monterrey pelicans were like birds possessed.  They were always attacking the fishies.  Diving down to the water.  I'd be walking along, or sitting and enjoying the view and then splash.  I'd look up and see nothing, then go back to what I was doing and splash splash... look up nothing.  It took a while, but finally I caught on to what they were doing... tricksy little birds.

The ones in yellowstone probably do the same thing, but I never saw them do that.  They were usually flying or sitting on the water, doing lame bird things.  I saw some once that were bobbing for fishies.  But that is as close as it gets.

Wild Thing: Bison Bison

 Bison (Bison) or more commonly the buffalo... Buffalo, buffalo buffalo, I like them, I really do, but sometimes not so  much.  Part of that comes from the Yellowstone life.  Bison are so common that you almost stop seeing them.  Except of course when they are laying right in your path or surrounding your car during the rut.

I go back and forth on my bison opinions.  I love them, I hate them, they are adorable, annoying.  The babies are adorable, the big bulls can be ugly... I am truly conflicted.  The more removed I am from Yellowstone, I more I remember them fondly.  But there were times when I truly cursed their existence--well, at least cursed the fact that I had to sit in my car for almost an hour while tourists were just asking to be gored.

Now that I am out of the park, I get excited when I see them... and trust me this wasn't the case for many years.  They are big and kinda scary.  It may be silly but I would talk to them whenever I would encounter one.  Cause the last thing I wanted to do was startle the big guy and a goring was the last thing on my mine.  Bison are funny, because they look so docile and uninterested.  Not the case...they might be docile, but the notice everything and when they don't that is the when bad things happen...





But at the end of the day, I like the big lugs.  The are fun to look at when the huge herds are together, running down the roads and through the valleys.  I can only imagine how amazing it would have been to see the plains covered in bison as far as the eyes could see.  Wow!

Lazy Days

waitin' for sunset- Lake Michigan

So yeah, I am horrible at this posting thing... I am gonna blame the holidays and school... It isn't that I don't want to blog, it is just I lacked the inspiration and what not.  I gotta get my bum out and start taking more pictures, but dang it! it is cold in Minnesota this time of year.  Yeah, yeah, I know not an excuse, it is not like I haven't spent most of my life in Minnesota... I am being lazy.  So what do I do, I come back and write a lazy blog post.  So I guess that is what this one is gonna be dedicated to... Lazy!

I guess you gotta start with the laziest dog that I know.  Koal, he is a Gordon Setter.  They are gorgeous animals.  Wickedly smart, and like most setters they hate listening to you.  Koal is, for the most part an, outside dog.  When we lived in the city he almost never wanted to be inside, cause we lived on a busy corner and everybody interacted with him.  But the older he gets, he doesn't mind being inside.  He is under the impression that he should get to go out and then come back in for a few hours... after all the feather comforter needs to be guarded.

We will pretend this is me being lazy...

The winter is a lazy time.  Don't get me wrong I love the winter, I love the snow, and snow sports rock!  But not much tops lazy afternoons, movies & hockey games to watch, cookies to eat and the like...  You know grand times.  The are much more common outside of Yellowstone!  And I am ok with that.  Sometimes you just don't want to do anything but laze about!

Grant Village (of the damned) YNP

So what else is lazy.  I think it depends.  Rocking on a porch gazing at a most beautiful lake... Probably.  Napping in overstuffed leather couches...yes!  Friends, drinks, late night chats... Coffee breaks and smoke breaks when you don't smoke... Sometimes lazy can be good.  Sometimes it seems like you need it in order to continue at a high pace... And maybe going places, where you can relax is lazy.  Not have to hike miles and miles just because.  But going somewhere that you can have as much fun, but don't have to always be movin'.  And it is not always a bad thing!

Petals: Yellowstone National Park

Sorry Micaela, I have to, I can't post about flowers without Y'stone.  It would be a tragic omission.  So as much as I don't want to, here is my petals entry about Yellowstone.  Yellowstone has some pretty awesome things in it, bears, mountain bluebirds, forest fires, and some awesome flowers. 

Probably my favorite flower in Y'stone is fireweed.  But sadly I don't have a good picture that I can find. :( It is such a pretty color, and it makes the dead fall, and burned areas look really cool the summers following a fire.  Yellowstone burns every year, in some area.  Usually it is a bunch of little fires, since 1988 at least.  But I have worked in the park for some pretty big ones.  It is always interesting to see the park the following years, to see the burn area, and the subsequent recovery.

 

The fun thing about Yellowstone flowers is that you never know what you are going to get.  There is a wide variety of flowers in the park, and sometimes they only show up for a short span of time.  Things like lily pads, I had never seen so many until Yellowstone.  Now in the spring, I expect to see them.  (I get them near home too now).  Yellowstone has ruined me.  But that was a good thing!