Nothing real interesting to report from yesterday. We arrived in Sausalito and ate some delicious soup made by Liz. Drank a few beers. Went to sleep. Drove all day before that. OH, YEAH, WE ALSO ATE BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!!!!!!!o
Today, we got up and sat around trying to decide what to do. We thought about going to Alcatraz but decided against it when we found out that the admission price was $26/person. We decided that wasn't nearly enough money to spend so we went out for an expensive lunch at the Beach Chalet. The Beach Chalet is a restaurant/former locker room on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. They also have a brewery there. Liz and I (wisely) ordered a sampler that included 8 of their beers.

After lunch, we walked around the beach a little bit and walked up to Cliff House which used to be an impressive structure with interesting things to do (Liz claims) but is now just a restaurant. We drove through Gold Gate Park, past the Painted Ladies (featured in the beginning of Full House) and drove down Lombard St and escaped with our lives. We then headed back to Rebecca and Kevin's place where we lazed about until we went to dinner at a place called Avatars Taquieria which featured "punjabi burritos." These, as you might guess, were indian burritos and quite tasty.

MY BIRTHDAY

Well, Portland has won itself a couple fans. Great birthday.

We started the day early with a trip to Pine State Biscuits for breakfast. Kate and I had heard about this place by watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network and knowing that Guy Fieri would never steer us wrong or act more enthusiasic about something than was warranted, we decided before leaving that this was a must-do. Guy and Pine State did not disappoint. Kate got the "Reggie" and I got the "Reggie Deluxe" which had been featured on DDD (we don't like thinking for ourselves). The Reggie consists of a biscuit with a piece of boneless chicken breast, gravy, bacon and cheese. The Reggie Deluxe, which I got because I thought I deserved an extra special treat since it was my birthday, adds a fried egg to the top of this artery clogging masterpiece. In short, it was delicious. It was messy and greasy and everything you would expect from a sandwich featuring the aforementioned toppings. Definitely worth the trip.

After consuming our allotted calories for the day, we drove back to the hostel to drop off the car and then walked downtown to explore a little bit. We stopped at an awesome record store called Everyday Music where Kate and I bought about 15 bargain CDs for about $34. The selection was unbelievable and if I were currently employed, I would have dropped some serious coin. But, given the current employment status of both of us, I felt I should control myself. Initially, I was going to deny myself completely but then when I saw that Kate had picked 5 or so bargain CDs out, I started to let myself dream. When I saw Waking Up The Neighbors by Bryan Adams (featuring Everything I do (I do it for you)), the floodgates opened. I somehow resisted buying C+C Music Factory for $3 so I didn't go completely over the falls. I'm not even sure what I purchased but it's all ok because it was cheap.

Riding high on my bargain hunter's delight, we headed over to Powell's Book Store which is apparently a Portland institution and is the largest independent book store in the country. We spent about an hour browsing the endless shelves and I walked away with five books in french for $20. Not a bad day of shopping.

We then came back to the hostel to rest our feet for a little bit before heading out to explore Washington Park and the International Rose Test Garden. The park was lovely and it was a beautiful day. We were really fortunate to have such great weather.

Dinner time. We went to a place called Henry's 12th Street Tavern which claimed to have over 100 beers on tap. So, I drank fifty and Kate had fifty. Our stupid waiter was from Michigan and asked us if we saw scUM cheat to beat IU yesterday as though it were some great accomplishment. I had a delicious beer from the area called Sinistor (sic)Black Ale from 10 Barrell Brew Company to accompany my ribeye steak and macaroni and cheese. I wasn't overly impressed with the steak. It was good but wasn't exactly what I was looking for in a steak.

After dinner, we hit up a bar in our hostel's neighborhood on NW 21 St called Pope House. Pope House is a bourbon bar and was Kentucky themed. They served Mint Juleps, Hot Browns and Derby pie amongst other things. We had to come all the way to Portland to hang out in a Kentucky bar. I got a flight of four bourbons and pretended like I'm good at distinguishing them from one another. The flight featured two bourbons that I had never had and Woodford Reserve which has always been one of my f avorites. After awhile they all just started tasting like bourbon but before I lost any ability to differentiate them I think I decided that Russell Reserve was the best of the new and that I was not impressed with 4 Roses. There were very few people in the place and those who were there seemed to know the bartender. The bartender turned on So, I Married An Axe Murderer starring Mike Myers which I hadn't seen in years. So, we watched the first half of that until we were done with our drinks and derby pie (duh, we got derby pie) and realized we were too full to be sitting upright and came back to the hostel.

Tomorrow, we head to San Francisco where we will have to tolerate the company of Liz Ralph. Blech.

Big thanks to Amy for letting a couple of squares know what the cool kids do in Portland.

SAME AGE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Kate's birthday was yesterday and my birthday is tomorrow. Kate was born in 1984 and I was born in 1983. So, this is the one day of the year that Kate and I are the same age. We spend pretty much all day needlessly asking one another how old we are.

"Hey, Thomas. How old are you?"

"Me? Oh, I'm 25. Why? How old are you?"

"Hmm. That's weird. I'm 25, too."

"Oh, that's so weird that we're the same age."

It's better when we have an audience to annoy but that was not the case today unfortunately.

We got up in Vancouver around 8 AM, had our complimentary muffins and left for Portland. We had to wait for like 40 minutes at the border and during our wait Kate spotted an eldery couple in a car with a bumper sticker that said something to the effect of "I wonder if you'd drive better with that car phone shoved up your butt." I don't know what else to say about that.

Today being Saturday, we were obligated to stop for services. We found a sports bar just south of Seattle where we hoped we would be able to attend worship. I was a little concerned that we would not be able to see the broadcast or there would be too many people watching something else to convince the proprietors to change the channel. These fears were alleviated as soon as we walked in and saw Terrelle Pryor on about 5 different television sets. We decided to make today my birthday lunch. So, for the next three hours, I drank beer, ate mediocre chicken wings and nachos, and watched the Buckeyes shutout Juice Williams and the rest of Fightin' Illini. Throughout almost the entire game, we were the only people in there apart from the bartender/cook. I think at one point there might have been four other people there. So, we had the place to ourselves and were able to watch the game WITH AUDIO. Great success.

Following our lunch break, we hit the road for Portland. We arrived at our hostel around 6 pm and there were a couple of kids waiting at the front desk and now employee present. Kate hit a page button that was on the desk with a note attached to it saying "Press if no one is at desk." These two geniuses saw this and said, "How'd you find that? We were looking for something like that for like five minutes." Really? It took my wife all of about 0.25 seconds. When an employee did arrive, the young gents said, "Yeah, we're looking for a hostel." The front desk guy, to his credit, said "Yes, this is a hostel" or something to that effect rather than taking the opportunity to be snarky (as I would have). "Can we get a room?" "Do you have a reservation? We're all booked for the night." Obviously, these two do not have a reservation. The guy offers a list of other budget accomodations in the area which the ring leader briefly glances at and then says, "Yeah, I'm over it." He gives the front desk guy an awkward high five and he and his cohort leave. I'm not sure what sort of shenanigans these two were planning to get involved in that they felt they needed a hotel room but I'm pretty glad that their attempts were foiled. I sort of wish that Adam, the front desk guy, had ust made up the fact that they were booked full but if it was a lie, he must be a compulsive liar because he said it to other people.

Kate and I went for a brief walk through the neighborhood which is home to a lot of cool restaurants, bars and shops. Tomorrow, I think we are going to go to a biscuit place we saw on the Food Network, check out a famous bookstore called Powell's and visit some of the city parks.

CAUGHT UP!

KATE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday, we woke up around 9:30 and went down to the coffee shop/bakery connected to our hostel where we received a free muffin and coffee (I actually drank coffee) for being hostel guests. We took our breakfast to a small park across the street and only saw about 3 or 4 drug deals go down while we ate. Vancouver is VERY tolerant of marijuana and cops tend to turn a blind eye to these things so I'm assuming that these were all pot deals but I don't know. About half a block away from the park is Marc Emery's Cannabis Culture Headquarters which is owned by (you guessed it!) Marc Emery who is a huge legalization advocate in B.C. and was featured in the film "Super High Me." Next door is a place called New Amsterdam Cafe where you are allowed to smoke weed though they do not sell it there.

No, Kate and I did not smoke weed in Vancouver.

After our breakfast, we walked across town to the Yaletown district of Vancouver where Kate had picked a Thai place for lunch called Simply Thai. Arriving before we were really hungry for lunch, we walked around the neighborhood a little bit where we stumbled upon a park with swings. We spent some time on the swings and various park benches before heading over to Simply Thai. Lunch was quite good and we both ate too much as we weren't going to be taking away any leftovers. I had Chicken Pad Thai and Kate had Red Chicken Curry. Despite saying out loud that we should take a picture of the sign and of our meals, we still forgot.

After lunch, we grabbed the car and headed over to Stanley Park (which I assume is named after the Stanley Cup). The park is ENORMOUS and is right on the water with great views of downtown. While walking around, we found a bench covered in buckeyes which made Kate claim yesterday to be "THE LUCKIEST DAY EVER." Lots of people rollerblading and riding bikes. Very cool. Very Canadian (like me).

Post park, we headed back to the hostel for a bit where Kate took a nap and I caught up on some blogging (you're welcome, world). We then headed across the street to a very nice Lebanese restaurant called Nuba that Kate had picked from the internets. Our waitress was a super nice, super Canadian young lady that reminded me of Winona Ryder. We ordered a bottle of wine which our waitress assured us was from a "sustainable, Chilean winery." This knowledge allowed me to sleep last night. Dinner was very good. Kate had beef tenderloin, rice and hummus and I had lamb kafta and falafel. I did feel like we were borderline not cool enough to be in the place but we seemed to fool them well enough. A man who I assumed was the owner came over and wished Kate a happy birthday and talked to us a little bit. We also received a free piece of baklava that had been flown in from Toronto (our waitress told us that apparently no one in Vancouver can make very good baklava). I can confirm that this baklava was good.

Afer dinner, we headed back to the hostel bar where we continued the birthday celebration. When I told the waitress not to steal my identity when she took my ID to keep our tab open, she told me that she didn't want it because I was american. She defused the situation by telling us that she loved the states and had lived in New York for 4 years. I told her that I lived in Quebec for 4 months. I'm not sure she was impressed.

Over the Border

Kate and I got up at Chez Wahlborg around 9 AM and headed downtown to go to the Experience Music Project that we had considered going to the previous day but were scared away when Ross told us that it cost $30 to get in. After Ross set us straight on the fact that current admission price was $15 and gave us a buy one, get on free coupon, we decided we could afford to invest in this activity. (This was not as good as the deal that Ross initially promised us which was that if we mentioned his name at the door, they wouldkick everyone else out of the museum and summon the ghost of Jimi Hendrix to give us a private tour.........needless to say, this turned out to be an unfounded claim).

The museum was really cool and certainly worth the $7.50 that we ended up paying per person. Ross informed us that the museum is essentially the private collection of Paul Allen (of Microsoft fame) who wanted to show off all the vintage guitars that he had been throwing his money away on for decades. It is definitely an impressive collection. The museum featured a large amount of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia which we did not peruse at all. There was a history of the electric guitar exhibit that was interesting and had Kurt Cobain's guitar from the Smells Like Teen Spirit video. There was also a display entitled "The Northwest Passage" that detailed many of the performers from Seattle and the general northwest US that achieved some amount of commercial success. Who knew Sir Mix-a-Lot was from Seattle? The exhibit really made me start to think about how much the grunge movement affected me as a ten or eleven year old kid and how it influenced everything that I've listened to since. It also made me convince myself that I wanted to go buy Alice In Chains entire back catalogue which I would probably quickly regret. Upstairs from these exhibits, they had a sound lab where you could play various instruments (guitar, bass, electronic drums, keyboards, etc.) I haven't had the opportunity to play guitar or drums in awhile given that all that stuff is in storage and it was nice to screw around on that stuff. They also had a theremin which was super cool.

After the museum, we headed straight to Vancouver, B.C. which was about a 2.5 hour drive. Luckily, we were not searched at the border. I was slightly concerned that we might get a hard time for having so much crap in our car but those fears were unfounded. Our hostel was really cool but on the border between the sketchy part of town and one of the cute neighborhoods (Gastown). The hostel was in an old building above a bar that claimed to have been in operation since 1897 or something. It made me feel like I was in Europe again and made me want to go straight to the bar and proceed to get shit faced. After gorging myself on spaghetti that we made in the hostel kitchen, we took a quick walk through Gastown and around Downtown. Vancouver is right on the water and surrounded by mountains so our walk had some pretty remarkable views. After our walk, we hung out in the room for a bit and then gave in to the temptation of the bar downstairs. We split a couple of pitchers of Canadian beer, watched some preseason hockey (so awesome to be surrounded by people that care about hockey) and ate some chicken fingers. The bar got pretty full for a Thursday night. This was a late night for us but we wandered up to bed around 11 pm.

This is a steam power clock in Gastown. Not sure if you can tell but there is steam rising from the top of it......because it's steam powered.

"I like your glasses.....they're very Seattle."

We awoke on the morning of September 23 and headed to Downtown Seattle after a breakfast of pop tarts. First stop: Pike Street Market aka THE PLACE WHERE THEY THROW THE FISH!!!!!!!!!!!!! The market was a lovely place and would've been even more lovely if I wasn't guarding my wallet like a Jonas brother clinging to his virginity. Lots of cool vendors selling flowers, fruit, donuts, meat, and fish and other lame vendors selling useless crap. One savvy salesman saw Kate and I for the rubes that we are and started talking to us. He started with:

"Congratulations."

"What? Are you talking to us?"

"Yeah, congratulations."

"Congratulations, you're at the produce stand."

"Oh, yes. I suppose we are. Thank you?"

We made small talk for a moment and then the guy asked me how old I was. I told him I am 25.

"Oh, I thought you were older than me. I'm going to be 30. No offense."

He then tells me, "I like your glasses. They're very Seattle."

This is funny to Kate and I because I was very much on the fence about buying my current glasses b/c I didn't think I could pull them off. My impression of them was that they were essentially "too Seattle." So, Kate wins. Damn. The guy was quite the salesman and talked us into buying an apple. I hope he's able to retire on the commission from that one.

After our walk in the market, Kate and I split up and took a couple of hours to ourselves to wander around the Waterfront/Piers area. After reuniting, we read in our atlas about a "Don't Miss Drive" that offered great views of Seattle and the surrounding bays and mountains. Given that this was a free activity and we were at a loss for things to do, we decided to take this drive. We took some good pictures and stumbled upon a couple really nice parks. One was called "Parsons Gardens" and seemed to be someone's private garden that had been donated upon their death. Whatever the backstory may be, it was lovely.

Seattle Bound

After packing up the contents of our cabin, we took a quick hike and Glacier National Park around Johns Lake and then headed for Seattle a day earlier than anticipated by our itinerary. The hike was nice but not as good as Avalanche Lake. We travelled from the road through the woods to a small mountain lake that did not have an accessible beach area like Avalanche did. We then walked some more through the woods and came out on the road a little way down from our car. We followed the along the McDonald river for a little bit and then crossed over the road again and headed back to the car. The hike was fairly uneventful aside from the highlight of Kate falling on her face about 45 seconds after telling me to be careful. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that.

We then started our trek to Seattle. As we drove through Lolo National Forest, Kate was doing the speed limit of 70 mph. Not 15 seconds after I uttered the dangerous words, "This is going to be an experience" as I looked across the terrain we were about to cross, ANOTHER FUCKING BEAR ran out into the road. Luckily for this little guy, though he didn't really seem concerned, Kate was able to slow down in time and not hit the bear. He casually strolled across the road and was gone before I was able to successfully obtain the camera. This, once again, tipped the scales in favor of the bears in the shower to bears seen ratio....3:2. This was an interesting drive all around. It was amazing the diversity of landscapes seen; how we were able to go from absolutely gorgeous to boring as hell in a matter of minutes. This drive took us through beautiful mountain landscapes as well as boring, dry rolling farm land. We drove byLake Coeur D'Alene in Idaho where my mom swears she is going to retire so I made sure to call her to gloat under the guise of checking on the dog. During this drive, we listened to the entirety of Holidays On Ice written by and read by David Sedaris. Around 7 pm, we arrived in Lynnwood, WA where we stayed with our friends Ross and Jessica who were good enough to put us up for two nights despite the fact that we initially told them that we would only burden them for one night. We watched Jeopardy and Spinal Tap (which by a gross oversight on someone's part Jessica had never seen) and were in bed by 10 pm. Ross and Jessica earned extra points by cooking hot dogs for us, providing us with an air mattress and aiding us in tipping the scales of the bear:shower ratio back in the right direction just as quickly as it had been tipped in the favor of the beasts.

The Columbia River Valley could double for Afghanistan.

The ratio is finally reduced

Around 9:30, I rolled out of bed after a comfortable night's sleep in Glacier National Park. I was bundled up in my sleeping bag and was quite warm despite the freezing temperature outside the tent. It was a beautiful morning as far as I was concerned. The feeling was not shared by my wife, however. She had been up for two hours and was freezing despite going to buy herself hot chocolate. She said she woke up around 1:30 AM and her teeth were chattering. True to our agreement, I conceded to striking camp and pursuing a cheap motel room. We first went to a motel inside the park that was just down the road from our campsite. Their rates started around $90. Too rich for our blood. We drove out of the park, past a few no vacancy signs until we found a place with rooms. It looked cheap as hell. Surely, they'd have something we would consider to be a reasonable rate, right? After failing to find the office for a couple of minutes, we saw a sign that said "Rates starting at $90." Fuck. There must be some sort of conspiracy going on, right? We drove a little more and saw the KOA where we had been told we could take a shower. At this point, I was working up my nerve to haggle a little bit. I figured the hotels might be willing to make a deal given that it was at the end of the season and business was slow. We drove into the KOA not knowing if they even had anything other than traditional campsites. Surely, if they had them, they would advertise it, right? We drove down a wooded road thinking that we might just be wasting our time. Then, we saw cabins. Awesome. We walked in and talked to the woman jn the office. I expected her to say "The cabins start at $90" and I'd offer her $40 and maybe I could get her to let us pay $60 since we looked so pathetic. To our surprise and delight, she said, "The cabins start at $49.99." "SOLD." They also had wifi. This was pretty much following the exact fantasy story line that Kate had outlined before we left the campground.

So, we spent the morning screwing around on the internet and SHOWERING. This brought the shower to bear ratio back to 1:1. Thank God. I felt like a new man after my shower and a little contact with the outside world.

After lunch in the cabin, we drove back into the park to take a hike to Avalanche Lake on the west side of the park. The hike was through gorgeous pine forest and followed a mountain creek for most of the way. Part of the stream went through a very dramatic gorge with smooth red rocks and multiple waterfalls. The hike was about two miles long and was quite hilly. In the end, we gained about 500 ft of elevation according to our guide but covered more ground than that with all the ups and downs. It was a pretty good work out and I was feeling pretty good about myself until I overheard a woman at the top of the trail who claimed to be 83 years old and was also waiting on her niece to finish the trail. 83! If I can still walk at all when I'm 83, I think I'll be doing good but this woman just DESTROYED this mountain hike and was waiting on her (presumably substantially younger) niece to get her lazy ass up the trail. Damn.

After our hike, we came back to the KOA for a poorman's dinner of ramen. We then watched Monday Night Football, drank a few 7 & 7s and went to bed happy.

Into the Wild.........again

The next day, we got up early, packed up our stuff and got out of the campsite and on the road by 7:20. We planned to stop at Mammoth Hot Springs in the North of the park to take showers. We made great time and got to Mammoth at 8:00 AM. We may have been too efficient because the showers didn't open until 9. Not wanting to waste time sitting around for the showers to open, we decided to remain dirty a little longer and shower when we arrived at Glacier National Park (at some point I'll admit that we just don't like showering but not quite yet). So, we hit the open road and headed for Montana (a new state for Kate).

As an aside, I don't think I've mentioned this yet but every time we go to a state that Kate has not yet visited, she has a little song that she sings:

NEW STATE! It's a state that I've never seen before.

NEW STATE! It's a place that I've never been before.

It's pretty damn catchy.

The drive was fairly uneventful from what I recall. We listened to the John Grisham book and looked at the scenery. It started to rain a little bit and it got a little cold which was our first run in with "inclement" weather but we were lucky to be in the car rather than trying to take a hike or something.

We stopped for lunch in Missoula, Montana which we thought was sort of a cool, hip, college town where we could go to some cute brewpub and in reality, it may be just that but that was not the Missoula that we encountered. We went to the Oxford Saloon which claimed to have been there since 1883. I don't know what it was like in 1883 but in 2009 it was filled with drunks and meth addicts covered in denim and leather. We were concerned about our attire/smell given our hygiene over the past week so on the bright side, that concern was quickly put to rest. We fit right in in terms of bathing habits. There was a woman in a t-shirt and windbreaker pants.....I don't think she had time to change before coming to The Oxford straight from 1993. I'm pretty sure we saw the beginnings of a drug deal that finished up outside. Everyone just looked spaced out and several people were just sort of aimlessly wandering around. Kate and I were both wearing Ohio State shirts and as we walked in, some guy said, "Looks like the Buckeyes are here." I didn't know what to say so I just said "Uh, yeah....." It was a lot like an old west movie where some one walks into a bar and they say, "we don't serve your kind" or "we don't take kindly to city slickers in this neck of the woods." In the end, I was happy to eat a meal that wasn't pb&j and get a chance to watch a little bit of football. The food wasn't half bad and if they have to do a little meth to get motivated to make it for us, so be it.

A few hours later, we arrived in Glacier National Park. After setting up camp, we went to the visitor center, talked to a ranger and discovered that the Going To The Sun Road would be closed for the season at midnight. I had been to Glacier before and driving that road was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip so I insisted that we once again forego the showers we were planning to take and drive as much of the road as we could be before dark. For those that don't know, Going to the Sun Road is the road that traverses the park from east to west and winds through the mountains, crosses the continental divide at Logan's Pass and in the process affords the driver with breathtaking views. I've just learned from wikipedia that the road was featured in The Shining and Forrest Gump. This road is possibly my favorite place that I've ever been on planet Earth. Words and pictures do not do it justice but I will post some of both anyway. All I can say is that if you ever get the chance to go on this road, TAKE IT.

After the drive, I cooked steak and uncle ben's rice for dinner which was magically delicious. We started a fire and watched it burn while we drank some wine. Then we bundled ourselves up for the night and went to bed. The weather was supposed to get down into the 20s and Kate was nervous about it but courageously agreed to try it for a night and if it was too cold, we would find other arrangements.

Edit: I forgot to mention that within 10 minutes of starting our drive up Going to the Sun Road, we saw another bear. This made the bear to shower ratio 2:1.

Yellowstone: Day 2

I'm going to catch up. I swear.

For our second full day in Yellowstone, we spent the morning driving across the park to change campsites which we thought would allow us to shower. This turned out to be a nothing but a childish delusion. The drive was filled with wonderful views and we encountered about one million bison. Being enormous animals, these beasts do not hesitate to cross the road whenever they feel like it and to take their time in doing so. Sometimes they just take a stroll down the middle of the road.

After moving camp. we ate heartily of velveeta shells and cheese, steeled our resolve and left to take a hike along the rim of the Black Canyon of Yellowstone. The hike was about two miles each way and followed the rim of the canyon about 800 feet above the Yellowstone River. The canyon itself is gorgeous. There are many sheer drops and interesting rock formations that you can't really find anywhere else. The view away from the canyon was just as good: open land as far as the eye can see.

The hike was tiring because I'm out of shape. It was around two miles each way and we gained about 800 feet in elevation. I made sure to stretch afterwards.

We had planned on showering after our hike because we're civilized people and that's what civilized people do after getting sweaty. However, this was not to be. Roosevelt Lodge (our first choice for showering) was closed for the season. Oh, no matter, we'll just go to the Canyon Campground showers because we want to check out the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone anyway. No big deal. Except that when we arrive there, we search around the visitors center for a sign for showers. There is no sign. I ask a ranger dude. Yeah, the showers have been closed for the season along with the campground but we're free to drive another hour north or south to where there are showers. No thanks. We'll just shower on the way out of town tomorrow morning. That'll undoubtedly go off without a hitch. At this point, we haven't showered since Minneapolis. We've taken one shower on this trip. We've seen that many bears on our trip so far. For every shower we've taken, we've seen one bear. There is a problem with that ratio.

We've been in the car long enough for today so we decide to remain dirty and check out the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone which is impressive but not as impressive as the real thing.

Yellowstone: Day 1

The first thing we did on our first day in Yellowstone was leave Yellowstone. Grand Teton National Park is just south of the park and because we were staying in the extreme south of Yellowstone, it seemed a little silly not to go see it. It seemed to be just a hop, skip and a jump away. We did not anticipate the delay of construction. What should have been a 45 minute drive ended up being an hour and a half. The Tetons were certainly reward enough to warrant the drive but we hadn't anticipated spending over 3 hours in the car on a "non-driving" day.

After our excursion to the Tetons, we hit up the Upper Geyser Basin and saw what everyone has been waiting for........OLD FAITHFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It looks a lot like it does on TV. The main difference is that you can't smell it.......until they invent smellovision.

We were pretty exhausted after all this and went back to the camp site, ate some sausage and cheese and went to bed around 9 pm.