Yellowstone

Part of getting back to normal was having Andy take some vacation days!  I think he took 2 days in the past 2 years and they were used to work on the house.  To say he needed a vacation was an understatement.  We had planned on going to San Diego for a week and then we decided to postpone that trip and go for spring break so the kids wouldn't miss so much school.  After looking for ideas I brought up the idea of going to Yellowstone for a few days instead of taking a week off.  We booked our condo and didn't think much of it until the week before we were leaving.  Andy checked the weather and it was going to drop from the 60ºs to the 40ºs.  We wanted to cancel and do something closer but it wasn't enough notice to cancel. So we went with no expectations or plans and we were just happy to have time off together as a family.

We got there Wednesday around 4:30 and waited until 6 pm and our room still wasn't ready.  We were wanting to go to the IMAX theatre to see a show about Yellowstone at 6:15 so they ended up giving us a different room so we could check in.  Luckily the show runs on its own small town schedule so we made it with time to spare.  ;)

Thursday we went to see Old Faithful and other neat pools and geysers.  It was cold and windy.  We started the day at 25º and I don't think it got warmer than 38º.  The kids did really well though especially since there was so much driving involved.  I had no idea we would drive so much once we entered the park.  Everything is spread out and there were road closures which may have caused more mileage as well.  Old Faithful was erupting as we were walking up to it so we decided to sit down and eat lunch while we waited for it again.  Based on the size of the parking lots I would assume there are hundreds of people there at Old Faithful at any given time but we practically had the whole place to ourselves.  I would say less than a dozen people were there.  We had two benches all to ourselves and the 4 on either side of us were empty.  We stopped at other places along the way to see the different pools, mud pots, and other geothermal things.  Our favorite pool was the sapphire pool.  I told Andy that the pools and geysers are like the cathedrals in Italy.  They lose their novelty after a while. On our way back there were a herd of bison crossing the road.  We waited for them to cross and then we pulled over to a lookout spot and watched them cross the river.  It was a great way to end the first day.