After Work Adventure #4: Ribbon Lake the second round

I joined a Softball league. And it turns out I am awful at Softball . . . I took a picture to prove it. 

That is Michael - he another security guard guy. 

The field is all gravel and it really sucks. I might quit. I strike out a lot and it's really embarrassing. 

Like promised, I went back to Ribbon Lake. Unfortunately, John did not accompany me but Daniel and Robert did! They are also security guys:  

Daniel and Robert

It was a super good time. We tried to see that cascade but failed - I still think it's possible and I want to go back. I really love this trail. Its mostly tall trees, canyon, and fun bridges: 

Of course, there's fun pictures of me: 

I wore my favorite t-shirt. Sadly, I lost my cowboy hat. It was in my pack and fell out somewhere. That middle picture is the last picture I have of it.

But I did remember to take a picture of Ribbon Lake this time!

We had a good time! 

I love sunsets so I made the boys wait to watch the sunset and it was gorgeous!

And then I threw up: 

not really  

(it's the lower falls)

P.S. Remember when Marcus came to visit? Here is the picture of us (he e-mailed it to me - thanks Marcus!) 

After Work Adventures #3: Ribbon Lake

I haven't been going out and doing stuff lately. It's the laziness. I'm over the whole "living in Yellowstone National Park". I've seen it all. . . 

(That was my attitude last week)

Screw being lazy! My new goal: go out and do something after work everyday. There are 22 million acres to explore. The only hard part is finding somebody to come with me... For this adventure, I dragged John along. 

We hiked to Ribbon Lake. It's 2 miles there and 2 miles back (4 total) - really easy. There were several things that attracted me to this hike: 

1. Half a mile of it is along the Canyon
2. It's in woods that haven't been burnt (tall pretty trees)
3. If you go half a mile past Ribbon Lake, you can see a river that cascades into the Canyon (a 1200 foot drop)

So, John and I ventured off to Artist's Point and started walking... The view was amazing. It no joke looks like this for half of a mile: 

Absolutely Gorgeous... 

Of course, we have to stop and take the cheezy "facebook profile" pictures...

I have a confession to make. I've been lying this whole time. I am not in Yellowstone. I'm really living in Hollywood with some big hot shots who are really good at editing and blue screens. I think it's kind of obvious in these photos. My editor must have been slacking... 

Okay, that was a lie. These are real photos - but I do think they look tremendously fake.

I really enjoyed this hike. It's perfect - it has all the elements I love - rivers, trees, mostly flat with some small hills, and an end designation (compared to a hike that goes along a river) . There's a couple of bridges on the hike - one of them was very crooked:

After 2 miles, we made it Ribbon Lake! And! I didn't take any pictures of it... whoops. I was too excited about the 1200 foot cascade. O yeah, for y'all that don't know what a cascade is - it's basically a waterfall that descends over a bunch of rocks. 

So, we passed Ribbon Lake (actually we walked around it for a bit and then realized we were on Wapiti Lake trail... whoops) and found the Canyon again. We could hear the sound of the cascade but couldn't see it. The sun was really bright - here's an epic picture of John looking for the cascade: 

Bingo! We found it: 

But we were running out of day light time so instead of trying to get a better view, we headed back and promised ourselves that we would return within the next few days. 

I think my hair looks awesome in this picture: 

(I'm pretty sure the camera was still on sunset mode)

O yeah, also along the trail there was a bubbling pond- there are thermal features all over Yellowstone but I'm still surprised when I see a pond that is bubbling. I thought I saw a dead wolf in the bubbling pond...

...but it was just a log

Canyon is the coolest. This may not be the best picture (the sun was setting) but check out the colors: 

Ribbon Lake was a great hike. I have plans to go back tomorrow and I am very excited. I had to cancel plans with Mike who was going to give me a personal self-defense lesson but he said we can reschedule.

Random Happenings...

Sometimes, things can pretty boring around here. There are about 400 employees that live, work, and play together. Thankfully, we have a "Rec Center". The Rec Center's job is give employees things to do - they organize tournaments, hikes, trips to the city, etc. . . It's pretty awesome. I recently went to a few of their events - like the basket ball tournament: 

I was rooting for the team not wearing the orange jerseys. I was pretty excited - I kind of enjoy watching sports (sometimes). My team lost and I was really bummed for 2 hours. 

But I cheered up when a couple days later, I played BINGO. Yep - it was a great time. Here are some friends that I dragged along: 

Cricket. John. Mark. 

My (AWESOMEAMAZINGSUPERCOOL) friend Beckey mailed me all the ingredients for the best trail mix ever. She even included two zip lock bags labeled; "To Share" and the other "Annie's TM - Paws Off!". I brought the share bag to Bingo and all my friends loved me. 

That's Robert - he's a security guy. 

I just really like this photo...

Each Bingo card was a 25 cents, so naturally I bought 4. Robert won the first game ($6). And then I won the second game. And I won $11!!! Here is my winning moment - literally yelling BINGO! 

Everybody else was super bummed because $11 is a lot of money! 

Naturally, I went to the pub and then bought a six pack of Bent Nail IPA at the General Store. I drank some and then took a picture of Charlotte (another Resident Coordinator). She is quite adorable: 

She also likes to spread rumors...

Now to my days off. My first day off was really lame. It was raining and cold and miserable. I slept in and watched Nurse Jackie in my room all day. It was kind of nice to relax and be alone. 

The next day, I was determined to find something to do. One of my residents, Elijah, also had the day off so we went WHITE WATER RAFTING. I don't really have any good photos. But I have a picture of me in the wet suit and water proof jacket looking chubs: 

Rafting was AWESOME. I love to raft. Although, it's kind of pricy and my butt hurt A LOT - maybe I was sitting wrong or something... Also, while rafting we saw an otter and mountain sheep - that was swell. 

We then went to Bozeman - where Elijah is from. We went to his storage unit and I was surprised at how many cool things he had. He has swords and shields and axes and a whole lot of random things. So, I made him take pictures of me with his cool swag: 

We then ate dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and it was HEAVEN. I wanted to take a picture of my food but Elijah said that would be silly - so I didn't. I think he was wrong. 

RANDOM RANDOM RANDOM

I found a Brown Recluse Spider (I think/ almost positive) !!! If this isn't a brown recluse, please let me know. 

Also, look at this elf running: 

tehe

Long Story Short...

Blogging takes a lot of work. I'm skipping the wordy words on this one and getting to the point. 

Paolo was sick. We went to Lake. I took pictures: 

It's very peaceful at Lake.

Pelican! 

Trail closed :( 

The clouds are big and I like it. 

You know you are in a clinic in Yellowstone when....

Paolo was so sick that he needed 2 bags of fluids. 

Paolo thought the nurse was cute so he put his phone number under her door (with her permission). 

Cody, WY

Jessica and I went to Cody, Wyoming! Cody is the nearest city to Canyon Village (where I live) in Yellowstone. I wanted to go on a hike but Jessica said it would be worth my time - and she was right!

The drive to Cody was BEAUTIFUL. I'm not talking your normal mountains that are far off and pretty, I'm talking beauty that is all up in your face. Also, the weather at Canyon has been really gross (40 - 50s during the day and 30s at night- and cloudy/rainy), so to go to Cody (lower elevation) where it was 65 degrees and sunny was wonderful. It was more than wonderful, it was glorious!

See!? Beautiful! Jessica and I stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam. It was neat. I am a little bit confused on how this dam works - it looked like it was taking water from a lake that was really low but it looked cool (and that's all that really matters).

This is the ball they use to clog up the dam. I think it's crazy that it's made out of wood, yet it's a sphere.

As Jessica and I were walking, this random guy said he would give us ride the visiter center (it's about 1/8 of a mile - aka not far at all) but his cart was full - so he promised he would give us a ride back to our car. And sure enough he kept his promise.

Also, here is proof Jessica doesn't like her picture taken (middle photo).

When we got to Cody, we did some thrift shopping and walk around the neighborhoods. It was nice to walk around houses. It actually felt like spring - flowers were blooming and trees were green. I found this really odd tree that appears to have a normal trunk but "birch tree like" limbs. Also, a baby deer.

My favorite food is Mexican food. So, of course we ate Mexican! It's really strange how much you start miss simply things like restaurants and food options.

Dear Blog readers,

please be thankful for the opportunities to go out to eat and tacos whenever you want. Some people do not have that luxury and it sucks.

I just thought this was weird:

After eating Mexican food and going to that weird place with all the big horn sheep heads, Jessica and I went shopping on the main street and we looked for Lance.

Back Story: I worked with Lance in 2008 at Old Faithful. I knew he lived in Cody but I had no idea where. Jessica thought maybe he had a job working at a fly fishing store but she wasn't sure.

And guess what!? WE FOUND LANCE. He does work at a fly fishing store!

It was really exciting to see him again. He said he would give me fly fishing lessons for free! And I've really want to learn how to fly fish. I hope he wasn't lying.

I really love Cody. I could see myself living there someday. Lance said they only get about an inch of snow in the winter and that sounds wonderful. Look how cool it is to drive around, the mountains are in the background all the time:

So, we left Cody and made our way back home to Yellowstone. But just as we were about 1/2 mile outside of the park, there was an unusually long line of cars:

I went to find out what was going on. Apparently, there was an avalanche and it would take about an hour to clear the road. Jessica took a pictures of me walking back and I liked them, so I'm posting them even though they don't serve a purpose.

We didn't want to wait in the car for an hour so we went to a little stop where Buffalo Bill's hunting house was. His house was closed but the gift shop was open:

We also walked around outside and enjoyed the nature:

I like this picture of Jessica (see if you can find the bison and the antelopes):

After an hour we headed back to Yellowstone. It was really scary driving over the road where the avalanche just happened, but we made it. And saw a bear!

The drive home was just as beautiful as the drive there. We stopped at an overlook of Yellowstone Lake and it was gorgeous. You could see the Grand Tetons (middle picture):

When we were about 20 minutes away from home, there were some cars in the middle of the road stopped taking photos. This is not uncommon. But I was super curious what they were taking photos of because it was so dark outside. As I drove by, I saw something that looked like a monkey in the tree. So I pulled over, grabbed my camera, and walked towards it. It was a porcupine!

And that ended the awesome trip to Cody, Wyoming. Here's some photos of me that I like but couldn't fit anywhere: