After Work Adventures 1 & 2

After work adventures are 'da bomb'. I get off work at 5pm and I feel that many employees do not take advantage of their evenings in Yellowstone. But I sure do! Here are two of my most recent adventures:

Adventure #1:

Walking along Yellowstone River (by the Canyon) with Paolo and George

These are my goofball friends Paolo and George:

We went to the brink of the upper falls and skipped rocks on the Yellowstone River. At one point, I thought it would be fun to throw a giant rock into the river... but I pick a rock that was too big... so I as approached the river, I dropped it right in front me... causing a HUGE splash. Fortunately, I didn't get splashed at all. Unfortunately, Paolo did:

*remember, it's freezing out here still and the water is coldcoldcold (poor Paolo).

Sometimes, it can be a lot of fun to throw things over the cliff and into the river...

AND then! Paolo lifted up a huge rock and found this under it:

I thought it was a condom. Paolo thought it was a hidden note or something silly. As he carefully opened it....

... it revealed ... a hidden note from August 16, 2010 and a St. Christopher coin!

We then ventured to "Artist's Point" because it's so flippen beautiful - even on a rainy day:

ADHD moment: I love moss!

and this picture of myself!

Adventure #2:

Hiking along Cascade Creek with Haley, John, and George

It was Haley's idea and we all went along with it - just walk along the creek that's semi-near our dorms. Not going to lie, it was okay. We didn't take a trail or anything - just walked along creek... through snow and mud... even when the snow was knee deep. I'm whining, I'm sorry.

Okay, here's the background story. John, George, and I were going to hike to the bottom of the Lower Falls of the Canyon. John and George kept trying to get Haley to come but she said she didn't want to. She then said that she did want to do a hike along Cascade Creek. And the boys said "okay". Haley is prettier than me (and tanner and skinner) so I tried to go along with it but really I just pouted the whole time and thought about how awesome it would be to hike to the bottom of the lower falls.

But it turned out to be a pretty okay time and it was quite adventurous. We took a small break on a bridge and I snapped this photo:

And here's the real kicker: WE SAW A BEAR. I had never seen a bear while hiking so that was exciting/pee my pants scary. It was a black bear so it skidded away as soon as it saw us. But it was pretty close and it did stare at us for a few seconds before running off.

So after that, we kept walking... the boys wanted to the find the bear and I wanted to go home. I felt like we were lost the whole time and I didn't like that feeling. So, when I saw the road - I went home while they continued to walk through mud and snow. . .

and that was okay with me :)