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 :)

Lake Yellowstone and Adventures with Jessica

My day started out interesting...

I was awoken by my manager Jessica knocking on my door - she informed that James (a resident) sprang his ankle and he needed to be driven to the clinic at Lake Village (17 miles away). I was really sleeping and replied with a hazy "what?" She then informed that if I didn't drive him, he would have to take an ambulance that would cost a lot of money. So, the next thing I knew I was in my car with James and Caesar (his brother) listening to the Beatles and driving to Lake Village.

aww, brotherly love.

While James was getting his ankle checked out, I took the opportunity to walk around Lake Yellowstone. The lake is beautiful. It's about 17 miles long (I think) and right on the other side are gorgeous mountains. It was a good day to visit because it was one of the first warm days we had - meaning the ice on the lake was melting. I could hear it creaking and cracking and washing onto the shore.

I found a nice dead tree to sit on while I waited and read Blue Like Jazz.

Little tid bit about myself: I love the way dead trees look. I don't know why I find them so beautiful but I do. I was really excited when I found this tree (picture below) because not only is dead but you can see it's roots as well (also, there is a wonderful landscape behind it).

I went back to the clinic and James is going to be okay (yay!). I went to work and ate dinner with Jessica. By the way, if you were wondering who Jessica is - she is my manager and friend. There is an absence of photos of her because she doesn't like to have her picture taken (bummer, I know).

Anyways, Jessica and I had plans to hang out. We didn't have anything planned so we drove and ended up at the Upper Falls of Yellowstone River. These falls are INTENSE. They are so intense that I took a video and put it on YouTube. Watch this:

We then took a walk and I took pictures of things I like.

When we passed the goose again (about 20 minutes later), he was still there. I tried to throw a snowball at him. I am so evil but it was kind of fun.

We then drove to Artist's Point. This is the spot to see the Canyon. Maybe y'all are tired of seeing the Canyon or self portraits but I don't care - I'm going to keep posting them.

I couldn't decide which picture I liked best - so I posted both of them.

The absolutely cheesy, beautiful, wonderful, "so pretty it looks fake" Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Fairy Falls

I had the day off and I had to get out of the Canyon area and do something. My options were:

1) Go to West Yellowstone and order some pizza

2) Go to Cody and see the new X-men movie

3) Convince my friends to go to on a hike with me on their 5 hour break

After I checked my bank account, I went with #3. So, we (John, Paolo, and I) ate a quick dinner and headed to Fairy Falls. It's a 5.2 mile hike round trip to a beautiful waterfall that drops about 200 ft to a glimmering pool of water. It claimed the name "Fairy Falls" because the first visitors claimed to see dancing fairies as the water trickled down the cave-like cliff.

I was trying to be sly and take a candid photo of the boys walking on the trail but they noticed and started marching in unison. I really like hiking with them because they are very tall (I think John is 6'3") and I am average. It's kind of a fun feeling, I'm starting to see them as older brothers that are always goofing off.

Here are some cheesy pictures of me and the falls:

While I was wondering around and exploring, I realized the boys were not near me or the falls. Then I found them on the mountain side:

Can you find them?

Clue: Paolo is wearing black and John is wearing brown

We didn't run into any bears but we did see a lot of chipmunks and a couple bison:

As we were driving back and approaching Canyon Village - there was an ELK invasion! There were over 30 elk crossing the road right in front of us - single file style. It was beautiful.

All those tiny dots in the last photo are Elk.

I was really happy with the hike. Last time I was in Yellowstone, I weighed over 200 pounds. I am in much better shape now and I can tell. As I was typing the information about Fairy Falls, I couldn't believe that it was 5.2 miles. That is quite a distance for a hike that wasn't really planned ahead of time. We walked pretty fast and I never needed to stop to catch my breath - it was a great feeling.

Awww yeah! Feeling good and healthy!

Packages and Ice Lake

I got my first care package a couple of days ago. I was really excited.

It was filled with all sorts of goodies from the boyfriend, including a love letter and poem.

Everybody say it with me, "awww!"

Yesterday was the "shakedown". Basically, Xanterra (the company I work for) opens the dining room for the employees so the servers and cooks can get practice before the dining room opens for real. It was awesome - you can order anything you want. I ordered Top Sirloin and it was delicious!

Apparently, we all don't know how to take a proper photo. I blame it on the classiness of the place throwing all of us out of whack.

Then, today I got another surprise package. This one was from amazon. . .

100 Tootsie Pops! I love Tootsie Pops!

Also, from the boyfriend. Say it again, "awww!"

So, if you read my earlier entry, you know I was feeling pretty down. I didn't do much of anything until 5. I knew John got off of work at 5, so I went to bug him to see if wanted to go to the General Store so I could buy some ChocoVine. I told him about how I was all bummed because I didn't do anything on my day off and I was feeling like a loser... and then he invited me on hike! It was great to get out of the Canyon area (I was getting antsy).

He didn't have a hike in mind. His plan was to just drive until we see a trail sign. So that's what we did. And we found "Ice Lake".

There was a ton of snow (as always) but the sun was shining so it wasn't so bad! Ice Lake was... well a lake that was frozen. It feels good to get out and hike and be on a trail and conquer. I don't know what it is about hiking - I mean, really - you are just walking. I love it.

And on the way home, I snapped a good photo of the mountain that we live by. It's gorgeous!

I still feel antsy - which is kind of bummer. I really need to get out and meet some folks. Maybe I'll do that now. I have another day off tomorrow and I'm kind of dreading it because I don't have anything to do. I know! I'll get out of my stupid room and make some friends that hopefully have the day off too.

Also, I could be getting sick. I feel a slight cold coming. . . uh oh... (that could play a part in my depression level).