vacation re-cap day 2

Sunday -- first full day in Yellowstone. Slept in a bit, got up, cooked breakfast, cleaned up & left the campgrounds to see the park. Mike complained that it took us until 10:30 to get out of the campgrounds. Dude, poptarts can be arranged if you don't cut it out.

Our first stop was Kepler Cascades. Just a little walk over a bridge to the overlook. Beautiful.

Got to the Upper Geyser Basin, parked and asked Mike what we needed to take. He said we "might want some water". So I grabbed the bottle I had been drinking from, some fruit leather for Thomas and a couple of Cliff bars, just in case. We got Thomas signed up at the visitor center to do the Junior Ranger and Junior Scientist programs. T and I scoped out a seat on the benches to wait for Old Faithful and started working on the Junior Scientist work. Mike walked to see some other stuff (Remember that "constant motion" thing from a few posts back?) and got back just in time. Thar she blows:

A short word about the division of labor for our trips. Mike plans the actual travel & packs his stuff. I pack for Thomas and I and do all the food prep planning and packing and worry about Thomas's weird food situation. So, having no clue what the "upper geyser basin" entails, but trusting Mike that we "might" want some water, we set out.

We saw some neat stuff - lots of geysers & hot springs, some geese on a stream, wildflowers, a bison carcass. Thomas had fun messing around with the Junior Scientist gear, taking temperature readings, looking at charts & just generally being nerdy.

ear spring - surface temp of the water 171 degrees!

grotto geyser

3 hours later, out of water, thirsty, blazing hot and sunburnt, we were back in the car and I was very displeased with my husband. We "might" want some water. Indeed. I "might" also want to strangle someone. Nevertheless, we found a picnic area and had our lunch and no one died.

We headed to the campstore in Grant Village, our campgrounds in the park. Remember how we were supposed to grocery shop in Jackson, WY but opted not to because we were burning daylight? The campstore was, as anyone could have guessed, understocked and overpriced. So much so that I wanted to drive all the way back (1 1/2 hour each way) to Jackson to go to a real grocery store. Ouch. We set out to do so, but then I came to my senses and realized I'd rather pay ridiculous prices than waste vacation time driving that far to grocery shop. So we turned back around, sucked it up and paid through the nose to get enough stuff for dinner and breakfast and some aloe for our sunburns.

Went back to camp, cooked supper, cleaned up and crashed.