Yellowstone National Park

       Well, friends, we went to Yellowstone.  We drove there, stopping to visit friends on the way and on the way back.  It was a great trip, and we’ve probably got 17,000 posts we could do.  Luckily for you, we won’t have time to do that many, but we’ll try to do some so that you can see a bit of what we saw. 

We took the route that brought us in by the north entrance, since we stayed at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel for the first few nights.  Gorgeous scenery abounded on the way in.

And, really, what’s a road trip log without pictures of the car’s inhabitants?  With lovely scenery, to boot. 

Sim usually sits where Naomi is sitting in these pictures, but a bout of carsickness made it necessary to get Naomi as far forward in the car as possible.  Happily, the carsickness was not of the eruptive kind, just the intensely uncomfortable kind.  The move in the car helped.  The carsickness was only because of the 100 miles of winding road we had to take at one point in the trip.

Amusingly, we’d brought along a library book called You Can’t Take Your Body to the Repair Shop.  Their take on carsickness:  “The purpose of carsickness is to spread vomit all over the inside of the car in order to teach your parents a lesson about long, boring car rides.”  Yeah. 

You’ll be happy to know that, on the way back, Naomi’s carsickness on the same stretch of winding road was nowhere near as bad.  The move to a seat farther forward, gum chewing, eye closing, and – probably – the fact that we were driving it in the afternoon rather than the morning all helped.  We were all grateful.

Our first stop on the first morning was Mammoth Hot Springs, which we could see (and smell) from our hotel.  Sometimes it’s just too bright out there, especially for those of us who come from often-cloudy areas.

As cool as these pictures are, they still don’t do justice to the thing in real life.

Nor can you smell them.  The kids were divided on their opinion of the smell.  Some were reminded, fondly, of eggs.  Others thought the structures were cool, but the smell decreased the value of the tour. 

Can you IMAGINE being the first people to discover this place? 

This was the one and only boardwalk that Tess walked.  She was happy and excited, but it worried me too much to have her walking around when there were signs everywhere telling of the disaster and sadness that awaited those who stepped off the path.  Other boardwalks, Tess rode in the Ergo.