Brea Jones

Yesterday we toured jewel cave in South Dakota. The 700- stair walk was amazing. We also went to Mount Rushmore. Pictures are on the way.

South Dakota!

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We spent three days in Yellowstone National Park and camped two nights.

Fishing

Brea learning to fish on Yellowstone Lake. After the Prius had a dummy light problem, snow stopped us from hiking to a lake and getting lost the day before, we didn’t think we’d be able to fish in Yellowstone. Luckily the season opened on Yellowstone Lake June 15, our last day in the park.

Here Brea’s practicing to cast in the “lake.” But it seemed much more like an ocean with tide pools, sand bars and waves.

We are the only ones on this part of the beach.
In this picture, Cassie is reeling in her line. We weren’t successful in catching anything. But we probably wouldn’t want to eat any fish from Yellowstone anyway since all we could smell was sulfur.

Roadside stops

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Dragon’s Mouth Spring. It smelled like sulfur so badly I am surprised we are both smiling.

Hot springs and a hail storm made this stop exciting. It also smelled like sulfur, and the land was covered in bacteria mats. Cassie thinks my mom will think that is cool. She’s probably right.

South of Old Faithful

The Continental Divide runs right through Yellowstone, but most people can only tell by the flow of the rivers. Neither Cassie or I knew this, but the water in Yellowstone is directed to both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. On one side of the continental divide, the rivers and streams feed the Missisippi and Missouri rivers. On the other side, they feed the Snake and Colorado rivers.

There was plenty of snow around the peaks and valleys of Yellowstone. Most melted, but we found enough for a snowball fight along the side of the road.

Old Faithful

This geyser was right on time, as always. A crowd of about 1,000 people surrounded Old Faithful to see it erupt. While we waited for the estimated time – 1:42 p.m. – people kept saying it was going to blow because it steamed and gurgled. But a watched pot never boils, and their guesses were all wrong. The timely geyser did not disappoint.

Madison Campground

Our beautiful, wet campsite.

Madison Campground is near the Gibbons River. We tried to get a site as far away from RVs as possible, but the camp hosts were right across from us in their RV.

When we set up camp June 13, the temperature was in the high 80s, but that soon changed. Even though it rained and snowed while we camped, we managed to stay dry thanks to Cassie’s stellar tent (not pictured).

The site had a host of wildlife, but most impressive were the very friendly buffalo who made our campground their home. One was at the site more than we were.

They scared us more than once when we heard a loud groan outside our tent. Once we walked out of the bathroom only to see a buffalo less than 10 feet away.

After several days without Internet access or even cell phone service, I’m back! Here’s a round up of the past few days in Yellowstone National Park and some photos of our adventure that we took with cameras, not cell phones.

Seattle was amazing

I think that is enough to say. Cassie’s photos of her family are on the way, but we were able to see so much of the city in one day. One of the most amazing sights was the Space Needle. It was built in 1962 for the World Fair, and has an observation deck at 520 feet in the air. The elevator runs about 10 mph, so it was a quick ride and well worth it.
This is the view of downtown. There are many more pictures of the mountains and the water. Seattle is beautiful no matter which way you look.

Here is some proof we were there on June 12, 2006.

After a visit to Seattle Center, we headed to Pike’s Place Market.

We got coffee at the first Starbuck’s – pictures are on Cassie’s camera and will be here soon.

This is a few blocks from Pike’s Place.
I thought journalism majors weren’t supposed to like math. Oh well, I like pi.

This is the famous Ivar’s Restaurant in Seattle. We each had clam chowder, and we shared prawns and chips and fish and chips. Neither of us ate the fries because the fish was amazing and we didn’t want to waste it. The water served as a backdrop.

Family

Our first stop was supposed to be an overnight stay, but ended up being a nap stop in Tigard, Ore., with my aunt Elisabeth Southorn, my uncle Dale and my cousin Debbie. Debbie graduated at the top of her class from Tigard High School on June 9, so our June 11 visit was full of exciting news.

On the road

On our painstaking drive from Chico to Oregon, we caught this beautiful rainbow as we saw the sun rise. It helped boost our moods as we journeyed without much sleep to our first destination.

We’re in a new time zone. It’s a little after 6 a.m. We decided to drive straight from Seattle to Yellowstone, so we are about five hours away.