trip planing

Finnaly, Em got her official winter contract on paper, and not just in verbal form from somebody. For me it means that I can start to plan trip from Minnesota to the World and back . Plane tickets are booked and we are leaving at 6.30 from Minnesota to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to New York on Friday the Second. Then we are leaving from New York on Monday the Fifth and we are flying to the Prague we we are going to stay   one day or so. Next on the plan is Slovakia and Slovenia. On our arrival to US we are flying from Prague to France, and then from France to Toronto, and then from Toronto to Minneapolis.All this on November 20th.
Now I just have to book hotel in New York and plan our tourist wondering. It`s gonna be awesome!

Christmas Time Is Here!

Once Upon a time, in the early years of Yellowstone National Park, there was a snowstorm on August 25th. It was  a whopper of a storm and everyone was stuck in the Inn for a day or so. The guests, and staff made light of the situation by throwing a Christmas party. The tradition continues on today!

Employees volunteering to decorate cookies. The Asians said they had never done it before... seems to me they are basically pro.

I helped decorate the lobby with some of the managers, and the skills I learned as an apprentice to my mother during her Church lady days.

Santa even came! He came down from the crows nest in the lobby. The kids were freaking out and saying things like: "how did he know we were here???? Were on vacation!" the foreign kids gave him quizzical looks as if to say "why is Santa speaking English?"

Natural Arch

Today Roman and I drove down to Bridge Bay Marina to hike Natural Arch. It was pretty cool, I remember doing this hike last time I was here. We ran into a family of Russians on our way too.

Natural Arch

Today Roman and I drove down to Bridge Bay Marina to hike Natural Arch. It was pretty cool, I remember doing this hike last time I was here. We ran into a family of Russians on our way too.

Romanians Fix Everything with a Hammer....

Or at least thats what they all told me when I was driving to Gardiner. I got off work early, and they were searching all day for a ride to Gardiner to go rafting. There was four of them we were the beginning  of many jokes: 4 Romanians and an American etc...

We got there early, so I showed them how to have fun with statues. We also went to the K-Bar for a pizza. they ordered "the crazy woman" pizza... I told them that they already had a crazy woman.

It was fine.....

until it started raining.

The dining room roof has been under construction all season so far. Last week  the managers stood in near the buffet, jaws agape, staring at the sky through the ceiling. Soon after the gap in the roof was discovered a 4 inch bold fell on an employee working at the buffet. He said it didn't hurt, that it was funny, and thought Chef might want to do something about it.

Pat conquered her fear of heights to go upon the roof adorned with a hard hat to give the workers a good talking too.

Monday.... was a day of terror for any manager on duty. It started raining. and by raining, i mean Pouring! the rain was leaking all over the roof, and inside the fully seated dining room at 5:30p. Not only was the floor strew with buckets and pans to catch the water, but the water got into the smoke detector and alarmed the building.

The WHOLE building- forcing everyone staying in the hotel out into the rain. Eventually the rain subsided, and guests were fed, but half of the dining room was soaked.

I didn't witness anything until morning when I came in and was wondering why the Bear Pit- Bar was filled with people enjoying their breakfast. Half of the dining room was still flooded, so they had to move the tables into the bar- so we could still seat to capacity.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Photobombing

The lobby of Old faithful Inn is very unique and historical. Its the kind of place that millions of people each summer walk into, and immediately take out their cameras and attempt to capture the essence of the Inn. You can almost here the machine gun like sound of the shutters on all the cameras- which makes this a perfect place for a photobomb.

On occasion, when Roman and I treat ourselves to ice cream, coffee, or a drink at the bar, we go to the second floor and wait.... for a camera. We sure do amuse ourselves. I wonder how many pictures we are in of other peoples vacations.... I wonder if they've noticed....

Minnesota Visitors!

Today we got to see Ruth and John! They treated us to a delicious breakfast, and we showed them around Old Faithful... They didnt have time to walk all around the geyser basin, but they got to see the buffalo bones in Blue Star spring!

Questions Of the Day

In order to entertain ourselves at work, Sous Chef Tom and I came up with a game: Question of the Day. You get as much time to think of each question as you want, and usually it turns into a full kitchen survey. Here are some of the questions we've all pondered:

1. What would your super power be?

2. If you had acess to all the crayons in the world, what would you do with them?

3. If you could go anywhere and bring only 5 things, what would they be, and where would you go?

4. If you could create any pet with a combination of any animals real, or fictional, what would you create?

5. If you were a Muppet, based on personality, which one would you be?

6. If you were a disease or sickness, what would you be? (we made this up on a day where everyone was crabby)

7. If you could be any children's tv/movie/cartoon character, who would you be?

8. If you could live in any era, what would it be, and what would your occupation be?

Traveling With Slovenians

Today we went on an adventure with our Slovenian friends Marko and Mateja. We went on a hike to ferry falls. On the way there we climbed up this hill to take pictures of Grand Prismatic- the largest hot springs. Its super pretty. 

When we got to ferry falls there were rasberry bushes everywhere! I was really excited, I left non for the bears or small rodents. I ate them all.

Roman was pretending to be a bear, and attack me and steal my raspberries. After the hike we went swimming again at pocket basin. Mateja and I went down the rapids, but the boys were a bit too nervous I think.

Lake Yellowstone

Today Roman and I set out to explore Lake Yellowstone. Our car did make it there, but it had a few "tired" moments. We went to Lake Hotel and saw the lobby, and picked up some post cards at the gift shop there. We also walked along the shore and had a delicious picnic lunch with our friends the Muskrats. They were pretty friendly.

Next, we picked up some Hitchikers (our friends from somewhere in Asia that we work with) and went to Bridge Bay. They rented a row boat.... it was funny to watch them try to get out of the marina. We took a scenic boat cruise.

The cruise was fun, but after the ranger told us a few facts that I know are incorrect, I spent more time looking at the smokey blue mountains than hanging on his every word like the rest of the retirees on the boat. We saw a shipwreck and some Bald Eagles. I got sleepy, as I usually do on boats. It was very relaxing. The Lake was calm, and the weather was hazy from the forest fires and from the dreary weather. I had a great time!

Shipwrecked!

Fires in Yellowstone map : http://www.nps.gov/yell/parkmgmt/upload/20120808_1630_allfirestarts.jpg

Doodly Dooo

A treasure map I drew for Tom- to get to the hot springs you can swim in :D

Everybody's fighting their own battle

inspired by "question of the day" - If you could create a pet from any combo of animals what would you make?

Our Weekend in Bozeman

We set out for Bozeman after work on Thursday for a weekend with Auntie  Linda, and Bob. We made it almost to West Yellowstone before our car started to act up. We didnt think it would make it all the way there so we rented a car and set out for our destination again.

Our Rental Car

Bob- Making Lattes with his new toy

 We made it to Linda safely! we had a great time chatting and watching the Olympics. Saturday we did a lot of shopping and other city things. We even got to cook our own dinner. We made tacos for Linda and Bob while they set up for the SLAM show.

Linda and Em at Support Local Arts and Music Festival

On the way home we stopped at Norris Hot springs. It is a really rustic swimming hole basically in the middle of no where. we had organic nachos and local beer. It was very relaxing. We also took a short cut back through Idaho and Targee National Forest.

Norris Hot Springs MT

Once we got towards town we saw a "Mountain Man Festival" we stopped to check it out. It was a whole village of people trading 'mountain man' type things. It was similar to a voyager village or something. West was really busy because there was also an auto show that roman found really intriguing.

Idaho-Montana Boarder

Mountain Man Festival

Crazy Mountain Man Hat

Kids playing with axes... that seems safe.

West Yellowstone Auto Show