watching people watch geysers.

after i snapped these photos on the boardwalk yesterday, i stumbled upon these completely awesome sightseer portraits from yellowstone and other tourist destinations.  i am in love with them.

i think peter pan might have built the old faithful inn.
lodgepole pine railings and an enormous rhyolite fireplace and crows' nests and chaos.
so glad to be spending my last yellowstone days in this building, with the other lost boys.

the grand canyon of the yellowstone.

we just got "home" after a day of girlie fun in jackson and teton village.  i got my very first massage today.  i got oiled up by a strange russian man in a darkish room, with easy listening jazz on the stereo, and i didn't feel too weird about it at all.  and then there was coffee and sushi and carmel apples.  it's looking a little bit like fall here, but i'm getting excited for autumn in the midwest.  i'm headed to southern illinois and minneapolis and wisconsin in just 22 days!  

mud volcanoes, thermal pools, geyser runoff, fire and brimstone
(at midway geyser basin, artists' paint pots and the west thumb geyser basin)

how to feel better about everything:
put on paul simon "graceland" and drive to the lake.

starting the weekend off right: a hike to faery falls after work, and a scramble up to the grand prismatic overlook, and a stroll around the black sand geyser basin.  the landscape is so strange and beautiful here, we can't help but "oooh" and "ahhh" our way across it.

i'm working at the old faithful inn for the last five weeks of the summer.  old faithful is an entirely different animal.  roosevelt was small and rustic and often quiet.  here there are people everywhere, swarming the old faithful boardwalk, running around with geyser schedules, hoping to see things erupt, photographing everything.  

and there are amenities here that i had all but forgotten about - phone and internet and bike paths and a salad bar full of veggies!  

the hotel dining room is enormous.  i have been working nonstop since i got here and i'm feeling overwhelmed.  no time for adventuring in this new part of yellowstone like i wanted to.  but i will all be worth it come november - i need some mad money for the TRIP TO PUERTO RICO that i just booked!  bring on the beach!