after work adventuring this week...
hammocking on observation point
and the first time i ever wore a bikini and a down jacket at the same time.
it's getting cold in yellowstone.
with just 10 days left in this crazy place.    

the Beehive Geyser

some people sit and wait for hours to see this epic geyser, but we caught it accidentally on the way home from hiking.  and i sprinted down the boardwalk to get right in it.  

we climbed mount washburn, climbed down the other side, hiked to the canyon, identified mushrooms, skirted some bison, explored amazing backcountry hotsprings, hiked to the road, bought delicious roadside milkshakes...and then the boys drove home while i took an epic two-hour nap in the back of the Vanagon.  cheers to the freakin weekend.  

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.