Yellowstone Trip - Part 3

THURSDAY'S PICTURES - OLD FAITHFUL DAY!

Thank goodness the sun came out and the blue sky was back.

Water logged dead trees at the lower geyser basin

Celestine Pool where a guy once ran in after his great dane.  He died (and the dog), but not after 2 days of excruciating pain and his skin falling off from jumping into a 200 degree pool (Annie heard about this story from a guide on the boardwalk and then I read it in a book at a bookstore.  Totally weird.)

More geysers on the boardwalk

James' vantage point when he wandered off while we were waiting for Old Faithful to go off.  He came back to down to earth and we found him . . .  eventually.

Old Faithful did eventually go off (actually 3 times during the course of our stay at this stop).

Here is what the rest of us were doing while Old Faithful was going off.

This made me laugh out loud (not in a rude way, just in an oh-my-goodness-is-that-for-real way).  The best part was when they started to go up a slight incline.  The man started pushing the device up the hill with his legs and the woman finally got off.  I thought, "they had to have made this themselves," until I googled "motorized cooler."  Check it out for yourself!

We finally found James, ate lunch, then took a group photo.

Jarrell and Whytnee having a special photo-op moment in front of the Old Faithful store. 

Jack having a special photo-op moment asleep in the backpack.  The sad thing is that he fell asleep in the stroller, but his sister was melting and needed to go in the stroller next.  We took him out of the stroller, put him in the backpack, and up on James' back and he never budged.  Molly fell asleep soon after in the stroller (see family group picture above).

We made one more stop to the smokey, stinky geysers after leaving Old Faithful.  As a little kid, I remember being terrified that I might die in Yellowstone.  I think it may have been because of something like this.  You're out on a boardwalk in the middle of nowhere.  It is starting to rain.  The wind is blowing.  The steam gusts take away your vision.  You are little. You are frightened.  Etc.  Etc.  You get then idea.