We made a quick trip to Seattle
for our son's wedding on the 21st. we flew in from Bozeman on the afternoon of
the 20th. Unfortunately, with changes in the flight schedules (we picked up
Sandy coming in from Sacramento) and the time it took to get our rental car, we
got to the venue in Union after the rehearsal and by that time the dinner boat
had already left. The three of us plus Don's mom and Penny's best friend Jane
stayed in one of the cabins at the Alderbrook resort, where the wedding was
being held.
The wedding was the afternoon of
Sunday, the 21st. It was one of the best run weddings we've ever attended. Matt
and Lisa did an excellent job selecting a wedding planner, who did a great job
of making sure everything went smoothly.
The bride Lisa, and her father Gary walking
down the aisle
The groomsmen
The bridesmaids and the bride and
groom
The only detraction was when Don's
mom fell in the bathroom of the cabin and no one was there when it happened.
Luckily, Don returned to the room to change out of his tux about 15 minutes
after the fall. After getting Mike to help, they were able to get Elsie back on
her feet, unharmed, in the tight confines of the bathroom. Penny missed saying goodbye
to some of her family because she had to see what was going on when Don and
Mike headed out of the reception.
We flew back to Bozeman (and Sandy
back to Sacramento) on Monday the 22nd, as the kids got ready to head for their
honeymoon in Alaska. We hope they had a great time. It was good being able to
see lots of the family, if only for a little while.
Our normal days off are Tuesday
and Wednesday, so we had a couple days to recover before we had to go back to
work. We made a Costco and Wally-world run between getting off the airplane in
Bozeman and driving back to Yellowstone. We were very tired when we did get
home on Monday, so we needed to rest the next two days.
Tuesday, the 30th, we went on a
hike with our coworker hiking buddies. We went to Natural Bridge near
Yellowstone Lake. Because it's mosquito season, we left early, so we would be
done before too many of the bugs got active. On the way we took the north end
of the lower loop and went through the Canyon area. Near the North Rim Drive of
the Canyon, we saw three male elk - called The Three Amigos because they are
usually seen together. The third one stayed behind the hill, so we didn't get a
picture of it.
A little ways down the road we saw
a flock of pelicans on the shore of the river with a flock of Canada geese
swimming in front of them and a few more in the background.
Just a little farther upstream was
four Trumpeter Swans in the river.
The hike is an easy one, without
too many hills and is only 3-1/2 miles round trip. Don climbed up the trail
that leads to the bridge itself and Penny took a photo of him when he got to
the top. It gives a good perspective of the size of the arch. Not nearly as big
as those in Arches National Park, but still good sized.
Penny saw a marmot lodge near the
bottom of the arch area.
We were done early enough to get
in on the buffet breakfast at the Lake Hotel. On the trip back to the
campground there was a large bison jam in the Hayden Valley, with bison
crossing the road almost continually. Lots of babies in the herd too.
This last Tuesday, July 7th, we
took another of the company sponsored free tours. This one was the Wildflower
tour. Because of the unseasonably warm weather, it probably should have been
done a couple of weeks ago to get the best bloom of the wildflowers, but it was
still good. It was done like a field survey, where we tried to identify the
various flowers. We saw lots of them and we still aren't sure what all we saw,
but they were beautiful. Here are just a few of them.
On the way home we took a side
trip on the Blacktail Plateau Trail, a six mile, one way, dirt road, between Mammoth
Hot Springs and the Tower-Roosevelt area. We didn't see any animals like we had
hoped but there is a boulder on the top of a hill that looks like a bear, that
you can only see from one location.
