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.