Whew, we all managed to get out of the house by 8:50am.
We did tell G that we wanted to leave by 8:30am expecting to leave by 9am. But we told EVERYONE 8:30, therefore all the elders were all ready and then we were STILL waiting on G.
Anyway. I feel bad for always ragging on G. But to be fair, we are usually ragging on most of the men because… well, whatever I was about to say here would not be fair and would be overly generalized, so I’m going to stop. But hopefully my son learns to regulate his time. But I think it really relates to ADHD issues.
Anyway. We were off!
We stopped after 1:30 and JJ was still trucking along behind us. She’s amazing doing all of the driving. I’ve been switching off with J because he gets tired and his knees hurt.
We hit the restaurant we wanted to hit and stopped in Helena, the capital of Montana. Super cute little town. Not as cute as Whitefish but still kinda interesting. The Windbag Salon was fun and an interesting stop – it used to be a bordello, so everyone kinda laughed about it. I got sweet potato fries because YUM and ate the rest of my food from the house.
This was an 8 hour travel day though.
Our car did the rest of the way in one trip and got to our house – which was GORGEOUS. Two houses, really. JJ was 10m behind us and we did the tour and got everyone settled into their rooms.
3 of the elders wanted to stay at home after that big lunch but I didn’t have food and we needed groceries so we headed into West Yellowstone and hit up the Slippery Otter Pub!
I wish it was better. But it had 4.1 stars compared to the other two choices at 4.5 and it showed. But that’s okay. George, our waiter, was entertaining. We tried to decide who would win between him and Valle (from Summit House) and decided at the end George would win from the sheer volume of voice he had.
We did some browsing at local stores and then headed over to the store. Picked up our stuff and we were off back home.
I would say we basically collapsed but that is a lie. We went out to the porch and opened up a bottle of champagne because Sam wanted a taste. Sharon and G were done but the rest of us gabbed a bit. I ate too much trail mix.
So pretty. And this was around 830pm. Crazy light still.
Then I did stay up until 10:30 to try to see the stars but it was STILL slightly light outside and impossible to see stars. I may try again tonight (Thursday) but it’s a chore to stay up that late! But G went into the jacuzzi and enjoyed it.
Note: Truck apparently gets up several times at night and reported that there were no brilliant stars to be seen around 2am.
The next morning we headed out at 8am and J had a goal of all the things he wanted to see.
But first, I was obsessed with meandering streams. I really do love this part of Yellowstone. Streams with grassy fields are amazing.
We took a tour down Firehole Drive and I hopped out to get this photo and then a car came behind me so I hopped back in.
But we stopped around the bend with a few other cars because ELK! Isn’t she gorgeous? This was zoomed in obviously, she was across the stream. We hung out here for a few minutes and then jumped back in the car.
We drove past bison chilling. This was also zoomed in. That baby bison was adorable though.
We hit up one of J’s favorite places, the Fountain Paint Pots. This was fun. It was relatively early, we got a parking spot and then enjoyed all the hot springs.
Also, I did get a little mad at Gregg. He’s just so… Gregg. He wanted to touch the water, he stepped off the boardwalk and into the protected area. We walked up to him and see his wet footprints on the boardwalk and Sam made a comment.
I went up to him and said, “Gregg, I wish you wouldn’t do that. It makes me sad.” And I think that made him feel bad. He’s (turning) 75 and he’s not going to change but some of his values definitely do not jive with mine – or my Mom’s to be fair, she doesn’t like it but she just accepts it – and he said he didn’t want to make me sad so he wouldn’t do it anymore.
I mean, all the signs say DO NOT FREAKING STEP into it! Rawr.
Anyway, Jelly Geyser was super cool! We got this fun group shot.
We toured a few more places and then hopped in the car again.
Went over to Grand Prismatic Spring. This is probably the more dramatic and best of Yellowstone. The colors. The steam. The sun in the background.
Gorgeous!
Yellowstone has so many amazing places to show off with.
G loves taking photos!
ha.
Sam does enjoy taking photos. She was doing so many photo shoots. And she finally has me trained – although she still tells me I do it wrong when I’m doing her single photos.
NBD, just a bison chilling next to the road. Standard.
Anyway, we left Prismatic and J told Jerra that we would meet her at the Old Faithful INN!
We went to the Inn. One of us waited in the lobby for 20 minutes (we switched off with bathroom breaks, store, and food) and they never showed up. We ended up getting sandwiches from the snack shop and eating them on the 2nd floor of the Inn (gorgeous) which worked out. I had my food. Of course.
But then I had been having work drama so had thrown my phone into my bag – I ended up checking it and it actually had service! Our other phones (Tmobile) did not! So I was able to reach her. Truck told her he was SURE Justin told him the Visitors Center. Nevermind the fact that Justin didn’t tell Truck anything. I told Sam that JJ hates confrontation so she wouldn’t say anything. Sam said, “Oh, that’s where I get it from!” and I said, “Well, your father hates it too” in front of J. Probably mean. Cause I hate it too. hahah
Ahh elders. It’s always something. So we saw them sitting on the benches waiting for Old Faithful but J and G wanted to go up to the Observation Point.
One mile away. It was 12:47 and Faithful was projected to blow at 1:04.
Can we do it!?!?!
No, we could not. It went at 12:57 and at that point we were in the trees and couldn’t see a damn thing. haha
G ran up the hill and then it almost killed him. I tried to have him take my inhaler but he was a little incompetent at it. haha
Oh well. It was nice being up there.
We remembered getting a photo of them on a log and later I went back and then almost cried.
12 years ago in Yellowstone….
12 fucking years later. *sobs*
My babies.
Sigh. My brain is having a few problems the last few days. Going off into fantasy land. Having a few panic attacks about it. Trying to come back.
I don’t know.
Oh, we also saw a beaver! Too lazy to get a photo to add here.
Anyway, we walked down and by the time we walked down, Faithful was projected to blow in 15 minutes so we did a bathroom break, walked out, and stood in the crowd so the kids could see it again.
They enjoyed it.
Although then J booked it out of there after 60 seconds. We can’t stay to watch the whole thing?
I guess not. Fine, I’ll go home. I did drive home.
J took a shower first so I sat on the porch.
Ahhhhh… breathe in, breathe out. Wind chimes are healing.
We went over to Buffalo Bar as J was so excited for his smokin’ Old Fashioned. G and J got into a mini fight because G wasn’t expecting to leave early and J was hungry. And we didn’t coordinate so everyone could be on the same page.
So G actually started arguing with J. I ended up hopping out of the car to run upstairs to… do something. It was important. But also felt cowardly but you know, G needs to handle himself and I dunno what happened but we made it to dinner.
And Mom and I had huckleberry martinis. Which was so good. I love this photo of us.
I slept like shit that night. I didn’t take a PM. I need to take one the next three nights.
My brain likes to sink into a fantasy that I have no business thinking about. And then my brain gets activated, and then I have a mini-panic attack, and then I don’t sleep. I was up at 5:15 and convincing myself that I got some sleep but I was also sneezing, it was dry, my nose was running…
I was running on empty. I got in the car anyway and we headed up to North Yellowstone (Mammoth Hot Springs). It had my favorite Canary Falls which sadly looks NOTHING like it did 24 years ago (or 12 years ago…)
But I rallied a bit. I didn’t go the whole way. Sam and I walked back and didn’t do the last bit. Gregg did not come with us and ended up NOT waiting for JJ (which he told me he would) and went off on his own and walked an extra half mile and got lost. He said he was scared. J and G had to go find him.
JJ told me that she knew I was not feeling well when I didn’t insist he come with me. But seriously, the man is 75, I can’t change him at this point! If he wants to go get lost, whatever. We wouldn’t leave without him. He would be somewhere.
Sigh.
I do enjoy Mammoth but I was not feeling it today. I had to go look back at my other photos from 2002 and 2014.
This was 2002.
Whoa, this didn’t resize to Medium and I’m too lazy to go resize. Hi, 22 year old Kristi!
And here we have 2014, Canary Falls…
and the sad, horrific, totally changed 2026 version. Okay, it’s not that bad. But all the orange is gone! All the beautiful ponds!
Crazy
But here are some other similar photos from the middle!
Pale shell of what it once was.
Anyway, we went over to Mammoth for lunch. Got a fun shirt, sticker, and cute bag at the store.
Another annoying thing, the whole day, “We aren’t going to find parking!”. Can you please just have patience and stop being so negative? Gah. We found parking every single time.
We got in the car and Sam wanted to do a few pull-outs. She adored the meadows, and wanted to get a picture of the canyon.
And I hopped down and got one with J.
At that point I was sooo tired. I was in the backseat the whole day with G up in front since he had been getting car sick.
Mind you, he had been READING all the time. Sigh. But I wanted to zone out in the back anyway, even if I was getting a little sick.
We stopped and they all ran up to the Painted Pots and I said, “Give me the car keys!”. I walked 0.2. miles and then I went from the shade to the sun and my head said, “No thanks!” and I turned around.
But this was the shady 0.2 mile walk. Heaven!
And here are two photos from J’s camera because I didn’t go. Glad I didn’t go but I haven’t ever seen this. Oh well.
Ahh, my babies.
And, this is me saying FUCK NO to dinner. Even though the dinner looked awesome and was somewhere I choose. But my chicken and zucchini in the oven – really for tomorrow because I ended up eating a ton of M&M trail mix and 2 coffee cups of Sauvy B. Ha. My shower really helped my mood.
I also complained/chatted to Nicole over Marco for 10 minutes. And planned a Whitefish girls trip with my besties. #priorities
This is clearly the Sauvy B talking.
I’ve now been sitting here for 2 hours and thankfully I have been left all alone… Sharon and G are in the house somewhere. I think Sharon knew I wanted quiet. She was watching one of the world cup soccer games and I said, “No thank you, too loud!”. Although if Sam were there, I would sit with her.
But outside is lovely.
J is now texting to the group chat about checking out of the house and leaving at 8am tomorrow. I polietly said NO. How about 9:30. And he said no. And then Sam supported me, and then I refuse to have arguments over text so I’m waiting until he gets home. haha
I know the elders do NOT want to leave at 8am. haha Especially packing all the bags!
I am SO doing nothing the next few days.
I am so done.
I am so cranky.
I want something I can’t have. Sigh.
But it’s a nice trip. It is. I’m just tired.
And we are now leaving at 9am.
Sigh. Day 7. Fucking yay.
No, I’m really having a good time. I think.
