Yellowstone.

(from  Friday, June 8)
Well, contrary to what my suspicions were, Papa did let me sleep a little late. (7am!).
He was, of course, up earlier but was able to take a little walk around town and scope out a good breakfast joint to start the day off right.
We got up, wrote a thank you to our hosts for such a warm welcome, changed the sheets (we know the rules from the cottage!), and left the keys and headed out the door.
We ended up at the Western Cafe (directly across the street from the condo):

And on the "local" theme, we scored high marks. Check out our fellow diners---

For real.
As we were finishing up, three grils came in with spurs on their boots and sporting cowboy hats. We were surrounded by real life cowboys (and girls!). It was awesome and quite delightful, if I do say. The food wasn't bad either. But it did make Bozeman all the more charming. And again, a place I definately would return to.
Well, there I go spending all that space talking about the breakfast we had when this day was all Yellowstone! I was so excited!
Before we left, I didn't have as much time as I would have wanted to make a plan, but I knew the skeleton plan and figured we'd fill things in as we went.
So, we took the tips from the experts and took the scenic route into the North entrance to the park.
Until we arrived, I had no idea that it was special---

As soon as we entered, we were excited. This is a place you could spend days in. We only had the day and knew we wanted to Old Faithful, a bison, a bear, and some other wildlife.
We stopped at the hot springs first and walked around a bit. It was a little stinky...
And reminded me of the glaciers in Juneau. not the temperature, of course, but the blue was the same mysterious blue. I was completely smitten---



We hadn't seen any wildlife, but we defianely saw the evidence of it around (buffalo poop!).

someone wasn't sure about that darn iPhone! ;)

From there, we drove the loop around the park with intentions to see Old Faithful. After a mini-freak out moment due to a bathroom urgency (Sorry, Papa!). So from there we went onto Old Faithful. Now I was super excited to see Old Faithful. It was on the list from the start. Well, I feel like this is bad to say, but I was a little let down. I mean, cool. But, I thought there were way cooler things around than that. Maybe if it had been the first thing we saw/did, I would have been more impressed. But frankly, the other planet-like hot springs and mud pots were so much cooler for me.

Me Old Faithful, and the old ladies.

And look what we found--

See! It's buffalo poop!

Though Old Faithful was not what we had built it up to be, we stayed long enough to dine in the cafeteria (maybe not the best choice, but we weren't sure where else we could go inside the park.)
After that, there was no plan---just drive around to the east entrance and head toward South Dakota.

We saw lots of gorgeous scenery, many buffalo, and some other random things.
Yellowstone Lake was, of course, Papa's favorite spot inside the park!

Since we weren't hiking around, we made good time through the park. Maybe not the best way to do it, but we were on the move, not vacation. So we got the taste and then continued on....

Wyoming, like Montana was spectacular. At every turn, we would comment about something so beautiful. And again, we took the scenic route (my favorite). Here's a few of my fav photos from that part of the journey---

As were drove, we made the decision to adjust the plan. Since we were so close to South Dakota, we opted to skip the "seeing the badlands at dawn" and just make it to the edge of Wyoming and go from there.
We ended up choosing Sheridan, WY.
Unbeknowst to me, in 1978 (before I was a twinkle in my parents' eyes), there was a potential for them to move west to this town. My dad shared the stories and whys and hows, etc. We thought it might be a good place to call "home" for the night.
After seeing all the buffalo and cattle all day, we thought it only appropriate to indulge in a good steak dinner, so we asked the girl at the front desk where the best place to go and she sent us to the Rib House and Chop. It was ridiculously good! And obviously, the best place in town to be because it was FULL!

Then, we got back to the Motel 6- where we hung our hats for the night under these beautiful bedspreads---

And slept well.
Day two- complete.
We checked Yellowstone and Wyoming right off the list!