Yellowstone round 2

I have been to Yellowstone several times, and this weekend I was able to visit it yet again. I think it was the seventh time in my life, and it was the second time this year.

I have a fantastic bishop, and in addition to all his other awesomeness, he owns a cabin/lodge in West Yellowstone. On a lake. And since he is so generous, he invited us to go up there to visit.

It was awesome. His cabin is really nice, and it even has a large swing in it--like a playground swing but much bigger. We drove up on Friday and had fun playing games there. On Friday night, we went out to his dock and looked at the stars and the Milky Way and saw a few meteors. Then the moon rose and looked amazing.

On Saturday, we went to another park of the lake. I kayaked over to an island in the lake and some others did too. We saw lots of birds, including a pelican. While others were out boating, I did some backstroking, but it was a little cold.

While others stayed at the cabin playing games and playing on the water, I went with one group to go into Yellowstone. Board/card games and boats are fun, but those are everywhere. Yellowstone is not. We saw the paint pots, Prismatic Springs, and Old Faithful, getting there just in time for it to go off. I bought a really nice book about all of the national parks. (My bucket list is to visit all of America's national parks. Only forty-four more to go.)

Then on Sunday we went to sacrament meeting in the West Yellowstone Ward, which is mostly a tourist ward.

After church, the other groups went into Yellowstone, but the previous group went home. So I was the only one in our group to go twice this weekend. We went to Old Faithful again, and though I have been there every time I've been to Yellowstone (I think), this was the first time we walked around and looked at the other geysers. I actually liked doing that, and it wasn't long or hard. We were especially impressed with Castle Geyser, but I like to pretend it was called Unlawful to Leave Walkway Geyser.

 After Old Faithful, I told my car (well, the people in my car) (well, the people in the car I rode in, which wasn't mine) that they should see the Fountain Paint Pots, since they hadn't been to Yellowstone. So off we went. We also saw the Red Spouter, which has only been there since a 1959 earthquake. It just so happened to be its birthday!

It was fun to be there with people who haven't been before and have them see how perfectly amazing Yellowstone is.

Then we drove back down to Utah. It's probably the last time I'll interact with these people, as I'm leaving Provo this week. It was a perfect way to end my four-and-a-half-year sojourn in Provo.