Showing posts with label
Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming.
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Showing posts with label
Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming.
Show all posts
The above is one of the best images I captured during our visit to Yellowstone National Park - man and nature (except for the fish not too happy being caught).
Last week the City Police Department sponsored a Shred Day. For $5 cash or a bag of can food, you could drop off up to 10 banker boxes at the shredding location where you could watch the documents being "securely" shredded. Well, I emphasize the word "securely" to be funny because if you could not trust your own police department, who could you trust, right? My husband helped me load up 7 boxes, mostly translation documents and credit card statements from the last 10 years, into the trunk of my car. I made cash donation and also a bag of can food. Sgt. JH, the Community Officer, told me this week that it was a successful event with almost $1,500 cash and 300 lbs of can food collected and donated to the local food pantry.
After the Shred Day, I stopped by the Books and Baked Sale at the Community Center. I did not buy any books but could not resist getting a small bag of cookies and a few brownies from Sgt. JH's mother. She was helping out at the Sale. Looking at the last name on her nametag, I asked if she knew the Sgt. and she told me she was his mother. Seeing her "How the heck do you know my son?" look, I explained that I knew him from the Police Academy community training.
It is that time of the year - the dreadful "allergy season" has started, filling the air with pollen, covering up our cars with the green stuff and people walking around sneezing and running nose. The last few years I have suffered from itchy and dry eyes no matter how often I sought relief from various kinds of eye drops. I did not have any problems when we first moved to St. Louis in 1995. I guess after so many years of fighting, my immune system has been weaken by the overwhelming pollen army.
We were planning to go to Hermann, Missouri today for the Shelby Festival. He Who Got to Drive a Clean Car decided not to go because "it would be embarrassing to drive around in a dirty Pony". Ralphie could not wash the Pony because it was raining. So we will be staying in all day which is fine with me. I will be posting while Himself is out in the garage spending quality time with his T-bird and all the tools that are rarely used!
Happy Friday ya'll - it is good to be blogging again! I could not believe that I have all the free time on my hands, no reading hundred of pages of "legal mumbo jumbo", no research or drafting assignments, no looking thru cases to locate authority, statutes or court decisions. All the chapters have been covered, (weekly) assignments have been submitted, I only have to make it thru the finals and I would be free until the summer semester starts!
Looking at these photos taken from our Westward adventure in 2011 makes me long to be on the road. I love seeing America and there is so much to see (13 more States to be exact). I have not taken pictures lately (QQ, are you surprised?) so for this Friday Sky post, I am sharing these photos from our visit to Yellowstone National Park.
Just in case you heard about flooding in St. Louis, we are ok and don't live in or near flooding areas. It was sunny yesterday but today is back to cloudy with a threat of possible rain late in the evening. In addition to school schedule, I have been busy with going to the courthouse to observe "justice in action". Did I share that I started a Legal Studies Club on campus? We had our first club meeting on April 3rd and it was sort-of well-attended. Election of officers will take place at the next meeting and I have been busy with campaigning, fundraising in between a few rounds of golf and family vacation - all expense paid for and funded by the club membership dues (just kidding)!
We had a nice and quiet Easter (can't believe that it was a month ago). A new manager (let's call him NC) from my husband's workplace is from Charleston, North Carolina. NC is actually originally from Boston. His wife is still in NC as they are trying to sell their house. So we invited NC to our home for dinner to celebrate Easter with us. We did not talk politics, only pleasant topics like football and hockey!
This small church is right across from our hotel in Gardiner, Montana. This is the view from our room on the 2nd floor. It is a great view to see each morning or anytime when looking out the windows. Mass schedule listed 8:00 a.m. during the summer but only 3 times each month and 4:00 p.m. Mass during the winter. I tried but the door was locked so I could not take any pictures inside the church.
I just read two interesting stories about the end of the world in a book about Native Americans. I don't have a photo of "Grandfather Beaver" or a buffalo robe, so these images from our visit to Yellowstone National Park in September 2011, will have to do.
According to the Sioux, the future of the world depends on an old black dog. He lives in a cave where the prairie and the badlands meet on the Great Plains. There, an old woman (I could post my photo here - haa haa) has been sitting in front of a fire for one thousand years decorating a strip for a buffalo robe. She is carefully threading it with colored porcupine quills (ouch). The dog sits beside her. Behind her is a pot of soup (I don't cook so my photo would not fit the story) that has been boiling for one thousand years. When the woman finishes decorating the strip the world will end, but every time she turns around to stir her soup, the dog pulls that porcupine quills out . The old woman never finishes the buffalo robe; thus the world continues on! Good old dog - if it was Snoopy, he would probably too busy flying around or writing/translating his novel into French.
The Cheyenne tell a different story - the date of the world rests with a great white Grandfather Beaver. It is gnawing at the pole that holds up the Earth. When it finally bites through and the pole topples, Earth will end. Storytellers claim he is already halfway through (by the end of 2000 - remember Y2K?), and he chews faster when he is angry. That is why the Cheyenne do not eat beaver meat or wear its skins. They do not want to make Grandfather Beaver angry. So remember no matter how hungry you are, please do not eat beaver meat.
Every year, someone tries to prove that "seeing is believing" theory while visiting Yellowstone National Park. Every visitor is handed a little flyer with a drawing of a person being thrown through the air by a bison, aka 2,000 lbs buffalo with a big pointy thing on its head. That day, I saw three people literally ran after Big B (below) to get a close-up photo - you just can't fix stupid!
We were on our way out of the park thru the North Entrance, back to the hotel in Gardiner, Montana, when traffic came a complete stop. We thought it might be a fire or a tree falling over blocking the road. Whatever it was, we thought we should stay put and wait for directions from the park rangers. Even though the warning was printed in bold in the visitors' brochure but in a moment of excitement, the people ahead of us got out of their vehicles and started to run up the road ahead. Then we saw what got everyone excited - the Buffalo King of Wyoming (not the New York Buffalo Bills)!
For an animal with an average weight at over a thousand pounds, Big B moves gracefully and really taking his sweet time. We watched as it took a few steps, then stop, strike a pose (we pulled off the road to stay out Big B's way, yet we could hear his breathing and for a second I thought he was going to charge at us. "Ralphie" probably would not hesitate to use me, his short-chubby-old wife's body, as a sheild to keep Big B from scratching his precious Pony), then galloping down the road, then stop, pose one more time and then it was time to get off the road, back to the grassland - dinner time!!
The guidebook states that the above image is the most photographed and a favorite for visitors and wedding photos while couples exchanging vows. The altar of the Chapel of the Transfiguration with the large window framing the majestic Teton Mountain Range makes an almost perfect view. The rustic log Chapel was built in 1925 and has been functioning as an Episcopal church.
The Chapel is accessible all year around but religious services and weddings are conducted only during the summer months from May to September. It was nice to see there were many people just quietly sat in the small chapel. You could tell that they were visitors passing thru while on vacation but recognized that they should slow down and took the time to simply meditate. We said prayers for our country, our Armed Forces, our family and ourselves.
I thought of these images when we sang "How Great Thou Art" at Mass this morning. The winter has been unseasonably mild. The temperature has been in the upper 60s since Monday. So far we only had one sort-of winter snow without much accumulation. Looking up at the blue sky while walking back to my car, I thought of the wonderful memories of our recent road trip to the Northwest (Wyoming and Montana). 
"O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder. Consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder. Thy pow'r throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee ; How great thou art, how great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; How great thou art, how great thou art!"
This is the last post of 2011 (I know I have been "cheating" with publishing posts that were "back-dated" but this is my blog and I "cheat" if I want to - hee hee). Since I ended the year in high note with photos from the Grand Teton, I thought images from Old Faithful would be sort-of like the "old man" fitting for the outgoing year.
A nice feature about admission fee ($25 per vehicle) at the Yellowstone was that it was good for seven days for access to both Yellowstone and Grand Teton. From the North Entrance, the first attraction was Mammoth Hot Springs. We briefly stopped to look at the Terrace but did not walk around and up all the stairs since it looked like it required a lot of energy. We did not even go into the Visitor Center there. We thought we should save our strengh for other points of interests. We continued to follow the directions to Sheapeater Cliff, Indian Creek, Roaring Mountain, Norris Geyer Basin, Steamboat Geyer and could not pull ourselves away from Gibbon Falls. Following Firehole Canyon, Fountain Paint Pots, Lower Geyer Basin, Biscuit Basin, Black Sand Basin and finally arrived at Old Faithful. We simply followed the path leading to where the crowd was. We could hear the hot, hissing steam rises from the ground when we got closer. Since you could see the steam from miles away, there was no point in fighting the crowd to get any closer.
There it was, the one and only Old Faithful, famous for its regularity and awesome power of "blowing" steam approximately 130 to 180 feet high, very 90+ minutes or so. (We did not try to set our watch based on Old Faithful eruptions. Not that we doubted its accuracy.) From any angle surrounding the geyer would be impressive views, so there was no need to be right in front, except if you are unable to stand, then there are benches you could sit down. You could also view the geyser activties from comfortable rocking chairs on the deck of the Old Faithful Inn.
The guidebook states that the above image is the most photographed and a favorite for visitors and wedding photos while couples exchanging vows. The altar of the Chapel of the Transfiguration with the large window framing the majestic Teton Mountain Range makes an almost perfect view. The rustic log Chapel was built in 1925 and has been functioning as an Episcopal church.
The Chapel is accessible all year around but religious services and weddings are conducted only during the summer months from May to September. It was nice to see there were many people just quietly sat in the small chapel. You could tell that they were visitors passing thru while on vacation but recognized that they should slow down and took the time to simply meditate. We said prayers for our country, our Armed Forces, our family and ourselves.
I thought of these images when we sang "How Great Thou Art" at Mass this morning. The winter has been unseasonably mild. The temperature has been in the upper 60s since Monday. So far we only had one sort-of winter snow without much accumulation. Looking up at the blue sky while walking back to my car, I thought of the wonderful memories of our recent road trip to the Northwest (Wyoming and Montana). 
"O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder. Consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder. Thy pow'r throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee ; How great thou art, how great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; How great thou art, how great thou art!"
This is the last post of 2011 (I know I have been "cheating" with publishing posts that were "back-dated" but this is my blog and I "cheat" if I want to - hee hee). Since I ended the year in high note with photos from the Grand Teton, I thought images from Old Faithful would be sort-of like the "old man" fitting for the outgoing year.
A nice feature about admission fee ($25 per vehicle) at the Yellowstone was that it was good for seven days for access to both Yellowstone and Grand Teton. From the North Entrance, the first attraction was Mammoth Hot Springs. We briefly stopped to look at the Terrace but did not walk around and up all the stairs since it looked like it required a lot of energy. We did not even go into the Visitor Center there. We thought we should save our strengh for other points of interests. We continued to follow the directions to Sheapeater Cliff, Indian Creek, Roaring Mountain, Norris Geyer Basin, Steamboat Geyer and could not pull ourselves away from Gibbon Falls. Following Firehole Canyon, Fountain Paint Pots, Lower Geyer Basin, Biscuit Basin, Black Sand Basin and finally arrived at Old Faithful. We simply followed the path leading to where the crowd was. We could hear the hot, hissing steam rises from the ground when we got closer. Since you could see the steam from miles away, there was no point in fighting the crowd to get any closer.
There it was, the one and only Old Faithful, famous for its regularity and awesome power of "blowing" steam approximately 130 to 180 feet high, very 90+ minutes or so. (We did not try to set our watch based on Old Faithful eruptions. Not that we doubted its accuracy.) From any angle surrounding the geyer would be impressive views, so there was no need to be right in front, except if you are unable to stand, then there are benches you could sit down. You could also view the geyser activties from comfortable rocking chairs on the deck of the Old Faithful Inn.
