Persuasive Essay Sitting Right There

This is an instance where you realize teachers are never off duty. I was drying my hands in the restroom at the Grant Picnic Area when I thought, "I'm using this to teach persuasive writing." Bam!

Elk Cows and Calves

Riddle Lake

I had five hikes left on the Dayhike Sampler that I hadn't done yet and now I only have four. This is a flat hike--two miles in and two miles out. The trail is nice, but in all honesty, it's mostly "pinus monotonous." There are a couple of meadows and you cross a couple of marshy areas (passed a huge pile of bear scat), but for the most part, you walk through trees until you reach the lake which has a ton of lily pads. The lake is pretty big, but there are bigger lakes in Yellowstone.

Black Sand Basin

One afternoon on went on Ranger Joey's guided walk around Black Sand Basin. Beautiful. I learned a ton of stuff, none of which I will share with you now.

Solitary Geyser

This gem is only 0.3 miles off the Geyser Hill boardwalk, but is way less visited. It erupts every 5-7 minutes for a height of only 4-6 feet, and boy, blink and you'll miss it. However, it's lovely.

Grand Prismatic Spring at Midway Geyser Basin, YNP

The Ranger took me on a little date night to the new overlook of Grand Prismatic Spring. It's a mile to walk there and the trail is quite gradual and easy. There were a LOT of people on the trail, however, the overlook area did not seem overcrowded and we spent a good twenty minutes there (waiting for the clouds to clear but they never did). This will likely become THE most popular trail in all of Yellowstone. But what a GRAND VIEW! And just for clarification, you park at the Fairy Falls trailhead and begin walking on the old flat road. The only sign we saw was one that said "Trail" with an arrow indicating left. That's the trail. If you continue straight, you would then be headed to Fairy Falls. So take your first left up the hill and you will see this incredible hot spring.

Lovely, Oh But You're Lovely

Sappy post coming up! Today is our engagement anniversary. I am so in love with my husband! This transition of moving away from him has been perhaps the most difficult of all the transitions and I'm not sure why. What's more, we haven't been able to talk today due to his current location. He'll be back at OF tomorrow (Old Faithful) and then we can talk. But we talked last night. He was not at OF but he was in a good place for cell reception, so we were chatting and then he said, "Should we try face timing?" So we did and it worked! It doesn't work from the park. So we established face time and he got a gushy look on his face and declared, "You look lovely!" Because, you know, we hadn't seen each other since Thursday.

In honor of the anniversary of the day he proposed, I listened to a CD he made for me several years ago for our wedding anniversary. It only has two songs: Grow Old Along With Me (performed at our ring ceremony which took place after our temple sealing) and The Way You Look Tonight (performed by our live jazz band at our reception). But he alternated the two songs for a total of eight songs--four different covers of each. Therefore, the lyrics have been in my mind all day.
God bless our love. Grow old along with me. Whatever fate decrees, we will see it through!
Oh, but you're lovely. Lovely.

I am the luckiest!