The Dreaded Computer

My Mac says it's full. That's where all my photos reside. Evidently I have too many stored on it and now the computer just doesn't want to work at all. I'm going to have to do something about that. I have an external hard drive attached to it, but I don't think it has worked since last November, therefore I do not dare start deleting photos until some other remedy is obtained.But it won't let me do anything anyway, so it's not like I can move them from iPhoto to a disk. What to do, what to do...

Looks like I'm headed to the Apple store for some answers. Or maybe I'll just stay home and do some canning or baking or cleaning. I hope to be "back" soon. I have some awesome pictures of our hike to Cecret Lake (say secret, although it isn't spelled that way) I want to show you!

From Yellowstone To Jackson

This was our last morning in the park before we drove over (down?) to Jackson, WY. I love me a river. I told Bud that a river was my favorite water thing. Then he questioned me on that and wondered if perhaps my favorite water thing was actually a waterfall instead. Yes, and no. While I don't find a need to stop and take a picture of every river I see, and I do find a need to take a picture of every waterfall I see, for me a scene like the photo below is peaceful and serene and much appreciated. Couldn't life always be like that?

This is called a mud volcano. It loses a lot in translation from real life to still life.

My friend's son told us we shouldn't miss the Dragon's Mouth. We didn't. This one made roaring sounds, just like a dragon. Or, just what I would expect from a dragon, having never encountered one in real life.
This is taken next to Fishing Bridge. A bridge from which you may not fish.

Here is Yellowstone Lake.

More Yellowstone Lake as taken from Fishing Bridge. There are lots of nice benches lining the bridge, however, fishing has been outlawed since around 1975ish.

Loved the lily pads.

Here we all sit, waiting for Old Faithful to do its thing. This was on our second time to see it. Nice blue skies ready to cooperate. Thank you blue skies.

This little waterfall at Kepler Cascades was about a 10 second walk from the car. Oh that they could all be such easy walks!
Happy Anniversary to you! This was August 10th, our ninth Anniversary.

Yeah, I don't know what to tell you on this one. I got nuthin' other than it was about the last thing we saw as we left by the south entrance.
I hope you enjoyed our trip through Yellowstone. Now let's get to Jackson!
Love, love, love this sign. I'm going to print it and put it downstairs in my food storage room!

I saw the sign again in another place, but it wasn't all mangled like this one. I thought mangled was more appropriate.

This was next to where we parked to get the photos of the two barns that I've already showed you. Love the fence here. Didn't love the fence so much by the barn.
Because it was our anniversary, Bud wanted to do something a little special that night. He made a few calls and we were on our way...
but the only way to get there was by means of one of these guys. My sister would have waited at the bottom of the mountain. You could not coax, bribe or kidnap her onto one of these.
It took us to the very top of the mountain. Look, snow in August. Yeah, that stuff isn't going to melt before the new year's snow falls.
So, in the middle of August, we ordered hot chocolate. It was delicious, but since our server failed to bring us a straw or spoon, I tried to just drink it straight away. Bad idea. I spilled it all over my shirt. My white shirt.
We didn't realize that this place wasn't really a restaurant. It only had booze and appetizers (plus the hot chocolate). We should have just bailed, but we didn't. So for dinner we ate french fries (oh, yes- these were gooood!),
and hamburgers, which were really sliders. They had blue cheese something or other on them, and I couldn't really eat them. But they look tasty anyway!

Can you see the moon?

Got to go down the same way you came up!

While we'd been traveling, we listened to a book on cd. The boy in the story said at one point that whenever they passed a field of cows he or his dad would shout "Hey COW!" and try to guess which cow would look. I rolled down my window and shouted "Hey COW!" but none of them looked. I'm not surprised. They look like they are very busy cows. And yes, I did take this picture while driving. It's the kind of reckless person I am.

Here's one for you, Wylie! Bud really wondered why I was stopping the car :)

The Next Day

We were told there might be some delays due to road construction on the west entrance to Yellowstone. That was an understatement. We were completely parked with the car's engine turned off. It took us an hour to make a 15 minute drive. Both Bud and I had sore backs (mine from moving office furniture before we left, compounded by the long drive the day before- his because he'd had a sore back for weeks prior to coming here, compounded by the long drive) so I let Bud drive and I laid down in the back of the Jeep until we got through this mess.
Once we got going, the going was great. Our destination for today was Mammoth Hot Springs. I'd seen the coolest picture of it in my friend's book and wanted to see it for myself.

This was our first stop, Gibbon Falls.

We actually made a u-turn to come back here. I am always thinking I'm going to miss something really great and I don't want to miss anything really great. This is Artists Paintpots. Nice name. It was a 1/3 mile hike in. I'd have skipped this place and the hike if I'd known then what I know now, but the walk did help to loosen up my back a bit, so that was good.

Here is Steamboat Geyser, which has major eruptions infrequently, but when it blows it is the world's tallest geyser. The last major eruption was May 23, 2005, so we weren't going to wait around for it to do its thing again.

This is Norris Geyser Basin. I thought it was beautiful.

We finally arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs. I looked around for the spot I'd seen in the book. Um...this isn't it.

This definitely isn't it!

Seriously? Where is it?

This rock is called Liberty Cap. It is rather tall. I'd have had Bud go stand by it, but you can't do that.

Still looking for that place in the book- I think I just found it.

Yep, this is it. It's called Minerva Terrace.

Except that you can no longer get to the spot to take the photo that was in the book, due to the trail being non-existent these days. Disappointment.
At lest I found the spot, even if I couldn't get the exact shot I wanted.

This is called Bleached Cliffs.

This is the upper falls. I'm not getting in a barrel, thank you.
This is on the walk down to the lower falls. It was quite the "walk" but worth it (unlike Artists Paintpots).



And here's the view of the lower falls from across the way.
By 4:00, I was starving. We didn't get to eat for another couple of hours, and here's where we found some dinner. The place was packed. Every table was filled, with people waiting to be seated.
Here's my dinner.

Here's my drink. A huckleberry shake. Oh yes, it was good. Bud got boring vanilla.
That's almost $11 worth of shakes there! Dinner cost us $30 for a hamburger and shake, but I'd go back there again anyway. Maybe I was just super hungry.