Trips Highlights Coming Soon

Included will be Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, the big 'ole crater in Arizona, the joys of New Mexican cuisines and our run-in with a gun.

Sad the vacation is over. It might have been the best vacation ever. There, I said it!

What Happens in Vegas...

Stays in Vegas. Very good times :-). 

Will blog more from New Mexico tonight.

Yellowstone Does Not Disappoint

It's too beautiful for words (and we're running out for dinner in a sec.) so this will be a short post relying on the "best of" slideshow to carry the update.

• Becky's top experience: being 20 feet away from a bison. Dangerous, but worth it since we did not get gored. 

• Matt's top experience: the canyon and waterfall. We had no idea the waterfalls were so impressive!

Side note, you'll notice a lot of dead needle leaf trees in our photos. It's something to do with beetle infestation. Sadly, we saw this beetle damage all the way from Rapid City, SD to Idaho.

Next stop Vegas!

P.S. Yellowstone is the single legitimate experience I've had to wear my North Face jacket for function - in addition to my vanilla fanciness (hats off to the Matt and Kim who introduced us to this site).

Heaven is in Shoshone Forest

I'm coming to you this morning from a 15'x20' cabin that backs up to a mountain just three miles from the Eastern entrance to Yellowstone. I have the front door cracked so I can hear the rushing stream that is no more than 100 feet away. It's amazingly relaxing. No TV, just me, Matt, nature and all of you via this blog, of course. (Hilarious that they have free wifi here. Love it!)

From roadtrip

We'll be rolling out in less than two hours – after breakfast at the lodge – but I must say that this place calls to me. I wish we could stay a night longer. If you're ever out this way, book a night at the Shoshone lodge. It's worth it.

The foodie in me has not been disappointed either. After a relaxing glass of wine last night, I ordered the "Little Grizzly." It's a 10 oz. flat-iron streak with caramelized onions, melted bleu cheese and coated in this wonderful balsamic reduction. My expectations were not high on this steak – I was banking on a mostly tough, hopefully not too dry cut of meat that tasted good due in large part to the toppings. What I found, when I bit into my first morsel, was the best tasting steak I can recall in my nearly 30 years of eating. Words cannot describe. (I assume the source of my meal might have come from around the bend – SOOO delish. Makes me consider moving to Wyoming – all for the beef!

Matt had a steak sandwich which he thoroughly enjoyed as well. We rounded out the meal with a slice of warm blueberry pie, homemade blueberry pie. It was bliss. After dinner we sat on a couple rocking chairs on the porch. Then we went inside to wait for the campfire to be lit. 2.5 hours later, we both woke up from our food and high-altitude induced slumber. The camp fire was long gone. I would not change a thing about last night.

Off to experience Yellowstone! (Apparently, we're sans one critical item for our journey…. Bear spray, yikes!!)


P.S. - the drinking water here is the best I've had in my life (and I consider myself a water aficionado). The source? The top of the mountain we're on, of course!


 

Day 3 On Like Donkey Kong

Off we go!  Audio/video a bit off - makes my talk more interesting...