A lot has happened since our last blog from Yellowstone. Let’s see if I can remember everything… 
Like Mike said, Yellowstone was beautiful and snowy. I felt like it was the middle of winter in Minnesota. Who ever heard of snow in June? Ewww….
Missoula, MT, was beautiful. While Mike worked, I spent most of the day reading all the brochures Marilyn left for us about the area and watched movies. We would have gone out more, but it was snowing AND raining. But it was okay because we plan on stopping again on our way back to Minnesota. Hopefully the weather will be nicer and we’ll be able to see more of the little city.
Okay… Now about our latest travels:
Glacier National Park was gorgeous. Oh my goodness! The scenery was better than I what I had imagined and there was water everywhere. WATER! YAY! After spending so much time in the dry areas, it was wonderful to see water again.
We started our exploration in West Glacier. The middle of the only road cutting through the park was closed, so we went as far as we could and hiked around the park. Mike felt the need to hop over every fence that we stopped near, so I followed and hoped he’d trip over a rock. He didn’t, but we did get closer views of lakes. AMAZING is the only word that I can think of to describe what we saw. Truly breath-taking.
Camping didn’t work out again, so we stayed at a motel nearby. The next morning we drove around the south end of the park and up to the east entrance of the park. (Remember: The middle section was closed.) The views on that side were even better than the ones on the west side! I didn’t think it possible! We did some more hiking through Grizzly country. (Oh? Did I forget to mention that the park was full of bears and other big animals that could eat us? YIKES!) We went a few miles down the trail trying to make loud random noises so that the big animals would hear us coming and move away. (Poor Mike had to listen to my singing…) All of a sudden, a deer popped it’s head around a bush on the trail and started walking down the trail toward us. It then picked up speed and headed off to the side. We hadn’t moved and started to wonder why it was in such a hurry. Was it being chased? Exercising? Late for dinner? We will never know because we assumed the first option and decided to head back. I know… We’re pansies… But we’re pansies with all of our limbs.
AND THEN we left that part of the park and drove to a more southern park entrance on the east side. The scenery was pretty, but we tired and ready to relax. So, we called it a day and drove to our little rented cabin nearby. There was a tiny diner up the road where we decided to eat dinner. From the outside, it looked smaller than our cabin. Normally I wouldn’t even mention where we ate, but it was such a cool little place that I felt it deserves mentioning. I’ll stop talking about it.
Our waitress had a bike tattooed on her forearm. It was sweet.
Okay… Now I’m done. 
The next day we made our way across the border of Canada. It was much tougher getting into Canada than back into the U.S.A.. By the way, why is it that officers in Canada don’t smile? They asked all sorts of random questions and then questioned us separately in a back room. I was tempted to tell them that Mike was hiding drugs in uncomfortable body places (use your imagination), but decided against it. I would hate to have crossed the border with a guy who was cranky from being felt up by a Canadian officer….
We drove through Calgary and into Banff National Park to see Lake Louise. The water is so blue! But it’s kinda green! But it’s…. It’s… I don’t know, but it’s beautiful! Unfortunately, it was very cloudy and suppose to storm, but we hiked around the lake anyway. There was sand on the other side, but it seemed more like really tough clay. After that, we hiked back to the car and drove to Golden where we stayed for the night.
The drive to Vancouver the next day was really long. (I slept most of the way, though… Haha.) We drove around the city for a while but were getting frustrated with the city roads. At one point, there was a long stretch of street that made us feel like we had entered Asia. Everything was either in Japanese, Korean, or Chinese. It was cool to see so many businesses that were like this, but we didn’t know where to go. AND THEN we decided to stop for dinner when this old man walked up to the car and told us to park in front of the building because we were in a really bad area. Mike and I looked at each other and decided to leave Vancouver. We’re glad we went there, but wished that we had known someone who could have shown us a better side of Vancouver. I must say, though, it’s a very compact city with a lot of shrubs. Am I the only one that finds that weird? Haha.
Right now we’re in Redmond, WA. Once we crossed the border, Mike spoke with his roommate, Drew, who was staying at a friend’s apartment here. His friends, Ed and Alex, were nice enough to invite us into their apartment, which is where we are now. Ed took us on a 20 mile trail to Seattle this morning while Alex took Drew climbing. It was a really sweet trail and was covered in bikers, runners, and people just out for a stroll along the river. At one point there was a golf course on the other side of fence along the trail. Ed and MIke were a little ahead of me when I started to hear something getting knocked around in a tree. And then a golf ball suddenly flew out of the tree a few feet in front of my path. Oh my! All I could think was of how awkward it would be to be hit in the head by a golf ball in WA. Hmmm…
The three of us decided to eat lunch in Seattle before making our way back to the apartment. While riding back (and feeling the burn in our legs…) we saw roosters on the side of the trail. Roosters! I had to double take because I couldn’t believe that’s what I saw. How strange… And then we saw an old man with a dog in a kid carriage attached to the back of his bike. I wonder if he knew it wasn’t a child…
So…. Let’s recap: Glacier was sweet, Canada was beautiful, Washington rocks, and we biked 40 miles today. Did I get it all? Oh, and we’re all in lots and lots of pain from biking. Okay, now I think I got it all.
I’m not sure what the day has in store for us tomorrow. I assume we’ll check out more of Seattle and then possibly head to Portland, OR. Mike is flying back to Minnesota for Kevy and Katie’s wedding on on Wednesday but needs to be at the airport by 4:30 am. EEK! While he’s away I’ll be staying at my friend Andrew’s place.
I hope all of you reading this are doing well and avoiding the bad weather I’m hearing about. Miss you!
Shay
P.S. I spoke with Sara on the phone tonight. Not that it matters to any of you, I just promised her that I would mention it on our site. I told her that she and I are moving to the west coast whether she wants to or not. It’s just so beautiful out here!
Day 32 Pictures - Glacier National Park
Day 33 Pictures - Glacier National Park
Day 34 Pictures - Banff National Park
The main feature Twin Falls has are it’s waterfalls. It has a pair of them: The Twin Falls and the Shoshone Falls. The Twin Falls were originally a pair of waterfalls that fell next to each other but one of the falls was damed off for hydroelectric reasons. The Shoshone Falls was a bit more impressive than the Twin Falls. Not to mention the view was a bit better. After we saw the falls, we grabbed a bite to eat in the town of Twin Falls and then headed back on the road towards Yellowstone.
On Saturday (Day 27), we set out to explore the western and southern parts of the park. We started up at Norris Geyser Basin and walked around to see all the different geysers and hot springs. You never get used to the Hydrogen Sulfide smell because of the sulfur aroma. But you deal with it and crack jokes about how your travel buddy smells bad. And by “jokes” I mean “stress the truth.” 
The snow and wind started to pick up after we left Norris and headed south to Old Faithful. Once we reached Old Faithful we took a quick lunch and warm up break inside the lodge. We grabbed some lunch and then headed back into the elements. We checked out Old Faithful but it wasn’t due to erupt for another hour and some change. Knowing that, we decided to explore around Old Faithful and see the other geysers and hot springs. There was quite a few to see, but not as many as at Norris. We found a mile long hiking trail and decided to check that out. During the hike the trees covered us from most of the wind and snow and it was SO quiet. It was actually really nice. It was really nice until the group of 4 guys in front of us started yelling and hollering at God knows what. Gotta love a peaceful nature hike and then some idiots ruin it for you. Anyways, we finally reached the top elevation of the hike and there was nothing to protect us from the snow and wind. It was coming down quite heavy and we couldn’t see further than maybe 30 feet in front of us. Kind of cool, but disappointing at the same time. The point of the hike was to reach the top and overlook the Old Faithful area.
After the hike and checking out some of the other features near Old Faithful, we came back to the world’s most famous geyser and waited for eruption. We didn’t have to wait long, maybe only 5 minutes. You could see the steam build more and more and then finally some water started to sputter out and then BAM, water was shot to the sky. Boy, that thing really shot up! It was pretty cool. We stayed for the duration of the eruption and took some pictures with it. 
Once we finished at Mammoth, we headed east to check out Lamarr Valley which is near the eastern entrance of the park. The thing about Lamarr Valley is that it’s known for harboring TONS of wildlife. Turns out that was no lie. There was countless buffalo, elk and mule deer grazing off in the distance. The landscape was quite breath taking. A lush green valley with mountains and trees in the distance and on the other side was snow capped mountains and green rolling hills against a blue sky. Just awesome! Once we hit the eastern entrance, we headed back to Canyon. We had to take the long way back (going through Roosevelt, Mammoth and Norris) rather than heading south through Roosevelt to Canyon because the road from Roosevelt to Canyon was closed. That was super lame but also super fortunate because by having us go the long way back, we were able to spot the first bear we saw on the trip! It was a black bear and was maybe 100-some yards away. We wanted to see one before we left because we saw just about everything else Yellowstone has to offer in terms of wildlife.
