Yellowstone!

This is me being excited about being at Yellowstone.  It's very difficult to get a photo of yourself with a real smile on your face when you're travelling alone and there's nobody else within eyesight, so I was clearly very excited.  This was taken in front of Phantom Lake, if I recall correctly.

There was a lot of the park that wasn't accessible when I was there.  I got there in the real off-season, that grey zone between the end of the summer season, the Thanksgiving rush, and the start of the winter season.  So most of the park was very much shut.  I'd never realised how damn big the park is either - from the nearest point I could access, Old Faithful geyser, and the rest of the geyser fields, were 52 MILES away.  That's about 85km.

However, that still left me with about 45 miles of road that I could access, and in the end, after 5 days, I never made it to the far end.  It's the kind of place where you get another mile or two down the road and have to stop for another photo session because there's another kind of awesome wild animal right in front of you or another beautiful view.  There was also a big set of hot springs that I could wander around and take many, many photos of, it just didn't feature geysers.

So.  Photos.

Bison are idiots on the road.

Spot the elk.  (Hint:  He's under the trees, slightly to the left of centre.)

I WAS going to see a waterfall but he was right where I wanted to walk, and I'm not silly enough to think he'd be the first to run away.

Trying to be Ansel Adams.

I was so strongly reminded of his photography when I first got to Yellowstone.  

Turns out he did a lot of work there.

Liberty Cap - a cone from an old hot spring.

I think I told Dad this was about 8' high.  I'm revising my opinion - it's more like twice my height.

From the right angle, it looks like a face.

Just like being at home!  It even smells the same.

This is part of Mammoth Hot Springs.  This particular site is called Palette Spring.

We're still at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Prongtails, at the entrance to the park.  Super cute.

I was pretty fascinated by the bird but couldn't identify it.  Neala will probably know, just from glancing at the black spot it shows up as in this photo.

Lava creek

Soda buttress

Orange Spring Mound

Dad, not sure if this is the waterfall you saw photos of, but this is the one I saw!!

Undine Falls

Self-guided walking trail, with boards giving information on wildlife, botany, and geology.

I learned about resurgent domes - oooh, aaahhhh.

Well, I feel like that's probably enough photos to jam up everybody's inboxes nicely.

I absolutely adored Yellowstone.  While I was there, it finally dawned on me that studying geology does lead to other possible careers outside of working for GNS.  I'd always thought about it pretty narrowly, and figured that unless I got a PhD and worked as a scientist, there was very little work for a geologist in NZ, but it is something I've always loved and been fascinated by, so I'm thinking I'll give that one a shot when I get home.  After having told anyone who'd listen over the last few years that I had no interest in ever going back to uni!

Chicago

Chicago is all about architecture.  There are a million and one tours you can take, and they are all about the architecture, even the ones that don't specifically say they are.  So, here is my take on the architecture of Chicago.

The inside of the old city library.  When the collection outgrew the building, the city was going to knock it down!

The Pelican.  Seeing the entire structure doesn't make it any clearer.

I really enjoyed Chicago.  Maybe helped by meeting up with my oldest friend Amanda!  We've been friends since we were six, she lives in Christchurch now so we don't see each other all that often.  She saw on Facebook that I was heading to the States, made comment that she was going to be in Chicago, and I ended up staying on three extra days in Chicago until she arrived.  She was travelling with her husband Graeme and their friend Phil, and the three of them were staying with their Australian friends Bec and Lucas, who are living in Chicago because Lucas is working for Groupon.  The six of us had so much fun together.  We did a lot of eating and a bit of sightseeing.

The Bean.  Actually called something along the lines of the Millennium Cloud, but....  

The second photo is taken underneath, looking up.

The view from the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier.  I was taking photos one handed and hanging on with the other...

 So the little yellow dot on the white pier in the bottom left photo is the Ferris Wheel.

These were taken from the 96th floor of the John Hancock building.  I had to give my camera to Amanda and get her to take photos, I had awful vertigo.  At one point I had to hold onto the wall to stand upright!

And then of course there's food....  

Chicago is apparently famous for deep dish pizza.  Pretty disgusting really, that's a hell load of cheese.

On the other hand, the coffee is awesome.  I highly recommend Intelligentsia.

We spent a far bit of time at Intelligentsia.  By the time I left, the staff knew my order...  Addict much?  Chicago was also the first place I got into American beer.  (Being my first stop in the US, maybe not a surprise.)  I did not expect the beer here to be good, but I've been drinking local beers everywhere and they've all been good.  Stand out was Kentucky Bourbon Ale I tried in Chicago.  It sounds like it would be awful but it's really good.

My best memories of Chicago are of killing ourselves laughing while attempting to do Gangnam Style down the street.  No wonder we all got on so well, same geeky sense of humour on all of us!

Oh, Canada!

I hope I didn't give the impression in my last post that I didn't enjoy Cuba at all... I do have nice memories of it, and there were parts that were really beautiful and really interesting and people who were really nice to me.  The poverty did really get to me, but then I was obviously in the frame of mind where that kind of thing was going to bug me more than usual.

Moving on. 

Because the USA and Cuba are still quite anti each other, obviously I couldn't fly directly between the two, so I figured I'd take some time to see a bit more of the eastern side of Canada than I'd so far managed.  Let's not forget that my Working Holiday visa expired the day before I flew out to Cuba, so I was definitely running a bit of a risk by trying to get back into the country ten days later.  But you only live once, and a New Zealand passport and smiling nicely have got me a long way in the past, so I decided to wing it.  I'd heard from several other people about how their visas had expired, so they'd driven across the border into the USA, turned around, driven straight back, and been given a new visa without any problem.

So I arrived in Toronto.  The first woman who looked at my passport was obviously not convinced that I was just coming through for five days, so she sent me to see the Big Immigration Boys.  I stood in line for half an hour with all the people who were actually immigrating into Canada.  I always like male border agents / police officers / other officials more than females because they're far more likely to respond the way I want them to if I'm nice and give them a big smile and ask them how their day's going.  The Big Immigration Boy who I saw turned out to be about in his early thirties and far happier to take me at my word than the first woman had been.  I was only at the desk for about two minutes!

Montreal was all about beautiful buildings, amazing graffiti and street art, public sculpture, and SHOPPING.  I was staying just off one of the main shopping streets, and it turned out to be far too dangerous.  My bag was already too full, but I still came away with new rowing gear and underwear.  (No, there will be no photos of either.)

Oh yeah, and food.  Eggs Benedict on a Montreal bagel, SO GOOD.

The Illuminated Crowd

From Montreal, I caught the overnight bus to Toronto.  Overnight buses are unexplainably awesome, you really have to do it yourself to see just how awesome.  I actually had a bruise on my knee, actually for actuals, from the girl in front of me ramming her seatback into me several times during the night.  She obviously thought I was holding her seat up intentionally (for once, I wasn't, it's hard to do when you're asleep).  I'm six feet tall, there IS nowhere else to put my knees!  Sadly I didn't take a photo before it faded.

I'm really sorry I didn't have more time in Toronto.  I really enjoyed the city itself, and my friend Sheila put me in touch with her brother Jamie and the two of us went out for dinner and had a really good time as well.  I'd only booked to stay for one night, and it turns out I could have stayed longer.  Never mind, you learn these things as you go.  This has not been the best organised trip so far, to be fair.

So in Toronto I....

Visited the St Lawrence food market (of course, first stop)

Notre Dame Cathedral.... Stunning.  And I see a lot of cathedrals.

The lake front

Bonsecours market by the lake front

Yonge St and Dundas Square, the centre of town.  

Dundas Square is known locally as "Toronto's answer to Times Square", usually followed by a giggle.

The Eaton Centre, and gelato.  It was good!  High praise!

More pretty waterfront stuff.

Photo display on the waterfront.  

I spent a lot of time at the waterfront taking artful photos of the photos.  But I won't bore you with them all.

The Rain in Toronto Falls Mainly on the CN Tower.

Yeah...  I have no idea.