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!