TOphoto: August 2006

Honeymoon Pictures 1: Yellowstone

So, Vesya and I stopped in Kellogg to have lunch. Turned out the pizza we ordered was HUGE. Took all but two pieces with us on our journey and had it that night for dinner. Here she is in front of the 'Longest Gondola in the World'.

Here's a shot of Montana around Anaconda taken from a speeding car.

I had arranged to stop at the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort on the advice of Ryan. Sorta like if a Best Western hotel had a really, really big pool and advertized the hell out of it. I almost got stuck in the water slide.

Ain't she cute?

That damn water slide again. The thing was run by a twelve year old, who would look out that little window to make sure the last guy got out alive and then hit a buzzer to let the next one go. He looked really bored.

Here's Vesya by the pool on the morning we headed for Yellowstone.

She insisted on a hour at the pool before we could check out. I swear, if she's within 1,500 feet of a pool, she's in it.

A stranger took our picture in front of the water slide. I had to pry the camera from her cold, dead fingers.

Apparently I needed another picture of Vesya sitting in a restaurant. Can't get enough of 'em.

Eventually Vesya decided to ignore me and ordered a turkey sandwich that she still remembers fondly to this day.

We stopped in a little restaurant right outside of the Big Sky ski resort for a little food. This is what I looked like on that day.

In West Yellowstone, you can find 15,232 different items with 'Yellowstone' printed on it, but you can't find a place to sell you sunscreen. I've said it before: capitalism just doesn't work.

Self portrait at a diner where we enjoyed a chocolate milkshake made with bakers chocolate. Bitter.

Shortly after this picture was taken, a ranger yelled at Vesya for six minutes for putting her feet up on the antique building.

Here's a shot of the Old Faithful Inn from the third floor.

They don't let you go up to the fourth anymore.

From the second floor you can look down on the folks eating in the restaurant. Makes you feel like god.

We didn't pay attention to 'schedules' or 'what the ranger told us', we were gonna wait for Old Faithful to 'splode regardless of what the authorities said.

Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm hunting geysers.

To prove we had visited the Old Faithful Inn, we had a stranger take our picture. He very nearly stole my camera, but I caught 'im...and skinned 'im.

The Old Faithful Inn is one of the coolest buildings I've ever seen, but you've really gotta like logs.

Old Faithful did finally go off. Quite the surprise.

Here we are in front of the Grand Prismatic

Spring. Very colorful, but kinda hard to get a picture of 'cause they really don't have any kind of platform to get above it. I stood on a bench to get a (slightly) better picture.

Here's the boardwalk at one of the main thermal features. Kids were running around like they owned the place! Can you believe it?! It was really starting to rain in the picture with us in front of the geyser.