Yellowstone

I'm back, readers! I have returned from the beautiful land of Yellowstone, though somewhat regretfully. The weather was absolutely amazing compared to the daily triple-digit temperatures in Phoenix. I almost didn't want to come back, but I was also ready to be home.

Before I go on, I've added some chapters to my Supernatural Fanfiction since my last post, so here you go! Chapters 1-15. I'm hoping to just have it done by the time summer is over, but...we'll see.


So anyway, Yellowstone was quite an experience. It was a beautiful city (Yes, it was that big, though I'm sure everyone already knew that...) filled with wonders I never imagined could exist. There were more trees than I could even begin to count, and there were so many thermal features (geysers/hot springs/mudpots/fumaroles). Most of them smelled terrible though, because of the sulfur. So they were pretty and interesting to look at, but you find yourself leaving only a few seconds later because of the overpowering stench. Here's one we saw!

 This one was simply a hot spring, but there was so much steam from it, I just had to take a picture. It was windy that day, and the steam would soar through us, and luckily for us, it wasn't smelly steam. It felt pretty amazing, though I'm sure that water was a little too hot to actually go in. Darn.

We saw some waterfalls too while we were there, and there was one in particular that really looked amazing. In fact, I'm using it as an excuse to show off a picture that I'm very proud of. I swear, it's photography gold, and you'd swear I was majoring in photography, and not English, after seeing it.

See? Look at it! LOOK AT IT! I felt so good about this picture. Sadly, it's probably the only breathtaking picture I'll ever take with my wimpy, 12 megapixel digital camera.


The amount of bison we saw was unbelievable! They even got ridiculously close to the road, and acted like it was the most reasonable thing to do. They'd cross the street and act like we weren't even there.

This one buffalo...he didn't even care. He just walked in front of our car at his own, slow little pace, without a care in the world. He even glanced behind him at us, almost like "Yeah yeah, I see you." It was probably my favorite moment while we were there.


We saw lots of other animals, such as deer, antelope, moose, and even chipmunks! We saw bears and wolves as well, but we had to visit a bear/wolf preserve in Montana because of how rare it is to see them in the park. We got close to seeing a bear, because everyone was stopped on the side of the road, saying a bear was among the large rocks. Of course, they also said they saw it ten minutes before, and it was hiding. My thoughts: "Yes, people. This bear is DEFINITELY going to come out with all of us standing her with cameras."


I learned some things about Yellowstone while I was there. It was almost a community of its own, and you quickly become a part of it. Here's some things I found out, and some things that you can possibly take note of if you've never been there:

1. If there are cars pulled over on the side of the road, don't think "What the hell, guys! Move!" Think: "They're looking at something amazing! Let's go look at it!"

2. Wherever there was a majestic animal to see, there was a park ranger telling you to move along.

3. The foreigners can, and will take a whole five minutes to try and get a picture while you're walking along the trails, effectively wasting that much time of your day.

Oh. the foreigners. As pleasant as it was to see all these people from other countries, it was also quite amusing to see how they operate. More than half the foreign groups I saw, while taking pictures, would stand there with no emotion on their face. I would just think: "Why even take a picture if you're not going to look like you enjoyed your time there?"

After our few days at Yellowstone, we headed back to Jackson and spent our last few days there. We went Whitewater rafting, which I regret not doing when I had the chance many years ago. It was a blast! Though, we had a relatively disappointing crew. The lady that sat between my sister and I was so paranoid, I was surprised she didn't collapse from a heart attack. She claimed that she had gone on a Whitewater rafting trip before, which would make you think she wouldn't be so nervous, but she was. It bugged me beyond belief. She was quick to bark orders at us about "You better paddle hard guys, because I don't wanna fall out!", even though she refused to paddle. She wasn't the only one, though. The lady sitting beside my stepmom solemnly told her, after our guide gave us instructions on what to do if someone fell out, not to fall out. Despite all this, I had a lot of fun, and it gave us a lot to talk about after the rafting trip.

I also went horseback riding. That was so much fun! My horse was awesome, and I swear we were so identical in personality. Her name was Trojan. So yes, guys, I rode the Trojan horse.

There we are, in all of our glory. She had a strong go-with-the-flow personality, though she would try to eat when she wasn't supposed to. She only tried to eat when our wrangler had us stop, so she would eat because we weren't doing anything else anyway. I would try to stop her (because the wrangler told us to) but she would fight it. It was like she was saying: "Seriously? We're not doing anything else, jerk." She was also very excited to be back at the stables, because she would try to get ahead of the other horses. Yup, just like me.


I realized something while I was on this trip. I know that I'm generally an easygoing person, but I'm wondering if I roll with the punches a little too much. I realized this when our group was going their separate ways on what to do next. Two of them wanted to go paragliding (which I am nowhere near brave enough to do, yet) and the other two wanted to do another horseback ride (which I wasn't in the mood for). I mean, what was I supposed to do? I guess it was a result of having a group of five on the trip, but I felt like I was left with a choice. I felt as if I had to pick between these two things to do, because what else would I do? I felt like they were thinking (which I feel like most people think): "Jeff will be okay. He's so easygoing, so we can do these things and even though he doesn't want to, it'll be perfectly okay. Because sabes qué? He's easygoing."


Excuse the spanish, I just thought it fit pretty well. Anywho, I know how petty it sounds, but it's just kind of annoying. I don't want to say "Can't we find something that all of us want to do?" because I don't want to be the one who complains. It's not like they were depriving me of activities, but why do the activities need to be something I don't want to do? I don't want people to revolve around my needs, but I know they're thinking that I don't mind sitting around the hotel, or just simply taking a walk around the area, since that's just how I work. I just wonder if I'm too easygoing. I wonder if I need to roll with the punches a little less, and let people know that I'm not always okay with doing what everyone else wants to do, and I'm not always okay with sitting on the sidelines while everyone else has fun. Again, excuse me if I sound petty, but I don't know if there was any other way to get my opinion across. I'm really not all that petty....haha!

I realize this is quite a long post, but I had to make up for not being able to post last week, right?

Don't forget to vote in my poll! I know, it's a simple question, but it's just a test run to see how many people will actually do it. It's located at the top left side of my blog page!

Song of the week!

This is "Pray" by Sunny Hill. Usually, I'm not a fan of Korean Pop ballads, but this one is absolutely beautiful. There's just so much emotion invested in it, and it touches me deeply every time I listen to it. (Too cliché?)

Thanks for reading! Have an awesome day!