Chicago Day 1

We got in later than planned last night, mostly because it took an extra hour to get through Chicago traffic.  Bleh.  We found our AirBnB site, which is a lovely big 1880s brownstone in Chicago's southside, so we are getting the full experience.  It is a great first AirBnB experience, and half the cost of a hotel room.  The owners are lovely, and we can use their kitchen for making breakfast (or other meals if we wanted), and they even offered us use of the washing machine.  We walked around Hyde Park briefly and stumbled on Powell's Bookstore after dinner.
Today we took the 10 minute bus ride into Chicago and stopped at the Field Museum.  Our trusty MOSH card got us a good discount, so we got access to all the special exhibits and also a 3-D movie.  What a mistake.  We ended up spending 5 hours in the museum seeing everything.  We couldn't drag the kids out of there, "No mom, we want to see the dinosaurs!  Wait, I haven't seen the flying ones!"  I was exhausted.  Then we walked outside and checked Facebook only to discover that one of our former students, Kristyn, was also in Chicago and had just been at the Bean.  We exchanged itineraries and met at the fountain.  We were surrounded by brides and (I think) Quinceanera princesses.  The Quinceanera princesses were in various bright hoop skirts of seafoam, blue, red, and lavender.
From there, we found the Bean, and Ellie and Jeremiah took a lot of pictures while Phil made snarky comments.  After that, dinner.  I found the closest excellent Chicago pizza place, Lou Malnati's, and proceeded to wait an hour outside and then 45 minutes inside, but for a truly excellent eggless quiche.  I can't quite call it a pizza, being from New Haven, the birthplace of pizza, but it was still an excellent meal.

Devil's Tower

I love Close Encounters if the Third Kind.  Star Wars was great,  of course,  and dominated my childhood,  but Close Encounters really kicked off the whole era. I am excited to watch it again. When we re-watched ET, I was startled about how much of the context I had not noticed. ..kids drinking beers,  absent parents. ...we are thinking that Close Encounters will also show us things we have forgotten. I am trying to remember why Richard Dreyfus becomes obsessed with Devil's Tower and how that relates to the aliens. Is there some kind of telepathic communication?

Wind Cave

Busy day. .we got up first thing from our campsite,  broke everything down,  and set off for Wind  Cave. Ellie's first cave,  and she seems to be a spelunker.
And another Junior Ranger badge earned.

Badlands

We arrived in the late afternoon,  checked out the visitor center,  then set up camp,  and went out after dinner,  which always seemed to be the best time of day in the parks,  between glorious sunsets and active animals.  This seemingly dead land was no exception. We saw our first bighorn sheep perched on a peak,  peering down at us. Such a strong animal.  Not really sheep like in any way except the wool...way too powerful for that comparison. And she was looking at us,  not just an oblivious sheep focused on grass.

And then there was the sunset. We stopped at the first turn out,  and were taking pictures of the striated mountains,  when suddenly everything began to change color! The sky turned pinks and oranges,  and the mountains behind us lit up in roses and ochres....it was astounding.

Wyoming

Today, we drove. It took us 2 hours to get out of the park due to the return of bear spray (17 miles each way) and the abundant wildlife jams. Then through  several state parks on winding roads through  canyons and across  mountain ranges (3, I think),  finally to this weird pimply plain studded with sheep, cattle, and what look to our Yellowstone - trained eyes, Pronghorn antelope? 11 hours later, we are in Gilette, WY, near Devil's Tower of Close Encounters of the Third Kind fame. That is tomorrow's first adventure!

The Wild West

Today we slept in a bit,  had showers,  saw a ranger program where we got some of our questions answered, and Ellie for her Yellowstone  Junior  Ranger  badge. Then we set out for the western side: the Lamar Valley, called the Serengeti of Yellowstone.  Along the way, we saw the grizzly mama and her two cubs again.  At Tower Falls, we saw a black bear. What could beat that morning? But as Jeremiah noted, it just keeps getting better. We passed into the valley and saw a herd of bison, about 20, with babies! And then we rounded a curve and saw the valley proper...with over a thousand bison. Mind blowing. They just stretched through this enormous  valley, on and on. Then we finally made it to our trailhead,  several hours  later  than we planned, thanks to all those animal stops.
 
Our trail wasn't  that long, about five miles. It was at the south end of the valley, beyond the vast herd of bison. We crossed  a river and headed through a basin to the plain beyond. Jeremiah is our great spotter. First he spotted a Uinta ground squirrel in the sagebrush,  then he found a whole herd of pronghorn antelope, including a male, a dozen females, and possibly  some young  ones. Then he found two bison. We ended up turning around at about  6:15, after being passed  by a group of horses. As we were walking back, we realized that there was a bison in our path! We decided to go up to get around him, figuring that he would be less inclined to want to charge  uphill. He watched us the whole time. We stayed 25 yards away, as monitored by our Junior Ranger. The rest of the trip back was uneventful. We stopped for a late dinner at the Roosevelt Lodge, and started with bison and elk nachos.  Yummy dinner ended with sundaes and huckleberry crisp.

Old Faithful

Today was too full to remember! We are feeling overwhelmed with one spectacular  sight after another. We woke up early to beat the rush into the park and were cruising along when there was suddenly a trio of bison heading along the side of the road towards us. We took don't photos and kept going. Next thing we saw was a coyote looking for breakfast a little into the woods off the road. Next was Old Faithful.  We arrived about 15 minutes before a spectacular eruption,  just perfect. The rest of the day we spent in the area. We saw every kind of volcanic feature,  from mud puts to geysers,  all in the same little area.