Sunday at Yellowstone

It's about 7:15pm here and we're in the lounge again with the Internet, hoping this will go through. It hasn't seemed like Sunday because we weren't to church or to lunch with you all.

However, we're muddling through as best we can.

Today after a clandestine breakfast of Cheerios and Oatmeal in our room we set sail for the Lower Loop, specifically Old Faithful and other geyser basins ,etc. We learned that there are four types of geothermal something or others -geysers, steam vents (think Centralia), hot springs and mud pots.

We walked/hiked the Back basin Loop at the Norris geyser basin, which we couldn't get a parking place at yesterday. Then another 30 miles by car to Old Faithful -which did not disappoint. We only waited about 20 minutes so that was well timed. We then headed for Yellowstone Lake which is the second largest mountain lake on this continent. Very deep and very cold because it freezes over in December and does not thaw until May. Beautiful color of blue. The water was choppy and whitecaps were present. The temp when we left this am was 55, but until we got back to the hotel it had dropped 10 degrees and was very windy.

Between the lake and the hotel we covered the same ground as Friday when we arrived. We went back to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and to a different viewpoint for the lower falls. Glad we did - it was breathtaking.

Back at the hotel, we decided to eat before the big rush and before the weather got worse. While at dinner it started to rain - then snow! I had huckleberry chicken and Big Tom had prime rib. Our waitresses were from the Czhech and Taiwan (she had never seen snow and was practically dancing .