Keeping Busy

Hey! This by far has been the busiest summer I have ever had. I work full-time (which here constitutes 48 hours a week) but I play even harder. This last week I had a shift from 5:45am-3pm after getting off work at 11pm the night before. But, as soon as I got off work I hiked one of the toughest trails in the park with my friends Chuck and Jacob, as well as Judith and Keith, who are both from Singapore. We went up Avalanche Peak, which is an intense 4-mile hike almost completely uphill and above the timberline. I was starting to not enjoy it after climbing straight uphill for so long, but it was more than worth it. The view from the top is breathtaking. We got there right at sunset and watched the colors change on the surrounding peaks in the fading light. It was a great way to spend the evening, and I certainly slept well that night.
For my weekend this week, Anke, Chuck, Jacob and I went to Cody. We had to grocery shop and get some more camping gear at Sierra Trading Post (I bought a sleeping bag, and a pack among other things) and decided to camp just outside the park on an offshoot of the Shoshone River. We had a great time in Cody and camping was great too. We stayed up late making smores and telling stories around our campfire. We packed up and went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center the next day. I was really impressed with it! I had gone there when I was a kid but couldn’t remember much. The exhibits range from natural history to American Indian artifacts to old firearms. Afterwards we came back to Lake and had a fun evening shooting pool and eating pizza at the Pub.
I have another crazy week of work coming up, but then Matt is coming for another visit for my days off. We are going to go camping for a few days and I am really looking forward to it.
Oh and here is a blurry pic of a grizzly that was right outside my dorm awhile ago:
Oh, and last night we had out first famous person come into the Dining Room and I happened to wait on him. Robert Wagner, the old TV and movie actor came in with 4 people including his wife. They were all dressed like crazy 70's throwbacks but were really nice and tipped me 25%. Crazy, huh?

Matt's Visit!

Sorry it took so long for me to upload a new blog...I was having some blogger issues. Now, they are all resolved!

Hey everyone! I just had some of the best days I have ever had in the Park. My boyfriend. Matt, came to visit for my days off this week. He got here Wednesday right when I got off work and stayed until Saturday afternoon when I had to go back for a dinner shift. We traveled all over inside Yellowstone and made a few excursions to neighboring towns too. One very cool thing is that Xanterra lets friends of employees rent dorm rooms for only two dollars a night, so Matt got a nice and cheap place to stay. Wednesday night we just chilled and had dinner at the Lodge and then sat on the porch and watched the sunset.
The next morning, we got up and hit the road. We went all the way to Livingston to go to a really sweet fly store called “Hatchfinders” and then came back and ate in Gardiner. Then we fished the Gibbon river for awhile, but had to quit because the weather was turning nasty and because we had dinner reservations at the Hotel. We went and had a fancy dinner where I work (which was weird being on the other end of the table) and sat on the porch of the Lodge again that night with my friends Chuck and Jacob.
Friday, we went to Norris geyser basin and hiked all over. While it would have been sweet if Steamboat went off while we were there, it was still amazing to see what I think is the best geyser basin in Yellowstone. After that, we actually went back to Gardiner for lunch but then got ice cream in Mammoth.


Then, (the best part of the weekend) we went fishing for an evening in one of the coolest places I have been in Yellowstone. We fished a part of Slough Creek below the trailhead with great scenery and tons of wildlife. We heard that it was high and unfishable, but decided to check it out anyways. It was still a little high, but was anything but unfishable. Matt and I both hooked into some nice fish. Matt caught 3 smaller rainbows and a cutthroat and I caught two nice cuts all on small dry flies. There was abundant wildlife and we watched a river otter catch and eat fish for almost a half hour. We saw signs of everything from elk to bobcats to coyotes and had a great time. By the time we got off the river and back to civilization, we barely managed to get food in Mammoth at10pm before coming back to Lake ready to crash for the night.
We saw some cool wildlife, including bighorn sheep (even a big ram), otters, elk in velvet and cows with little calves, and came across full coyote and bobcat skulls. Our evening of fishing was incredibly fun.
I had a hard time saying good-bye but can’t wait for him to come back!

Mola

Sorry I have been bad about blogging…I have been working crazy hors again this week. We were doing better and then 2 servers unexpectedly left and caused us to be understaffed again. But, this should b the last rough week. I have never worked this much or this hard in my life! However, I did take a night after work to get beers with Rick! I got to wait on him and his film crew, which was pretty cool.
On the other hand, my time off has been great. Anke and I went driving back from Artist Point and had a big wolf come within 20 yards or so. It didn’t mind us and caught some little animals in the brush. We also saw a great gray owl, a blue
heron and tons of buffalo. We drove all through Canyon and by the Virginia Cascades. It was a good day!
Also, I managed to play with my fishing stuff the other day. Me and Chuck and Jacob took an excursion to the Gibbon River. We didn’t have much time and stayed close to the road and the fishing wasn’t great. I was trying to show my friends how to fly-fish, and was less than stellar. I had a fish on an expensive emerger and then lost the fish, and then lost the emerger in a tree on my next cast. The story of my fishing career…
Also, I spent some time going around and taking pics by myself, especially at the Norris Geyser Basin. I think it has the coolest thermal features in the park. This one reminds me of a trout:
Also, I am loving all the international employees. My favorite one, Kimi from Kosovo, told me that my name is very close to the Albanian word for red apple. So now he calls me "Mola" all the time. He also taught me how to say "Hello, how are you?" in Albanian, which I think is pretty cool. Plus, I speak in French with one of our French bussers all the time. Its pretty fun!

My 21st!

I was a little bummed when I left that I would have to spend my 21st first birthday away from my friends and family, and especially Becky. But, my new friends here made it a night to remember. We went to the employee pub here at Lake and it happened to also be an 80’s dance night. Anke was the only one with any colorful spandex, so Jacob wore normal clothes and Chuck and I went punk/goth. We got there about 10pm, ordered a pizza and had a good time at the dance until
midnight. It was an interesting setting, seeing the managers and supervisors there as well, all dressed up. Some of the older employees went all out. I enjoyed a Sprite until midnight, when it was officially my birthday. Then, they announced it was my birthday and the other employees bought my share of legal beers. They have no hard liquor in the pub (fortunately) but have many good local microbrews. So I got to ring in the 31st with Fat Tire, Moose Drool, and Bitch Creek. The best part was that Anke, Chuck and Jacob got me a cake and a little crown that says “21” on it. It was so much fun, and my friends made me feel like I was hanging out with my oldest friends rather than people I have known for just a few weeks.
I had just enough to drink to feel like I fulfilled my 21-ness, but not enough to be ridiculous. We all had a great time and I joined the ranks of those who got to celebrate their 21st at Yellowstone.