9/15 - Today we left Yellowstone after spending 11 days getting to know the entire park. We pretty much drove the entire "grand loop". Today we left Yellowstone lake and drove north through two wildlife zones: Hayden and Lamar Valleys. We saw quite a few bison. One was doing circles in the river, which, upon further Googling, turns out to be a bad thing - brought on by either neurological issues, infection, or extreme physical distress. Other bison seemed happier and we

September 12-15, 2026 we stayed at the Lake Lodge Cabins at Yellowstone Lake. Yellowstone Lake is the largest high-elevation freshwater lake in North America, sitting at an elevation of 7,732 feet. Its deepest area is 139 feet, so relatively shallow. We drove over from Mammoth Hot Springs via Norris and Canyon Village. Along the way we stopped at these falls (I've forgotten their name, but they weren't so spectacular). There was a huge raven hanging out and, evidently, a

From September 7-12, 2026 we were in Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone. Here are some highlights (then you don't have to read the rest of the post): Days 1 and 3: Saw an amazing bull elk and his harem. They came through at about the same time on two days. (sound on during the video to hear the call). Day 2 - A buffalo blocked our bridge and ended up walk right by our car Day 4 - Osprey Falls Day 1 -A home-run day because we saw lots of animals and had a good hike. The h

Today we moved from the Central-West side of the Park to the Northern part of the park. It was a great day that deserves it's own post. I was just feeling rather sad about leaving Old Faithful Inn after seeing one last eruption of the geyser, when I went for a coffee for the road. I had to wait 18 minutes for this stupid coffee. I was in a bad mood. We had no set plan for the day, except getting to Mammoth Hot Springs by 4pm. We took just about every side road available an

September 4-7, 2026. We are in Yellowstone for about 10 days total, but in three different areas. For these days we were located at the Old Faithful Inn next to the Old Faithful Geyser. It so happens that these 4 days were over Labor Day Weekend. Who plans to stay in Yellowstone over Labor Day Weekend? We said good-bye to the tall straight trees of Mount Rainier, and we flew from Sea-tac Airport to Bozeman Montana. Our experience with the American Airlines lounge was mu

The goal of this section of our trip is to explore Mount Rainier National Park which was established in 1899 as the nation's 5th national park and covers 369 sq miles. Prior to that, for over 10,000 years the area has been the ancestral homeland of various indigenous peoples, including: the Nisqually, Puyallup, Cowlitz, Muckleshoot, Yakima, and Coast Salish. Unfortunately, when we were there, Sunrise - the Park's highest area for hiking - was closed due to fire. The Park wa

August 28 was a LONG day of driving for poor Chris. I got a lot of crocheting done. Through expert planning we managed to turn a 2 hour drive into an 8 hour drive, but at least we were away from the awful AirBnB, with fingers crossed for the next one. Not that we were in a hurry, but we bugged out of that place at 6am....and said good-bye to Seattle We took the long detour in order to catch up with some old friends in the area. Steve and Erica live in easy proximity to th

21-28 August, 2026 - AirBnB in Brinnon Washington. I realize I didn't include a map showing the travel at the start of this leg of the around the world ticket (ATW), so include it now. The map for around Brinnon becomes rather complex, so will show it a bit later. I started out with the "breakfast of champions" which included Garrett's cheese corn and coffee. followed by champagne in the American Airlines lounge which wasn't as bad as we feared, other than the entrance Nazi

August 18-20, 2026 - get to Chicago via Alexandria and New York. Frankly, the next few days (Arlington and Chicago) are administrative/housekeeping. Occasionally I stop briefly to check on family graves and to say hello to dead relatives. This was the goal of our time in Virginia and Chicago. I'm happy to report that everyone is fine. August 18 we left Lisa and Rob and drove over to Alexandria, VA, thankfully missing the worst of the traffic. Arlington is looking a bit "w

From July 21 to December 4, 2026 we continue our Around-The-World ticket in the United States. The 6 weeks we spent at the condo in Jax Beach, so I won't blog about that. Seeing Lisa and Rob in Selbyville! On August 15, 2026 at 4am Chris and I were awake to get to the airport in time for our flight to Philadelphia. Even though it was only about 7am when we took this photo, we would have had champagne if we could have found some.... The flight ended up being about 20 minutes