The Last 2.5 Days

Hi, Everyone:

Sorry for being MIA the past 2.5 days but we were hanging out in the middle of Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park without wifi or cell phone reception.  For those of you who were concerned, no, we were not hurt by the fugitives who escaped from Arizona.  For those of you who were not concerned, why not?!  Don't you care about us?! http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hB0B5qIFEqMDeeaj_JGZgZMr6klQD9HG14T0; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/09/escaped-arizona-fugitives_n_675740.html

Anyways, we drove from Casper to the Grand Tetons on Sunday afternoon.

The views in the park were simply incredible.

On Monday, we went hiking around the mountains.  While we were hiking, we came across a car that reminded us of our friend, Jim, in Houston.  It's unclear why this reminded us of him, but it definitely did:

Authentic.

On Tuesday, we woke up early and spent a few hours in Yellowstone.  We made quick stops to the highlights of the park, including:

(1) the hot pools (in science terms, fumaroles), which are pools of water heated by the earth's core such that they get to temperatures above 110 degrees F.

Here's us at the pools!

(2)  Old Faithful!  Which, by the way, is incredibly faithful.  The rangers are able to predict its eruption within 10 minutes.  It is quite impressive.  But, as we learned from an informative video Tammy dragged us to (i.e. Tammy fact of the day!), it is also becoming less and less frequent due to a series of earthquakes.  In fact, in 2008, there were over 900 earthquakes within one month in the park.  Although Steve's lack of science knowledge precludes him from explaining this any further, as he understands it the earthquakes have some magical effect on the geysers, such that something precludes them from going off as regularly due to the shaking.

For those of you who have never been, and don't think you'll be able to go within the next 10,000 years when it may stop (so hurry and get your tickets now!) you can see it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWrklFuYnb0

Finally, we stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve (note: it is not a national park, but merely a national monument).  This could be the most messed up place we have been to yet.  Basically, you're driving through the potato fields of Idaho, when you suddenly spot fields of black volcanic rock.  Miles of it.  Non-stop.

The volcanic eruptions created lava tubes, which are basically cave-like structures created by the lava flows.  We spent a few hours walking around the park-like monument and traversing the tunnels (with flashlights!).  We also ran into a group of Michigan students partaking in the Camp Davis program (http://www.lsa.umich.edu/geo/).  It was really cool seeing the Michigan vans in Idaho, and Steve (of course) left a note on their windshield saying "Go Blue!" Only 23 days until kickoff!

Now we're in Boise, Idaho on the way to Seattle!  We'll check back in soon!