Chapter 19: Since I’ve Met You, I’ve Noticed Things That I Never Knew Were There Before…Birds Singing…Dew Glistening On A Newly Formed Leaf…Stoplights…
First things first: today is Baby Drew’s birthday! Hard to believe he’s 2 years old already. I guess I can’t really call him “Baby Drew” anymore, although “Toddler Drew” has less of a ring to it.
When we last left you, we’d made it to Morning Glory Pool, the end of the geyser basin trail, and begun the long walk back towards the Old Faithful Inn.
Oh look, Old Faithful is erupting again.
The good news was, the long walk would give Baby Drew plenty of time to get a good afternoon nap as he rode along in the stroller. Surely he was exhausted by now.
Guess not. And stop calling me Shirley.
Our next stop was Grand Geyser, one of the other fairly predictable geysers in the basin. This one is the tallest predictable geyser in the park—often reaching heights close to 200 ft. when it erupts. It erupts every 7 to 15 hours, and the prediction is usually based on the duration of the previous eruption. A longer, taller eruption means a longer wait till the next one, and vice versa. The NPS was predicting that Grand Geyser would erupt around 2:20 p.m., give or take 30 minutes. This would work out great, since we had wanted to get back to the Old Faithful Inn for a tour of the building at 3:00.
We got to Grand Geyser and waited. 2:20 p.m. came and went.
2:25.
2:30.
2:35.
You know, sometimes these natural phenomena are very inconvenient. It would be nice if they would take our schedules into account.
Anyway, they have some benches arranged amphitheater-style on the boardwalk around the geyser, so we could at least stake out our spot and take a load off. But Drew was getting antsy and fussy in the stroller. Not wanting to be That Guy with the screaming baby in a public area, I took him out of the stroller and started taking a walk with him down the boardwalk just to change the scenery. I figured even I wasn’t dumb enough not to notice when the geyser started erupting.
Aren’t you glad I can set up lines like that for you? I set it up, you spike the ball. Have fun.
Anyway, you’re all wrong. I did notice when Grand Geyser began to erupt, around 2:40-ish, and hustled back to watch the show.
I think Grand Geyser is actually a better show than Old Faithful. The eruption lasts about twice as long, shoots higher, and you get to sit closer. Old Faithful feels very stately and gentle as it shoots water into a long, flowing plume, while Grand Geyser seems more violent. Also, Vent Geyser is right next to it and usually erupts at the same time, so you get two for the price of one.
With that, we hustled back to the Inn. Including the hike around Grand Prismatic Spring that morning, we calculated that we’d hiked over 6 miles to this point. Our feet were as sore as they are when we’ve spent the day walking around Epcot. So much for the “easy” day.
The Old Faithful Inn offers a free guided tour once a day, several days a week. Julie really wanted to attend and learn more about the old hotel, so we made it a priority to get back in time for the tour. A docent met us and the other interested parties by the large fireplace in the lobby precisely at 3:00 p.m. Since Julie was really keen on the tour, I took baby duty (no, not that kind of baby doody) and kind of wandered on the periphery of the tour group. As a result, I didn’t hear everything that was said. But at least I got some baby snot on my shirt.
I do know that the clock on the fireplace is largely original ironwork, with only a couple of pieces that needed to be restored over the years.
And I know that many of the dormers (small windows) on the roof out front are fake. They’re largely decorative, and if you look closely, they’re not symmetrical, either. That was done as an artistic choice by the architect, Robert Reamer, to enhance the “rustic” feel of the lodge.
The lodge was built over the course of one winter, from 1903 – 1904, which is really astounding when you consider a) the massive size of the building and 2) how harsh winters in Yellowstone can be. The construction materials are almost 100% lodgepole pines from the area. In fact, the original building still had the bark around all of the pillars, beams, etc. Several years later all of that bark was removed to get down to the natural wood—BY HAND.
Here you can see the Crow’s Nest, a series of stairways and platforms leading to the roof. In the olden days, musicians would often play from here. There’s also a staircase that leads up to the roof, where the flags of the United States and the states that form a piece of Yellowstone National Park fly every day. Each morning, a family is allowed by Bell Services to accompany them onto the roof to raise the flags over the lodge.
If this sounds familiar, they do the same thing at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge (or at least they used to), and now you know where they got the tradition from. Naturally, when I learned this I wanted to see if we could experience that for ourselves. I visited the Bell Services Desk on the night of our arrival and was told that they were completely booked up. Apparently the secret got out. So, if you get the chance to stay here, this is what I was told:
If you know your reservation dates, call directly to the Bell Services desk on the second Thursday of May (this is when the lodge opens for the season). Do not call the front desk—bell services handles the flags and reservations directly. Ask for a date during your reservation and they’ll try and get you slotted in for a morning on a first-come, first-serve basis. You can bet I’ll be shooting for this on our next trip. Good luck!
I also learned that the reason the lodge isn’t open year-round is because although it was well-built (it had to have been to have lasted this long), it’s not well-insulated enough to allow for winter guests. I’m sure it makes more economic sense to shut down for the winter rather than try and insulate the whole building.
The tour was about a half-hour or so and I spent most of the time chasing and apologizing for Baby Drew. But he was having a good time. At one point, some older woman on the tour decided to take photos of him on her phone. That rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t care how cute he is, I don’t want random strangers just taking photos of my kids. I didn’t make a scene due to the tour, but still.
I did not get a chance to ask the tour guide how they got the building to look so much like the Wilderness Lodge in Orlando. Maybe next time.
In any case, we absolutely loved staying here. So convenient, so affordable, so much history. Sharing bathrooms with strangers was totally worth it. What an amazing building.
We rested for a bit (i.e. wandered the gift shop). I found a glass with a cool retro-looking illustration of the Inn to add to my growing pint glass collection.
Soon, it was time for the main event. Our glorious, romantic, 17th-anniversary dinner. Longtime readers know that I try hard to create special memories for my family. Heck, that’s why we take these vacations all over the country. But this also extends to those special times when I can show Julie just how much she means to me. For example, you might remember our 15th anniversary dinner/evening stroll on the beach in Maui. For me, it’s not enough to just say “I love you.” I feel the need to demonstrate it.
So, we took a short walk down the road to eat a romantic dinner in the gift shop of Hamilton’s General Store.
If you recall, I’d heard poor reviews of the expensive Old Faithful Inn dining room. We’d already tried out the Old Faithful Lodge cafeteria and decided we’d rather have PB&J than go back there. Hamilton’s has a small snack bar/greasy spoon located in the shop where you can order burgers, dogs, etc. It’s not fancy. But we’ve learned something in our years together: we’re not fancy people. Julie is incredibly low-maintenance. At one point on our honeymoon, she made me take her to the Waffle House, for pete’s sake. And in any case, marriage is not about what you get out of it. It’s about what you put into it. If your attitude is correct, you’re there to serve your spouse. You can make any moment in the world a blissful romance if you put your heart and soul into it. After 17 years and four children together, I have no qualms in saying that life is just one joyful moment of ecstasy after another.
(Sorry, I’m getting a little emotional here. Gimme a sec.)
Anyway, we had our big splurge at the chuck wagon a few nights back. What am I, an ATM?
Actually, we discovered that this place had pretty good hand-dipped ice cream and milkshakes. And this was a special occasion, so…milkshakes for everyone!
The burgers weren’t bad, either. It was nothing fancy, but I’d come back here every night vs. the cafeteria.
I guess we needed to make it a little romantic, though. Maybe an impromptu re-creation of Lady & the Tramp would do the trick.
I like how Drew is clearly trying to figure out how he can steal the french fry in that photo. And that Julie can barely tolerate being this close to me. Good times.
Hey, what can I say? We’re idiots. But we have fun. I continue to believe that I won life’s lottery when I found Julie. I get to wake up every day with a beautiful, low-maintenance, kind and sweet woman who is an amazing mother and loves traveling as much as I do. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Well, look at that. I guess Old Faithful is going to erupt again.
One of the perks of staying right next door is that you can stick around for the evening eruptions when most of the rest of the tourists have left or are heading for dinner. It’s wonderful to be there amongst fewer people—it almost feels like a private, VIP event. Julie stayed back to put Drew in bed early (since he really didn’t get an afternoon nap) and I took the rest of the kids to get a front-row seat on the benches outside.
Once again, the NPS was spot-on with their prediction. We sat back and enjoyed the show. And no, pkondz—it doesn’t get old.
By the way, Sarah is taking photos here, not texting. I promise. We’re too cheap to buy her a phone, and you might be surprised to learn there’s no wi-fi here.
After the eruption, I had the brilliant idea to take a photo of the kids next to the Old Faithful sign with the geyser steaming in the background.
And then I had an even more brilliant idea: if we waited there just a few minutes, with so few people around, it wouldn’t take long for the place to completely clear out. Then I could get their photo with Old Faithful by themselves—a rare opportunity! So we hung around and waited. Just a couple of minutes later, the place was practically empty. It was going to work!
We just needed these two moms and their daughters to clear the walkway.
They stopped halfway down. And then they decided to do a photo shoot of their own.
Well, that’s understandable, I guess. I mean, we’re standing next to the most famous geyser in the world. I guess it makes sense that we’re not the only people who would want to take photos of it.
I mean, that’s what you would do, right? If you’re next to Old Faithful, you pose in front of Old Faithful. It’s what you do.
Not these ladies. They turned away, and took photo after photo of themselves posing in front of…a few trees.
It went on and on. Pose after pose after pose. No geyser in the frame. Then they’d switch and a daughter would take her turn in the shoot. Pose after pose after pose. C’mon, people, we just want to take ONE!
On and on and on the photo shoot went. I don’t know how long we stood there, but it soon became obvious that this was a photo shoot on the scale of a supermodel opening a new fashion label. Here you can see them in the background, the lady in red clearly facing away from the geyser and posing in front of what must have been the most special trees in the nation while my kids demonstrate what we were all feeling.
Finally, we just gave up and figured we did the best we could. I tried another shot from an alternate location. It works well enough.
Later that night, we put the other kids to bed. Sarah is now of legal babysitting age, so we left them in the room and Julie and I wandered out for an evening stroll by Old Faithful. We got to hold hands, walk slowly, and enjoy the cool air in a special, unique part of God’s creation. Just through the trees, we could see (and hear) Castle Geyser erupting. So that made a total of six geysers we'd witnessed as they erupted over the course of our visit.
I told my wife for the bazilliionth time in our 17 years together that I loved her, and would marry her all over again. She grunted agreement. Or it might have been indigestion.
We walked, and reminisced about our years by each other's sides. And Old Faithful erupted again.
Coming Up Next: We say goodbye to Yellowstone, and settle in for a long drive filled with…well, nothing, actually.
Not again!
Never knew.
Perfect!
No thanks. I'll pass on that job.
