Lived Perfection.

Today was a wonderful day. It wasn't perfect (we got stuck in traffic, crazy tourists with unruly kids abounded, it was colder than we'd like in August), but it was filled with several truly perfect moments.  And those of you who know me especially well know that I do not use the word perfect to describe my life EVER. 

After a long and trying day yesterday, we decided to focus on seeing a few new parts of Yellowstone and to set reasonable expectations for the day.  This meant not trying to see everything or rushing through the park; we were, in essence, following our bliss.  The other key adjustment is that we decided to be nice to each other.  And genuinely nice, not the insincere niceness that makes us cringe.  The choice to be gentle and kind was particularly important because national parks are exhausting in every possible way.  Before we left for the trip, a friend suggested that we'd be challenged by the enormous amount of time we would spend together in the car.  I scoffed and told her she was underestimating us. After all, it's not uncommon for us to spend 6-8 hours together in a stretch.  However, what I didn't quite recognize is that this car time is different. It's full of monotonous scenery at times, lots of traffic, and the weird fatigue of just sitting on your bum all day as you are shuttled around a ridiculously large space.  But we prevailed. 

Turbos Flamas!

After breakfast, we drove from Big Sky to West Yellowstone where we picked up box lunches from our now favorite spot called Ernie's.  A no-frills kind of place, Ernie's features great food and great people watching.  Once stocked up on all sorts of treats (see today's culinary wonder to the right), we were ready for whatever the Park had to offer us. Our first destination was the canyon. Yesterday we had a glimpse of this so-called canyon and were not really impressed but decided we probably should humor the park and take a look.  In March, I made a trip to the Grand Canyon and returned a changed woman, so I found it hard to believe that this lesser canyon could teach me anything.  But since my counterpart had not made that trip with me and has not seen the GC yet (don't worry, it's the next place I'm dragging him), I figured I'd humor him.  And to be honest, I whined several times that I really needed to see two things: beautiful wild flowers and awe-inspiring waterfalls. So, he figured he would have a chance to silence the whining at least for a little while.

The Motivator.

Humility.

When we reached the canyon rim, I felt myself wavering; this could be an amazing sight!  We approached the trail and noticed that there was a ton of people in various states of disrepair all around the trailhead.  But we are younger and in better shape than these folks, so we arrogantly tackled the trail without either thought or water. From the top, we could hear and see the magnificent falls. I could feel the awe building. Of course, I couldn't simply agree to go down so I made my counterpart convince me this was a good idea.  About half way down the ridiculously steep and unstable path, I knew I couldn't stop until we reached the bottom.  And my pride overpowered my senses as I saw all sorts of people making the return hike with ease. In fact, there were at least 20 small children running up the steep hill giggling all the way.  But it was worth it.  When we reached the lowest point we were able to see the true attraction.  The waterfall that made the above mentioned "Motivator" look lame and silly.  Instantly, I was humble before the powers of the Universe.  The sheer natural force and amazing beauty were completely inspirational and perfect and amazing.... until the uber enthusiastic international tourists overpowered my ability to be kind and gentle and nice and we had to flee.  We couldn't have one of the three black people in Wyoming arrested for assaulting presumably innocent travelers! 

The trek back to the top was insane.  We stopped frequently, but we only lingered long enough to get our heart rates back to normal because at each landing there were more crazy tourists (most of whom had children who had never heard the word "no" and found the ledges rather tempting).  At each stop, my counterpart promptly lied about how much distance we had covered and the lies felt great (even when we were at 50% completion three times in a row!).  After the ascent, we decided it was time for our picnic lunches and ventured farther down the rim in hopes of a quiet place to eat and rest.  However, there is no such place during tourist seasons.  So we enjoyed our lunch from the car and were able to people watch again!   This is when our paths crossed again with our favorite character of the day!  We affectionately named Biker Granny when we first crossed paths with her as we were leaving the waterfall. Despite many people's warnings that she shouldn't attempt walking to the bottom of the trail in those shoes, Biker Granny went on with her bad self.  I cannot explain how happy I was to see her again and with my camera ready.  Please take a look at the heels she is wearing in the picture below! I can't walk in such devices of torture when I'm on level ground, sober, and trying with every muscle to look confident and sexy. And here's Biker Granny hopping off a Harley AT YELLOWSTONE PARK AND TACKLING TRAILS!  Color me impressed. And worried about her breaking a hip. But mostly impressed.

Go On, Biker Granny!

After a quick stop for coffee and trinkets like magnets and post cards, we headed to Mammouth Springs.  By the time we reached the springs (some 30+ miles later), I could tell I had a finite amount of energy left and even less patience.  We wandered around for a bit and saw things that were spectacular--like the picture to the right.  However, I should note that I didn't take this picture because by the time we approached the money shot of this gigantic hot spring, I had nothing left.  I thought I could do it, really I did.  But as we climbed yet another steep grade and were immersed in the chatter of tourists and the screaming children I could go no further. I wish I could blame it on the high altitude (which was had an effect all day) but it really was an intolerance of crazy that made me stop.  As dramatically as I could, I told my counterpart to go on without me and that I'd wait for him on the other side.  He agreed (a little too easily, I should add) and took the digital camera to the top of this beast. 

What did I do in his absence? Well, I perched myself on a bench and started watching the people.  In the thirty minutes without him (to be honest, it could have been 5 minutes, the crazy makes time go slowly), I had a baby spit up at me, a run away Korean child sit with me, his worried mother interview me as to her son's whereabouts, and best of all, a crazy man walk up to me with a digital camera no further than three inches from my face and pretend to take a picture.  He then smirked and said "now that's a beautiful picture!" which only further upset the wife who had been lagging behind.  Thankfully, it was not a real close-up of my face, but MY GOODNESS! Where do these people come from and how do they function in the real world!?!?! 

Finally, my counterpart returned to me and we were able to escape further incidents.  We decided that we'd both had enough of the people and left the park.  We then drove to Bozeman, MT again (one of the three places we know how to find) where we rejoiced in the familiarity of Target and then had a great dinner at a weird burger joint.

Farewell, Yellowstone.

Dusky Big Sky.

After dinner, we drove back to Big Sky (this time in daylight!) and tried to find a place to watch the sunset.  We didn't have much luck, but as we were exploring the town a little, we were able to find that dusk can be even more magical than the sunset that came before it.  It was perfect and I never knew I was looking for it.

After the quick tour of Big Sky, we returned to the hotel to chill the sampler of local beer we bought along with our coffee this afternoon and to plan our next day.  It was agreed upon that we would try to find something else to do tomorrow.  We thought "seeing" Wyoming would be great, but when we mapquested it, our New England sense of proximity ended that plan quickly.  Instead we decided to tackle Helena, MT.  There are a couple of local breweries there and since my counterpart love to brew beer (and has somehow used my competitive nature and love of creating new recipes for baked goods as ways to trick me into enjoying this process, too), this was an easy choice.  And then we discovered there's also a sapphire mine and some cool shops, so Helena quickly became a (gendered) win-win situation. Beer and jewels, oh my!

Yummy Local Beer!

Now that I had a plan, I was free to enjoy the evening.  So we grabbed the beer and headed back to Big Sky where we found a parking lot adjacent to a field and stretched out under the stars.  Talk about perfection. I ignored the fact that I could hear my mother's voice in my head and she was was focused on how unsanitary it is to stretch out on the ground and instead embraced the moment.  For two hours, we endured the sub-50-degree temperatures and simply enjoyed the beauty and magic.  I have never seen so many stars before.  Thanks to technology, we were able to use my counterpart's new star-gazing phone application to identify the many things present in the Big Sky night.  Jupiter was the most amazing, but I was also completely smitten with the clarity of the Milky Way. And the Big Dipper. All of this ignores the fact that we saw at least 30 shooting stars, some of which were simply marvelous. 

Much like dusk gave me a perfect moment, the Big Sky night gave me what I never knew I was always looking for.  Apparently, the Universe wants me to learn that simplicity and perfection are closely related and found where we least expect it.