7-21-12

Today was Lindsey’s birthday.  We woke up and went for a walk around a few hot springs and geysers.  Some of the hot springs had really beautiful colors!  We went to see the Steamboat geyser, the biggest geyser in the world, but it doesn’t erupt very often so we didn’t see it. 

For lunch we drove to a small town outside of Yellowstone.  This way we could add Montana to the list of states we visited on this trip.  We went to a restaurant there and then walked around.  Lindsey got a Yellowstone t-shirt in one of the shops there.  I got one later in the park.  After all that walking and shopping we were so tired that we just HAD to get ice cream.  There was this really small homemade ice cream place.  It was really good!  Here is a picture of my dad trying on a silly hat in one of the shops!

After this we moved all our things to a new hotel that was at a different end of the park.  Our new hotel was near Old Faithful, the famous geyser that erupts pretty regularly.  Our hotel room didn’t have air conditioning so it was really hot inside.  But, it was a very nicely decorated hotel room.  We went to watch Old Faithful.  It was really cool to see it go so high.  Here is a picture:

After we watched Old Faithful we got dressed up and went to a fancy dinner at the Old Faithful Inn in celebration of Lindsey’s birthday.  The pizza there was delicious!  It was also fun because we surprised Lindsey by telling the waitress that it was her birthday when she wasn’t at the table.  It was great to see how surprised she was when all the waiters and waitresses came over to sing, “Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam, where the antelope play.  Happy birthday to you from the Old Faithful crew, and we hope you enjoy your big day!”  She even got a birthday candle in her dessert (a chocolate lava cake…mmmmm!).