We went to Yellowstone

I rented a Ford Edge for a week, grabbed some outdoor gear from the campus rec program, and drove the in-laws up to Yellowstone for 4 days.

Day One - we drove the ~6 hours up to Yellowstone and set up camp.  I cooked some marinated steaks for dinner that were fantastic.  We stayed up late to look at the stars. I love the stars, I always seem to forget just how many you can see outside of cities.

Day Two - woke up and cooked bacon / eggs / pancakes / coffee over the fire.  Then we drove around the North shore of Yellowstone Lake, stopping at some hot springs on the way.  We went to the marina and rented a speed boat.  We cruised around the lake for an hour on the speed boat, then drove up to see some mud pots.  We went back to camp for dinner and I cooked some hobo dinners with ground beef inside.

Day Three - same delicious breakfast, and then we headed up North to the "grand canyon of yellowstone" for some hiking on rickety metal stairs.  Behind one of the restroom buildings, we found a bison just hanging out.  We also saw a coyote and a lot of deer / elk.  We stopped at the artist paint pots on the way back to camp.  It rained for about an hour in the evening - just long enough for us to drive from the paint pots back to camp - then it cleared up for a nice evening.  I cooked up some more hobo dinners, but these had turkey and squash instead of beef and potatoes.  I also made some french fries over the fire.

Day Four - same delicious breakfast, then we packed up camp.  We drove up to Old Faithful and watched the geyser blow up twice.  We grabbed some lunch at the cafeteria in the Lodge and had some great ice cream for dessert.  On the way out of the park, we stopped at a few more hot springs / geyser locations and saw some moose.  Then we drove the ~6 hours home.

The campsite in Grant Village was awesome - we lucked out and got a secluded site.  We were near the restrooms, but not so near that we could smell it / were inconvenienced by other people.  The services building had showers (which the campsite gave us 2 free for each night we stayed), and so each morning we could make breakfast, have coffee, then take a hot shower.  It was a really comfortable campground.

The in-laws loved it.  Diane's dad enjoyed playing with the campfire, and he even designated a certain stick as his fire stick (funny to me how any humans in the mountains seem to quickly designate a fire stick).  They liked the pancakes, but for some reason didn't seem to want bacon nor eggs.  Her dad loved driving the boat, but I thought her mom was going to die of a heart attack from screaming at her dad to stop driving the boat - apparently she only trusted me to drive the speed boat (although as for why - considering I've never driven a boat before - was beyond me).

Diane loved it, too. I think she and I would have a lot of fun on a camping trip to Yellowstone without needing to 'babysit' her parents.