Day 2- Met at the Lake Hotel at the ungodly hour of 7:30 and were immediately whisked away to Fishing Bridge where... we... saw... otters! Nine years in Yellowstone and I finally saw my first otter at the end of May and now here! Apparently I've been hanging out in the wrong neighborhoods. Lisa used the big 3D map of the Lake to show us where different things were located as well as various underwater craters and thermal features. At the stop at the General Store, I got cookies and cream Wilcoxson's. It was awesome
Next stop was Mary Bay. While we were hiking, I realized that I really hadn't been out much this year when I realized that I kept blowing my water back into my Camelback (to keep it from freezing).
We started walking the Storm Point trail. There is apparently alot going on here what with various collapsed craters (this happens when a cap collapses under its own weight, you can spot a tell-tale collapsed crater becasue there is no breccia (bretch-ya) and no rim), fractures in the lake shore.
While talking to Lisa, I discovered that she knows a lot of Gardiner folks including one known as "Babbette." It took awhile to piece it together, but finally figured out that Babbette actually works  in my building under another name. The things we find out about people!
We stopped at Sedge Bay where we got to see a thermal dome. Apparently, there are "all kinds" of thermal vents under here. We also got to see an example of a stock, which is possibly what is going to happen to Black dog in the future.
There were a couple of other stops including Lake Butte and Beach Springs and then we were back to Lake Hotel where I finished up the day with a well-deserved fancy-drink adn then jetted off to find the Veg trailer so I could go to sleep relatively early and be prepared for the next day which, at least on paper, is going to last two hours longer than today.
We saw a ton of animals
Golden Eagle
Otters (worth noting again)
Pupster tied under car(?)

Garter snake

Frog











Pelicans
Cormorants

Day 1- Got to Lake Hotel where the class was going to meet with just enough time to stop in at the bathroom. It was a long ride down with all of the bison being in Hayden and all of the tourists stopping to stare at the bison. We started off with a brief introduction of ourselves and why we took the class. "Hi, my name is Jessi. I'm the Research Librarian here and I've cataloged most if not all of the articles that Lisa [Morgan, the class instructor] has written  about the geology of the Lake and I'd like to understand some of them." But it's true. I'm a geology dunce and I'd really like to learn more about what's going on in the park so when people ask me questions, I can at least give a basic answer. Not necessarily patrons but family, friends, etc. Also, I'm tired of feeling left out of geological conversations. Okay, so I've not gotten into, nor listened to many geological conversations, but everybody here can speak about it better than I can and I'd like to be able to throw out at least a basic fact or two. Kind of like when Joey got the "V" volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Shouldn't life always be like TV? 
We got a brief overview of what we'd be learning. I had worked a ten hour day and then driven two hours to get to Lake so I was really embarrassed but I was having a LOT of trouble staying awake and was desperately relieved when Lisa ended the class for the night. Went over to Pat's (who graciously allowed me to stay at her place for the evening), had a glass of wine with she and fisheries Carrie (I can't remember her last name to my everlasting regret. One day I will learn how to remember people's names, this I vow!) and then went and tucked myself into bed.
Some random facts I learned:
The average altitude of Yellowstone lake is 7733 feet.
bathymetry- underwater topography
The oldest tuff in Yellowstone is Ridge Tuff
The Mammoth Travertine ranges from about 410-150 thousand years old

Testing out twelve-leads

On Monday nights, the park has meetings where we learn about what was going on in the park during the week and then we work on a particular skill and earn continuing ed credits. Joe looked around at who had shown up for class (me, Carrie, other Carrie, and Cheryl), sighed, and started taking off his shirt. We all looked at each other in puzzlement.This particular week, we were going to be learning about twelve leads. We just got some new machines in the park and Joe wanted to test them out. He was the only male in the room (Lloyd came later) and therefore the one most qualified to take off his shirt. Learned alot about reading electrocardiograms (I think) and had a lot of fun finding ribs on Joe and getting to stick nodes on him. Hee.

Sixth Annual Chocolate Party

On September 11th, we had our sixth annual Chocolate party. Not as many people as usual but it was later in the season and on a Sunday. Still, 25-ish people isn't a bad turnout. There were some awesome dishes (Christie's Mexican dish was AWESOME) and some not so great dishes (my chocolate hummus didn't turn out like I had hoped.) It was a gorgeous day with friends and wonderful food.

September 11th at Lake

Heidi and I tried to get in a late season hike at Lake (Elephant back is one of my favorites) but it ended up being completely crappy weather. So we went and had cocktails at the hotel. I had totally forgotten that it was september 11th so when they started gathering folks around the flag pole, we were all (Pat joined us for a drink) dumbfounded. But it was actually a very nice, very short ceremony. They brought up all of the veterans and everyone had a round of applause.

Annual BBQ

It's that time of year. The HRC has its annual BBQ to celebrate the end of summer. Our summer intern, Marisa Snyder, was having her next-to-last day doing the bookmobile and one of the seasonals downstairs, Molly Conley, was heading out for the summer. Massive amounts of food as usual. Some folks were worried there might not be enough, but I'd say that a refrigerator of leftovers would prove to be more than sufficient. Horseshoes were played, conversation enjoyed and a good time had by all.

Water Treat Plant

So, for my job, I get to do some pretty cool things. Today we got to go with a coworker's S.O. and check out how the water treatment in the park works

Ralph checks out the scenery

Me so pretty (with Frances in the background)

A side-effect of being in the water-treatment with lots of moisture? Huge plants

No clue what this is. Cool picture, huh?

Ralph checking... something