Tag: usallin

We’d pushed on the night before to give us a shorter drive into Chicago. That didn’t account for the traffic we encountered entering the city though so it was dark by the time we reached the hotel. A quick shower, a change of clothes and a crazy taxi driver brought us to Chinatown. After finding a fairly abandonded restaurant we had what can only be described as the best Chinese food we’ve tasted. After a few beers in a local bar we retired to bed.

After covering a good few miles the day before we got a nice lie in before heading for Shedd Aquarium. Their oceanarium section is closed for renovations so we went into the Planet Earth 4D show. We’d been to a couple of 4D shows already in Universal so kinda knew what to expect. This was above and beyond though. From stuff in the chairs to bubbles coming out of the ceiling, it ended all to quickly and we headed for lunch.

Apres lunch we toured through the rest of the aquarium (otters ftw) and made our way out onto Michigan Avenue. According to the guide book I’d had a glance at, the best views of Chicago are from the John Hancock Observatory located on the 94th floor. Being that high up over a city is freaky. David Schwimmer talked us through the history of the city (audio tour, he wasn’t there in person :)) and made our way around to Pizano’s Pizza. Dave from Blogography had made reference to this place so I wanted to check it out. Man is their pizza good plus the locals eat there which is a sign in itself.

The Kerryman pub was our last stop where we got chatting to a few Americans (hi to Chelsea and Amanda). Several beers and hours later we made our way back to the hotel. Alas is to say we didn’t rise as early as we’d hoped for the drive to Toronto.

The drive east from Yellowstone was always going to be tough. We had the target of Rushmore to hit though so we pushed on. We set out early enough on the road so as to give us a chance of hitting Rushmore late in the afternoon and staying in Rapid City that night.

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful. The car has been grand but for the fact that we’re spending a good few quid on filling her up each time. With the way we’re heading around to Toronto we should have two nights in Chicago.

It’s 8pm at Yellowstone, 3am Irish time and we’re cruising around Yellowstone Lake. The sun is setting as I type and we’ve captured what should turn out to be some brilliant shots of the moon reflecting off the lake.

After drying ourselves off after rafting we headed back into the park. On the drive through that morning we had encountered a couple of small hot springs but the Mammoth Hot Springs stop off allowed us to truly appreciate what these geysers through up. From there it was around via Tower Fall (lives up to it’s name) and Dunraven Pass (think Lord of the Rings style vistas) to Old Faithful. Apparently it erupts every 90 minutes so we were lucky to only have a 15 minute wait. We wondered why there was free seating where we were but soon realised that the wind takes most of the water erupted over us. The video I took with Paddy’s camera should give some idea as to the chaos that ensued. Let me tell you this though, Japanese tourists move fast.

As for wildlife within the park, we saw three or four buffalo, one particularly up close. We also caught a lot of Elk and there might have a Moose in there too. I’ll definitely come back to Yellowstone. The place is awe-inspiring. It’s really hard to get a sense of scale to it but consider this. I drove for 3 hours today and covered about half of the park in an S shape, Dar is now back in the driver’s seat and he’ll have done 2 and a half hours by the time we reach COdy. Now I know why they call it “Big Sky Country”.

This morning we set out from the town of West Yellowstone. The town is located just before the park entrance and wasn’t too much of a drive up from Twin Falls, Idaho. Dar took the first stint driving in and we headed for the town of Gardiner just outside the North Gate. We’d booked in to go white water rafting and this was an activity we were all eagerly anticipating.

After a few safety announcements and the gear kit out we headed for Yellowstone River. Our boat was just myself, Paddy, Dar, an English couple – Simon and Sandra and our guide/bloke-who-knows-what-to-do, Chris. After an initial quiet period on the river the rapids appeared and we duly got quite wet while trying to stay in the boat. The rapids weren’t as high as they would be earlier in the year but it was really enjoyable none the less and great craic of a Sunday morning.