I love Asian people. I was very sad when my Filipino friends moved back to their country. But we got a new shipment of people in Mammoth recently. They mostly consisted of Europeans (who I also love) but even more recently the buses have brought in more Asians! Yippee! I am excited to get to know this next bunch of people, they look like a good group :)
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Work Update
Work has gotten a lot better for those that were wondering. I am not one to keep things to myself so I did talk to my boss about my schedule. I just told her that it wasn't fair for her to expect my performance to stay up to standards if the majority of my shifts caused me to lose more and more sleep throughout the week. I also told her that I understood that she can't customize everyone's schedule to their desires so if she was unable to help me out by adjusting some things that I would just look into transferring to a different job. I didn't say it in a mean way, I just let her know that I couldn't handle the way my schedule was set up and basically told her I had to take care of myself. She said she understood, but that was basically about it.
So I talked to the manager of housekeeping about working for him instead, and he called my boss to see if it was okay with her for me to switch. After that things started happening, other people were complaining a bit louder, people weren't showing up at all or were pretty late for breakfast shifts later in the week because they were oversleeping, and some people quit because of the insanity. So we have a new person making the schedules and she makes it so there is a lot less turnover from dinner to breakfast. There are still some back to back shifts but in a completely manageable way.
Now I still have plenty of hours but I also get decent amounts of sleep :)
Yay for mutiny!
So I talked to the manager of housekeeping about working for him instead, and he called my boss to see if it was okay with her for me to switch. After that things started happening, other people were complaining a bit louder, people weren't showing up at all or were pretty late for breakfast shifts later in the week because they were oversleeping, and some people quit because of the insanity. So we have a new person making the schedules and she makes it so there is a lot less turnover from dinner to breakfast. There are still some back to back shifts but in a completely manageable way.
Now I still have plenty of hours but I also get decent amounts of sleep :)
Yay for mutiny!
Fun Weekend Part I
This weekend we decided to change it up from our usual day off activities. Normally we hike literally all day. But this weekend we changed it up a bit.
Saturday, we woke up and got breakfast as usual. We drove out to the Lake and tried to see if we could get on a scenic cruise for free. Xanterra employees can ride free on any tour vehicle on a space available basis. In the end, they only had one space open when the tour started so we did the Natural Bridge Trail. At the actual bridge, the information sign was kind of funny because they are usually talking about how incredible and special each thing in Yellowstone is, but this one just told us how the bridge was created and how much better the natural bridges are in Utah. Daniel found this particularly hilarious.
One thing I enjoy about Yellowstone is how friendly some people are. At work I get people telling me to look them up if I am in their area or giving me advice on the good areas of Tacoma and Seattle. One lady has offered to let me borrow her cooler for our box lunches for long weekends. Saturday, there was a guy that told us about a baby raven nest and let us use his binoculars to have a closer look. I kind of regretted that though. Baby ravens are just as ugly (if not uglier) than their mothers. Anyway, natural bridge, though apparently puny, was very cool.
The hike went faster than expected so we had a little time to kill before the next tour started so we had lunch. At lunch we decided to just get a rowboat instead. The plan was just to pay to reserve our spots if we thought it would be too much of a hassle to try to get open spaces, after all, even without our discount the cruises were very affordable. But rowboats are free for us with our employee IDs so we just decided to go with those. Dave Ramsey approved!
Uhmm, rowing is hard. Neither of us is no longer confused as to why it is an Olympic sport. After realizing that our hour would be wasted if we were passed out from exhaustion 100 feet from the dock by rowing individually, we tag teamed the oars and made great progress. We tried to sync our oars by singing "Row Row Row Your Boat", failed miserably, and ended up singing "Rowwww...Rrrrowwww....Rooooooooww....Row" in funny voices. But by the time that we headed back to the dock we were basically expert rowers. We even got a really sweet compliment on our docking skills from the boat guy! Although he didn't hear Daniel yell "Brace for impact!" when we crashed into the dock...
Row boating was a wonderful new adventure.
We were supposed to relax after our water experience but Daniel really really wanted to to Elephant Back Trail. It's a 3.6 mile hike near the lake. I don't have much to say about it except that it was a hard 2 miles uphill to an 8600 foot overlook, but worth it in the end coming down the 1000 foot descent and to see the lake in the distance with the beautiful mountains in the background.
After the hike we lived out a fantasy we both had of being guests at the Lake Hotel, sitting in the Sun Room and sipping drinks while looking at the lake. It's a much cheaper fantasy to have when you don't have to pay for a room! We also put our names on the wait list for dinner. The wait was an hour and a half but we were having fun pretending to be guests so it was no problem. The highlight of my night was the string quartet playing in the Sun Room. We basically had front row seats to a free concert. They played all kinds of music and it made me miss playing my violin soo much!
After dinner at the Lake Dining Room, we headed home. I think it will go in my Top 10 Best Days Ever :)
Monday, June 10, 2013
Grand Teton National Park
This weekend, Clarise and I headed out to see the Grand Tetons which lie about 100 miles south of where we live in Mammoth Hot Springs. The Tetons are hands down the most amazingly beautiful things I have ever seen. My grandma told me before heading to Yellowstone that I needed to check out the Tetons while I was in the area because they were her favorite place to ever visit and she was definitely not wrong. There are numerous lakes and flower filled meadows surrounding the rugged, glaciated peaks which are the youngest range in the Rockies at only 9 million years old (compared to 70 million years old for most of the rest of the Rockies).
The first day we hiked around Jenny Lake and up to Hidden Falls which were very powerful with numerous twists and turns on the way down the 200 foot falls. We then traveled south and explored the resort town of Jackson, WY.
One our second day we took a boat ride over picturesque Jenny Lake and hiked into Cascade Canyon which Clarise and I both agreed was the prettiest hike either of us had ever done. Not to shabby considering between the two of us we've been to the Colorado Rockies, Appalachian Mountains, and Vancouver, Canada to name a few.
We watched a video in one of the visitor centers that talked about the park and what you can do to save it for future generations and when it ends the back wall slowly slides away, revealing a perfectly framed panorama of the real Tetons out of the bay windows.
It is a relatively modern park, founded in 1929 and expanded in 1950. It was quite the controversy over land rights when they expanded it between the federal government and the ranchers of the area. So a unique compromise was created stating that current ranchers could continue their business inside the park for as long as they lived but could not pass it down to future generations when they died. There is a complete bicycle system separate from the road so we are excited to go back another weekend and bring our bikes as the old, narrow roads of Yellowstone do not encourage us to want to ride.
The first day we hiked around Jenny Lake and up to Hidden Falls which were very powerful with numerous twists and turns on the way down the 200 foot falls. We then traveled south and explored the resort town of Jackson, WY.
One our second day we took a boat ride over picturesque Jenny Lake and hiked into Cascade Canyon which Clarise and I both agreed was the prettiest hike either of us had ever done. Not to shabby considering between the two of us we've been to the Colorado Rockies, Appalachian Mountains, and Vancouver, Canada to name a few.
We watched a video in one of the visitor centers that talked about the park and what you can do to save it for future generations and when it ends the back wall slowly slides away, revealing a perfectly framed panorama of the real Tetons out of the bay windows.
It is a relatively modern park, founded in 1929 and expanded in 1950. It was quite the controversy over land rights when they expanded it between the federal government and the ranchers of the area. So a unique compromise was created stating that current ranchers could continue their business inside the park for as long as they lived but could not pass it down to future generations when they died. There is a complete bicycle system separate from the road so we are excited to go back another weekend and bring our bikes as the old, narrow roads of Yellowstone do not encourage us to want to ride.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Yellowstone Lake
Was working at the Lake Lodge today getting it ready for opening and a couple interesting things happened. My partner and I were talking outside by the lake to the location manager about what we would be doing that night when I saw a bison walking through the woods about 200 yards away. Except for bison don't usually keep moving that long as they are always stopping every couple feet to eat. Oh crap! Its not a bison! Its a gigantic grizzly bear and he's heading right towards us! So we went inside and the location manager called the rangers and about 5 minutes later the area was closed and they had to pick up a couple hikers who were walking towards the area to prevent a potential conflict.
Also there was no moon tonight and we were in almost complete darkness thanks to being by the lake so I got my first view of the milky way. It kind of just looks like clouds but my partner is an astronomy buff and confirmed that it was in fact the milky way. He also says that a full moon over the lake is equally impressive cause of the reflection. I did not have my camera today but I am keeping my eye on the moon cycles to make a trip to the lake during the next full moon.
Also there was no moon tonight and we were in almost complete darkness thanks to being by the lake so I got my first view of the milky way. It kind of just looks like clouds but my partner is an astronomy buff and confirmed that it was in fact the milky way. He also says that a full moon over the lake is equally impressive cause of the reflection. I did not have my camera today but I am keeping my eye on the moon cycles to make a trip to the lake during the next full moon.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Elk calves
Its gotten to the time of year that the Elk are coming down into Mammoth Hot Springs and having their calves. They defend their calves very aggressively and have already knocked a 6 year old boy unconscious. Its getting to be a very interesting time here. The males have grown their antlers back at this point to so they are very impressive looking.
Beartooth Highway
The Beartooth Highway is the scenic route from Red Lodge, MT to the Northeast Entrance by Cooke City, MT. It opened at noon on Memorial Day and by 1 pm, Clarise and I were on our way to driving up the craziest road either of us had ever been on. Before leaving the park however, we ran into an all too common traffic jam which sometimes results in just another bison or elk sighting but this time we got the much harder to find big horn sheep. A whole flock of them!
It is about 2 hours one way if you drive straight through but we did not get to Red Lodge for 5 hours due to frequent stops and even an impromptu waterfall hike in Custer National Forest. Clarise said it her favorite thing we have seen or done in our time here so far.
The first hour we were amazed by the rugged, snowy peaks before us and when we stopped at a scenic overlook we read that they were not even the Beartooth Mountains yet! They were an eastern extension of the Absaroka Mountains that paralleled the highway into the North Entrance on our first day.
After climbing a ridiculously windy road with snow pack over twice the height of my car on either side, we came over a ridge and found ourselves in the Beartooth Mountains. The Beartooth Mountains are really great and our crowned and named after a distinctive mountain peak that is shaped like a bear tooth.
We descended into Red Lodge where we shared some Chinese food but found we were still hungry and on our way out of town we saw a parked tour bus with an open sign in the window. It was a Mexican restaurant on wheels and we just had to stop by and see what it was all about.
Of all places to have the most delicious, authentic Mexican tacos of my life, who would have thought it would be on a bus in Montana? We drove back the way we came, passing a bicyclist halfway through with only half an hour of daylight left. I wonder what happened to him? We got back home in the dark and found out the next day from co workers that they closed it back up that night when a blizzard hit the area and erased the road crews hard work. Talk about good timing. Even though it is named the Beartooth Highway I was more impressed by the Absaroka Mountains than the Beartooth as the Beartooth Mountains did not encompass a very big area while the Absaroka Mountains seem to keep popping back up everywhere.
Pictures of the winding road and some snow graffiti
It is about 2 hours one way if you drive straight through but we did not get to Red Lodge for 5 hours due to frequent stops and even an impromptu waterfall hike in Custer National Forest. Clarise said it her favorite thing we have seen or done in our time here so far.
The first hour we were amazed by the rugged, snowy peaks before us and when we stopped at a scenic overlook we read that they were not even the Beartooth Mountains yet! They were an eastern extension of the Absaroka Mountains that paralleled the highway into the North Entrance on our first day.
After climbing a ridiculously windy road with snow pack over twice the height of my car on either side, we came over a ridge and found ourselves in the Beartooth Mountains. The Beartooth Mountains are really great and our crowned and named after a distinctive mountain peak that is shaped like a bear tooth.
We descended into Red Lodge where we shared some Chinese food but found we were still hungry and on our way out of town we saw a parked tour bus with an open sign in the window. It was a Mexican restaurant on wheels and we just had to stop by and see what it was all about.
Of all places to have the most delicious, authentic Mexican tacos of my life, who would have thought it would be on a bus in Montana? We drove back the way we came, passing a bicyclist halfway through with only half an hour of daylight left. I wonder what happened to him? We got back home in the dark and found out the next day from co workers that they closed it back up that night when a blizzard hit the area and erased the road crews hard work. Talk about good timing. Even though it is named the Beartooth Highway I was more impressed by the Absaroka Mountains than the Beartooth as the Beartooth Mountains did not encompass a very big area while the Absaroka Mountains seem to keep popping back up everywhere.
Pictures of the winding road and some snow graffiti
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