Yellowstone 8/6/09 San Francisco to Jackson Hole

From the sixth to the tenth, I went on a family trip to Yellowstone National Park with my parents, a distant cousin, and my grandparents. It was exhilarating and fun all wrapped into one more than satisfying trip of weird grandparents and childish glee.

So, here's a little recap on what happened, starting from the first day, August 6th, 2009:

We got on a flight using Delta Airlines (one of the worst airlines imo from the flights that I had to deal with to and from Yellowstone) to Jackson Hole.

First, we transferred from San Francisco to Salt Lake City. The plane arrived on time, however it landed late. Because of this, we literally had to jog towards our next transfer flight from Salt Lake to Jackson Hole. We had intended to stay in Salt Lake City for the supposed one hour in between flights to eat dinner, however that plan was dashed and we had to instead rush towards our next flight.

The sucky part? Apparently, the Salt Lake City airport has A LOT of terminals. We had to transfer from Terminal B to Terminal E (each having around 20-30 gates each?) in... A short amount of time. With luggage. It was an adventure.

Can you sense my bitterness towards Delta right now? Feel the angry energy waves floating off of meeeeee.

Once in our plane, the flight was delayed again. This time, however, I admit it was not the fault of Delta, but the wildfires that were filling the surrounding air with smoke. The planes ended up filing in a sort of single file line in order to transfer to a different terminal (ironically enough, I think it was the terminal we had just run 2348937243 miles from, Terminal B) and after about an hour or so, we finally took off.

Because of our lateness (we arrived at 10, but in the world of Jackson Hole, that's really late apparently), our rental car services were not available. Instead, we paid about $200 more for a different car.

While we were waiting for the rental car thing to get ready, Liao (my cousin), and I explored the REALLY small airport. It was so small, it only had ONE security checkpoint and one line. Pretty spiffy.


The airport was like a mini museum with lots of small artifacts.




Liao, my ballerina cousin. :)


The grandparents. They're really hard interesting to travel with... :x


I got really bored and started taking random pictures...




Why hello thar.


Creepy airport exit is creepy.


Note to self: Taking pictures while running usually causes blurs.



Instead of a small dinky white minivan, we were handed the GIGANTIC MONSTROSITY OF A FULL AMERICAN VEHICLE. Yay for GM Suburbans!

After figuring out the car and how to get out of the airport, we drove for a really long time to get to the small tourist town of Jackson Hole. I entertained myself with slow shutter speeds and the moon.




Nananananananana Batmaaannnnnnnn~





Our first day/night in Yellowstone was destined for complete fail. My mom had reservations at an inn listed online as the "Days Inn." After following the directions of the receptionist, we ended up driving in front of an inn not called Days Inn. We drove in circles, hesitated at the inn that was not Days Inn but was in the spot Days Inn was supposed to be, and finally my mom stepped off the car and went inside to ask for directions.

Apparently, Days Inn JUST changed their name to "The Point Inn." In fact, it was changed so recently, that the online website hadn't even been changed yet. Go figure.


The front desk of Days Inn The Point Inn.


Very nice room, but no internet. :(



Thankfully Days Inn, now named The Point Inn, was located right behind an Albertsons. So we went to buy lots of chips and a late dinner. (half-frozen microwaveable burrito and potato salad FTW)

Once in our respective hotel rooms at around midnight, my cousin and I watched TV until 2AM. (2AM NOWAI.) I watched this interesting scary movie about some woman who goes to some house to take care of some old guy who had a stroke. But lo and behold, the stroke was actually this weird curse that only works on you if you "believe" and had started from years ago when this slave couple cast the curse on the master and mistress of the house and blah blah blah. End of story is protagonists get cursed. The end.

Nothing Much Has Happened

Ah, life is its usual monotonous drawl of nonsensical things.

I've been MIA for the last three days on the internet world because I accompanied the grandparents to Houston in order to watch my perfect-ballerina-cousin and her concert. It was beautiful and enchanting, yet I couldn't capture any of it on photo because we weren't allowed to take pictures. :(

I will have a more elaborate account of my journey in Houston later... For now, let me transcend into flowery, nonsensical ramblings about how my life is, compared to those of individuals I stalk know.

Lately, it seems many have fallen into a large, inescapable abyss of misfortune, sadness, and harsh/negative introspection. And lots of loneliness.

All I can say is, suck it up, because I'll be there for you! As cheesy and corny as it sounds. So for those I can't contact (whether it be because of the time difference, or my own fear that you do not want to talk to me), I'd like to say, never worry it'll all be clear soon.

To Julia, because I really do love her like a little sister/ best friend and she's really kind of been an integral part of my life since my memory takes me even though I know she's not always been in my life:

DO NOT WORRY. I know we always seem to miss each other, I sign on when you're just about to leave and you come on when I'm not even fully awake, but remember that I'll be there no matter what! Whether it be through an unconscious wave of sympathy sent through our superbly awesome connected brains or from my random comments of "BAWWW I MISS YOUUUU," I'll always be there.

Of course, I know physical being, like actually being in your lonely apartment in the middle of god-knows-where in China is totally awesomer and cooler different than me just being their online to cheer you on, I hope you know that I'll try my hardest to make it seem like I'm there for you. Even though I'm not. D8

This loneliness that you are enduring, where it seems like no one is there to be there for you, it will soon wash away. As I see you talk to your wife and Alan a lot hahahaaa. I wish I could stay online longer, but unfortunately the parents often come and demand me to sleep. And I am forced to bow to their tyrannical rule of bedtime. I will try my hardest, however, to come online as soon as possible the next day, and so on and so forth.

Um, I lost my train of thought, and I had a whole meaningful thing to write to my awesome possum friend, but it's getting late and my brain has rebelled, and decided to shut down on me. :( I just hope this post, if you happen to read it, brings a smile to your face and gives you a little bit more courage. Remember, this is but a small part of your life, and soon enough September will roll back around. So right now, do what you want to do with the time you have left, think positively, and don't forget that there are others (Me, your wife who I have yet to meet D8, Alan, Skyle who I met for like... five seconds, and many more individuals) who will always be there to pull you back when you're precariously tilting over the edge of insanity caused by this insane and stupendously unpredictable world.


Remember Julia, I <3 you lots and I hope to see you soon online... We should video chat as we haven't done that yet? :O