Roaming Ryan

Somewhere in Wyoming (obviously)

There you have it.  Photographic evidence that I was in Wyoming.  We passed through the land of jackelopes after we had spent some time visiting Amy’s family in Denver.  We joined my dad as he drove through Denver on his way to my brother’s wedding.

Grand Teton National Park

Along the way we visited both Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park.  Given that it was Father’s Day weekend, the parks were surprisingly deserted.  Normally you hear about multi-hour traffic delays in the parks due to the massive crowds but not this time around.  They had a long, late and difficult winter in that part of the country so maybe that is what was keeping people away.  Either way, the weather was mostly agreeable for our one-day visit and we were able to see most of the highlights on our way through the two parks.

After attending my brother’s wedding in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana we went to Helena to visit with my family.  Helena’s valley and the surrounding mountains were incredibly green this year thanks to the wet winter.  We took a number of drives up into the surrounding forrest and the wildflowers were absolutely stunning.  I spent almost all of my summers as a kid in Helena and I don’t ever remember it being that green.

The winds of cheap airfare carried us from Helena, Montana to New York, New York (via Los Angeles, of course) and from there we bussed it up to Boston just in time to catch the Fourth of July fireworks on the Charles.  Our three days in Boston were spent visiting with friends, eating at some local favorites and preparing for the next leg of the trip.  We even took advantage of the last few days that remained on my Community Boating membership.

A beautiful red-flag day for a sail on the Charles

From Boston we continued on to Los Angeles to visit with Charles, one of my travel junkie friends.  Charles was kind enough to let us crash at his place in West Hollywood and we made good use of the time by picking his brain on potential travel destinations.  He has completed two round-the-world trips and dozens of shorter trips abroad so he is basically a walking Lonely Planet.  Aside from the normal travel brainstorming and talk of recent changes to airline award programs, he was also able to give us some practical first-hand advice for the Cook Islands – our next destination!

Downtown LA from Griffith Observatory

The Good Old U. S. of A.

Somewhere in Wyoming (obviously)	Grand Teton National Park			A sage grouse showing his stuff.
		Old Faithful		Traffic jam in Yellowstone	Snow banks in Yellowstone, in late June!
		Warning statements in many languages but honestly I think the picture covers things pretty well.		Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Spring…pity it was raining	Yellowstone Lodge
				Hiking through refridgerator canyon
				Canyon Ferry Dam at the headwaters of the Missouri with all its spillways open.	Helena’s Sleeping Giant
		Loaded up and ready for the streets of New York City!			A beautiful red-flag day for a sail on the Charles
	Downtown LA from Griffith Observatory	Some heavy metal from Heathrow on short final	Charles and I watching a Delta 777		An all-too-short visit with Charles, one of my travel junkie friends