Yellowstone National Park Adventures

In May my family took a long awaited trip to Yellowstone National Park and it was literally the best experience I have ever had.  The sheer beauty of the mountains, lakes and rivers constantly kept me in awe while the wildlife kept my whole family on the edge of our seats.  Bison dotted the rolling hills and bear sightings caused traffic jams. And you can't forget the most famous aspect of Yellowstone: geysers. I loved walking the boardwalks and waiting for them to explode, shooting hundreds of gallons of water straight up into the air! Nature never ceases to amaze me.

The Grand Tetons

The adventure started out in the snowy, stormy Grand Tetons.  As far as sightseeing goes, there isn't things that standout like things in Yellowstone. However, don't get me wrong, it's a great place for recreational sports like biking, hiking, kayaking, etc.  I would definitely go for a week just to hike deep into the woods or kayak between towering mountains.

A peaceful morning at the Grand Tetons

Since eating in the national parks was going to be expensive, we hit the Walmart in Idaho Falls and stocked ourselves with random food we never really eat. Ranging from carrots to canned oysters (Gross by the way. Even my family who eats seafood hated it.)  In the Grand Tetons, we stayed in these little cabins near a lake. Really cozy but with no wifi or TV, we were pretty limited with entertainment at night.  So what did we have to do with our food the first night with no fridge?  Use the snow of course and stick it in the car at night as a makeshift fridge. Must save the yogurt!

Yellowstone National Park

For the rest of the week, we cruised around Yellowstone and stayed at various hotels around the park. Originally we were going to camp but good thing we didn't because it rained a chilly rain on the first night.

Lake Hotel

Delicious bread

First stop was Lake Hotel situated next to Yellowstone Lake. The hotel itself was a 122-year old yellow Colonial looking building. It's probably the fanciest looking hotel in the park with 3 stories and massive high columns greeting the visitors. What about food? Well we chose to go with the quite expensive ($23) buffet that featured bison ribs and loads of cocktail shrimp. Beforehand, the waiter will bring you a plate with bread, crackers, butter and goat cheese.  The bread had an assortment of grains inside and went well with the butter and goat cheese.  The main feature of this buffet is the pile of bison ribs right up front.  The bison ribs tasted like beef but the texture was extremely tough and it wasn't something you could pull off the bone with your teeth.  With a fork and knife, you'll have to slowly slice the meat off the bone and chew it several times to prevent yourself from choking and huge piece down.  Even with the toughness,  I thought the ribs were delicious and worth a try.  Overall, if you think you can eat tons of bison ribs and shrimp, the buffet will definitely be worth its price.

Buffet items

Gardiner, MT

With no washing machines at Mammoth on the North side of the park, we headed to a small town just outside of the park to do our laundry and have a bite for dinner.  Gardiner, MT is a quaint little town with most business running for tourism from Yellowstone.  After much contemplation, we settled for dinner at Cowboy's Lodge and Grill near the Yellowstone River.  They served mostly country food like steak or brisket. Everything sounded so good but in the end, I went with the country fried steak and it was delicious after days of eating bread and carrots. Each of the entrees comes with two sides and a piece of Texas toast.  If you were looking for stellar food, this isn't where you should be eating but if you want to be in a quiet environment with a friendly staff and comforting food for a decent price, come here for a break from expensive food in Yellowstone. 

Country Fried Steak

Old Faithful Inn

On the final leg of our trip, we stayed at the grand Old Faithful Inn, the most famous hotel in the park.  It was a wonderful experience staying in the inn because the entire structure is built with dark golden wood from nearby pines, like a  giant lodge cabin.  People claim it's the largest log cabin in the world but in fact, because it uses wooden planks above the 1st floor, it is technically not a "log" cabin. Nonetheless it's still very grand and puts all other architecture in shame.

Bison Pot Roast

The food on the other hand wasn't as good as I expected. Given a very limited menu, there wasn't much to choose from and things seemed to be small in portion size.  Bison pot roast seemed like a reasonable choice given that it'll be the last chance to taste bison for a long time.  As the waiter served my dish, my family looked at my plate and was surprised at how small and bland looking it was.  Maybe I'm wrong but shouldn't pot roast have a tiny bit of juice?  At least the bison was tender but they definitely were adventurous with the choice of vegetables.  The yam/sweet potato was bitter and probably ruined the whole dish but I ordered it so I might as well eat it.  The pot roast was served with polenta that tasted cheesy. Not sure if it went well with the pot roast but I need a source of carby stuff to go with the pot roast.

Buffet Items

My brother went with the buffet and it was basically an American cuisine buffet as you can see in the picture. It looks like vomit but it's actually spinach, mushrooms and some kind of beef.  Nothing like the one in Lake Hotel but granted the slices of beef were HUGE and thick and JUICY.  Can't go wrong with huge pieces of meat.  My mom went with the quail which was tender and moist with good flavor while my dad went with red trout, or salmon he claims.  If you had no where else to eat, I guess you'll have to eat at the inn but if you're look for something special with good portions, don't expect it at the restaurant in Old Faithful Inn

Pictures of Yellowstone National Park

Here are just some of the hundreds of pictures taken of Yellowstone and though I'm not a professional photographer with a giant camera, I tried my best to capture the essence of Yellowstone.  I wish it was easy to show the grandness of the park through pictures but looking through the pictures again, the only way to do that is to see it with your eyes. Our cameras aren't wide enough to capture entire swaths of land like our eyes can but at least places like Yellowstone are right in our backyard.

Morning Glory Pool

Grand Geyser

Sunset at Yellowstone Lake

Upper Geyser Basin

Post I started a semester ago...

"Finals week is rounding the corner but unlike most people, this is what I have been waiting for this whole semester. Considering the fact that I only have one final to worry about, finals week is basically the start of winter break.   

So I'm taking a business ethics class and as our final chapter, we studied case studies about the famous McDonald's coffee case and pseudoephedrine with meth.  It's actually quite interesting to read about the struggles between the government and companies to pass some regulation.  The sensational case of the McDonald's coffee, classical example of outrageous lawsuits, was not as what you may think of it.  The woman who got burned by the coffee "

That was a semester ago.  And now I have one final left for this semester.  I can do this.  In this post, I have a bunch of stuff you can find in Taiwan's Dan Shui River in Taipei.  It's great place to hang out with your friends, go on a bike ride, or even watching the sunset with your date. And of course, you'll find delicious food every step you take.  It's not the greatest place if you want some privacy though as hundreds of people gather here each day.

A line snaking out from Starbucks

I wasn't in the mood for eating that day because my uncle took me to eat delicious food that I couldn't refuse hours before but my friend and I stuffed a decent amount of food.

"Little sausage inside a big sausage"

Of course the title of that food above sounds much better in Chinese: 大腸包小腸。 The "big sausage" is a rice based sausage with no meat in it and the "little sausage" I believe is 香腸, a specialty in Taiwan.  Below is something I only saw at Dan Shui but it might be found else where.  It is basically battered quail eggs that are grilled by a lady at a small cart.  There were two carts right at the front of the street so who could refuse it?

Quail Eggs on a Stick

Since this is right next to the ocean, you have to have the fried calamari.  Very crispy and tasty with nice flavor.

Ice cream

Papaya Milk

Things like ice cream and papaya milk can be found anywhere in Taiwan. But here's some pictures.










And of course, I had to post some pictures of the beautiful scenery of Dan Shui River.