Bonjour et Bonne Annee a tous!
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| Matt's family and me getting ready to head into the Park |
Yes, the Paris Letter is back in 2011. Here's hoping that you all had great holidays - I spent two weeks in the US with Matt's family, and while at first I noticed all the strange things about my native land, by the end I was feeling like a proud American again. We spent a week in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming - I'd never visited before, but Matt's parents had been many times and wanted to show us the park in the winter, which is kind of amazing - I'm attaching some photos below with lots of spectacular geyser imagery and also BISON, who wander freely around the park.
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| Super awesome BISON |
So, you may remember that when we left off, Paris had been blanketed by a measly one inch of snow, and everyone was freaking out. The airports in the UK were closed and the army had to be called in to help shovel the runways. I wondered to myself, how can these cities which have existed for more than 1000 years be so terrible at dealing with a winter storm? Still do not know the answer to that - though Matt's mother told me that when they lived in Edinburgh 20 years ago, most of their neighbors did not own a shovel, and would be forced to clear their driveways with brooms when it snowed, which was apparently not that infrequent, it being Scotland. Is this just willful fantasizing on the part of Europeans? Do they really think that next year there will be no snow? I'm a Californian, and it did take me 10 years of living on the East Coast to buy a down coat, so I understand where people are coming from, but seriously -
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| Matt and I at Old Faithful |
So our trip to Wisconsin was thankfully not affected by the storm - all the flights left on time, and it was a generally painless 16-hour journey from door to door. We flew American, which seems to be getting more and more shabby - both going and returning to Paris, the movie projectors were broken and could only show the movies at full sound, which meant we had to sit through both DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS and FLIPPED ... horrible, horrible...
Anyway, on the plan I had my first "Wow, France has changed me a little" moment, courtesy of the very Parisian older couple behind us and our battle-axe of a stewardess (who mentioned she'd been doing the job for 35 years and didn't seem too happy about it). First of all, American Airlines is the only airline I've taken to France where the flight attendants don't even make an attempt to speak French with the people on board - it is English all the way, baby! So the couple behind us asked for wine with their lunch, and the stewardess literally recoiled "Wine???" she said "That's seven dollars." To which the couple, as shocked as I was i guess, ordered apple juice. But i found myself getting incensed on behalf of this couple - why was it so weird to ask for wine at lunch? And seven dollars - outrageous! You can get a decent bottle for less than that all over Paris!"
Remember, this is ME thinking these things. The couple behind me took their apple juice in stride, thinking, I guess - well, we are going to AMERICA. But I then thought ... wow, that is a little way my perspective has changed in the last three months ...
This continued in the Chicago airport with its numerous and colorful fastfood options. First of all, people DID look kind of huge to me - but also way more diverse; even though Paris is diverse, its a different kind of diversity. Then there were things like Cinnabon - whoa, has anyone noticed how WEIRD Cinnabon is? A whole chain devoted to giant iced cinnamon buns? Is that weird to anyone else? - Again, Paris has a lot of fast food, but its basically of the burger and fried chicken variety - there's no Taco Bell or Cinnabon.
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| So cold your hair freezes! |
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Okay but enough of that - SO we made it to Wisconsin, which began the FREEZING portion of our trip - though they eased me into it nicely. It was between about 15 and 25 degrees in Madison while we were there - cold enough so we were able to walk all the way across the ice covered lake that borders the town. We had a great holiday with Matt's parents, filled with burgers and good American beer, just as we'd hoped. And I made my most important purchase of the holiday - a pair of Sorrell winter boots - big serious snow boots, which saved me once we headed to Yellowstone.
Now, getting to Yellowstone we had our bout of travel issues that seems to be part of every winter trip - We flew to Bozeman but were unable to land because of snow (which, unlike in Paris, meant that snow was REALLY SERIOUS) - So we were diverted to Idaho Falls, and ended up driving THROUGH THE BLIZZARD back to Bozeman, a harrowing seven hour journey that normally would have taken about four. Kudos to Matt's parents for driving a very snowy Montana highway in the dark. This also included a midnight stop for food at a McDonalds at a truck stop in Butte, Montana, which made me appreciate that no matter where you go, there is always a McDonalds, with there absolutely consistent-tasting burgers and fries.
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| Our Bombadier, or giant Snowmobile |
By the next day, we made it to West Yellowstone and met up with Matt's brother David and his wife Vivian. West Yellowstone is one of the major entryways to the park, and they don't plow streets in winter to make it easier for people to SNOWMOBILE around. Yes, you can snowmobile down Main Street and right into thethe park! Woo Hoo! This is also where it got much colder - it never got above 10 degrees while we were in Yellowstone, and there were a couple of days where it was minus 10 F - Matt's parents had spent a lot of time getting us ready for this, though, including Matt's father giving everyone their own full head balaclava for Christmas - this and my snowboots saved me, let me tell you.
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| Cross Country Skiing in the Geyser Basin |
But Yellowstone was absolutely gorgeous - we took some of the best cross-country ski trips I've ever done, especially one that went through the geyser basin past Old Faithful and lots of other geothermal activity/ geysers, which look amazing in the cold weather because they shoot up a lot of steam and fog - And there were bison all over the place, which I could not get enough of. Bison essentially hibernate standing up, so you could get very close to them and they would take no notice of you at all. They conserve so much energy in the winter that they do everything they can to avoid moving, particularly if they are close to a warm spot of ground.
We stayed in cabins near Old Faithful Snow Lodge, which provides ski rental and has a decent restaurant on site where you can get Bison steaks and elk burgers (though we recommend beef options ;) - So, if you can brave thethe cold weather, Yellowstone is fantastic in winter. See pictures attached, including our trip in on a Bombardier, a fast moving large snowmobile that seats 10 and is the only way to get into the park during the winter months.
We're now back in Paris and enjoying unseasonably warm weather - its been 50 degrees this weekend and sunny, just fine for biking around and exploring Paris's Chinatown, which we did yesterday but will have to wait until next week to describe. Attached also is a picture of the sunset from our window last night - really, I can get used to this kind of January, no problem.
Signing off here, and wishing everyone a great week.
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