Michele Kraus

[michelebennett]

I finished my sweater! I wore it in the 90 degree heat for you. What did I really do today? Avoided cleaning the house. Does anyone else have ‘cleaning moods’ and ‘not cleaning moods’? I’ve been in a not cleaning mood since we got home from our trip, which is very unfortunate, since everything from our wedding + detritus from the last three weeks living in a van is strewn all over my floors. Mike has offered to clean up so many times because he’s really good at it and less moody of a cleaner, but it’s become a symbol of my inertia and laziness, so I must slay this dragon myself. Meanwhile we will live possibly weeks in a sty built by lack of focus and indolence. It’s not that bleak. I visited @lizquinley and picked up some more tomatoes for all your great recipes. I went grocery shopping, I had a couple zoom meetings, and a real life workout with my synchro team. We met in the park near Chapman Elementary, and while I was on my back with my legs up and my abs burning I could see the swifts flying above me. @euricka9024 made dinner, and while we sat outside to eat we were joined by some sneaky little monsters climbing the fence! I think they might have made their home back there somewhere. Will report back if I spot them again. Ended the day with ice cream with crumbled frozen thin mints from 2019 (I know, it’s my super power that I can keep Girl Scout cookies this long). #carbethsweater #carbeth (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEs8c6Thfco/?igshid=1i63qla50ytri

[michelebennett]

Stationary Day 3 was tomato day. I already shared most of the tomato stuffs in my stories, but if you want more tomato gossip please feel free to write and ask me anything. I made sauce, caprese salad, and oven dried babies. Tomorrow I make salsa. The tomatoes were the internet highlight of the day, but the true highlight was the 2 hour birthday FaceTime with @valhollabackgirl while drinking a blueberry juice cocktail. We did get into some doom-head space topics, like the unending pandemic and the unjust world in which we live, but we also talked about sourdough crackers and toaster waffles. Happy Birthday, Marlena! Did I do anything else today? Oh yeah, picked up burritos on Alberta, saw @mikebennettart lean against a wall and thought about how handsome he looks against faded blue. I can’t be alone on that one. Oh, yeah, and Mike and @lancelash built a stage in the front yard. (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEqjgKEBb7U/?igshid=1d7s436wyvnnl

[michelebennett]

Stationary life day 2. I still don’t know what I’m doing. I started 2020 ambitious about a career change to real estate that has left me ‘creatively filling my daytime hours’. I have trouble saying no to opportunities that slow my career. Hey, do you want to travel to Australia to compete in the gay and lesbian aquatics championships with your old synchronized swim team? I do. Would you like to borrow this van to go on your dream honeymoon? Yes. And that’s all wonderful, I’m extremely lucky I can say yes to these things, but that’s why my posts are going to be a little domestic for a while. Today I... - Went to my first @urbannestpdx team meeting in 3 weeks - Wrote 10 thank you notes - Used an air fryer for the first time (I use it again later) - Almost fell asleep on the floor because I started petting the cat while she was really cuddly - Did Cody’s Backstreet Boys Peloton ride - Attended day 2 of @usaartisticswimming convention - Made french fries by essentially dropping a potato into an air fryer and waiting 10 minutes. - Let Audrey zoom bomb my MAC synchro social zoom - Made pizza! Thanks, @msknight8, for lending your pizza oven. There are so many wedding gifts in this photo (everything but the chips and the 8 salad dressings, I think) Thank you everyone! Oh, and we had so many porch guests! Lance and Dani visited, and so did our neighbor Sam, who dropped off wood for Mike, and Andrew who brought over his new dog Sadie! Steve from across the street dropped off a bag full of 800 tomatoes from his garden. So now tomorrow is a tomato day. I would love your recipe ideas! Knitting update: I tried my sweater on and it shrank quite a bit... so I stretched it out as much as I could and pinned it to a towel on the dining room carpet. We’ll see. Last photo is of @ourcataudrey realizing that for the first time I have more followers than her and that her empire is slipping away... (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEn0UyShX02/?igshid=1lamzjdbn2utv

[michelebennett]

Now that I’m home and not on driving adventures I feel like I have a lot less to recap. I’ll get better at finding the story in my day. This will evolve. Today things: - Lots of Audrey time - First day of 2020 USA Artistic Swimming Convention, aka many Zoom meetings - Euric chicken dinner on the patio - Concordia walk - Watched ‘Class Action Park’ and was very grateful for my safe, calm and waterpark-free childhood - Blocked my sweater Honeymoon thoughts: We spent the entire trip having conversations about Portland with people from out of state watching the stories of the ongoing protests. I think about those conversations a lot, because I don’t think Mike nor I really ever got it right. I got the impression people were really concerned for our safety, for our city’s peace, and for the return to normalcy. I think we were intimidated by differing opinions and power dynamics (alpaca farmer talking about what would happen if this was unfolding in Montana). Looking back we swept it under the rug by saying the protests were peaceful and assuring them Portland was safe. I wish we had focused on the very good reasons people are protesting, and what needs to change before they will (and should) stop, and that your peace may come at the expense of other’s oppression. I wish I had said said more to align us with the movement. I need more practice. (at Northeast, Portland) https://www.instagram.com/p/CElU-pyhHu1/?igshid=vsokjtvrmggh

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 20! I could not have imagined a warmer welcome home from our honeymoon. We were literally greeted three times by warm welcomes, twice by strangers! One person generously gave us a bottle of wine as a congratulations. I feel embraced by my Portland community, so thank you. Ok, now I’ll tell you what we did today. First we walked to Ps and Qs and had brunch in the park. It’s sort of a tradition after a road trip avoiding eating meals indoors. Next we drove to @neightduke and @dontforgetthesnacks where Mike CLEANED UP at their life-affirmingly wackadoo yard sale. Lobster claws for the win! Then we came home, cleaned out the van (Mike did all the work) and I talked garden stuff with @lizquinley. It was time to drop off RJ. It was sad to say goodbye, but all good van trips must come to an end. The first photo is from our goodbye moment. We ordered dinner from @malkapdx, did a couple laps around Kenilworth Park while we waited, and ate our dinner in the backyard. It’s really really good, please try it and thank me later. We finished the day by watching An American Pickle, based on the Simon Rich story Mike read to me on the trip each night before bed. I’m going to say, the story is better than the movie, but both brought us a lot of joy. The official honeymoon is now over. Honeymoon vibes and honeymoon style journals will continue, but I promise the photos are only downhill from here. Keep following me if you want to read about making beeswax wraps and homemade rugs. It’s projects galore from here on out! Thanks to everyone for following along. This was really fun. None of this would have been possible without the generosity of @gocamp_rentals. Thanks you, Go Camp, for letting us live our #vanlife dreams 💕 @ Portland, Oregon (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEiziFnBcqI/?igshid=11zjeemmr2wa3

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 20! I could not have imagined a warmer welcome home from our honeymoon. We were literally greeted three times by warm welcomes, twice by strangers! One person generously gave us a bottle of wine as a congratulations. I feel embraced by my Portland community, so thank you. Ok, now I’ll tell you what we did today. First we walked to Ps and Qs and had brunch in the park. It’s sort of a tradition after a road trip avoiding eating meals indoors. Next we drove to @neightduke and @dontforgetthesnacks where Mike CLEANED UP at their life-affirmingly wackadoo yard sale. Lobster claws for the win! Then we came home, cleaned out the van (Mike did all the work) and I talked garden stuff with @lizquinley. It was time to drop off RJ. It was sad to say goodbye, but all good van trips must come to an end. The first photo is from our goodbye moment. We ordered dinner from @malkapdx, did a couple laps around Kenilworth Park while we waited, and ate our dinner in the backyard. It’s really really good, please try it and thank me later. We finished the day by watching An American Pickle, based on the Simon Rich story Mike read to me on the trip each night before bed. I’m going to say, the story is better than the movie, but both brought us a lot of joy. The official honeymoon is now over. Honeymoon vibes and honeymoon style journals will continue, but I promise the photos are only downhill from here. Keep following me if you want to read about making beeswax wraps and homemade rugs. It’s projects galore from here on out! Thanks to everyone for following along. This was really fun. None of this would have been possible without the generosity of @gocamp_rentals. Thanks you, Go Camp, for letting us live our #vanlife dreams 💕 (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEiyTzRh5Uf/?igshid=14b1xh28ihw1i

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 19! I’m back in the world of indoors and cats! Mike and I went head to head with a busy Oregon coast weekend and were not able to find a place to stay. We took it as a sign that it was the right day to come home. We started the day at the RV park south of Aberdeen. We parked in the dark, so we didn’t know we parked by a bank of blackberry bushes laden with ripe berries. I picked a Tupperware full and then we were off. We thought we could find a camp spot at Fort Steven’s State Park, north of Astoria, but bad news, it was full. They gave us a list of RV parks to call... all full. Then our roommate Euric called to tell us he had invited friends to our house for dinner... We had a little chat over our Fish N Chips lunch about missing our friends and wanting to join dinner but not wanting to end our honeymoon just for a backyard hang. We went back and forth, but when we got back out on the street and saw how crowded it was we decided it was time to call it. After a nice stroll on Astoria along the train tracks we walked back to the car and headed home. A couple of the photos are a little silly - one is just to show how close I am to finishing the sweater (if @ourcataudrey let’s me I’ll finish her up tomorrow). Another is of how Audrey became a work of art laying on our bedroom rug. The last is of Mike in our hammock minute before we decided it was time to turn in. Since we had planned to still be traveling tomorrow I’m going to continue the log. Try to wrap up some thoughts about the trip. Who knows, maybe I’ll keep writing all week... all month? I’ll see if Audrey lets me. (at Oregon Coast - Peter Iredale Shipwreck) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEgJOkvBcU5/?igshid=vzgc7j83okzj

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 18! It’s pretty late, and late = I’m going to forget everything we did today, but I’ll try. We started off at the Dungeness County Park. We had ambitions of waking up at 5:45 and walking the spit at sunrise. When the alarm went off at 5:45 we both decided sunrise wasn’t that important to us and slept till 7 something. A wise choice since it was completely socked in. Spooky beach vibes. We let RJ cruise up to Port Angeles next. We walked around a little, saw the wharf, spotted a sea star, walked the downtown, etc. I didn’t know there was such a strong connection to Big Foot! He is everywhere in Port Angeles, as if he wants to be found... I forgot! We stopped for lunch in a really pretty forest area with lake views! RJ looked very regal on our walk back up from the water. After Port Angeles we drove through Forks (watch Mike’s stories for the Twilight content), and looked at the gorgeous view from Rialto Beach. The beach parking was full, so we couldn’t go down to the sand. We also tried to get a campsite there, but the friendly camp host told us that there was no way we would find anything anywhere close to the Olympic National Park... so we hatched a plan. We decided to push on, go to the Hoh rainforest today instead of tomorrow and drive farther down the coast to find a less crowded area to sleep. So the next stop was the Hoh Rainforest, our first rainforest moment together! I guess I was here as a baby, but not since. We did the Hall of Moss trail. It’s a short walk with gorgeous views of big old trees dripping with moss. Very lush and green, and for us streaked with late afternoon sun. We drove south to find a campsite. On the way we stopped for another beach view, and I ate a bunch of triscuits so I wouldn’t have a food melt down. Around 8:30 we found an RV park south of Aberdeen that had a spot for us, and that’s where I’m writing you from. Mike drove like 1000 hours today and is waiting for me to finish my post so we can go to sleep... so byeeee (at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEdjwd1Buis/?igshid=16h7hxrro2ag7

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 17! Our honeymoon is winding down with some relaxing time on the Olympic Peninsula. We spent the day mostly in and around Sequim, a town on the northern coast of Washington’s little thumb. We didn’t do too much today, but it was really calm and relaxing... and cold, which was a nice change. We traveled north to the Dungeness County Park, around an hour and a half north of the Potlatch State Park. We got one of the last camping spots here, parked RJ and headed out to see Sequim. On the way up here we stopped at Seal Rock Campground Beach, which was littered with oysters and barnacles! It was pretty amazing to see. If we knew what we were doing we would have collected our 18 max oysters per person... but we don’t so we just enjoyed with our eyes. Most of our day was spent on the beach at Port Williams County Park. It had a gorgeous view and was shaded by a big bluff. It was literally 45 degrees in the shade — perfect beach knitting weather. We set up a little picnic and stayed there wrapped in our @gorumpl blankets for a few hours. We picked up dinner at Salty Girls Seafood. Half dozen oysters, clam chowder and a caesar salad. It was delicious and fun to take a night off from cooking. We had made eggs for breakfast so not having to use the stove again today made me a happy girl. On the way back to the campsite we also bought fire and s’mores equipment and I ate more marshmallows than I have ever eaten in one sitting. I feel great now, no need to worry about me. It was our first fire because it was the first night we were relaxed and fed by 7pm. It’s just been a whirlwind, so it was really special to have a long evening together. (at Port Williams, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEa2ZINhWqr/?igshid=1y1rk76h2d2gs

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 16! Today was mostly a driving day... aka a knitting day for me. I had to write that up top because I don’t have too many exciting stories from today. We left our friends at the flower farm and started west. We drove from Moses Lake in central Washington to Potlach State Park on the Olympic Peninsula. Should have been a 4 hour drive but we hit some traffic through Tacoma, so it was 5. We did make a couple nice stops on the drive. First stop was in Ellensburg to see Dick and Jane’s Spot, a maximalist, colorful lawn art gallery that made Mike look like Marie Kondo. This was lawn art dreamland, and if it’s my future I’m ok with it. I know what I married. After that joyful moment we drove on to Snoqualmie for lunch and a view. We ate our favorite fast food lunch in the park need the falls. Bonus points if you can name our favorite fast food restaurant 🌵 The next leg was the trafficy part. We drove through Tacoma. It was ok. It took a while to get to Olympia. In Olympia we had a backyard hang with great friends Meg and Bill. It was so nice to see a familiar face. They loaded us up with garden tomatoes and insanely good mozzarella from Philadelphia. We ended the day at the Potlach State Park. Mike had driven for 5 hours, so he took a break and googled cryptids while I made dinner from Meg’s amazing tomatoes. I included an honest photo of the most insane moment of tonight’s van cooking adventure. It gets really tight. I have a whole Pickathon bowl system for the veggies that I am looking forward to abandoning as soon as I get home. Tomorrow we are both looking forward to being able to get back to our slower pace. Our total travel time is back down to 1.5 hours. More ‘splorin time, less knitting time :) (at Olympia, Washington) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEYTLiGhvVc/?igshid=1kvzpw45fwrbc

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 15! We woke up on a blueberry farm and spent most of our day in the lovely city of Spokane. Because we didn’t plan our visit and were looking up points of interest on the fly I think we drove north and south on N Post St maybe 5 times. Repetition didn’t stop us from having a lovely morning! We strolled the gardens at Manito Park, had Huckleberry shakes and burgers at Mary Lou’s Milk Bottle (yes it’s shaped like a milk bottle), perused the shelves at @auntiesbooks, bought a vintage skirt at Drop Yer Drawers, returned downtown to walk the Riverfront Park (highlights: a goat that eats trash and a huge Radio Flyer wagon), crossed the Monroe St bridge for views of Spokane falls, and shopped for yarn I don’t need at @paradisefibers. Growing up on Seattle we didn’t think much of Spokane... not as in we had a poor opinion of Spokane, more just that it wasn’t on the radar. Same as Ballard. Before it was a trendy Seattle neighborhood it was just far. That’s the only thing anyone thought about Ballard. Anyways, Spokane is really nice, especially the pedestrian only park in the middle of town right on the river. After Spokane we kept heading west to tonight’s stay Dune Lake Flower Farm. We were greeted by Kris, her brown lab puppy Wrigley, and her turkey Crash. We are still waiting to meet the kittens, will keep you updated. A second dog (pictured) named Scout visited, but still no kittens :( (at Spokane Riverfront Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEVt-CaBBah/?igshid=1iz3pi8tr86by

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 14! Two weeks on the road has been good to us. We don’t open doors on each other anymore and have a better rhythm of who gets to use the middle of the van standing space. We have also tried out all types of camping spot: friend’s house, state park, national park, @hipcamp, @harvesthosts, @kampgroundsofamerica, and have had success with all. I don’t think we have favorites yet; all have been really unique experiences. Today was our big Glacier National Park day. Yeah, that’s me taking a rest between jumping photos - it was 6:50am and at altitude. Glacier is only open to take the Going to the Sun Road from the west — you have to double back at St Mary’s. We were told the highlight was Logan’s Pass, but despite arriving to the park at 7:00am getting parking was a no go. We circled for maybe 30 minutes and couldn’t make it happen. Despite that minor frustration we were able to see lots of other gorgeous sights in the park before the crowds. A HUGE eagle flew over us at a misty mountain reflection viewpoint, and that was magical. The drive is stunning with alpine and lake views. We spent about 5 hours in the park, took a little rest (aka @fiveguys lunch) and then drove west to @rileycreekblueberryfarm in Sand Point, ID. It’s a U-pick blueberry farm owned by a very kind man named Stan who promised us 4:30am peacocks. We are parked in his blueberry field eating his blueberries as I type. It truly was a day full of beauty. Knitting update: I attached the sleeves to the body of the sweater. You knit all the way across the front and back, and around the outside of both sleeves. Its nutz. Looking forward to how this will shape up. (at West Glacier, Montana) https://www.instagram.com/p/CETCDVYBuUS/?igshid=18w5srhni0sbw

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 13! We did so little today (hooray!!) We woke up at 7 but didn’t really move till 7:30. Mike made coffee and I made French toast from @wildcrumb challah. I ate sitting on the floor of the van. It was scrummy. Then we drove to White Fish and strolled around a little. It’s a really cute town. I wanted to go to White Fish Pottery because I love that stuff. Thought I would get a nice vase but ended up buying a buffalo candelabra by Betsy Hurd I named moose. It will now be our traditional birthday candle a la the @nostranapdx chicken candle. I’m good at making up uses for things so I have an excuse to buy them. After our stroll we went to City Beach and vegged out. We found a nice patch of grass in the shade near the sand but not on the sand and I knit and Mike drew cryptids. I swam twice; the water felt really nice. It feels safe there so we might go back tomorrow. After our sit around we checked in to our campsite, sat around some more, went to the petting zoo at our campsite, met a donkey and a cow, fed them carrots, played corn hole, sat around some more, and then made dinner. I made a skillet enchilada recipe from the internet and it was so so yummy. Ask me and I’ll send you the details. Sweater process report: finished the body and one sleeve of my #carbeth Carbeth. 6/8 increases finished on second sleeve. Unlikely I will finish before Portland, but will crack on. I’m using @eileenfisherny yarn from their lab store in Irvington and it’s heaven. Ok, it’s 9:10pm, but there is no internet here, so who knows what time this is reaching you. We are trying to turn in early so we can be at the gates to Glacier before 7 so we can beat the crowds. (at Whitefish City Beach) https://www.instagram.com/p/CERb0AeB3Fn/?igshid=1kvk7zalf5y5s

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 12! It’s too many days. Too many recaps. I bet you are all like... 12? 12 of what? 300? Well, yeah, kinda. It’s 12 of 21. It’s a lot. This is all thanks to @gocamp_rentals . They were generous enough to let us borrow RJ because Mike is a real life influencer. It’s essentially a dream come true. I get to be a ‘travel blogger’ for 3 weeks. Back to the bloggin’ We had a Missoula morning. Started with pastries at Bernice’s bakery, then two farmers markets (sometimes we have trouble finding outdoor activities). Then we went to an antique store where I found my current favorite object: a giant safety pin that I will hang on my wall. That was all to get us to 11am so we could visit @the.generalpublic a store owned by a Alison, a friend of our friend @girlpowerillustrations. They had an amazing pair of weird big plaid pants, but they didn’t fit over my butt. After the fun shopping morning we got chicken lunch at Double Front, had a little picnic, and got out of town. The next stop was the wildest place we have ever been: The Miracle of America Museum. Covid moment: almost all of the museum is outside... something between a ghost town and a junk yard, but to get outside we had to buy tickets from a woman without a mask on and I’m still shuddering thinking about it. Ok, back to the museum. It’s a private collection of infinite junk organized by type in a village of shacks. There’s a shack full of vintage washing machines, of snowmobiles, of car parts, dentist tools, Christmas decorations, cameras, aquatics related stuff, taxidermy, cars, army tanks... it was truly endless. After the Smithsonian of the West we drove to the Lake Mary Ronan State Park for camping. We visited the lake, dipped a toe, cooked up some farmers market veggies, ate some popcorn, and watched 30 minutes of Hamilton. Epilogue: I tried peeing standing up with the She Wee for the first time and totally peed all over myself and ended the day in uncontrollable laughter and shame. I had to waddle back to the car with my butt out and my pee soaked pants around my ankles. I just don’t get how to avoid the pee drips! How do you not pee on yourself?? (at Miracle of America Museum) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEPLiAXhZa1/?igshid=a9d8ec3od66

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 11! I would have told ya the highlight of today was sightseeing at a big pit, but now I’m at a KOA and everything is A OK. We scooted out of our alpaca home early this morning and waved goodbye to the herd on our way out. Unfortunately we had business to take care of - RJ had a nail in her tire we needed to get sorted. We went to the Tire Rama in Manhattan, MT and they were THE NICEST EVER - took 15 minutes to fix our tire and didn’t charge us a penny. It was a honeymoon miracle. We had big plans for today. Big plans that didn’t all come true. But our first stop was a big winner. The Berkeley Pit in Butte. The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper mine. It’s a ginormous pool of water that is heavily acidic, about the acidity of Coca-Cola, lemon juice, or gastric acid. A true pit. Our next stop, not so much. We tried our darndest to visit the Garnet Ghost Town, but heck the road leading up there was long, winding, steep, unpaved, and all the speed signs were riddled with bullet holes. Anyways we spent an hour attempting this lost cause, gave up when we saw how steep it really was, and drove all the way back. This was all while listening to ‘To Live and Die in LA,’ a true crime podcast with a dumping a body in the woods plot line. We made it to Missoula just before 5, but it was almost 100 degrees so I was... let’s say... sluggish. We ordered sandwiches and salads from @bigapizzamt (the wait for pizza was 2 hours) and walked down to the water to watch the kayakers. Combining the tire change, the pit visit, the scary gravel road and the hot walk we were feeling like today was a lost cause. But then we checked into the Missoula KOA. I’d never been to one of these places, and this one is OG. It’s from 1967 and is as cute as a button. We have a little grass lawn, a fence, and a picnic table. We played mini golf, both got holes in one (!!), got ice cream sundaes, and kids keep whooshing by on recumbent bikes. It’s a treat. So needless to say today had a happy ending despite some slow goings. I did finish one sleeve of my sweater, and played much more golf than usual, so not bad after all. #missoulakoa #koacamping (at Missoula KOA Holiday) https://www.instagram.com/p/CELOj41BSjl/?igshid=1dv604hcny4b3

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 10! Wow, 10 is so many days! We woke up at Chico Hot Springs and raced down to the pool before the daytime rush. We had the pool almost totally to ourselves, and I got to do a little obligatory synchronized swimming ;) After Chico we drove to Livingston and had breakfast at Tru North Cafe. We got their one sidewalk table and got to eat our breakfast in a city. It was pretty fun. Livingston was a really charming, lovely place. We went into a gallery, a curiosity shop, and even met a friend of a friend who is opening a Roman inspired restaurant! It looked so amazing, we were so sad we didn’t get to try it out. After Livingston we drove to Bozeman, where we continued our COVID city adventures. We explored a couple neighborhoods including the newly minted Bozeman Art District, aka Brewery Historic District, the Cannery District, and the Downtown Historic District. We got sandwiches at Fink’s Deli and ate them at a dinosaur playground! After lunch we drove to tonight’s overnight spot - Sentinel Alpaca Ranch via Harvest Hosts. We are parked in a field with the ranch dog sleeping outside our door. As part of our stay we got to spend a little time with the baby and mommy alpacas and learn some facts while hand feeding them. Obviously this was a big highlight! The alpaca feeding ends in the alpaca gift shop, where I was tempted by piles of yarn but we both ended up leaving with very practical pairs of socks. After the alpaca excitement we made dinner and are now in the van for the night. I can hear the wind blowing outside our windows. The only thing I’m stressed about is there is no bathroom here... so not only am I peeing outside (and potentially other things, eek) but there are RVs right next to us on all sides. So it might be a pretty public wee. I guess such is #vanlife? (at Sentinel Ranch) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEIxYU1BKNb/?igshid=1m19m6f06o9se

[michelebennett]

Honeymoon Road Trip Day 9! You might have thought from reading yesterday’s post that I had hit the tired and dirty breaking point... but you are wrong. I had about 6 more hours left in me. 6 hours we spent soaking up all the Yellowstone marvels we could before it got warm. What did we see before 11am? - Sunrise over Yellowstone Lake - Buffalo herds in Hayden Valley - Artist Point Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone views - Mammoth Hotsprings Terraces - Mammoth Hotsprings town + elk sighting And then I was like, I’m done. Let’s get a hotel. And so we did. I called Chico Hot Springs. All they had was a king room with a soaking tub, and I said I’ll have one of those, please. So now I’m luxuriating in a room big enough to spin around with my arms stretched out and spin around in with my eyes closed and not hit any of the walls. I’m wearing a complimentary guest robe. I showered. I feel the cleanest of my entire life. Anyways, @chico_hot_springs is a classic, timeless hotel with wagon wheel chairs and bison taxidermy in the lobby and a James Beard nominated restaurant defining Montana cuisine that we will be missing out on because we don’t feel safe eating indoors. The thing I’m most sad about missing is their signature dessert: The Flaming Orange. Like, what even is that??? I want to try one!!! The hotel is centered around a pool fed by a natural hot spring. It has major 40s glam vibes, and we are looking forward to a late night or early morning swim, whichever has fewer people. [update: 8:45pm too crowded for us, took silly photo by in-room tub instead] The biggest stroke of luck is that it is currently crazy Montana raining with thunder and lightning, so I don’t know if we would have been cozy kittens in our van tonight anyways. We are both feeling very lucky to be indoors for the first time in a week. Plans are to shower three times each before checkout. Will that hold us another two weeks? We will see. (at Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEGMvK_BiJy/?igshid=aiwkock3liw0