Cabin Fever

Hola!

Things continue to go well and though we have had quite a few days of snow, I’m still having a blast. They say this weekend is supposed to warm up and get sunny for the next 10 days so I hope that they are right. I am ready for summer! Winter and snow flurries are only fun…when it’s winter. :)

Last weekend was the snowstorm and a lot of roads opened and closed throughout it. We ended up getting around 4 inches or so at Old Faithful, more higher up. I faced Saturday knowing that there was no way I could spend all day in my dorm room so I hopped into the car with two friends, Sergio and John and we headed to the east side of the park to the small Western town of Cody, WY. Driving through snow and high mountain passes was spectacular…Yellowstone Lake looked like an angry sea but was gorgeous all the same. I again found that uncontrollable smile playing on my lips as we drove along Sylvan Pass and saw deep mountain valleys and high mountain peaks, snow-covered pines standing tall against the coming storm and dark clouds.

Cody was awesome(no pics at this time). It was great to be out of the park for a bit, and away from the snowstorm and into some semblance of summer though it was pretty windy. We went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center which has 5 different museums: Western Art, Plains Indians relics, Firearms, Natural History (lots of stuffed bears and moose and such), and of course the Buffalo Bill Museum. We saw a gunfight, which was pretty cool…a bunch of actors dressed up in old Western clothing shooting at each other and running around on one of the main thoroughfares in this small town. We ate buffalo burgers which I’ve had before but were super tasty nonetheless. We drove back over the snowy mountain passes and called it a great day. Sunday we went to the Tetons which was a bit of a disappointment as there were too many clouds covering the mighty mountains. Seeing a bull moose along one of the rivers as well as a grizzly bear very close to the road did make up for the trip though.

We spent the next week at work getting ready for the “Big Visit” of a few corporate executives. Erin and I were given the charge of displaying the new candy display in the ice cream loft and made some labels and arranged the various types of candy in the most appealing way. That was a lot of fun to be given that responsibility and work together using some of our creative thoughts and ideas to make the display look the best we possibly could. I also worked a lot on contacting various groups about our Pathways program which is a program that brings in a variety of local

Yellowstone Lake

artists and authors to a few of our larger stores around the park. In order to promote an upcoming artist I wrote my first press release. One thing that I really enjoy about this internship is that not only am I learning a ton about this business and how retailing works, especially on a seasonal scale, but I am also given a variety of tasks to do. Every day’s activities are unexpected and different and I am challenged to do more than just filing all the time. I am actively involved in making suggestions and helping to do what needs to be done to do business better and I love that freedom and responsibility.