Yellowstone!

This trip was made possible thanks to a personalized itinerary by the one and only Holly Green. :)

Departing Idaho, with the Tetons rising like ghosts in the background:



Son 2's leg was fine so we went to Yellowstone yesterday. I think that um...we could do a better job of preparing next time, but hey, we have a year's pass and can go any time we want (weather permitting). We didn't see a lot of wildlife, probably because we were mostly looking at thermal features that animals are probably smart enough NOT to walk on, and also, visiting Yellowstone means visiting very wild, dangerous nature--with ten thousand of your closest friends. I guess it scares away the bears, but on the flip side, it's very populated. We did see a bald eagle (no photo) and its nest (I took a photo but someone who didn't realize what I was taking a picture of deleted it...). We also saw a herd of elk.

The pictures are starting from the west entrance and going south on the lower loop. We got as far as Old Faithful, but there was seriously no parking, and thousands of people, so I think we'll wait until schools starts and the crowds die down, and start there for our next segment. Certain Spouses were adamantly opposed to seeing OF at all, but Certain Children would have felt it was a serious oversight to get within a quarter mile of it and not even try. Hopefully everyone will get their satisfaction before the year is out. ( Read more... )

Books that defy writing logic

Have you ever read a book that you like even though you know it doesn't meet all the "standards" of good writing? I'm reading this series right now and really enjoying it, even though I know there are too many adverbs and I know there's head-hopping (which I usually hate) and I know there are places that are uneven. It feels a little like something I might critique that isn’t published yet. And yet--I'm entertained. I think what the author does well is 1) have a lot of cool things happening and 2) leave out all the boring parts. It feels like the book he always wanted to read as a kid and could never find, and while it's not making my all-time top ten list, it's working as far as a fun romp. Which is completely its intent.

C.S. Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a little like that for me, too. Except that it IS on my favorites list. And the writing, IMO, is lovely. But it's episodic and people enter and leave, never to be seen again, and there is no one great foe that they all face for the space of the novel. And yet. There is something about it that makes me wish I, too, could fall into that picture and end up in Narnia. I guess what I take from this is that nobody is a perfect writer, but if you can find that spark and make it work for you, your story can still live despite its imperfections.

What about you? Have you read anything that you know has weaknesses, yet still manages to win you over? What is it, do you think, that makes it succeed for you?