Q. What did the buffalo say when his son went off to college?
A. Bi-son.
Wow—after months of planning and years of anticipation, our grand journey to take Finn to college is now in the history books.
As Johnny Cash would say, and as you can see in our epic photo gallery, we’ve been everywhere (even Winnemucca!)—ranging from Lake Shasta to Crater Lake (“…for Pete’s sake!”), Boise to Yellowstone, and Jackson to Boulder.
Our long journey began as Finn bid a fond farewell to Seamus—who, clearly knowing that something was up, made a beeline to the gazebo and refused to move. We then carefully rolled out in the van, with Mom directing traffic while Maria filmed.
At Shasta we made a spontaneous side quest, taking the van offroad for the first time & exploring the area by the old train bridge. (Henry later provided a detailed assessment of the insulator array. :-))
We grabbed dinner at the original Black Bear Diner, then slept among teepees, deer, and trains. In the morning we stopped by the Hi-Lo Cafe & thrift shop in Weed (revisiting our activities from two years ago), then continued north to Lava Beds National Monument).
Margot & Finn first explored Lava Beds on their road trip following his freshman year. We alternately scurried around the wonderfully cool subterranean chasms & baked in the sun as we marched (sometimes in the wrong direction) from cave to cave.
The next morning, we again retraced Mom & Finn’s footsteps from 2023, this time heading up to Crater Lake. Sadly the view was heavily obscured by wildfire smoke that only grew thicker as the morning progressed. I was able to clean up the visuals a bit in Photoshop, and our little Lego selves made a first appearance atop their van.
A long, hot day of rural driving finally brought us to Boise, where Coach Dave (who’s relocated there from San Jose) pointed us to some great pizza in the cute & very clean downtown.
Finn’s buddy Gunnar is another recent SJ->Boise transplant, and he suggested checking out birds of prey at the local sanctuary. We had a ball doing so (including meeting Finn the Raptor!), after which we grabbed some Mongolian BBQ before Mom flew in to join our crew.
After enjoying some separate evening adventures (Finn hanging out with Gunnar; Margot & I having dinner with Coach Dave), our newly expanded crew headed east the next say. At Brianna’s recommendation we swung through Twin Falls—which, happily enough, features some beautiful actual twin waterfalls. They provided another cool welcome respite from many hours plowing through largely hot, flat countryside. To my light chagrin, I was outvoted on making a pitstop at the Idaho Potato Museum (“Free taters for out-of-staters!”).
On day 6 we at last arrived in Yellowstone! First up we surveyed the beautiful meadows & rivers with their resident antelope and herons.
Next we made our way around various hot springs, which featured numerous cautionary signs (one depicting “Henry” falling to his demise in the boiling brew! :->).
From there it was on to Old Faithful, where we’d taken the dudes nine years ago. Clapping a hand on Finn’s shoulder, I reminded him and myself, “We may never pass this way again.”
Side note: It’s really fun to see how the guys looked at Old Faithful back in 2017. Check out this post and gallery for some shots there & around Yellowstone
Our long, winding path out of the park for the night took us past many beautiful rock formations en route to Gardiner, Montana, where we wolfed down some brisket before finding a restorative shower at the campsite.
Day 2 in the park took us to some thrilling vistas—and then finally to our first encounter with buffalo!
Much of our drive featured lashing waves of rain, but the weather broke just in time for us to revisit the beautiful hot springs around Yellowstone Lake.
We wrapped up the day in Jackson, WY (one of Finn’s most fondly remembered places), then mounted a rather grueling ascent over the Tetons en route to our campsite. The next morning we explored valley towns before again traversing the mountains back to Jackson for their annual art fair.
That evening we took in a colorful (in every sense) photo safari. It featured friendly driver/navigator Joe plus an endlessly talkative retired carpenter and bizarre tales of harrowing wilderness survival.
And then, it was time for Bison Round 2! We loved every minute of it.
After camping for the night, we made our way down to see Auntie Laura & Grandpa Liggett for dinner, then say with Laura and quickly gather the college supplies she’d amassed before we finally headed to Boulder.
And with that, the big day arrived… We got Finn ensconced in his new digs, met his roommate Reed, and then bid a quick and not overly tearful goodbye.
To our new bison: “Bye, son.” God bless. We miss you already.
— Et, Fin(n) —