Wendy's Birthday and the South Loop

We slept in this morning, and then I went to the Canyon Eatery to get breakfast.  We labeled and mailed some letters from the Canyon Post Office, and then we started our sightseeing.  We did a short scenic loop called the Virginia Cascades.  Then we drove to the Norris Geyser Basin.  It took about 30 minutes to get into the parking lot and find a parking space.  We were able to take the boardwalk to see the Steamboat Geyser steaming and several hot pools.  Then we drove through the Firehole scenic loop and stopped at the Firehole Falls.  We continued South and captured a photo of a large Bison all by himself.  It took several minutes to get into the parking lot for the Grand Prismatic Spring, but we were able to follow the boardwalk along it and take several pictures.  The wind was really blowing.  We drove to Old Faithful and parked near the visitor's center.  We were inside the Visitor's Center just as Old Faithful erupted, and we watched it from inside.  There was a large crowd surrounding it.  We went to a gift shop and bought an ice cream cone and slushie.  We relaxed in the shade of the lodge for a while, and then we found a place to watch the next eruption of Old Faithful.  We used an umbrella to keep shaded, and that helped a lot.  After watching Old Faithful we walked along the boardwalks and on our way we could see the Castle Geyser erupting for about twenty minutes.  We stopped at the Grand Geyser hoping it would erupt, but we had to leave to meet our dinner reservation.  We arrived at the Old Faithful Inn restaurant just before 7:00 p.m. and we sat down for dinner.  We both had the Prime Rib buffet, and we ate a large meal.  We had salad, rolls, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, baked beans, and the Prime Rib.  We shared a hot fudge sundae for dessert.  It was a lot, but we wanted to get our money's worth.  We finished about 8:30 p.m. and drove back to the Canyon Lodge while it was dark.  I had to be alert and careful.  We had to stop for a large Elk standing in the road, and we slowed down for Bison that we could barely see.  I didn't like driving at night in Yellowstone, but we made it back to our room OK.