Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 12

Today was a travel day.. we were going from Butte, Montana to Ogden, Utah. Our next destination is Arches National Park but it would have been too long of a drive, or at least to long of a drive for us. So Ogden is a halfway point. Nothing really happened. The drive was nice. Idaho is a very green and hilly place. It did get hotter as we went south. North Utah wasn't what I expected.. it's also farmland and very green.

One thing that did happen is I broke Harry HD video camera. Not on purpose, it was an accident but I felt horrible so we stopped in Idaho Falls, Idaho at a Best Buy and I purchased him a new cam. It was a costly mistake on my part but I hope the broken cam is still usable.

Amazing Japanese Tattoos

Creative Illustration and Digital Art by Cristiano Siqueira

I'm a Makeup Snob

Just saw Eclipse!

The movie was awesome

and I love Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson and Billy Burke

I am still a little ticked that they didn't cast a native american as Jacob,

but Taylor Lautner's body is BANGIN!

But that is all beside the point.

The point is:

the makeup sucked with a capital UCK.

Bella's face looked prom-ready the whole movie,

complete powdered eyebrows and berry lips.

HELLO what 17 year old do you know that wears lipstick 24/7?

On the subject of lips, Jacob's were purple the whole film.

???????????????

Furthermore, I would love to stage a protest

banning Rob Pattinson's eyebrows.

They are hideous,

for the first movie they shaped them

and he looked great

ignore the copius amounts of eyeliner and lipstick LAWL

- imperfect and flawless like a vampire-

but for the last two they have let them go CRAAAAAAZY

ahhhhhhh! run for your life!

and it is entirely too distracting.

Especially in IMAX (which by the way, is EXCESSIVELY loud)

And the white makeup they use on the vampires is poorly applied.

You can see the pink through which I say is tacky.

And then there is little Jane,

played by Dakota Fanning

who has great style but tries to hard when she is acting.

Her makeup is WRETCHED.

The weird black cat eye... ew ew ew.

It is just distracting.

Speaking of eyeliner,

all the guy vampires look like Pete Wentz or something...

And let me pick another fight, just to be thorough.

JASPER AND ROSALIE HAVE BLACK EYEBROWS. But they are blonde.

THIS IS NOT OK.

why they have an olive skinned italian playing a natural blonde is beyond me

IT MAKES ME WANT TO TIE THEM DOWN

AND BLEACH THEM INTO OBLIVION!

Overall, the makeup was unnatural,

worked oddly with the lighting,

and was distractingly heavy.

However,

the movie was awesome.

I am totally obsessed with all the actors, especially Kristen Stewart.

I loved it.

Still, I want to kick Robin Mathews, head makeup artist.

Her work may have played off well in the Runaways,

but it looked silly in Eclipse.

Thank you, I love you,

and I promise to be back to normal tomorrow with two new posts.

(Only 3 left in the Cheap Alternatives series!)

~Claire de la Luna

Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 11

Well today we were visiting Yellowstone, but the day started off badly.. actually it stated last night when we got to the hotel and I realized I booked us a hotel that was about 125 miles / 2-1/2 hours away. Now it wouldn't be bad if we didn't have to come back to the hotel later that night. So my mistake added an extra 250 miles to our already 3500+ and an extra 5 hours of driving for the day which takes away time from our visit to the park.

Anyways we get to Yellowstone around 1pm. We enter the west entrance and just a few miles in we see a group of Moose's. One actually crosses the street and walked about 5 feet from me.. it was pretty cool.

When we entered Yellowstone wasn't what I was expecting.. I expected tall trees all over the place and there as nothing but acres of tiny (5 feet) trees all over. I mentioned this to Harry and he said "wasn't there a fire here years ago" and that is why there were no big trees.. they all burned down and what we saw were the re-plants. There were larger trees in other parts of the park and there were also blacken trees that have yet to be re-planted.

A few more miles and we see a few Buffalo's/Bison. We decided to take the south route as this is where the majority of the Geysers and hot springs are. We stop over and over at each group of geysers/hot springs. We took tons of videos and pictures. Because we had the dog we had to go one at a time while the other one watched the dog. I took all the pictures and Harry took all the video, expect the video I took with my still cam for my blog.

We wound up at Old Faithful and missed it by 5 minutes. Since this is something that both Harry and I really wanted to see we waited the 90 minutes for another eruption... and it didn't disappoint. Again because of the Dog I was back in the tree area (where dogs were allowed) and I took pictures and Harry was up where the benches were with the video camera.

We only had a few hours of day light left so we headed toward the north exit and on our way we came across the Mud Volcano section. There were several cool hot springs like Dragon's Mouth and a Mud hot spring.

After that we headed out as the we were losing light but as we were leaving we saw a group of Elks and stopped to get some pictures and video.

Now it was dark and we headed out of the park which was going to take an hour just to get out. A lightening storm started, then rain and then dusty winds. I was driving these small windy roads getting blown around and not being able to see because of the heavy rain and dust. There was one moment where I was stuck between two hills and a gust of dusty wind swirled through and there was a moment where I couldn't see anything.. it was a very scary and slow drove back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel at 1am and there was no time to do any blogging or anything.

Next up Utah!!!

Day 11 - Yellowstone - Mud Hot Springs

There are several of these hot springs that spue mud instead of water.

Day 11 - Yellowstone - Dragon's Mouth

This is a cool cave where the hot spring/geyser is inside the cave.. It looks as if it's a mouth spouting smoke.. ie Dragon's Mouth.

Cheaper Alternatives #6

For your body,

instead of splurging for expensive moisturizers-

which come in small packaging and have tons of fillers

use baby oil!

It is basically just mineral oil- and your skin will love it!

It actually is MORE effective than basic glycerin-based body lotions.

This is especially great for sensitive skin,

since baby products are SUPER mild.

I've been a competitive swimmer since I was 5,

and this stuff has kept my skin from dying a traumatic lizardlike death.

Plus, you only need to use a little bit so it lasts FOREVER

After showering, pat dry and rub on legs, torso, arms, and booty.

Soon, your skin will feel like a baby's butt!

<3

Claire!

ohhhhhh and also: I'm filming a tutorial tomorrow night! chika WAH WAH!

and, my sister says hello!

Day 11 - Yellowstone - Old Faithful

Here is Old Faithful erupting. This is the final seconds of the eruption. Harry took video while I did photos but you can take only so many photo's so I switched to taking a little video.

Awesome 1,000m high Alpine viewing towe

You'll definitely need a head for heights if you're planning on visiting the 1,000m high AlpspiX viewing tower, which is to open in southern Germany on July 4.

The towering structure is situated in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen region of the country and provides panoramic views of surrounding Hoellental and Garmisch.



Each arm of the tower is 24m long, crossing in an ‘X’ shape over an abyss at the base of the Alpspitze mountain, while jutting out 13m over an empty void, with the other 11m anchored in rock.

At the end of each arm, a glass wall offers a unique view of the alpine surroundings.

Each arm of the ‘X’ is just 3m wide and formed of a grid, which will allow snow to pass through it during winter.

Pacific Northwest Road Trip - Day 10

Today we planned a visit to Glacier National Park. We got up at 8 am and packed up the truck and were ready to leave by 9.30. We took US Route 93 north. Once we reached the junction with Highway 40 we followed it east to US Route 2 and followed it to the west entrance of Glacier National Park. We got a annual pass for all National Parks for 80 bucks. That might sound a lot, but by the time this vacation is over it will have paid for itself.

First we checked out the visitor center and Lake McDonald. We followed the "Going to the Sun Road". We got to see lots of forests, rapids, white water, water falls and lakes. Then the road started climbing. We got to see the aftermath of an avalanche. It was a narrow and windy road, fortunately Harry was driving but he found it fun to drive. He just loves driving mountain roads because it reminds him of home and roads in the Austrian Alps. The higher up you get the more amazing and breath taking the views become. The view right in front of you is absolutely breath taking, you turn around and there is even a more amazing view. Harry and I took tons of pix and video. Shortly before we reached Logan Pass the road narrowed to a 1 lane road since an avalanche had taken out part of the road a couple of years ago. We were in luck and there was no wait on our side. Once we got to Logan Pass we drove by several snow fields. We also saw a mountain goat on one of the snow fields. That was very cool.

Once we passed Logan Pass we went down on the east side. The road on the east side is not impressive as it was on the west side.

Once we reached St. Mary's we jumped onto US Route 89 and followed it south, until we reached the junction with highway 82. We followed highway 82 until we reached the junction with highway 83. we followed it south to State Route 200 until we reached I-15. We were driving through lots and lots of rural area's of Montana. Rolling hills as far as the eye can see. It was pretty amazing. It gave Harry and I a very good idea what the great planes must have felt to the first settlers.

One thing we learned is that if you go on a road trip through rural Montana make sure your car has enough gas and you bring enough food and water with you, as it might be a few hundred miles until you can stock up on these items. As there was nothing... nothing in the rural parts of Montana.

We finally reached the city of Helena. I'm talking about a real city and not some tiny, rural townships. We had Wendy's for very late lunch and then continued on the I-15 south. around 7.30 pm we finally reached our hotel in the city of Butte, Montana.

Glacier National Park - Day 10 - The Weeping Wall

Glacier National Park - Day 10 - Rapids

Cheaper Alternatives #5

Conditioner as Shaving Cream!

For extremely sensitive skin,

or when you run out of shaving cream,

or when you are traveling...

use conditioner to shave!

It works great!

and unlike soap, it doesn't clog up your razor or dry out your skin!

<3

Claire

also...

i went to a bunch of fancy pants stores today:

mario's, barney's, diesel, burkes brothers...

those stores suck!

They are overpriced beyond oblivion!