Goodbye dear library buddies, I am retiring to a lush prairie!

Dear Buffalo Buddy Buddies! 

I am retiring and heading to a beautiful lush prairie where I can graze all day in the warm sunshine.

However, I am very excited to let you know that there will be a new library animal friend coming soon for you to check out and take on your adventures around the city, state, country and world!

Be watching at the Children's Desk to be the first to welcome our new friend!

Thanks to those of you who took me on some amazing adventures.

Your friend, Bison Buddy.

Bison Buddy Down South! Part 1!

Hello my fellow intrepid travellers!  I am off to the wonderful city of New Orleans, Louisiana and decided to share some of my adventures with you!

My trip started out early in the morning...the sun was barely even up!
This is far to early for bisons in my opinion.

Several air planes later and many states south of my Montana home, I arrived in New Orleans!  The friends I was staying with lived very near to the French Quarter, the cultural and historical heart of New Orleans.  All the buildings had beautiful iron balconies and there were so many narrow streets that went this way and that way!  It made me very glad that bison can't drive cars!

Yours truly in the French Quarter!

After wandering the Quarter and looking at all the wonderful shops, I was quite hungry and in need of a delicious beignet from the world famous Cafe du Monde!



Just to let you know, I only ate one bison-sized beignet...I let my friends have the rest.

This city is so lively and full of music!  Ever street seems to have it's own band.  Walking the French Quarter is like listening to the soundtrack of the city itself!


Here is my friend Colin (on the trombone) with his band mates,
making some old time jazz on the steps of the courthouse.

Just because I don't carry a wallet doesn't mean I won't shop til I drop with my New Orleans friends.  We found shops with so many beads and mask that you could dress up the whole city!  We found shops with sparkly new things and shops with funky old things.  My friend even found an old mantel for her living room.  I, of course, immediately offered to help get it back to her apartment....

I make an excellent guide and lookout.

That is it for the this portion of my travels, but stay tuned in the next few days for "Bison Buddy Down South part 2:  Bison goes Renaissance! (Faire that is!)

Trip to Wyoming

I left Bozeman with two companions.  We were heading for Wyoming.  But before we got there, we stopped in Hardin to visit the Big Horn County Historical Museum.  Here's a picture of us in front of the sign.  Can you find me?

 

The museum has lots of old buildings including a train depot from Red Lodge and some old train cars! Here we are on one of the train cars-- we think it looks like a caboose.

Finally we reached Wyoming.  We had to document this momentous occasion of course!

It was nice to reach our destination.  I was glad to stop for a few days.  We visited both sets of my companions' grandparents.  We went to an outdoor pool in Sheridan and to the movies in Casper.  

Then it was time to head home.  On the way back we stopped for ice cream in a town with the best name ever!

We also made a stop at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.  In the museum we learned that the Native Americans had over 80 uses for buffalo.   They used almost every part of the buffalo from the muscles and sinew to the hide.   I had to get a picture of that!

Another interesting thing I learned from the Battle of the Little Bighorn was that it took only about two hours before it was all over.  There are a lot of tombstones.  White stones designate a soldier and red stones designate a warrior.  This is the only memorial in the western hemisphere that has markers where the people actually died in battle.  In this battle, the Native Americans won.  

I LOVED my trip!

BIG TIMBER WATER SLIDES!

 Here are a few shots from my trip to Big Timber Waterslides on Sunday!  We had a great time, and I met a lot of nice new friends!

Saftey First!  We were all required to watch a saftey video, so we knew all the rules of the water park.

Here are a few of the slides behind me!

Here I am taking a float in the Kiddie Pool!

This is a fun froggy slide for the kids. 

In the Kiddie Pool there are floating hippos, snakes, and a crocodile!

My Kiddie Pool companion, Sophia.

Taking my turn on the Froggy Slide!  Yeah!                   Very refreshing!

This ride is called Old Faceful!  (A pun on Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone Park)

Here I am checking out the tubes on this awesome ride!

This is my sliding buddy, Avery. I am sitting on his head.  He took me down some killer tubes!

Day Hike to Flathead Pass Trail near Fairy Lake!

This was a glorious hike.  We started on the trail at 10:00 am parking near Fairy Lake.  We built fairy houses, rock houses for spiders and insects, had some great food, and enjoyed getting to know some new friends, Megan, Michael, and Nia!

Here is a photo of my traveling companion, Sophia!

A lovely view of Sacajawea Peak!

The highest point (literally) up our hike was overlooking Frazier Lake.  What a view!

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam

Last Saturday, I went to Yellowstone Park. We drove from Bozeman to Gardiner, Montana. There we crossed the Gardiner River and drove through a HUGE stone arch that let us know we were entering Yellowstone National Park. 

After seeing Mammoth Hot Springs and driving for a long time, we made our first real stop was. It was at Canyon Village.

I made a new friend. You can see him holding me up so that I can take a look around.

Next, we drove further into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone to see the waterfalls. The first one we saw was called the Upper Falls.I had never seen a waterfall before. There is a lot of water rushing over the drop-off and it is going fast. It's also very loud when it goes over, I didn't know that water could make so much noise.

People kept saying there was more water than most years. That's because the snow is still melting way up in the mountains.

After we left the parking lot, we saw something that made my heart beat faster. I swelled with pride when I saw two very large bull bison very near the road. I had to get as close as I could to see these great beasts.

Our next stop was the Lower Falls of the 

Yellowstone. This waterfall was even bigger than the last one. We had a great view of it from Artist's Point. This is the most popular place to view The Lower Falls. You can see why...

Fortunately, I made another new friend who held me up to see that big waterfall. I just watched and watched. Even though we were that far away, we could hear the loud noise it made as it fell all that way into the canyon. It was a very long way down to the bottom from where we were standing! It kind of made me dizzy.

We got in the car and headed North again. When we got to the Roosevelt Lodge, we turned East to go to my favorite place in The Park - The Lamar Valley! It was my favorite because there some really big herds of bison there. We saw one big boy just walking down the road near us. He was blocking traffic for a long way. 

When he walked off to the side of the road, we were able to take his picture through the car window, but I couldn't get in position in time to be in the photo - those guys move faster than you would think!

We left The Park through the Northeast entrance at Silver Gate, Montana. We got to stay in Cooke City overnight, but first, we went to a performance of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. The people watched the play and ate their picnic dinners while I just grazed on the tall grass of Silver Gate Park. 

After the humans slept in and got some coffee, we were off again. We started up the Beartooth Highway. I can tell you, this is some of the greatest scenery around. It is more than 10,000 feet at the highest part of the highway. I was able to get out near the top and do a little rock climbing. I look like a regular mountain goat up there, don't I?

As with all things, our journey had to end. It was only two days, but  we saw a lot and had some fun! Let's see...where to next?

I love Virginia Beach!

Happy summer to you all!  I just got back from a great beach vacation in Virginia.  I saw dolphins, helped build sand castles, played in the waves, meet some crabs and caught some rays!

Buff goes to Boston

Buff is a great traveling companion.

She flew from Montana to Boston for only $30 each way!
(Inside a piece of luggage, that is.)

Once we arrived, Buff proved to be very adaptable to her new environment.

Here she is at Fenway Park.

We caught Buff looking rather hungrily at the empty field!

But Buff enjoyed new activities in Boston. Here she is bike riding.

And enjoying a boat ride on the Charles River.

Buff visited the Harvard Arboretum, full of all kinds of good munchies.

Buff took on a big dinosaur at the Museum of Science. Buff is very brave.

Buff was a good sport while this human got some good munchies

and cooled off in an air-conditioned coffee shop.

Thanks for tagging along, Buff!

"Buffy Goes to a Wedding/Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center"

I named my bison "Buffy".  

We recently took a trip to the Great Falls area from Bozeman, to attend my cousin's wedding.

  I am Aaron, and this is me with Buffy at the wedding.

Buffy was quite interested in the neat sea shell and sand "theme" of the wedding.....considering that it was in Conrad, Montana, which is a farming community right out in the area where his ancestors used to roam.....far away from any sea shore!

 Buffy thought this was a very unique wedding cake topper with the bride being carried "piggy-back" by the groom who had a "football" tucked under his arm.  You would have to know my cousin, Hayden.  He used to play football for "Montana Tech" in Butte.

This is Buffy and me, Aaron, with the bride (Amanda) and the Groom (Hayden).  Buffy and I really had a blast!

-----

THE FOLLOWING DAY

LEWIS AND CLARK INTERPRETIVE CENTER

GREAT FALLS, MONTANA

-----

Last year, in 3rd grade, we did a lot of study on Lewis and Clark.  If you have not been here, you really need to make a stop next time you are in Great Falls.  Buffy LOVED it!

This was the first time Buffy had seen the portraits of Meriwether Lewis and  William Clark.  As you probably know, President Jefferson chose them to lead an expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase and try to find the Northwest Passage over the mountains.

Buffy is getting a closeup view of the most important members of the expedition.  Besides Lewis and Clark, there is York (only black member of the group), Seaman (only dog of the group) and Sacagawea (only woman of the group).

Buffy thought he was pretty brave on top of "Seaman"......

....That was until he looked up at what it took for the members of the expedition to "portage" around the Great Falls, which could be seen right out the window in front of this TALL display!!

Now, maybe Lewis and Clark had never seen a "Magpie", but both Buffy and I have seen our share of them in Bozeman  ;o)

Of course, without the help of the native people, the expedition would never have been a success.  Buffy knew that these people treasured the bison and used them wisely.  

He was also a little scared because the native people "ate" bison!!

Probably the favorite item in the center for Buffy was this "buffalo robe".  Can you see how tiny Buffy is compared to a "real" buffalo!!

So, if you get to Great Falls, Montana, you have to make a trip to see the falls (or what is left of them) and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  There are even trails to hike all around it.  

Just hope the mosquitoes aren't as bad as they were when we were there!!

Best wishes to Buffy on his next trip this summer  ;o)

From his buddy, Aaron.