Trip Wrap Up

I know it's well after the fact and likely no one will be reading this by now, but I need to make one final post to this travel adventure.
After a long day, we arrived home safe with no problems.  It was a great trip and although it was "work" for Mark, I truly enjoyed the opportunity to escape from the everyday stresses of our family life.  We have since settled right back into that, but I definitely felt refreshed and ready to handle it.

Until our next trip...

The Man Museum.

Had to share an interesting observation from the American History Museum.  Much of the museum is very well done exhibits showcasing all sorts of interesting things- from the history of plastics and pesticides, the science behind the atomic bomb, and an entire hall devoted to the history of transportation, complete with full size vehicles such as a steam engine train.  I want to be interested, but I seem to wandering aimlessly 20 feet ahead of Mark.  I finally decided to tell him that I was going to find a bench up ahead and would wait for him there.  I had to smile when I came to a long line of benches filled with WOMEN!  It's like the shopping mall phenomenon in reverse!
As Mark excitedly entered the exhibit called "The Price of Freedom: Americans at War,"  I, equally as excited, am enjoying another comfy bench. 
Sent from my Droid phone.

Neanderthal Jen

According to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, this is what I'd look like as a Neanderthal woman.  Pretty, huh?

Sent from my Droid phone.

A Downtown DC Morning

I set out on foot from our hotel to explore the downtown area and here are a few observations.
-It's interesting that the DC business world starts quite a bit later than we're used to.  The metro stations and sidewalks were full of "suits" hustling to their offices as late as 9:30-10.  Maybe their long commutes have something to do with it.  Eric told us yesterday that he has a short 45 min commute on the metro so I guess it's all relative.
- The picture of the tents is a big protest area in a park about 3 blocks from the White House.  People are camped out and there's lots of chanting, drumming, and marching.  Not sure what they're protesting....from the looks of them, I'm not sure they really know either.
- Walked by Franklin School.  Can't imagine a school right in the middle of this downtown area.  Yesterday, there was a group of uniformed private school kids on the Mall and honestly, it looked like it could have been their gym class.  They were playing flag football in a coned off area with adults giving instructions.
- Walked through China Town ( see picture) Strange to see common stores and restaurants where the primary sign is in Chinese and a small secondary one in English.
- Ford's Theater...not much see there.  It's surrounded souvenir shops and busloads of kids on field trips.
-One last observation.  I hate DC squirrels!  This guy literally ran under my foot as I sat on a bench.  They have no fear.  I do...I squealed a little and moved. 

Sent from my Droid phone.

Monuments at night.

After a quick supper, we hoped to see some monuments in the daylight but found ourselves in the dark.  Still a very cool view of the monuments.  These pictures show the WWII, the Lincoln and the Martin Luther King Memorials.

I have to confess that my feet are killing me and I'm very happy to be back at our tiny hotel room.  It was a great day, but I'm tired.  Not sure what adventures I'll have tomorrow.  Mark has morning meetings but we'll have all afternoon together and fly out at 7 pm.

Wish I could blog smells...

I just left the National Arboretum and I can still smell orchids.  I spent an hour wandering through the beautiful glass-ceilinged indoor gardens.  Each gallery was like stepping into nature in a different part of the world- from the jungle to the rain forest to the desert.  The tree that has pods hanging off it is a cocoa tree- the source of my beloved chocolate. 

The arboretum is located at the bottom of Capital Hill,  which is where I sit now.  Don't think I'll climb the steps and go in.  I think Mark may want to come here tomorrow.  I'll now make my way back down the other side of the mall.  I've wandered into the Hirshhorn, the Air & Space and the Castle.  I may hit a few more museums as I make my way back towards the Washington Monument.  What looked like a long distance on the map has been an easy walk.  Certainly lots to look at.
Stay tuned....

Sent from my Droid phone.

Pentagon visit

Just had a very cool morning.  LtCol Eric Knapp (brother of my good friend Heather McCarthy) works at the Pentagon and was generous enough to give us an amazing tour and a glimpse into the workings of our nation's military headquarters.  This picture is of Mark & Eric outside the building in the spot where the plane hit on 9-11.  The other photo is of the memorial built there to honor those who died.

Such a fascinating place.  Obviously very high security but we were able to literally walk past the offices of people such as the Secretary of Defense.  Nearly 30,000 people work there everyday.  Mind boggling.  It's like a mini city with banks and restaurants and doctor's offices.  Certainly not your average office building.
Very cool.  Mark is now off at his meeting and I'm sitting on a bench at the National Mall.  For my kids:  not a mall like Bay Park Square...it's outside and is a long strip of grass that runs between the Washington Monument and the Capital and is surrounded by all the Smithsonian buildings.  My plan is to wander towards the Hirshhorn Art Museum.  I'll blog more later.  Having a great time.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Close Quarters at the Club Quarters

Well, we made it!  We've checked into our hotel (Club Quarters) and can honestly say that we've never seen a smaller hotel room.  It's very nice but literally about the same size as our laundry room!  Guess that's the price you pay to be right downtown.  While Mark worked a bit in our room, I wandered around and it's very strange to just walk down the street and see the White House.  We're heading out to find supper.  Lots of cool restaurants everywhere.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Metro

We've made it and are heading downtown on the metro.  It's a beautiful day ( sunny & 60s) and it was pretty cool to land with the capital and monuments so nearby.

Plan to check in at the hotel and check out the neighborhood.  Looks like 2 blocks from the White House.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Detroit

Evan & Emily- Remember the Dancing Waters Fountain at the airport? Got to Detroit fine, ate a quick lunch and are ready to head to DC.  So far so good. 

Sent from my Droid phone.

A Trip to Washington D.C.

On October 24, Mark and I will head to Washington D.C. for a quick little vacation/work trip.  Mark needs to attend a meeting and I'm tagging along!  A huge thanks to my mom and dad for coming up to take over for us- hopefully they will survive and enjoy the craziness of shuttling our kids here and there.

I'm looking forward to getting away, spending some rare time together, and seeing the sights.  Both Mark and I have been there before, but it's been awhile and we're looking forward to some big city time.

Follow along with us on our quick visit!

Home Sweet Home

My last post was during the last stretch of our marathon drive home- 15 hours in the car spanning 3 states.  It was long but when we got home at 10:30 p.m. we were all awake and still smiling.  Emily had slept so much that day that she was sort of bouncing off the walls.  The kids were excited to check out our house- as excited as they were to check out each new hotel room on the trip.  A special thanks to the McCarthy family for helping to keep our house happy while we were gone.  The fish were still alive, my plants look great and the pool is ready for us.

We took the day yesterday to ease back into our Green Bay life.  I started laundry (still lots to go) and went grocery shopping.  Sadie spent the day excitedly sniffing her familiar yard and enjoying GRASS- something that there wasn't much of out west.   The kids enjoy relaxing in front of the TV a bit and we all swam in the hot afternoon.  As I write, Mark is back to work and probably feeling overwhelmed as he tries to catch up.

I wanted to post a few more pictures as I wrap up this edition of our blog.  It was fun for us and I hope those of you who followed along enjoyed it too.  (I know many of you tried to post and couldn't....it's tricky and next time I'll investigate and give you some tips on how to do that)

This is one of the many pictures we snapped while we enjoyed the views through western Wyoming and northern Utah.

 Here are the kids.  They had such a good time together.

This is just before we headed up the mountain on our 4-wheeling adventure.  Emily was VERY nervous.  As you know, our kids are pretty cautious and not huge risk takers so they both struggled to enjoy this rugged and "scary" ride.  Evan, who isn't really comfortable with heights, was anxious to go back down as soon as he got to the top.  I was proud of them for doing it though!

E

 Wall Drug was so different than I expected.  It's not just a store but blocks of shops, restaurants, and fun photo spots.  It was a great "wild west" experience.

Heading home.

As I write this we are nearly to Lacrosse and will be excited to say we're on WI soil, but still have a way to go.  Hard to believe that only this morning we were in South Dakota. Our views out the window have changed from brown to green.  From mountains to farm fields.  From antelopes and prairie dogs to black & white cows.

We left South Dakota early this morning and made a stop at Wall Drug.  That's a fun place!  Could have spent hours there but hit the road again.  Drove past the Badlands and then lunch at the Corn Palace (see picture). 
Long boring stretch through MN without the option of stopping at a rest stop- they were all closed!  Due to gov't shutdown? 

Now will stop for supper and keep going.   We'll probably roll into Green Bay around 11. 

I'll plan to blog one last time tomorrow with a few more picture.

Sent from my Droid phone.

The Black Hills

Well, today was not our best day.  The lesson learned was that we do a little better when we have a well-planned out day- playing things by ear or "winging it" doesn't really work as well for us.  I don't want to be too negative so I'll try to balance out the negatives with some positives.

We had a long and very un-scenic morning drive.  Our route took us to very remote areas of southern Wyoming and it's a good thing we didn't have car trouble- sometimes it was 30 miles or more before we saw signs of civilization.  Our lunch destination was Hot Springs, South Dakota and I had read that there were many spots in town you could access the warm water.  I thought it would be fun to picnic and dip our toes in the warm water.  Well...not knowing the layout of the town, we turned the wrong way and finally asked someone to point us in the direction of warm spring water.  We were sent a few miles out of town to Cascade Falls...no falls, no warm water.  Only a trickling stream which was not warm and big signs that warned us of poison ivy.  We had picked up Subway and did sit down to eat it at a shaded picnic table.  We left and as we headed back through the town of Hot Springs- in the direction we didn't go originally- we saw many nice places where you could picnic along the springs which I had read were 117 degrees coming out of the ground!  Oh well...we kept on going.

It wasn't too far from there that we entered the Black Hills.  Very pretty and so different than the landscape we had seen.  We were very excited to see signs warning us that we should beware of buffalo.  It wasn't long before we saw a few herds of them and this lazy guy right along the highway.
Along with buffalo, there were cute prairie dogs popping their heads up everywhere!

Because it was an area full of wildlife and a national park, the speed limit was 35 mph or slower.  Lots of slowing down to check out the view or an animal.  This made Sadie crazy, which made Evan crazy, which made Mark and I crazy.  Not a great vibe in the car as we traveled this very scenic, but very long, curvy and mountainous route through Custer National Park.   At the end, we were excited to get a great view of Mount Rushmore- our next destination.

Mount Rushmore was very cool.  Neat to see it in person.  On our way out of the park, we were excited to have a long horn sheep and it's 2 babies come right down to the road we were travelling on.

It was already nearly 6:00 ( a lot later than we had hoped) and we didn't have any hotel reservations made.  With very little phone signal, I hadn't been able to do much calling.  We were heading to Rapid City- 30 minutes away- and had a list of hotels a mile long to choose from.  I chose a Ramada that had a nice looking pool and took pets.   Not so nice.  The room reeked of smoke and it was really a dump.  We decided we couldn't stay there.  Thankfully, they let us go without charging us and we moved across the parking lot to another hotel.  Much better.

After a quick swim, we are tucked in now.  Unfortunately, we didn't get up to Sturgis and Deadwood, areas we had hoped to see.  We now have 14 hours of driving ahead of us and should probably suspend all sight seeing, except for what we view out the car window.  We really don't want to stay another night at a hotel and it will likely be 11 before we get home tomorrow night.

Oh well- I'm hopeful that a good night's sleep will refresh us and we'll enjoy seeing glimpses of the Badlands tomorrow and even hope to make a quick stop at Wall Drug or the Corn Palace.  

One more day...

Hard to Say Goodbye.

After lunch, we had the sad task of saying goodbye to Utah.  Goodbye to the beautiful view that we enjoyed every day.  Goodbye to the camper that had become our home for 5 days.  Goodbye to the rugged adventure that awaited us each day.  Goodbye to these adorable kittens!  Goodbye to the hay that caused my eyes to itch and water (ha ha).  Goodbye to family. 

We want to thank my brother Scott, my sister-in-law Sam, and their kids Katie, Hunter and Ben for inviting us and hosting such a fun family gathering.  We made lots of special memories and will remember this trip forever.  

Emily and Katie had such a great time together (they are 8 & 9) and have been pretty inseparable since they were babies).  Each morning they greeted each other and set off to play.  They'd check in occasionally and eat with us, but seemed not to want to waste a single moment together.  In this picture, they were holding kittens born 6 days ago on the farm.  Emily can't stop talking about how cute they were.

Evan accomplished big things.  As we peered out from the cabin, he spotted a "mountain" and declared that he wanted to climb it!  So, he and Mark set out one day and climb it they did!  Had to walk through cattle and endure the hot sun and heat, but they made it to the top.  The other big accomplishment was to learn to drive a 4-wheeler.  At first, he drove with Mark but before long he was taking off on his own.  Pretty cool.

We will miss Hunter and Ben too.   What cute little guys and it was so cool to see how the Noll kids love it out there.  We now know why.

Well, I sit here at the Best Western in Laramie, Wyoming after a long day of driving.  We now have entered part 3 of our trip- the return sight-seeing drive.  We will head into the Badlands tomorrow and will visit Mount Rushmore and other "Wild West" destinations.

  

  

  

Elk

Can you find them?

Sent from my Droid phone.

Em on the mountain

Sent from my Droid phone.

Last adventure

This morning the 4 of us set out on the Rhino (ATV) for our last adventure.  Mark wanted to show us the area where they hunt and where he shot his buck.  There was not a cloud in the sky and the views were beautiful. 
We were nearly to the top of the mountain trail when we saw a large herd of elk.  I snapped a picture and will post it.  See if you can see them.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Maple Canyon.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Maple Canyon Hike

Yesterday we drove to a beautiful rocky canyon area and set off on what turned out to be a long and strenuous uphill hike.  Our goal was a natural arch and sadly we turned around just short of it.  Lots of tired and crabby kids and as Evan explained, if we got there it would just be more of the same rocks...not worth it.  Ok.

We went out for a great supper and had full and tired kids.  One more day until we had to say good bye.  There are going to be some sad cousins.

Sent from my Droid phone.

The hay shed.

This is a picture of the building site.  That's Mark up in the bucket of the machine- pretty precarious.  The made good progress yesterday so are giving themselves the day off today. 

Sent from my Droid phone.

Bear Canyon

Yesterday's adventure was at a nearby state park called Bear  Canyon.  It was a beautiful wooded trail that followed a mountain stream.  We were a line of 13 hikers and since the area is known to be home to many bear, we made lots of noise with bells and our voices.  No bear sightings, thankfully. 
We hiked up for a couple of hours and the kids splashed in the stream much of the way.
We ended the day with a 5th of July celebration including a few more fireworks and a bonfire. 
Our group shrunk a bit more this morning as my parents and The Mahoney's left (Sam's sister Casey,husband Mark and 2 kids)
We're now down to our family and Scott and Sam's.
The guys have decided that today should be a play day for them and they will join moms and kids for another adventure- they deserve a break from the barn building.
(See next post for a pic of their progress)

Stay tuned.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Cooling off.

Have had a busy day and I'll blog more about it later but wanted to post this picture of the kids running through a sprinkler at a baseball diamond.  Summertime fun.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Happy 4th of July!

Sort of a quiet 4th here in Utah.  It's so dry that it's pretty risky to have fire so we did some very tame fireworks and then ironically it started to rain.  We decided to have a early bedtime and are turning in before most city  fireworks even begin!
Emily, cousin Katie and Katie's cousin Maddie Mahoney, spent the entire day playing Little House on the Prairie and Emily is usually Laura.  This picture is of her and one of the cats that wander around the cabin.  Sadie wants to try to make friends with it....cat doesn't think so.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Pictures

Pictures don't seem to be posting.  This is the snow pic.
Sent from my Droid phone.

Snow on the mountain.

Sorry if this becomes a duplicate.  I blogged this last night and hasn't posted so I'm trying again. 

Our 4-wheeler adventure was exciting and a little scary at the same time.  I drove up with Emily behind me and Evan on the way down.  I have driven an ATV around a yard or down a gravel road but never up a rocky mountain path.  We started at an elevation of about 6400 and ended at 10,000 ft.  A lot of white knuckles.  There were 4 4-wheelers carrying 13 people.  This picture shows a spot where we stopped to play in the snow.  Hard to believe that it can be 100 degrees and see snow. 
The heat is taking a toll on us.  A couple people have thrown up, including poor Emily.   Just too much jostling down the mountain in the stifling heat.  She quickly recovered.   A lot of water drinking and sunscreen going on.
Today has been quiet.  5 people went home today.  My brother Greg and his wife Vanessa came only for the weekend and Sam's dad Joe and his wife Jen left after being here for about a week.  We took the opportunity to clean and regroup.  Although when I say we, I don't include the guys who are working hard building a shed and other farm work.  They leave in the morning and return at supper really dirty and hot. 
I think we have an excursion planned for tomorrow so I'll fill you in then.
Having a great time.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Our daily view

This is the view from the cabin.  Not too shabby, huh?
I'm sorry if my bogging slacks.  There's a lot going on and I'll try to catch up soon.  Heading out on a big 4-wheeler outing up the mountain.  Will try to take photos.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Salt Lake City

We've finally arrived in the right state and are skirting around Salt Lake City.   How cool it must to have this view out your window every day. 

I haven't talked much about what's waiting for us only a relatively short drive away.(1.5 hrs to go)  The large ranch we'll be staying on is owned by Joe Tate (my Sis-in-law's dad) and we're so thankful for his hospitality.  We will be the last to join a large family gathering-20 people if my count is right.   Nolls, Tates, Mahoneys and Metcalfs, bringing together 13 adults, 7 kids and 2 dogs.
Over the next few days the guys will building a shed for hay.  Mark can't wait to get his tool belt strapped on. 
We just checked in with them. They had wrapped up work for the day, were enjoying their first cold beer and would be firing up the grill soon.  Supper would be waiting for us!

Almost there now...

Sent from my Droid phone.

Where the deer and the antelope roam

Our heads are on a swivel..what beautiful scenes out the car window.  We're in the middle of Wyoming and we are so excited to see snow covered mountains against the blue sky.
We've had a good morning, although Emily has started asking "how much longer?" often.  Maybe more because she's anxious to see her cousin Katie than being unhappy in the car.  Still 8 hrs to go...sorry Em.
Mark has gained an interesting energy over the last hour and there is a twinkle in his eye that we just don't see at home.  I think he's said "have I told you how much I love it out here?" about 20 times.
His keen wildlife spotting eyes point out antelope every few minutes.  Just saw a heard of 75 or more!  We've even seen a coyote and an elk.
We're about to make a lunch stop and will enjoy getting out to breathe in some of this air and enjoy the views.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Halfway there

We made it to North Platte, Nebraska by about 4:30 pm.  12 hours of driving but it went great.  I can honestly say that we were all smiling and enjoying each other when we arrived and we didn't have a single meltdown all day.  There were actually several occasions when the kids said, "This is so fun!"  Hopefully the fun will continue tomorrow.

We've settled into our hotel, had a swim at the pool and ate at Perkins.  It's now 8:00 and we should probably hit the sack early- Evan and I haven't slept since 4:30 this morning but Mark and Em did nap a bit.  We have a free breakfast buffet that starts serving at 6:30 and we plan hit the road after that.  We have about another 12 hours to go tomorrow.

I wish I had some beautiful pictures to post but Iowa and Nebraska just don't offer that.  We're really looking forward to the first sight of mountains tomorrow.

It was a great "Day 1" of this adventure.  We'll check back in on Day 2.

Nebraska

Just stopped for a picnic lunch at a rest stop in far western Iowa.  Car thermometer says its 99 but a shady table and a nice breeze made it just fine.  Back on the road with Evan as co-pilot and Mark at the wheel. 
Evan commented that so far the landscape looks no different than at home.  We're hopeful things start to change as we enter Nebraska. 
How is Sadie doing, you ask? (Dog)  Great!  She enjoys a quick run when we stop but just naps while we drive.  So far so good.
How about the kids?  Emily has snoozed a bit and watched a couple of episodes of Pee Wee's Playhouse- perfectly content.  Evan has read but mostly is just enjoying the views.  He sat up front with me through most of Iowa and helped me navigate while Mark rested. 
We see the skyline of downtown Omaha ahead so we've officially entered our 2nd state.  Have only about 4 hours until we stop for the day and so far it's been a piece of cake. 
Onward!
Sent from my Droid phone.

Ooo...Ahh...

This is Evan,            
We were driving through Iowa fields and saw this rainbow! But why does it have to be raining!?
8 more hours of driving!  :)                                                                                                               Sent from my Droid phone

Goodbye Wisconsin

We've just crossed the Mighty Mississippi and entered Iowa.  Feels like progress to be in a different state.

We hit the road at 4:30 am and everyone is in good spirits.  Emily's still sleeping now but we'll likely make a breakfast stop before too long.

Drove through a pre-dawn thunderstorm and now we're seeing hazy sunshine.  Since it's supposed to be 100 degrees today, we're ok being in the a/c van. 

Mark just said he needs a cup of coffee so we'll make our first pit stop. 

Sent from my Droid phone.

No turning back.

Well, we're officially on our way...sort of.  Tonight we're driving 2 1/2 hours to my parents and will stay there tonight.  They are making this trip too except by plane.  They fly out early tomorrow morning so we will all get up at 4 am and head out.  Evan wishes he could go with Grandma and Grandpa...no luck.

The kids are settled in and I'm enjoying the fact that I'm sitting down for a bit.  I didn't do much of that this week as I got ready for this trip.  I just hope I didn't forget anything because there's no turning back now. 

I'll blog tomorrow as we officially hit the road.

Sent from my Droid phone.

Oh the Anticipation

With only a couple days before we leave, there's lots to be done and the excitement is building here at our house.

I thought I'd take a minute to tell you a little more about our planned trip since many of you may not know the details.  We're heading to Utah!  Why Utah, you ask?   My brother Scott and his family are spending the summer at a large ranch owned by my sister-in-law's father.  Mark's been out there hunting twice and has fallen in love with the area.  Scott & Sam have been inviting us to come and experience the beautiful land and enjoy the quiet simplicity of their lives, and we've decided to do it!

We'll load the mini-van with 2 kids, our spunky Springer Spaniel puppy Sadie and all that we'll need for a 10 day road trip west.

Stay tuned and I'll fill in many more details as we embark on this journey!