I don't even know where to start. This was perhaps the best vacation I have ever had. Pete was awesome and bucked his inherited planning gene and just went with the flow. We stopped anywhere we wanted and saw anything that looked interesting to us. We have been home now for about two hours. It feels like we have been gone for months. In the time we have been away my dad and Sharon have arrived in Washington, Siobhan and Oscar have left for California, Big Sur is up in flames, Pete and I celebrated our 6th anniversary, and my sister in law Melissa had her baby girl. Welcome baby Delyla, I cannot wait to meet you. I bet your brothers are so excited. Hans and Olive were so well behaved and patient on this trip. Hans kept a detailed journal, drawing all he saw. The bison were, by far, his favorite part of the trip.
They were troopers and got out and endured all the walking. Dad bought them cowboy hats and they were excited to be a cowboy and girl and get to Deadwood.
I have taken four discs worth of pictures. I can assure you I will not post them all, but it may take a couple of days to share my favorites. This is a baby Bald Eagle in it's nest. The first of the wildlife we encountered in Yellowstone. I also need to mention that I think I messed up because we did not meet up with Ryan and Trisha. I hope you read this and know how sorry I am Trisha. I will be calling you.
We saw the babies on our way out of Yellowstone as we headed to Deadwood. This was our longest day, we drove about 11 hours to get to South Dakota.
It was so worth it. Mount Rushmore was amazing. I loved everything about it. Even Pete had goosebumps. It truly is something everybody should experience in person. This was our big destination, something we had been talking about for months with the kids. Hans was so excited to be here.
Being this close is so awesome, the size is just crazy. Oscar would have loved this. I wished that the older kids would have been here but I plan on taking them someday.
We stayed in Deadwood and we really enjoyed the town. The history is really interesting and after watching the HBO series and reading every book I could find on the town it was fun to be there and see the actual places. I found some 1950's Wild Bill Hickok golden books for Hans so he was able to appreciate a few places as well.
He and Olive also panned for gold, after touring an old mine. We all enjoyed both the tour and the panning.
We made a stop in Virgina City in Montana. It was really great. I have a little bit of an obsession with gold mining and ghost towns. Especially ghost towns. This one was really good and had a really interesting shop/museum. Our only regret was that we didn't drive a mile further to Nevada city and see the Frontier House museum. We loved that show.
On our way back home we kind of played it by ear and we stopped in Sheridan, Wyoming but it was slim pickings for hotels, so we drove on and stayed in Hardin, right on the edge of the Crow Indian reservation. Pete found us a cabin at the KOA and come to find out we were really lucky. It was the Battle of Little Bighorn anniversary weekend and people were there from all over for the reenactment. Also, Wyoming truly is big sky country. 
So, another unplanned stop was Little Bighorn Battlefield state park. Another great place to visit. One of the park rangers gave an hour long talk on the history and the battle itself. I was so proud of the kids for being so quiet and respectful. Definite goose bumps visiting this site. You could feel it as soon as you passed through the gates. 
They were troopers and got out and endured all the walking. Dad bought them cowboy hats and they were excited to be a cowboy and girl and get to Deadwood.
I have taken four discs worth of pictures. I can assure you I will not post them all, but it may take a couple of days to share my favorites. This is a baby Bald Eagle in it's nest. The first of the wildlife we encountered in Yellowstone. I also need to mention that I think I messed up because we did not meet up with Ryan and Trisha. I hope you read this and know how sorry I am Trisha. I will be calling you.
We saw the babies on our way out of Yellowstone as we headed to Deadwood. This was our longest day, we drove about 11 hours to get to South Dakota.
It was so worth it. Mount Rushmore was amazing. I loved everything about it. Even Pete had goosebumps. It truly is something everybody should experience in person. This was our big destination, something we had been talking about for months with the kids. Hans was so excited to be here.
Being this close is so awesome, the size is just crazy. Oscar would have loved this. I wished that the older kids would have been here but I plan on taking them someday.
We stayed in Deadwood and we really enjoyed the town. The history is really interesting and after watching the HBO series and reading every book I could find on the town it was fun to be there and see the actual places. I found some 1950's Wild Bill Hickok golden books for Hans so he was able to appreciate a few places as well.
He and Olive also panned for gold, after touring an old mine. We all enjoyed both the tour and the panning.
We made a stop in Virgina City in Montana. It was really great. I have a little bit of an obsession with gold mining and ghost towns. Especially ghost towns. This one was really good and had a really interesting shop/museum. Our only regret was that we didn't drive a mile further to Nevada city and see the Frontier House museum. We loved that show. 
On our way back home we kind of played it by ear and we stopped in Sheridan, Wyoming but it was slim pickings for hotels, so we drove on and stayed in Hardin, right on the edge of the Crow Indian reservation. Pete found us a cabin at the KOA and come to find out we were really lucky. It was the Battle of Little Bighorn anniversary weekend and people were there from all over for the reenactment. Also, Wyoming truly is big sky country. 
It was interesting to compare this reservation to the one that we live right next to. I enjoyed hearing people speak their native language and the chance to teach Hans a little about the Native Americans.
If you made it all the way to here, thanks for sticking with it. I will try to keep my pictures to a minimum following this post, but I am still just in my vacation fog of giddiness. I will be heading to my moms this week to spend some time with her and my Dad and Sharon. And then? On to Utah! I am so lucky. Thank you Pete.
4 comments:
Welcome back! I'm so glad you had such a great trip. Sounds amazing! We felt the same way about Mount Rushmore when Jeremy and I went there seven years ago. Your pictures get me really excited to be moving back to the mountain west soon. Thanks for sharing.
We are happy that you are back home. Sounds like you have had the trip of a lifetime. Looking forward to more photos and more stories. Can't wait to see you...Love, Mama and Dad
p.s. John is wondering where his name went in the can't wait to see thems.....
I made two errors in the post. First was that Montana is big sky country, not Wyoming. Second is failing to convey my excitement that I will be seeing Sculley bones as well this week. We thought of him today as we passed by the rest stop called "Indian John Hill".
Awesome trip! Share as many pictures as you would like! I love it! And I missed your blog!
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