Seattle

 

A few days after getting home from our epic midwestern road trip, we took a day trip to Seattle.  We toured the University of Washington campus.  On the way in we hit some serious traffic and were delayed quite a bit - I forgot what big city traffic can be like.  Portland traffic is not as big and crazy as some larger cities and we don't even get into traffic there that often since its usually weekends if we venture into Oregon.  Anyway in spite of traffic delays we made it to our tour on time and had a great time seeing the university.

Fountain at UW

Inside the beautiful library at UW

It was a quick visit but Matthew and Anna both really liked the campus and we got a lot of good info

A quick stop at the space needle - didn't go up inside it on this trip

We visited Pike Place Market and walked around the area near it for a while.  It was a warm day - then we had dinner.

And went to a Mariner's game - we haven't taken the kids to that many pro-sporting events but it was so fun!  I didn't realize it was very restrictive on what bags you can bring in the stadium (should have researched that ahead) but luckily my tiny purse was deemed acceptable.  Phew!!  Here I am looking a little crazy!!

We had a great view of the Seattle skyline from our seats (space needle included) and the game was so fun - and went by pretty quickly with the new rules.  We even got to see some fireworks after.  We had been planning to stay over night but Matthew had a job interview possibility the next morning so we drove home right after the game - and it felt really far.  It's a 3 hour drive.  Our older kids thought Seattle looked amazing and we want to come back to do the underground tour and see more things.  

Midwestern Road Trip - Part 7

 Day 16:  Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, Devil's Tower, Little Bighorn, Butte, Montana

The last few days were packed with site seeing and driving

First Mount Rushmore

Devil's Tower, Wyoming

A quick detour to see Devil's Tower up close.  The line of cars to get up to the visitor's center (nearest to the rock formation) was so long (miles) we decided not to wait in it.  We had a picnic lunch at a less crowded spot in the park and took some pictures.

Little Bighorn, Montana

We also were able to visit Little Bighorn.  I didn't know that much about the site or the battle before visiting.  It does feel like sacred ground.  We watched a little video about the events that led to the battle and the massacre that occurred here.  And we got to walk around to the places that many of the men died.

The markers show where the soldiers fell and died in battle

Montana does seem to have a "big sky"

Day 17: Butte, MT to Couer D'Alene, Idaho to Spokane, WA

A quick and hot visit to Lake Couer D'Alene

We got ice cream

It was hot and crowded.  We stayed in Spokane that night and drove the next day home.

Day 18:  Spokane, WA to Washougal, WA

We were pretty worn out by the end of our epic road trip, but it was a great experience - lots of memories made.

Midwestern Road Trip - Part 6

Day 14:  Fargo to Teddy Roosevelt National Park

We drove from Fargo, ND to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

We picnicked a lot more on the later half of our trip - getting tired of finding restaurants along the way.

And we made it to the park!!  Beautiful views!!

The have their own version of the badlands, but much greener in North Dakota

We got to hear a Ted Talk - one of the park rangers dressed up as young Teddy Roosevelt and gave an informational talk about his connection with the park in character.  We wondered if they hired someone who looked like him on purpose or it was just a fun thing one of the rangers came up with.

We saw sooooo many prairie dogs

And a lot of beautiful views!!

We saw a few bison

We hiked around a little bit but my knee (which I recently injured) wasn't up for too much walking.

And swimming later at the hotel

Day 15: Teddy Roosevelt to Badlands and Wall Drug

Between Theodore Roosevelt NP and Badlands NP there is a road with all these cool metal sculptures.  Its between (about) Gladstone, ND and Regent, ND.  We were going that way anyway, but they sculptures were pretty cool.  There are about 10 of them scattered along the way.

And we made it to Badlands!!  Here we are in the visitor's center

We did some short hikes

A lot of the scenery looks similar at Badlands

Still impressive though

And we visited Wall Drug

We had fun looking around and got our free ice water!

More adventures to come

Midwestern Road Trip - Part 5

Minnesota!

Day 11 continued:

From Michigan we drove to Minneapolis and visited the Mall of America, which was pretty disappointing.  It actually was just a really big mall.  I don't know what I expected.  The sheer size of it was pretty impressive, though.  And had we wanted to, we could have done some rides, but we didn't. 

The M&M store was kind of fun

The Lego store is always a favorite too

Yes, it is very big.  We saw it.  Don't need to come back.

Day 12: Minneapolis to Fargo

We had fun seeing all the Paul Bunyan stuff on our way from Minneapolis to the Mississippi Headwaters near Lake Itasca, Minnesota

This Paul Bunyan was in Akeley, Minnesota

This Paul Bunyan was in Bemidji, Minnesota

Bemidji had an adorable Paul Bunyan museum with all his large items (including huge toenail clippings)

And near Lake Itasca to see the Headwaters of the Mississippi.  I thought this was so cool!!

At the Headwaters!!

The Mississippi starts from Lake Itasca - here you can walk across it on some rocks.

It was slippery going across and in spite of Scott's urging to go back across a foot bridge, John insisted on returning over the rocks.  I said I would help him and he fell in about 3/4 of the way back across.  We had to change clothes so he wouldn't be in wet pants the rest of the afternoon.  So John got to sit in the Mississippi River, if only briefly.

We didn't get him this shirt,  but thought about it.

We did get this hat to commemorate our visit to Lake Itasca

Minnesota was beautiful!!

Day 13:  Moorhead, Minnesota and Fargo, North Dakota (4th of July)

We drove from the Mississippi Headwaters to Fargo, ND.  Fargo is right on the border of Minnesota so we did go back into Moorhead to see a few things the next day.  We visited this Scandinavian Heritage museum.  We have Scandinavian ancestry on both sides, but I also just like learning about all the Scandinavian immigrants that moved to this area (Minnesota/North Dakota).  We are pointing with the Viking Statue here.

A working replica of a Viking ship - they sailed this ship from the US to Norway in the 80s.

And a replica of a stave church - its a copy of a certain church in Norway, the Hopperstad Stave Church.

Inside the stave church - it was so beautiful!!

In Downtown Fargo, I had wanted to go to this specialty Scandinavian bookstore, but it was closed for the 4th of July.

We visited this Mario mural instead.  The kids were unimpressed.

Maybe everyone was getting too tired of traveling by this point.

Rollo the Viking -  a beloved Fargo statue

Visiting Bonanzaville back in Fargo.  I thought this would be a fun 4th of July activity, they were having a little carnival at this old timey village.  The kids were pretty unimpressed with it.

Using a printing press

American Gothic posing

John being the judge in the courthouse

Bellying up to the bar

Grant in the old timey jail

It was a cute little town, I thought

Later we watched fireworks and relaxed at our hotel