Road Trip Day 4

We spent day 4 checking out downtown Missoula. It is a really cute town. We went into a few shops, checked out a local brewery and had a delicious lunch.

After Missoula we headed to our stop for the night, just outside Spokane, WA. It was an easy drive. Our drive took use through Idaho.
We stopped really quick in Coeur D'Alene, ID to look out at the lake. It is a beautiful town near the boarder.
Then on to Washington, our final state of the trip!

Road Trip Day 3

The plan for day 3 was to go to Yellowstone Park and spend the whole day, plus day 4 there. Much like day 2, day 3 did not go as planned. Day 3 started out with a rough drive up and over a mountain.....a snow covered mountain, while it was snowing still! It was beautiful, but nerve racking. I drove it and I felt like I was driving for like 5 hours it really was only like 1 1/2 hours.

But we made it through safe and sound through the mountain and on to Cody, WY. Cody is the last town before Yellowstone, once you go through Cody it is an hour drive to Yellowstone, not a lot along the way but scenery. We made it to Yellowstone! Only to find that the entrance was closed due to a snow avalanche! Then next entrance(3 hrs away) was closed due to a rock avalanche and the next one was 7 hours away! Ugg

So we stopped and had a beer and figured out a plan, let the dogs run around and then we headed back to Cody very disappointed.

We were pretty bummed about our bad luck. Then the day was saved(somewhat)! We had been seeing signs all trip for awesome wild animals and we never had any luck spotting any of them. Because we had to turn around and drive back to Cody we ran into wild bison! These things were CRAZY close to us. I could have put my hand out the passenger window and touched them.. that's how close they were. It was AWESOME.

Then a few miles down we saw big horned sheep. They were cool too. Scary looking though. I swore they were staring us down the whole time we snapped pictures of them.

After turning around at Yellowstone we headed to our new stop for the night Missoula, MT.

Road Trip Day 2

Day 2 started in Wall, SD. We checked out Wall Drug, since our whole first day's drive we kept seeing signs for this place. It was raining so we knew our plans to site see might be thrown off. We did not expect to pretty much see nothing all day and drive in circles over and over again. Lucky for us there were a few stops we could make to save the day, they happened to all be revolved around drinking though.

On our way to the Jewled Caverns we stopped at Crazy Horse. Two trip tips for you: 1. Crazy Horse is a rip off. They charge you $10 a person to get in and then $4 a person to go down to see it. We paid the $20 to get in, which we regretted. You can get a good enough view of it from the visitors center, but for sure not worth the money. As you can see it was really foggy...
This is a scale model of what it is supposed to look like one day.
Tip 2 is make reservations to the Jewled Caverns online ahead of time. The long tour was all booked up for the day and the only one we could get into was 2 hours away from when we were there. We opted out of the tour since it was so far off. So after 2 failed attempts at seeing some cool stuff we returned to a little town we had driven through and had some drinks.
First at the Bumpin Buffalo..

Then at the Mangy Moose..
Then we were off to Mount Rushmore! Well so we planned on.We got to the entry and were told there was zero viability of the monument due to the weather.

So we made our way out of the Black Hills, but made a stop at a winery on our way out. They had some pretty good wines, all made from grapes grown in South Dakota.

After the winery we drove to Rapid City, SD where we stopped at the Firehouse Brewing Co for one more beer and dinner. We had buffalo brisket that was SUPER good.

Then on to Wyoming, where we hoped to have a better site seeing day tomorrow.

Road Trip Day 1

Sarah, Chewie, Yuri and I began our road trip Saturday, May 28. We covered a lot of ground the first day. The roads and traffic were easy and made the day fly. We started from Tom and Rebekah's house in Missouri.

Then into Iowa...
Then our last state of the day South Dakota, which I think turned out to be one of my favorite states of the trip.

Our first stop in South Dakota was just over the boarder from Iowa, Sioux Falls, SD. It seemed like a nice little town. We had a picnic lunch near the falls and then walked the pups around near the falls.


Back onto the road from Sioux Falls we saw signs for "The Corn Palace" It seemed to be close to the highway so we decided why not go see what this is all about. It sounded awesome enough. Advice from Sarah and I...skip the corn palace. haha It was more an auditorium than a palace and it is not as cool as it sounds. But the weather was nice so we were not too upset to be out of the car.
Next stop the scenic drive through the Badlands National Park.
The Badlands are AWESOME! A must see in South Dakota for sure.


We stayed the night in the town of Wall, SD that night. Looking back day 1 might have been the best day of the trip. We had some bad luck on days 2 & 3...more to come on that. :)

The Move is On!

The move to Seattle is now officially on! Two men came over on Wednesday and packed up the stuff in the house that I had not yet packed. And then the house was officially filled with boxes everywhere!

Thursday two different men came and loaded up the boxes and all the furniture into a truck. Don't worry our house did not take up this whole truck. It was maybe about a third of the truck. This took a large part of the day, but when it was done our house was empty. It was sad, but also a good feeling knowing that this is finally happening.

Whats next? Well it has already started...my good friend Sarah L, Chewie, Yuri and I are off on a 5 day road trip across the country. Be on the look out for updates along the way!

Easter Weekend

I got to go visit Steve over easter weekend. It was on a whim. I had planned to spend easter with my good friend Lauren and her family. But at 2pm that Friday Steve called and was looking at plane tickets and we were trying to figure out when a good weekend would be for me to come and visit. No weekends seemed to be good ones. Next thing I knew Steve had booked me a ticket and I was flying out at 8pm that night!

It was a super short visit but it was worth it. I forgot to take many pictures while I was there but here are a few...

We went to Pike Market and strolled around. Had some wonderful seafood (crab omlette & the biggest oyster shooters ever)
Love all the flowers!
I also got to check out the condo we are going to live in and we signed the lease on it that weekend. I felt better about it getting to see it in person. It is going to be an adjustment for sure though.

We went to an awesome farmers market in our neighborhood(Ballard). More to come on this place I am sure once I am moved up there.

Thank you Steve for just up and buying a plane ticket. It was a much needed weekend together and I had a blast!

Saucer Party

Before Steve left for Seattle we had our party at the Flying Saucer commemorating our accomplishment of drinking 200 different beers each. It also doubled as a goodbye party for Steve.

Tina and I attempted to create some Star Wars cookies for the party. They were tasty.

Our plates! #223 & 224 on the wall of honor.

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us. It was a great time!