My review

Since Joe and I love movies so much, we always look forward to Fridays when the movie section comes in our newspaper. We love living in a place where two of the most famous movie reviewers write for our newspaper and love having a big section of the paper devoted to movies and reviews. Well one of those movie reviewers (Richard Roeper) was hosting a special screening for Moneyball. After a couple days of trying to win tickets, I finally did. Joe and I got to attend the screening last night and it was so much fun. First of all, this isn't just a baseball movie, it's an Oscar-worthy baseball movie and it was fantastic. Secondly, the theatre was plush with leather seats, cocktails and gourmet food. We also were treated to a Q&A afterwards with our host. It was such a fun night. Lots of pictures were taken so I'm hoping to post pictures when I find out where we can get access to them.

The Way

Alison and I went to a movie screening tonight for The Way. It was fantastic. I know I can be a bit emotional at times (understatement?) but rarely does a film make me both laugh and cry for two hours straight. It was really compelling and I loved everything about it. In fact, I can't wait to see it again when it officially comes out. After the movie, Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez did a Q&A with the audience and they are both so nice and gracious. What a great night and experience. Go. See. This. Movie.

Thirty-four

I had a fantastic birthday today. Joe and I played miniature golf (at two different courses - we're hardcore) and tonight went out for a great dinner - king crab legs. The kicker was our dessert. We ordered a piece of carrot cake to share. That piece of carrot cake turned out to be a 3 1/2 pound chunk of carrot cake. I'm not even sure these pictures do it justice. Needless to say, we took a LOT of food come home with us tonight!

The Great American Road Trip, Part 3

Our last full day in South Dakota, we decided to take a road trip to Deadwood. Joe is a fan of the old HBO series so he was pretty excited to see the place. We were a little disappointed once we actually got there because there were far more bars/casinos and less things to actually do than we'd anticipated. We decided to take a tour which turned out to be a great idea.

After Deadwood, we headed back to Keystone to visit Crazy Horse during some beautiful weather. We were so glad we came back, too, because we got to see see some amazing Native American dancing.

In Deadwood we visited the grave of Wild Bill Hickok.

Also buried nearby was Calamity Jane.

One of the dancers we watched at the Crazy Horse museum site.

Joe with the Crazy Horse monument in the background.

I wonder if the monument will be finished in my lifetime? It's hard to believe it's been in progress since 1948.

The Great American Road Trip, Part 2

Day two in Keystone and we woke up to it absolutely pouring outside. Of course we only packed for sunny weather and a quick look at the forecast showed that it would rain all day. And as luck would have it, supposedly this was their first real rain of the entire summer. My husband was content to not leave the hotel all day but if we were in SD, I wanted to get out and see stuff rain or shine.

At one point we became so desperate for rain gear that we almost bought matching windbreakers with Buffalo emblazoned on them. Fortunately, we eventually found non-matching rain jackets that we both agreed we'd actually wear again. Crisis diverted.

Our first stop was the Crazy Horse Monument. What I didn't realize was that the fog was so heavy we couldn't actually see the mountain carving. Good thing our tickets entitled us to re-enter for the next three days. We did, however, enjoy the museum and the film they showed. We were so moved by the story of Crazy Horse and the family who have dedicated their lives to constructing the monument.

We also took a short mini-tour of Jewel Cave which was packed due to the weather. Our final outing for the day was to Custer State Park where we drove the Needles Highway. I'm not usually one to get car sick but I am still car sick just thinking about this drive. Wow!

Me (minus my cool new rain jacket) standing next to the 1:34 scale Crazy Horse model.

Buffalo we saw at Custer State Park. He was huge and completely ignored us (which I guess is a good thing). About 1,300 buffalo roam the park and, sadly, this was the only one we saw in our two-hour drive around the park. That should also tell you about the massive size of the park.

The Great American Road Trip, Part 1

Soon after Joe and I were married we watched North By Northwest together and realized that neither one of us had ever been to Mount Rushmore. We vowed to one day right this wrong and we put it on our list of things to do. Fast-forward almost exactly three years and we finally made it happen with a trip to South Dakota.

Only about an hour into the trip, Joe jokingly told me he had highway hypnosis and I later admitted to him that there are "car-people" and "plane-people" and I'm definitely a "plane-person". (But I already knew this.) Yes, we are not good car travelers and both said we wouldn't be doing a road trip like this for a looooong time. We are so happy to be back home.

We stayed our first night in Sioux Falls, SD. As luck would have it, my friends Kim and Chris were moving to Sioux Falls that very same weekend. We had breakfast with them before leaving town the next morning. So grateful for good friends and that they took time out of their busy move to see us.

Our first tourist stop - Corn Palace. I think we were both more impressed with the Mitchell Corn Palace than we'd expected.

World famous Wall Drug. After 8 billion Wall Drug signs on the way to Wall, SD we were unimpressed. Maybe there was too much hype or we didn't like the fact that they charged us $9 for an eye glass cleaning kit? 

Finally, Mount Rushmore. Joe said it was much bigger than he'd expected and I said it was smaller than I'd imagined. We stayed a few hours so that we could enjoy the nighttime lighting ceremony as well.

Our picture at the foot of Mount Rushmore. The one and only photo of us actually together on this trip. Maybe we just need to take a tripod on vacation?