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?

Good friends, good times

This weekend was full of friends, good food, movies and laughter. First of all, my friend Monica M. was here visiting. Then I found out my friend Taina would be in town and my friend Monica B. was here at a conference. Combine those people, me and a great city and it was a lot of fun.

Monica and I on the Wendella boat tour enjoying the architecture from the Chicago River.

New Marilyn Monroe sculpture downtown. Leave it to Chicago to have tacky interesting installation art.

Monica and I taking in Buckingham Fountain.

Dinner with the girls (left to right): Me, Monica B., Taina, Kamilah and Monica M.

Iris, Monica, me, Crumley and Taina enjoying the fire pit at home.

Just like 1987

I have ended my "summer of concerts" by going to see Tiffany and Debbie Gibson tonight at the House of Blues. It was like I entered another dimension because I haven't seen this much crimped hair in decades. Very fun night though full of old favorites, covers from the 80s and even a few new songs.

Welcome home, Donnie!

I arrived home today to find a box on my doorstep. I thought maybe I was going crazy and had ordered something that I couldn't remember. I opened up the box and gasp...inside was a Donnie doll, circa 1990. There was only one person who could have sent me this and I knew right away...ahh, I really do have the best friends. (Thanks, Amber.) Meanwhile, my husband and I will be fighting over the perfect spot for Donnie to reside in our home. (His perfect spot is probably the closet, by the way.)

I always wanted one of these! Dreams do come true.

Weekend Adventures

Joe and I are home now after our weekend away. Rather than pick up the house and start laundry, I thought I'd share more about our trip. (That sounds like more fun, right?) Friday night we saw a really great magician. I always loved watching magic as a kid and, as an adult, I still love it. You can see on the link a few of the tricks we saw in person. We were sitting in the second row and I still have absolutely no idea how he did these tricks. Below are some more pictures from our trip.

Downtown Galena. Lots of shopping and options for eating. We had a couple of great Italian meals.

In one store, Joe and I spotted these candy cigarettes in an old cigarette vending machine. A sign on the machine stated that you could pull the knob and take the candy to the register to pay. I think we were both a little surprised to see the machine and the candy cigarettes displayed but I remember buying these at the dime store as a kid and smoking eating them.

On Friday we toured President Ulysses S. Grant's Galena home. So much for my history knowledge as I hadn't even realized President Grant ever lived in Illinois before planning this trip.

Weekend at the Inn

Joe and I are spending the weekend in Galena, IL at a country bed and breakfast (which used to be an old general store). Here are some amazing pictures that Joe has taken so far of the bed and breakfast and surrounding area. There was a really bad flood last week which produced around 15 inches of rain in an eight-hour period and you can see some of the damage in these pictures.

Three

Celebrating our third wedding anniversary today...

Birthday Girl!

Miss Brylea turned one while I was visiting and had her first birthday party.

She had so much fun demolishing her birthday cake!

Matching Girls

My nieces are getting so big!

The first time was a great time, the second time was a blast...

I had a great time in Missouri seeing friends and family this past week but my first stop was the NKOTBSB concert in St. Louis. After Amber and I went in Chicago, we loved the show but were sad about our horrible tickets. (We bought them during the pre-sale so I'm pretty sure there was a Ticketmaster conspiracy.) Anyhoo, Amber was bound and determined to see them again but with better seats...and we definitely had better seats this time!

Amber and I before the show...did I mention it was like a thousand degrees outside and inside?

Donnie!! My favorite.

All of the guys. And our really great view.

Look! Joey Mac is in our section...he's headed this way. Amber might be having a heart attack...

And here he is...we shake hands! *swoon*

Decisions, Decisions

I'm packing for my trip to Missouri tomorrow and am not sure which earrings to wear to the NKOTBSB concert (yes, again!)..."I love Donnie" or group picture inside a heart? Hmm...

Under the Sun

My friends Meagan and Josh came to town for the weekend for Dave Matthews Caravan. I bought a one-day ticket for the music festival and joined them on Friday. I didn't think I could handle three full days of sun. As it turned out, I was right. I could barely handle one full day of sun. Even with my obsessive sunscreen application, I still managed to get a little burned in the spots I missed...like my eyelid that was exposed just above my sunglasses...and my scalp where my hair was parted. Awesome.  

Some of the people we saw perform on Friday included Dave Matthews Band, OAR, Amos Lee and Ray LaMontagne.

360

My friend Laura brought her two teenagers to Chicago for the U2 concert at Soldier Field. They had an extra ticket. Guess who they asked to tag along? (Thanks, Laura!)

Laura and I before the show. You know you're officially old when the songs you know word-for-word are circa 1987.

4th of July goodness

• Bicycling
• Napping
• Grilling
• Eating ice cream
• Playing Wii mini-golf

Happy 4th of July, friends!

Hot Air

Joe left today for a weekend retreat in Kentucky at Gethsemani. I had resigned myself to a very boring weekend. Then I found out one of my friends would be coming into town on Sunday (a few days earlier than I had thought) and got a surprise today that my friend Jennifer was in town. I was able to meet up with her and her family at a local hot air balloon festival. Jennifer and I have been friends since college but I rarely get to see her anymore so it was so fun to catch up.

Jennifer and me with her two daughters, Bryttney and Bethanie.

The Humpty Dumpty balloon.

Strawberry Festival

Joe and I went to the Strawberry Festival in quaint Long Grove yesterday. We enjoyed visiting the cute shops, people-watching, listening to live music and indulging in some good but not-so-good-for-you foods. For Joe, that meant a strawberry donut, bratwurst and a deep-fried Twinkie. I had chocolate covered strawberries, crab rangoon and strawberry lemonade. (Ecclectic palates, huh?) Very cute little town. I'm sure we'll be back again for one of their many festivals.

After the storm

This is pretty much what my yard looks like today. We had a storm last night with tornado sirens off and on. Joe and I, along with the dogs, spent part of our evening huddled in our tiny, basement bathroom...glad to say that all is well except for our lovely yard debris. Considering we have to bundle and pay for any yard waste that gets set out for collection we will likely have to hire someone to just haul all these tree limbs away.

Kate

I got to meet my sweet friend, Kate, her boys and family at Navy Pier today. We rode the famous Navy Pier ferris wheel and had such a fun time watching the boys play; Kate even got me to ride on the carousel with them!

NKOTBSB

I am home after a night of boy-band heaven with New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys. My friend, Amber came up from Missouri to go to the show with me. The last time the two of us were at a NKOTB concert together was a little over 20 years ago...yes, 20 years. Wow. Back then my parents had to drive us to the show! The concert was so much fun and, sadly, I am not likely to have a voice for awhile - way too much screaming...hope we are still doing stuff like this 20 years from now. Long live the boy bands.   

Minneapolis

This week I took a 48-hour mini-vacation to visit my friend, Kim in Minneapolis. It's hard to believe but I haven't seen her since her wedding more than two and a half years ago. And not only did I get to see Kim and her husband, Chris but I got to meet their year-old daughter, Hannah! We had fun hanging out, went to the Mall of America for a bit, had a great dinner one night in the Nicollet Mall district and visited the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

Kim, Hannah and I standing in front of Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Sculpture Garden.

The famous Mary Tyler Moore statue. And, yes, I tried to do a reenactment of the hat toss.

Gleeks

We are big Glee fans so I was very excited that we were able to get tickets and go to Glee Live this afternoon. It was so much fun and we got to see performances by both "New Directions" and the "Dalton Academy Warblers." Seeing the actors and actresses perform live really made the show come to life. I think I'm going to be on a Glee high the rest of the night.