I Took a Little Trip...

So I took a little road trip with my parents, a two week road trip to be exact. We headed out west to visit my sister in California and had some grand adventures along the way. We drove through 11 states and although I am glad I did it, it is also nice to know that I don't have to do it again. Next time I will fly to my favorite stops :)

Here are some quick random highlights/entertaining stops from the journey, no particular order:

Wall Drug

If you're driving through South Dakota there's not really any way to miss it. The signs are everywhere, and about the only signs for miles.

  

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

 Did you know there used to be active volcanoes in the United States? Well there were.

 

 Did you know that you can go to Idaho and walk around the lava and look at the effects of a volcano that erupted 2000 years ago? Well you can.

Doesn't my mom look like she's in a hazmat suit?

Yellowstone National Park

Have you been to Yellowstone? It's breathtaking.

Old Faithful is amazing to see, but it was a bit funny to see the time it would erupt posted in the middle of the visitor's center and rows of benches set up for spectators.

 We saw our first bear before we even entered the park. It put us in the mood for some good animal watching.

 I will definitely be back to Yellowstone, hopefully spend a few days, do some hiking and horseback riding.

Twin Falls, Idaho

 See that bridge? Well if you look out over the canyon this is what you see...

 Amazing! And yes, that is a golf course. Who knew Idaho was so beautiful?

California Awesomeness

 Friday we went to Santa Cruz and stopped at this great local ice cream shop that makes up their own flavors. Dad had balsamic vinegar and fig (which we all tried, of course) and mom had chocolate caramel sea salt (which I also had but in a root beer float) Tanya had some other random float.

My sister and brother-in-law got remarried in the Catholic church, while we were there.

The above picture is outside the mission church Holy Cross where they were married.

 After the ceremony. We matched nicely.

 Everyone. Small weddings are nice.

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite was beautiful too. There weren't animals everywhere like Yellowstone but the mountains were amazing and so white against the sky.

I'd love to go back and go hiking by the waterfalls (we were too late in the season for the falls to be falling).

We spent the day walking and admiring. Reading warning after warning about black bears, but never seeing any.

Antelope Island State Park

 So there's this island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.

 It's beautiful, and filled with all sorts of fun animals.

 Bison crossing the road. It happens here, a lot. They have like 500 bison, just chilling.

 Can you find the horizon line? Cool huh?

We made lots of other stops, like staying at The Virginian Hotel in Medicine Bow, Wyoming (you'd have to be a western fan to appreciate that one), visited Buffalo Bill's retirement home (Scout's Rest Ranch in Nebraska, who knew?!), being a 3rd generation Danish immigrant we had to stop at the Danish Immigrant Museum in Iowa. Yeah there were lots of stops like that.

Well that's my trip in a nutshell. It was fun. We live in an amazing country. You should check it out!