Summer Adventures of 2011

It always takes me some time to make a commitment.  I knew I was going out west to see family this summer, but I couldn't decide weather to drive or to fly.  I had been watching airline prices and they just seemed to keep going up and up.  I had mentioned this to a friend of mine and she told me she would like to come out with me.  I didn't think much of it until the time came closer and I realised plane tickets were not an options since they were way to expensive.  I then ask my friend Christie if she was serious about sharing the driving and cost.  She thought about it for a few days and got back to me with an excited, "Yes!"  This is just a few of our adventures...

Our first stop was in Chicago.  Christie was raised there, so we toured some of her old stomping ground.  This is her house she grew up in.  Her son came with us too.

One of Christie's childhood memories was getting these rainbow cones.  They were delicious.

Here Ida seems to be enjoying it immensely.  It was made by scraping a slab of ice cream on your cone in many different flavors.  It was very yummy!!

Our next stop was to one of Christie's old and dear friends.  The Millers.  They had agreed to host us for the night.  They were incredible and very gracious.  We had a great time with them.  Mr. Miller has trains all set up in his basement.  I laughed and told Ida no matter where we go we can never get away from "TRAINS."  We had to take pictures for Norm of course.

It was a very old layout, but it was so much fun seeing Mr. Miller turn into a little boy again. :)

The second day we drove a lot.  We wanted to make it to South Dakota so we could play the 3rd day.  Just as we entered SD we came upon this very nice rest area and decided to stop.  The park Rangers were very helpful and gave us a lot of information and great places to visit while we were in SC.  The Rangers were so nice and the kids got to play a bit before we got back to driving.  We decided we better book a hotel so we picked a point on the map were thought we could get to and called for a reservation.  We picked the perfect place to stop, cuz as soon as we pulled into the Best Western it began to pour buckets of rain.  We were all so tired we went straight to bed.

We woke up refreshed and ready for a new day.  We were going to play.  We had tons of things we wanted to do.