Travel – Page 3 – Jocelyn Rau

May 22, 2017May 22, 2017

Springtime fun in the sun

This spring, we were lucky enough to get 2 vacations within 2 weeks of each other. I will actually call the second one a trip, because, contrary to popular belief, traveling with children halfway across the country without your spouse or their other parent is not technically a vacation. It is a fun trip at best, a torture sentence at worst. It’s definitely not a relaxing, put-your-feet-up vacation, though. Those of you who have traveled solo with your kids, let alone flown with them, know exactly what I’m talking about.

Our first trip was truly a vacation. The 5 of us went down to Key West over Della’s spring break from school with my sister and her family and my mom and stepdad. I had never been there and had always wanted to go, so I was really excited to get a chance to visit the southernmost point in the US. I was beyond thankful, too, because, due to the fact that I’m currently doing some work for my sister and the company she and my brother-in-law work for, our entire family essentially got a company-sponsored vacation. Otherwise, we probably definitely would have been enjoying a Rau family stay-cation for spring break this year.

My excitement, however, soon turned to dismay, when Lana and Morrison caught a bug from their cousins and started vomiting. Unstoppably. As such, I was stuck in our rented house for almost the entirety of the trip, since barfing kids not only feel terrible and need extra care but are generally unable to do the fun things that come with tropical vacations, like boat trips to see dolphins and manatees, exploring the island, and going anywhere other than our house. Thankfully it had a private pool in the backyard, which I was able to enjoy most days while the sick ones napped.

I did get to have a little fun before the sickness ensued, fortunately. My sister rented bikes for everyone the first day we were there, so Ryan took us all on a big bike tour of our part of the island on the second day of our trip. That was cool – we saw the southernmost point landmark (even though the line was ridiculously long and we couldn’t stop to take a pic there), we did get a picture at the start of Highway 1, we biked through some of the cool little Key West neighborhoods, we rode by Hemingway’s house (unfortunately i never got a chance to go back for a tour, which i really wanted to do), and we got the general vibe of the island. We also watched the sunset in Mallory Square one night and saw the elusive green flash; that made me really happy, because I’ve always wanted to see one.

Some of us also went to the beach one morning, which was nice. The beaches there are very rocky, though, not sandy, so it made walking on it rather unpleasant. I swam out a ways to a small coral outcropping that was a popular snorkeling spot, and as far out as you could touch the bottom it was rocky. So weird; I’ve never experienced a beach like that. We found a bunch of cool shells, though, which the kids loved, and we brought back enough to fill a mason jar that’s currently decorating their bedroom.

I got to go on a sailboat ride with my sister, brother-in-law, and some of their coworkers on what was supposed to be our last afternoon there. Fortunately, I talked Ryan into staying 1 extra day so I could try to get some relief from all the vomit and have a relaxing day to myself. It kind of happened – the little ones were still barfing, but it would have been a nightmare with them on a plane that day instead of at the house, plus I did get to enjoy the afternoon sun by the pool with drinks brought to me by Ryan from some of the bars on Duval Street that I never got to see in person due to my pseudo-quarantine status most days. I need to remember, however, that boats and I don’t mix very well anymore. Any time anyone asks if I want to go on a booze cruise I jump at the chance, forgetting that I get instantly nauseous as soon as we leave the harbor. Ah well. I got to help hoist the sails and did feel good after I laid down with my eyes closed for a bit and just enjoyed the lull of the ocean, so it all ended well.

I have to say, my favorite part of our trip was the almost-daily trips to the Cuban coffee shop. That stuff was delicious!! I lamented the fact that I barely got to see or do anything else due to the kids being sick, but that’s ok. Hopefully I’ll be back. And Ryan checked off everything on his list (of course!), which was good because he hadn’t had a true vacation in about 3 years.

Then, 2 weeks after we got home from Key West, I took the kids out to Tucson over the long Easter weekend to visit my grandparents. We had a layover in Denver, and thankfully my sister booked all our flights so that I met up with them to fly the second leg from there into Tucson together. I’m not sure 4 planes by myself with the 3 Goonies would have been quite as enjoyable as having company/help for half of them.

It was a great visit, even though I was parenting solo. The weather was beautiful, we took the kids to a new-to-us pool that was pretty perfect for them, we spent some time at the house of a wonderful family friend who I’ve literally known my entire life, we got to spend important time with my grandparents, and we overlapped with other family who we don’t see that often.

It’s always nice to get out of Dodge every once in a while, especially when Wisconsin winters can seem endless. So these were some fun, sun-filled days.

July 2, 2014July 2, 2014

Planes & automobiles

I’ve been remiss these past few months and haven’t yet posted about the 2 great vacations we took this spring. So sorry.

But here I finally am, and I brought pictures.

Just 1 thing I learned during our second vacation before I get into all the details, though. All-driving road trips totally suck. I mean sure, we went to some cool places and did some fun things along the way, but a 5-day trip that is spent primarily in the car is not exactly all the fun it’s cracked up to be. Especially when a good chunk of time is spent navigating detours on super boring, “scenic” back roads in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Now that we have that out of the way…

First up was our trip to Hawaii in April. We were lucky enough to get to spend a full week out there again with my mom and stepdad, and it was glorious. We flew to LA on Good Friday, then flew directly to Maui that Saturday before Easter. We came home overnight the following Saturday into Sunday, and the girls both did great on all the flights.

Since having kids, my idea of a true vacation has changed dramatically. Nowadays (did i really just say nowadays? geez), I don’t consider anything a real vacation unless it’s adults only. Honestly. I love my kids more than life and more than I ever thought possible before I had them, but when we go on vacation just the 4 of us as a family, it’s really just more like parenting them somewhere besides our house. Anyone agree, or am I the only mean one?

Obviously family vacations are a wonderful way for the girls to see new places and everything, and we do always have fun, but Ryan and I often find we get home just a little more tired than when we began. That, clearly, is not the definition of a vacation.

Anyway, back to Hawaii. This truly was a vacation. The girls got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa, Ryan and I actually enjoyed many real vacation days, and we all came back happy, rested, and relaxed. It was beautiful, recharging, and all around amazing. Maui is by far one of my favorite places on Earth.

i just adore what the humidity did to her hair.

our beloved tiki bar at the hotel where we spent the maui portion of our honeymoon. such wonderfully fond memories of those 8 years ago, so we have to make a stop each time we’re back.

could there possibly be a cuter hula girl? i think not.

the first time those beautiful little toes touched ocean waves. pure happiness.

our updated balcony family drinking shot. had to add in the new kid.

forget the baby rafts. this girl wanted to swim!

Next up was our annual Wisconsin family vacation. Almost annual, I guess, since we forewent this one last summer and did our Great American Road Trip out west instead.

Now this trip originated a few years ago as just a long weekend for me and Ryan. I think the first one we did was the year I was pregnant with Della, which was 2010. It has since evolved into a 5-6 day affair, and we try to visit a different part of the state each time. We have now seen pretty much the whole thing, so we’ll just start repeating our favorites. We usually aim to work as many breweries in as we can along our chosen path of travel, but this year every place we wanted to visit that would have fit our route was closed during the days we’d be passing through that particular area. Of course. Because why not?

Also this year, we discovered one area that is definitely not on the favorites list. Wisconsin state highway 35 north of Hudson, WI, is one of the most annoying stretches of highway we have ever traversed. It’s marked as a scenic highway on the map, so we decided to give it a whirl. Bad idea. Especially since getting to it involved a 1-hour detour on back roads that of course were not on said map.

But let me back up and start from the beginning of that trip. Because parts of it really were fun. It started on a Friday in early June, with Ryan taking a half day from work and all 4 of us heading over to Madison. We ate some great food, spent some nice sunny time at Memorial Terrace, then stayed the night at our good friends’ house in Cottage Grove. The next morning we stopped at the National Mustard Museum in Middleton (actually very fun, surprisingly) before heading up to Eau Claire to spend the weekend at my aunt and uncle’s house.

stop 1 – vintage, a brewpub on the west side of madison.

terrace fun. such a different brand of fun now than the countless hours i spent there as a student and recent grad.

who knew the mustard museum would actually be great?

nigh-night the green monkey and crayons. road trip staples.

can’t beat good times with family.

That was as far as we had planned our trip by the time we set off, so the rest was totally play-it-by-ear. We spent Saturday and Sunday nights in Eau Claire and enjoyed a great meal with more of my family at one of my other uncle’s houses over in Hudson, WI, Sunday afternoon. Monday morning we drove all the way to the top of the state and checked out Superior, WI. Ryan wanted to see the ice that was still hanging around on Lake Superior since our “spring” had been so cold, but we missed it by about a week. We spent that night in Duluth, MN, which seems like a really cool city.

this is so much fuuuuuuun!

enjoying the shores of icy lake superior.

by far, their favorite part of the entire trip – hotel bed jumping.

Tuesday we began our trek down the west coast of Wisconsin, because I really wanted to drive the Wisconsin Great River Road. It’s the only national scenic highway in the state, and it runs from Prescott, WI, which is roughly half an hour south of Hudson on the Mississippi River, down to Potosi, WI, which is just north of the IL border, also right on the river. We’d been to Potosi during our second WI vacation, so we knew we liked it there.

That whole section in between Duluth and Potosi was what we were not familiar with, however. Here is where WI highway 35 comes back into play. Leaving Duluth, you can either get on Interstate 35 through the northeastern section of Minnesota, or WI 35, which runs straight south out of Superior, slightly inland from the St. Croix River and the western border of WI. This, then, carries you the entire length of the state down to Potosi, becoming the Wisconsin Great River Road in its southern half.

Ryan intended to get on WI 35 and just take it all the way south, but of course we ended up on I-35 instead and drove directly into Minnesota. Which is not Wisconsin, and we were on a Wisconsin vacation. (yes, i know we stayed in duluth, but from then on, wisconsin was our goal) So, after a few miles, we decided to try to get back to WI 35 and forgo the 70 mph speed limit we had been enjoying. We soon learned the error of our ways.

For as soon as we got off the interstate, we were hit with back country road detour after detour. For about an hour. At one point Ryan claimed he didn’t want to do this trip anymore, and we were just going to head home. Baby. He’s obviously not a road trip veteran.

Guess where we finally hooked back up with WI 35? 5 miles south of Superior! Yes, that’s correct. We spent all that time making one gigantic, slow, utterly miserable circle. So not only did we waste the hourish just trying to get to WI 35, we also wasted about 2-3 more hours of total travel time, since we essentially started our day’s trip over at the very top of the state instead of winding up all the way down in Hudson to start the Great River Road like we would have had we stayed on I-35, cruising along at lovely highway speeds.

So. Now that we were all in a foul mood, that part of the trip was just dandy. There were a bunch of stops we actually wanted to make on the southern half of that road, but since our day ended up really starting so much later than when we actually got in the car, we didn’t have the luxury of enjoying all those stops. Plus we couldn’t exactly just keep the girls in the car all night so we could get to where we wanted to be to start the next day, so we stopped Tuesday night in La Crosse. Not on our original agenda, but whatever.

one of ryan’s must-stops – red wing, mn, where the world’s largest boot resides. it scared the crap out of lana.

Wednesday was our last day, so we drove south to Potosi, finished the whole Great River Road, turned back east to go to a brewery and a hamburger stand that Ryan had bookmarked as must-stops, then headed to our final destination, and one of my favorite places in the state, New Glarus brewery.

fun in potosi. i have no idea what they were doing with their eyes. goggles, maybe?

her first root beer float. she obviously hated it, can’t you tell?

rau family christmas card 2014.

this girl does love her ice cream. and what better to do on a 5-day road trip than eat cheeseburgers and ice cream? that’s my kind of trip!

Oh but wait. Nothing can go quite swimmingly for us, so at what time did we arrive at New Glarus? Closing time. That’s about right. So we went home. The end.

But we have now seen pretty much the entire state, and we know that we never have to travel on WI 35 north of Hudson, WI, again. So we did learn something on this trip. Fortunately the girls are excellent car travelers, so we really never had to worry about them at all. 1400 miles in 5 days around Wisconsin is in the books.

To top it all off, 2 days after we got home from that trip, I ran my half marathon (yes, i did have to get my last 2 training runs in during our wisconsin vacation. oh so fun.), I drove the girls down to Peoria for a night, then we went up to my mom’s house for almost a week. More driving, but that trip was wonderful because the whole thing involved seeing and spending time with family. Plus, being at my mom’s house really is a vacation for me, because the girls play with Grandma and Grandpa again, and I actually get to read a magazine or two.

fun with grandpa in the hammock.

this is about as good as we can hope for when trying to get these 3 kids to cooperate for a picture. we should have gotten my dad in there to complete the 4 generations. duh!

take 2…

what screams summer more than 3 little kids covered in blue ice cream in an inflatable swimming pool? nothing.

and we just keep trying…

As much fun as was had everywhere, I was very glad knowing that no more travels were on the calendar for a while after I got home from that last leg. Good thing, too, because the car needs new brakes.

April 2, 2014April 2, 2014

Strength, or insanity?

So we all know how well things were going last week before our trip to Tucson. Well lucky for me, the fun just continued…

As soon as we boarded our flight on the way out, Lana turned into that kid. Screaming, writhing, kicking, flailing, coughing, snotting, you name it. She was utterly out of control. She was on a lap, then seconds later lying in the aisle picking specks of who-knows-what off the floor. At least she was hoarse, so her cries weren’t as ear-piercing as they could have been.

At one point either right before or during takeoff (see, i’m already trying to block the whole episode from memory) she was so fiendish, I literally had to pin her body against me to keep her from hitting everyone and everything around me with her flying limbs. I knew she was completely exhausted from her cold and lack of sleep, so I just held her as tightly to me as possible, which worked. She finally passed out after a few minutes, unfortunately only for about half an hour. Of the 4-hour flight.

I kept apologizing profusely to the people around us, who thankfully were saints. Every single one said not to worry, they all have multiple kids, and even the young girl across the aisle in front of me and Lana engaged her when she toddled up to her arm rest instead of rolling her eyes at me. The man seated in the middle of the row behind me leaned forward during this first outburst and said, “Do NOT apologize.” It brought me to tears, because I was horrified by Lana’s fit and was afraid he was going to yell at me.

And did you notice I said first outburst?

Yeah, it happened again at the end of the flight. You have no idea how relieved we were to get off that damn plane and get her out of there. I almost raided the drink cart for all the tiny liquor bottles I could find. Of course Della was her usual calm, happy self, or else I really would have lost my mind.

Fortunately that was about the worst of the trip, for every day their colds got better, so did Lana’s attitude. Mostly. She still needs to work on her listening skills, but I’ll cut her some slack since she is only 17 months old.

And thank god I almost always had plenty of helping hands close by since Ryan couldn’t go. We traveled both ways with my mom and step-dad; stayed with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew; and were surrounded by family pretty much all the time. That saying about it taking a village to raise a child? It has never rung more true than on this trip.

I’m afraid I came back more exhausted than when we left and experiencing a return of my cold, though. The constant stream of making sure the little ones always had everything they needed meant I pretty much always came last. Is the diaper bag full – diapers, wipes, changes of clothes, snacks, pj’s, my wallet? Do we have the swim stuff – swim diapers, sunscreen, pool toys, floats, sunglasses, hats? Do we have the eating stuff – bibs, cups, kid spoons, kid forks? Are they bathed and free from the puke that keeps landing on them from their coughing fits?

I honestly barely figured out what to wear to the wedding, just making sure the girls’ outfits were set and they were taken care of first. I’m actually happy with what I wore, though. It was simple and comfortable, which became of utmost importance since I had to stand outside the ceremony the entire time holding Lana, who refused to sit with me from the moment my butt tried to touch a chair when we arrived at the hotel. At least my arms got a workout.

I’m not sure why I’m complaining, though. I guess just to get it off my chest and out of my head. This is my job as a parent, right? They are what’s most important, and especially being the only parent with them halfway across the country I had to be extra alert and prepared. It was just really tiring. Mentally and physically. I often found myself wondering if taking this trip showed I could handle things with them fine, or if it just meant I was certifiably nuts.

Don’t worry – for all this woe-is-me, we did have a lot of fun. The wedding locale was beautiful, my cousin looked stunning, and spending time with my mom’s entire side of the family is something I love. Plus it doesn’t happen all that often, so I’m very happy we got to take advantage. And the girls got to play with their cousin and second cousin, which was so great to watch.

angels…

…and demons (aw, but isn’t she a cute little dancing demon)

This tale does have a happy ending, thankfully. Both girls were absolute dreams on the flight home, even napping much of the way. So I think it really was the cold raging inside Lana that transformed her into that little demon on the way out. She’s lucky – had there been a repeat performance on the way back, I seriously would have considered getting tranquilizers for her for the flights to and from Hawaii in a few weeks. Well played, little one.

the whole fam, minus the bride and groom. they were a little busy.

March 26, 2014

To-NOT-Do List

When preparing to fly across the country with 1 small and 1 slightly bigger toddler, here is a list of possible scenarios:

Get a head cold.
Pass said head cold onto both toddlers.
Toddler 1 becomes so snot-filled that she does not sleep for 3 nights and counting.
Toddler 2 becomes so snot-filled that she coughs herself to vomiting the night before you plan to go out of town.
Toddler 1 blows through a box and a half of Kleenex, making it really difficult to pack a small suitcase with all that tissue needed.
Toddler 2 knows to keep a spare Kleenex in her sleeve in case she doesn’t have pockets, but that ends up just stuffing her sleeves with snot-ridden goo balls.
Try to pack for all 3 of you while stopping every 14 seconds to wipe Toddler 1’s nose.
Figure out into which suitcase the giant bag of medicine that is now needed will fit.
Stay sane in your zombie-like state.

Now, guess which of the above applies to me today.

All of them. Hooray!

And Ryan’s not coming.

Thankfully the girls and I are traveling with my mom and step-dad, so that will be an enormous help. And despite the hassle I feel getting ready here, I know it will end up being a wonderful trip. We’re going out to sunny Tucson for one of my cousin’s wedding, and it will be great to get out of this cold-again weather and spend a couple days with family.

But talk about terrible timing for all this shit, as usual.

So wish us safe travels! And sleep.

July 8, 2013

Great American Road Trip – Part 2

If you need a refresher, here’s where we left off in “Part 1”. Let’s hit the road again…

Day 9: Time to say adios to my sis and nephew (bro-in-law had to go out of town on business a few days earlier). The compass didn’t point east just yet, though, as we took a northerly route home instead of simply backtracking. First up was Deadwood, SD. Yes, the same Deadwood from the HBO show, where we learned of it in the first place. Low and behold, it’s actually on the National Historic Register.

To get there, however, we had to drive through the most gigantic expanse of this country I’ve seen yet – eastern Wyoming. Do not undertake a road trip through this two-lane section of the country with anything less than an overflowing tank of gas and rations for weeks. I’m not kidding – there are literally hundreds of miles between the tiniest hints of civilization out there, cell phones don’t have a chance of working, every gas station we came upon was boarded up, and cows outnumber humans by probably about 20,000:1. It’s no joke. If something were to happen to you out there you’d be screwed. Thank god we got new tires put on the car in Colorado. Wyoming is wide open spaces to a tee.

We did find one diamond in the rough out there, though – Ft. Laramie. This little historic gem is smack dab in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, but is a really, really cool place. We spent a good hour walking the same grounds so many soldiers and Indians did before there was anything out there but wide open spaces. It was once a major stop on the Pony Express, and taking the same sets of stairs that some of the first people to settle this country did was an almost indescribable experience – humbling, maybe?

one sarsaparilla and one cream soda, please

But we finally rolled into our destination for that day, Deadwood, SD, that evening. Unfortunately it was seriously disappointing – every place has been taken over by gaming, with window upon window full of crappy slot machines. We found what appeared to be the solitary business in the town without a casino stuck in it to take the girls in for dinner. It’s a shame too; it could have been preserved as a very cool historic place, but now it’s not so much. I hate casinos, so I was ready to leave. After driving through the famed Sturgis, we decided to stop in Rapid City, SD, for the night.

Deadwood, SD

Day 10: Mt. Rushmore day. We woke up to thunderstorms, however, so got a much later start than we would have liked. On our way to see the big faces, we went to the Crazy Horse monument, a big mountain tribute to the Lakota Sioux leader in progress. Very cool.

the mountain in the back is being carved in the likeness of the statue in the forefront

so far only the head of the statue is complete

Some of Ryan’s friends had said that Mt. Rushmore was very underwhelming, which really bummed me out because I had been looking forward to this part of the trip for a long time. I don’t know from what planet they hail, though, because it was honestly one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. From the moment I first saw it from the highway driving in to the last glimpse we got on the way out, I was in awe. I literally could have spent the entire day just standing there staring at it instead of the couple hours we had. Not only is the memorial itself simply incredible, but the park and buildings they have set up around it are pristine. Definitely put this one on your must-see list. You will not regret it.

There are a couple other national parks in that area that we would have liked to have seen, but we just didn’t have time – Jewel Cave, Wind Cave, and the Minuteman Missile Silo. The Badlands, however, we were not going to miss. So we hightailed it out of Mt. Rushmore and headed east another hour or two to highway 240, the Badlands Loop.

This was another unbelievable area. The highway that winds through the park is about 40 miles long, and it takes you from the top to the bottom of the Badlands (or bottom to top if you come from the east). Words can’t really describe its beauty, and I’m sure our pictures don’t do it an ounce of justice, so just go see it for yourself. Again, you won’t regret it. We want to make another pilgrimage out there just to see these 2 places again and get to explore them more in-depth. You can easily spend at least a day at each park.

Badlands, SD

When we left the Badlands it was already evening, and I wanted to get the girls fed at a normal time that night instead of pulling into a hotel super late and getting them all out of whack again. Unfortunately central South Dakota is apparently not known for dining hot spots, so we had to settle for a little hometown diner in Kadoka, SD. Yeah, I’d never heard of it either. You can skip that place. Double unfortunately, massive thunderstorms were rolling in as we ate, so we quickly got the girls cleaned up and into pj’s so they could fall asleep in the car until we stopped for that night, wherever that was going to be.

Something else I learned – thunderstorms on the wide open plains of South Dakota are NOT to be taken lightly. We drove through over 100 miles of non-stop lightning, and I have never been scared of a storm like that before. When you are the only thing on the horizon and lightning is flashing around you like a strobe light, you just hope and pray you make it to shelter before getting charred. Thankfully we did, with the storms accompanying us the entire way. Our last hotel for the trip was in Sioux Falls, SD. We had made it all the way across the state!

this was our view for the entire eastern half of SD. too bad we couldn’t enjoy all the daylight on the 1st day of summer

Day 11: Homeward bound! We hadn’t gotten settled into the hotel room and the girls put to bed the night before until about 1 a.m., so we pulled the shades and let everyone sleep as late as possible. We were finally all up around 10-10:30 and got ready to head home. Checkout wasn’t until noon so we took our time and finally left Sioux Falls around noon, after breakfast and a much-needed Starbucks stop. Minnesota seemed to fly by compared to Wyoming and South Dakota, and then we entered the homeland once more.

say french fries!

After a stop in Madison for dinner with some friends at one last brewery, we pulled back into our driveway late that night. Whew!

This was an outstanding trip, and I am so happy we decided to do it. The girls were absolute dreams of travelers – barely a peep from either side of the backseat for all those miles and hours in the car, countless stops, and 3 different hotel rooms. Ryan got 5 new stamps and stickers in his National Parks Passport, Della got her own Junior Ranger National Parks Passport to start, and Lana, well Lana got to chew on a red Solo cup to her heart’s content. (note to self – keep a red solo cup in the car at all times to placate a restless baby)

Thank you, America, for gorgeous scenery, an established interstate roadway system upon which we can travel to said scenery, and memories our family will cherish for a lifetime.

July 2, 2013July 2, 2013

Great American Road Trip – Part 1

A few weeks ago we undertook our longest road trip yet as a family. It spanned 9 states and put 3,172.4 miles on the odometer. And we all survived!

We left Milwaukee on a Wednesday morning, drove through parts of Illinois and Iowa, stopped for a dinner of world famous BBQ in Kansas City, MO, then spent the night in Topeka, KS. That Thursday we drove through the rest of Kansas before reaching our main destination in Evergreen, CO, for the next week. The return drive took us through part of Wyoming on our way to South Dakota, then finally one last day to get through Minnesota on our way back to Sconnie-land.

This would seriously end up being a novel if I tried to describe everything we saw and did, so I’ll just cover the highlights. You’ll notice this is “Part 1”, so in here I’ll show you some of the sites from the drive out and our stay in Colorado. The reason we went out there was to visit my sisters, brother-in-law, and brand new nephew, so we figured we’d see as much of Middle America as we could along the way. Here we go…

Day 1: Our goal of this leg was to get to Kansas City, MO, where Ryan was dying to try Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ. So we did, and it was delicious. We had some daylight left after eating, so we drove another hour or so to Topeka, where we called it a night.

yuuummm!!

Day 2: We started off the day by visiting the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site. Very cool. But the rest of Kansas is boring. So is eastern Colorado. We finally pulled into my sister and brother-in-law’s driveway in Evergreen, CO, that evening and let the engines rest.

jumping on hotel beds is fun!

don’t do this. and no, that’s not our car

it was very hot and windy on our drive west

Days 3-8: Fun had by all in central Colorado. Our nephew is completely adorable; the girls, my mom, sister, nephew, and I went on a train; we experienced a rodeo parade; we took in a concert at Red Rocks; we tried out as many breweries as we could manage in a day; and we saw some cool petrified stuff. We even got to experience the scare of forest fires starting while we were there. Thank god none reached my sister’s home, and no one we/they know was hurt by the handful of ones raging during our stay.

Georgetown Loop Railroad

rodeo parades and catching all that candy are simply exhausting

happy father’s day!

s’mores!

Odell Brewing in Fort Collins, CO

New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins

Left Hand Brewing in Longmont, CO

Oskar Blues Brewing in Longmont

“Big Stump” at Florissant Fossil National Monument

Trinity Brewing in Colorado Springs

cousins! lana was most uncooperative

Ok, that’s enough pictures for today. Stay tuned, for there will be plenty more in “Part 2”. I can sense your anticipation building already, my friends.