{Road Trip} Day Nineteen - From the Mountains to the Plains

I've said it before, but I'll say it again...  Road tripping is definitely NOT for everyone, but one of the things that I love so much about driving around the country is seeing firsthand the landscape and how it changes literally from lush forests to hot deserts to rocky canyons to tall mountains to vast farmland and everything in between...

It amazes me every single time, but today was something else...  I drove through the Rocky Mountains and into Denver, but once I picked up my mother (aka - backup reinforcement) at the airport on the other side of the city, it was flat as far as the eye could see.  I had no idea that Denver had any flat farmland anywhere around it!  I just assumed that it was in the mountains...  Well, that is only on one side, and flat plains are on the other...

Who knew?  Fascinating to me, really...

So, as I said, we drove through the mountains today...winding and twisting up and down and through tunnels...super fun...

and made a couple of presidential stops...

Beaver Creek Resort in Avon where President Gerald Ford once owned a home...

We didn't even attempt to sweet talk our way through the gates, as I was not feeling as confident in my persuasion abilities after the whole Mormon Tabernacle Choir incident... 

Maybe next time...

Instead, we admired the flowers and other scenes around the Eagle River...

 

before continuing on to Vail, where President Ford once owned a chalet at The Lodge at Vail...

Finally making our way to Denver, we made our first stop at the Colorado State Capitol...

From there, we attempted to grab dinner at the very first Chipotle location, one of our favorite restaurants back home...

 
but alas it was closed for renovations...boo...

It was confirmed right then and there, that we will be back to Denver for sure...

We settled for dinner at the very first Qdoba location, one of our favorite restaurants that we've gotten to know on the road over the last couple of years...

Yum...

After dinner, we headed to the airport to pick up GRANDMA!  Yippee!!!

I'm happy to report that my backup reinforcement is here, and we are safely in Kansas, the kids' 47th state, and last of the 7 NEW states picked up on this trip...

More {Road Trip} 2017 Fun

Day One - A Presidential Start

Day Two - Getting Corny

Day Three - Oh, Canada! + Happy Birthday, Hubby

Day Four - Alaska Highway - Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC

Day Five - Alaska Highway - Muncho Lake, BC to Whitehorse, YT

Day Six - Well, Hello ALASKA!

Day Seven - Icebergs, Glaciers, and Fjords, Oh My!

Day Eight - All Around Anchorage + the Parks Highway to Fairbanks

Day Nine - Denali National Park & Preserve + Go UAF Nanooks!
Day Ten - Into the Arctic
Day Eleven - JUNEAU
Days Twelve & Thirteen - Driving for Days
Day Fourteen - Hello, Seattle!
Day Fifteen - A Couple of Capital Cities with Capitol Steps to Climb
Day Sixteen - Out and About in the Portland Area
Day Seventeen - Idaho
Day Eighteen - Utah, and a Goodbye
Day Twenty - Canvasing Kansas
Day Twenty-One - Good Bye, Kansas + Hello, Missouri!
Day Twenty-Two - Finishing Up Truman's Missouri
Day Twenty-Three - Kicking It Through Kentucky and HOME!

{Road Trip} Day Eighteen - Utah, and a Goodbye

Good morning, Salt Lake City!

We woke up early, in time to catch the live recording of Music and the Spoken Word with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  In the summers and during the holiday season, they record at their conference center (verses in the temple) so that visitors can come to watch.

It was beautiful and a great experience...

 

except that only 3 of us got to go in.  M was turned away at the door because she is not 8.  Age discrimination, I tell you...  No, but seriously, we DID know that you had to be 8 to go in for the live recording.  We did read the rules, but thought that maybe they wouldn't ask.  Well, they did ask, and we did not lie...  Frustrating, but have to respect it...their church, their rules...  Just disappointing...  Hubby and M were redirected to the theater next door to watch the recording.  I mean, they could've stayed at the hotel and watched it on television...  Shoot, could've stayed in South Carolina and watched it on television for that matter...  Wouldn't have been so frustrating if I didn't walk in with the other two and see several other children that were obviously younger than M...

They did allow them to come in once the live portion had finished airing...

 

Oh, well...  I'm over it...promise...  Just makes me extra thankful for our own church!

From there we booked it over to the Utah State Capitol... 

{B wants to find all the state capitol liberty bells now, too!}

On the way to lunch we got a selfie with the Temple...

and walked by a neat and thought-provoking sign installation outside the convention center...

You are here...

What choices will you make?

After lunch at the Red Rock Brewing Company...

we dropped Hubby off at the airport, as he does have a company to run...

#workhardplayhard 

So thankful for this man that we get to do life with...

Backup reinforcement arrives tomorrow night in Denver!

In the meantime, we headed over to Antelope Island...

 
for a dip in the Great Salt Lake...

except that's not exactly how it went down...

So, I was going for - head over to the island, park, take a quick dip, and continue on down the road to Colorado...

Well, 2 hours and 6 bottles of water later...

Oh.  my.  word.

I can't even...

It was sooo hot, and it took about 20 minutes and one stop at the visitors center to get to the parking lot, which looked close enough to the lake, but we had to traipse through sand dune like sand, that was scorching...

{doesn't look all that far, right?}

and bless my sweet B, but he ran back and got waters TWICE during our trek out to the lake and back...

My hero...

Not kidding...it took us about 15-20 minutes each way to get there from the car, but there would be no turning back...

We made it...

and we drank 3 full bottles of water there AND back...

So, long story short...  I'm sure that the lake is quite lovely in November, or maybe even February...  December would be nice, Christmas at the Great Salt Lake, maybe???

BUT, 100 degrees, NOOO...

and the bugs...ewww...

They are harmless, but you have to walk through a thick swarm of nasty flies to get into the lake and back out...they just hover along the coastline...ewww...

Oh, and don't wear Tory Burch Revas to make the walk...  I know, brilliant prep work there on my part, for sure, but again, was thinking...5 minutes, maybe 15 minutes tops...

Makes me extra thankful for our beaches back home!

I can't remember the last time I was so happy to see my car and my air conditioning!

Beautiful scenery coming out of Utah tonight...

 

More {Road Trip} 2017 Fun

Day One - A Presidential Start

Day Two - Getting Corny

Day Three - Oh, Canada! + Happy Birthday, Hubby

Day Four - Alaska Highway - Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC

Day Five - Alaska Highway - Muncho Lake, BC to Whitehorse, YT

Day Six - Well, Hello ALASKA!

Day Seven - Icebergs, Glaciers, and Fjords, Oh My!

Day Eight - All Around Anchorage + the Parks Highway to Fairbanks

Day Nine - Denali National Park & Preserve + Go UAF Nanooks!
Day Ten - Into the Arctic
Day Eleven - JUNEAU
Days Twelve & Thirteen - Driving for Days
Day Fourteen - Hello, Seattle!
Day Fifteen - A Couple of Capital Cities with Capitol Steps to Climb
Day Sixteen - Out and About in the Portland Area
Day Seventeen - Idaho
Day Nineteen - From the Mountains to the Plains
Day Twenty - Canvasing Kansas
Day Twenty-One - Good Bye, Kansas + Hello, Missouri!
Day Twenty-Two - Finishing Up Truman's Missouri
Day Twenty-Three - Kicking It Through Kentucky and HOME!

{Road Trip} Day Seventeen - Idaho

Today was a bit of a bigger travel day as last night we didn't get as far through Oregon as originally planned.  After getting good rest, we continued on into Idaho!

and moved on pretty quickly to Boise where we grabbed a quick lunch (with ICE CREAM) at Big Bun...

before moving on to the Idaho State Capitol...

The ice cream at lunch would prove to be super important, as the temperature on our car thermometer topped 101 degrees...  At least it was a dry heat and still felt better than 101 degrees in South Carolina!

About an hour or so further down the road, we made a small detour to Twin Falls, recommended by the guy at the Idaho Visitors Center, and it did not disappoint, plus there was a Chick-Fil-A, an Old Navy, and a Target at that stop, too...a few of the comforts of home...

A couple of miles off the interstate the Perrine Bridge crosses the Snake River into Twin Falls... 

 

It is the 8th highest bridge in the United States...

 {that's Hubby & B walking across the pedestrian portion}

with beautiful views!

Definitely worth the detour...

Only one taker when we crossed into Utah a little later than planned...

 Off to explore more tomorrow!

More {Road Trip} 2017 Fun

Day One - A Presidential Start

Day Two - Getting Corny

Day Three - Oh, Canada! + Happy Birthday, Hubby

Day Four - Alaska Highway - Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC

Day Five - Alaska Highway - Muncho Lake, BC to Whitehorse, YT

Day Six - Well, Hello ALASKA!

Day Seven - Icebergs, Glaciers, and Fjords, Oh My!

Day Eight - All Around Anchorage + the Parks Highway to Fairbanks

Day Nine - Denali National Park & Preserve + Go UAF Nanooks!
Day Ten - Into the Arctic
Day Eleven - JUNEAU
Days Twelve & Thirteen - Driving for Days
Day Fourteen - Hello, Seattle!
Day Fifteen - A Couple of Capital Cities with Capitol Steps to Climb
Day Sixteen - Out and About in the Portland Area
Day Eighteen - Utah, and a Goodbye
Day Nineteen - From the Mountains to the Plains
Day Twenty - Canvasing Kansas
Day Twenty-One - Good Bye, Kansas + Hello, Missouri!
Day Twenty-Two - Finishing Up Truman's Missouri
Day Twenty-Three - Kicking It Through Kentucky and HOME!

{Road Trip} Day Sixteen - Out and About in the Portland Area

After a swim in the pool...

and some serious reorganizing and cleaning of the car, we hit the ground running, or walking, prepped for a full day of fun...

Our first stop was at the Hollywood Library...

for a map outlining a self-guided walking tour of popular children's author, Beverly Cleary's childhood neighborhood, pointing out locations used in her books...

There were definitely a couple of us more excited about this stop than others, but we got some great exercise walking the same streets that Beverly Cleary walked as a child...

and got to see TWO of her childhood homes...

and several spots used in her books...

 

our favorite being Klickitat Street, where the family of her beloved character, Ramona Quimby, lived... 

We wandered through Grant Park to find the special sculptures dedicated to 3 of her most loved characters...

 {Ribsy}

 {Henry Huggins}

 {Ramona Quimby}

and had fun playing a little bit, too...

before grabbing a delicious lunch at the Fleur de Lis Bakery & Cafe, housed at the old Hollywood Library location, where Beverly Cleary would've visited as an adult, when back in the neighborhood from time to time...

After lunch, we headed out to Newberg to visit one of President Herbert Hoover's boyhood homes...

President Hoover was orphaned as a child and came here to live with his aunt and uncle in the 1880s...

On the way out of town, we hit up a local fruit stand, and $18 worth of blackberries, blueberries, cherries, and raspberries were gone in about 5 minutes (and mind you $18 buys A LOT when it was picked within a block radius), so we went in and got bought more...

 

We then took our first picture with our brand new selfie stick...

Bless...

before continuing east, making a stop at picturesque Multnomah Falls, along the beautiful Columbia River Gorge...

We all hiked up to cross the bridge...

{obviously forgot the aforementioned "brand new selfie stick" - oops!}

and Hubby and the kids continued on up to the tip top!

{so proud of these little bits!}

Continuing on to Idaho tomorrow...

More {Road Trip} 2017 Fun

Day One - A Presidential Start

Day Two - Getting Corny

Day Three - Oh, Canada! + Happy Birthday, Hubby

Day Four - Alaska Highway - Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC

Day Five - Alaska Highway - Muncho Lake, BC to Whitehorse, YT

Day Six - Well, Hello ALASKA!

Day Seven - Icebergs, Glaciers, and Fjords, Oh My!

Day Eight - All Around Anchorage + the Parks Highway to Fairbanks

Day Nine - Denali National Park & Preserve + Go UAF Nanooks!
Day Ten - Into the Arctic
Day Eleven - JUNEAU
Days Twelve & Thirteen - Driving for Days
Day Fourteen - Hello, Seattle!
Day Fifteen - A Couple of Capital Cities with Capitol Steps to Climb
Day Seventeen - Idaho
Day Eighteen - Utah, and a Goodbye
Day Nineteen - From the Mountains to the Plains
Day Twenty - Canvasing Kansas
Day Twenty-One - Good Bye, Kansas + Hello, Missouri!
Day Twenty-Two - Finishing Up Truman's Missouri
Day Twenty-Three - Kicking It Through Kentucky and HOME!