The End of Summer

Today is Labor Day here in the US, and for us living in Chicago it officially marks the end of the Summer Season which started back in May on Memorial Day (May 27th).

The end of the summer season means the beaches, although open, do not have lifeguards on duty regardless of the weather.

The twice weekly summer fireworks at Navy Pier cease, the tourist season starts to slow down and lots places start closing until next summer - water parks etc.

For us it means school has started again - Ruby has just had her first week back at school as a first grader and she enjoyed her first week back, making new friends and playing with old ones, and she really really likes her new teacher - bonus.

So to celebrate the end of the summer season, with the glorious temperatures of 30c plus, yesterday, the girls and I went to a water park (as they close today too). 

The water park was so much fun, the girls and I had lots of fun, there was a great play area for the kids, with tunnel slides and a big bucket that dumped water onto anyone who was underneath it, there was also a cute splash area for all, but the really little ones loved it, as did my two until Ruby slipped and grazed her knee. Along with the walk in pool there was also another big water slide area, consisting of three tunnel slides, with one you went down on big yellow rubber rings, we all went on the big rubber rings it was so much fun.

We intended to only go for a couple of hours but 5 hours later, hungry and tired we dragged ourselves away, home for pizza and a movie.

Our other big event last week was Mr C's Birthday, we celebrated early on the eve of his birthday with dinner at Mr C's favourite restaurant Spacca Napoli, always a great meal there.

On the morning of his birthday we celebrated with presents and cards, proper English bacon butties for breakfast, coffee out, a game of adventure/crazy golf and of course birthday cake.

Ruby made Mr C a great present - Star Wars inspired, she made it all by herself, with a little help from me ironing the beads and assembling it in the photo frame. I think she did a great job.

 The birthday cake was made by moi and lovingly decorated by the girls - it was delicious too.

And now I am gearing myself up for Tilly starting her pre-k year at preschool on tomorrow. She is doing 4 mornings a week, even though she turns 5 less than a month after preschool starts, as it is after the 1st September she can't start school until next year (here in Illinois, children have to be 5 on or before the 1st September to start school) - bonus is she'll be one of the eldest in her year which I'm pleased with.

I am going to miss having my little friend and helper around, but on the other hand I am looking forward to having some kid free time too.

Wild West Road Trip - Day 14 & 15

Day 14 - Jamestown, ND - Minneapolis MN - 26th July

We faced another long drive, about 320 miles to our last stop before home, to break up the journey we stopped in Fargo for a coffee and a look around. Mr C had recently watched the movie Fargo and discovered it wasn't actually filmed in Fargo.

Fargo is one of those city that is on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota, so half of it is in North Dakota and the other half in Minnesota. It was a lovely place, with lots of character.

We set off again and as the city is in 2 states, it wasn't long before we were in Minnesota, which actually realising we had crossed another state border.

It was a long drive to Minneapolis, especially long for the girls, we had audio books on, i-spy was played sooooooo many times, they were bored, but the promise of a swim at the hotel kept them and us sane along with their whiteboards, which they were busy making into cafe menus.

We arrived early evening at our hotel, a lovely Westin hotel, it was super nice, except for the Rustic Inn, this was probably the next nicest hotel we stayed in, and, as it was a last minute booking we got it super cheap too. As it was our last night on the road, we had one last visit to the pool, a nice long swim and play we all enjoyed.

After our swim and shower we headed downtown and found a fantastic British Pub to eat at, called Brit's Pub, you may take us out of Britain but you can't take the British out of us. This place was packed and it even had a bowling green and a British classic the red telephone box outside.

We had a lovely British meal, fish & chips for Mr C and the girls and Steak & Ale pie for me.

It certainly was a lovely place and a nice way to end our vacation. We decided we would definitely come back to Minneapolis for a weekend visit.

Day 15 - Minneapolis, MN to Home, Chicago IL - 27th July

We headed off without breakfast, but armed with coffee, for the last leg home, we had 6 hours of driving to do approx 400 miles and we wanted to stop for breakfast and later for coffee in Madison, WI (I heard Madison have some great coffee shops). So an hour or so into our journey we stopped at the iconic Denny's for breakfast, just like we had the day we set off - 2 weeks ago.

Then we travelled through Minnesota into Wisconsin and down to Madison, where we found a lovely coffee shop and enjoyed a nice coffee, Madison is another one of those places we wished we'd had time to stop in, but will visit another time as they are less than 2 hours away from us.

So fueled up on coffee and cake we started the last stretch home, we were all ready for home, for our own beds and the girls were looking forward to playing with their Lego, it was the one thing they missed the most about being on the road. I did think about taking some with us, but I just knew it would get lost & end up all over the car and I decided it wasn't worth it. I am so glad I left it at home.

And early evening we were home, with pizza in hand.

All in all we had travelled for 15 days, through 8 states, drove 3,863 miles & had an absolutely fantastic time. 

Roll on next years road trip - California in an RV - here we come (I hope)

Wild West Road Trip - Day 12 & 13

Day 12 - Big Sky, MT - Miles City MT - 24th July

We left Big Sky MT early as we headed back into Bozeman, wer were very tempted to stop for another coffee, but decided to keep going as we were off to the Museum of the Rockies.

This trip was especially for Tilly as she loves Dinosaurs and we had heard there where lots of dinosaur fossils here to be seen, and boy there were too. The Museum of the rockies is home to one of the largest and most famous collection of dinosaur fossils in the world. Dinosaur fossils in their collection have all been found in Montana rocks from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

The dinosaur fossil exhibition was fascinating, so many fossils have been found in Montana, more have been found in this state than any other state in North America.

It was a great museum, very interesting, a play area for the kiddies, which always goes down well, plenty to see and learn about and not just dinosaurs, they had some really good exhibitions, aside from the dinosaurs, there was a planetarium and we got to see the show - Experience the Aurora - all about the Northern Lights it was fantastic and very interesting.

We could have spent longer there, but as we had lots of miles to cover to get to Miles City we hit the road as we were about 4 hours away.

Miles City was a sweet little place, a lady at our hotel recommended a restaurant for dinner called the Boardwalk, it didn't look like anything special but we gave it a go and I have to say apart from the meal in Jackson Hole, this was the next best meal we had had out,  we ordered the steak, which was perfectly cooked, we found out the owner cuts all his own steaks, we had both had a salad starter, the girls had hot dogs which were free with adult entrees and we all had free ice cream desserts, on top of that Mr C had the most delicious milkshake and I ordered a hot tea - all this came to an impressive $29.50, so we left our rather delightful waitress a big tip, as we've had steak dinners that have cost 3 times this meal and not been as good.

After our dinner we made it back to the hotel, just in time to see a storm erupt in the distance, it was a spectacular lightening show.

Day 13 Miles City, MT to Jamestown ND - 25th July

Again we were up and on the road early - today we had about 5 hours to drive to our next stop Jamestown in another new state for us North Dakota this time.  it wasn't long before we were crossing into the new state and another state closer to home.

On our way to Jamestown we stopped for lunch in Bismarck, the capital of the state, at this lovely bar called Peacock Ally, much to Ruby's delight as she loves peacocks. We didn't really have time to explore the town much, but Mr C did pick up a car license plate - he is collecting them from all the states we have been too.

We arrived early evening in Jamestown, and headed straight for their main attraction - The World's Largest Buffalo in Frontier Village.

This buffalo is a cement sculpture that stands 26ft tall and 46 ft long and weighs 60 ton. It was huge.

Also where the buffalo stands is Frontier village - it's a collection of a small number of historical buildings to re-create the look of a small, Midwestern town in the 1800s. It was lovely going round the old building, looking inside and getting a feel for life in the 1800's.

After visiting this lovely little place, we headed back to the hotel for yet another swim and a quick and easy dinner from McDonalds.

Next Stop Minneapolis, then home. 

  

Wild West Road Trip - Day 11

Day 11 - Bozeman MT, & 320 Ranch - 23rd July

From Big Sky we made our way into Bozeman, to spend the morning, I was pleasently surprised at how nice Bozeman is, full of arty shops, coffee places and natural food shops it was great. What made my morning was the coffee shop we decided to have our morning coffee at sold FLAT WHITES - my favourite coffee, mainly found in Oz but now very popular in England too, London I have to say is the best place to get a really good flat white, outside of Australia.

I was so excited and also a little curious as too why they have flat whites on the menu, was there an Aussie barista, had some one asked for one..... it turns out, as I had to ask, that the owner had recently been to London and had discovered this great coffee beverage there and decided to put it on the menu, fan flipping tastic if you ask me.

For those who don't know a flat white, they are very similar to a latte but nicer, a bit more coffee to milk ratio, I just love them.

After our coffee, we had a good nosey round the shops, bought a Kit Kat clock, we went for the classic black one, had a moose on a stick chocolate and bought our lunch from a great local wholefood style food market.

It wasn't long before we had to be on our way again, as the girls were booked in for a horse ride at the 320 Guest Ranch, it was a lovely ride back, with beautiful scenery.

It didn't take us too long to get to the Ranch, the girls quickly changed into their horse riding clothes and off we went for their ride.

This time the girls where going on their own, but it was only a 30 minute ride and they were being walked around by their guides.

The girls had a fantastic ride, Mr C followed them around, whilst I stayed in the horse shed and chatted with one of the Cowgirls - we had a great chat.

After the horse ride, we had an ice cream, then made our way back to the hotel for another swim, before going out for pizza at this fantastic pizza place called Ousel & Spur, the pizza was fantastic, according to the girls and I had the yummiest meatballs and spaghetti.

And that was it for our Big Sky adventure, next stop and officially on our way home now is Miles City. As we have quite a distance to cover, the next few days are mainly traveling.

Wild West Road Trip - Day 10

Jackson Hole, WY - Big Sky, Montana - 22nd July

Well it was time to leave our lovely resort and head off to another new state for us, Montana, but first we went to have a look around Jackson Hole, which is the most gorgeous town we've stayed at so far, I loved it so much I could live there. They have a great summer tourist season and a fabulous winter season too as a Ski Resort. Perfect.

We wondered around the shops and I picked up a lovely pearl bracelet from Pearls by Shari - they do a great range called the Teton Range. Mine was a simple one pearl (freshwater) on a leather cord. I love it.

The shops were wonderful and filled with lots of animals, no we did not fancy bringing a bear home with us.

We noticed they had a Stagecoach we could ride in, of course anything with horses is a must for the girls, so after our rather lovely coffee from the Cowboy Coffee shop we made our way over for a ride.

It was only a short ride around the town, but it was cheap and the girls loved it and now we could say we had been in a Stagecoach.

 It wasn't long before we had to leave the beautiful Jackson hole to make our way back through Yellowstone Park to Big Sky in Montana, but before we left the Grand Teton National Park, we had one important job to do and that was to see if Ruby was able to become a Junior Ranger.

We stopped off at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitors Center with Ruby's completed Junior Ranger Paper, which a Ranger checked and then she said the Junior Ranger Pledge - "As a Junior Ranger, I promise to appreciate, respect, and protect Grand Teton National Park and the natural world around wherever I go." and with that she passed and become a Junior Ranger. She was ever so pleased with her first Badge, and as most of the National Parks do this scheme, she is excited to be able to collect more.

So from here we drove back to Yellowstone National Park, we really wanted to see the Midway Geyser Basin, where the famous Grand Prismatic Spring is and boy it did not disappoint and was my favourite place in Yellowstone.

It was a truly spectacular sight, and the camera captured it well, but it's one of those places you really do have to see in person, along with Grand Prismatic Spring, there was also the Excelsior Geyser which discharges 4,000 to 4,500 gallons of 199 °F (93 °C) water per minute directly into the Firehole River.

I did get some fabulous photos of it on instagram too, check them out by clicking the instagram badge at the top of the page.

After seeing the wonderful Grand Primastic Spring, we made our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Park, after stopping for an ice cream break first.

The Grand Canyon was massive, an impressive name for an impressive canyon.

The photos don't really do it justice, but it was a sight to be seen, complete with waterfalls too, I only wish we had had time to explore it a bit more, but it was late afternoon and we still had over 50 miles to travel to our next stop.

Whilst still in Yellowstone National park, we entered another new state for us Montana our 5 state of the road trip and soon after we left Yellowstone via the West entrance.

We had a lovely drive to Big Sky our stop for the next 2 nights. Big Sky is a big ski resort in the Winter and a good base in the summer for exploring Montana and Yellowstone National Park

To come, I find a Flat White in Bozeman Montana and I couldn't be more excited.