1st Anniversary trip

For our anniversary, Keester and I saved up and went on a road trip. We saw many things neither of us had every seen before, went to a state neither of us had been to before, got lost via the evil Tom Tom (though, not quote as bad as that one time with Andrea...). It was great! But way too short.

What we saw:

Day One

Our first stop was Carhenge just out side of Alliance, NE. Very red neck, but still cool. It was crazy how you can walk up to a car sticking out of the ground like that and star up at it! Almost made you a little nervous to wonder if it would every fall on you...

Then we made our way to Valentine, NE to see Smith falls. We totally got lost and went down the wrong dirt road trying to find the falls once or twice. It is so wired. It looks just like normal old Nebraska until you are right near the falls. Then it is green, a little more hilly, and BOOM, falls.

It was a pretty mellow hike back to the falls, nothing like some in Colorado, but way more than I could have done physically just a few short months ago. We were both so happy that I was able to do it and enjoy it! I made it all the way back to the falls and back just fine.

We had yet another adventure in getting lost while looking for our hotel that first night! Then we found out I read the directions wrong... oops.

Day Two

The main things we saw this day was Laura Ingalls Wilder's home (other than cranes migrating... totally had to pull over and get some pictures). After having read all of her books this year while I was sick, and hearing we would be in the area on our trip, we had to stop. No options!

We spent about two hours here looking around and going into the different buildings. It was crazy to see the tiny replica of their home! It was hard to imagine two adults and four children living in the dugout or simple shanty (before Pa added onto it). It was also cool learning how efficient Dugouts were: they were warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer, way cheap to build! Though, all that said, I am not sure I would want to live in a house made out of dirt.

We also went on a wagon ride to see an old school building like the one Laura taught in. Which was cool too see (though the presentation there was a little dull).

Day Three

We went to the mall of America -- and got a head start on our Christmas shopping.

The lego place was so cool!!

We also found this little shop just for these awesome bean bags. They were the most comfortable bean bag either of us have ever sat in!

Day Four

First we had breakfast with my old core mate Becky. I had not seen her in five years! It was soo good to catch up a little with her.

We went mini golfing in the mall. The same golf place that shot out a ball that hit me in the head during lunch the day before! That was an exciting meal.

The mini golf place was not that elaborate, but we still had fun. Keester beat me, by a lot.

That day we also went to the aquarium in the basement of the mall. Which was way cooler than the mini golf!

We got to see all sorts or underwater animals, I got to pet a sea erchen (much funner to pet than to eat. just saying), there was a cool octopus, we got to watch them feed the sharks. Way cool. They told us about how smart octopuses are, and how they get sneaky when they are board. The octopus had toys in its cage and could play fetch like a dog with its trainers. When they were feeding the sharks, we were in a tube looking up at them!

Then we went swimming at our hotel in the afternoon.

I did all of this, and was still functioning! This trip really showed us how much better I am getting. Four months ago, if I walked three blocks from our home, Keester had to help me back. On our trip we walked, hiked, golfed, swam, and I was just tired at the end of the day. Not so dead that I could barely walk, tired! It was very good to see just how much better I am getting.

Day Five

The main thing we did along the road, was stop at Laura's old dugout site in Walnut Grove. Not as elaborate as her last home site, but still cool to see and recognize the land from her books.

We got to Sioux Falls, SD sooner than I thought (I did the math wrong), and hung out there for the evening. We did find this really cool salad fast food place, though. It was set up like a subway and was really tasty! We had that for dinner and got it the next morning and stuck it in our cooler for lunch on the road.

Day six

Was mostly us driving the last stretch of road home. We listened to, and had a great time discussing, a bunch of Matt Chandler Sermons to keep us occupied while drive across NE.