Road Trip to North Dakota

We started our road trip on Thursday evening after work - amazingly enough we got out of town on time, if not a bit early! We stopped in Kellogg, ID for dinner at McD's. The kids downed their food in record time and lots of it! We hit the road and the kids managed to hold it together with minimal toys until they fell asleep about an hour after their normal bed time and somewhere in Montana. We planned to drive 8 hours and stop in Billings for the night (around 2 am local time). Once we got there though...the kids decided they were fully rested and awake. Sooo for 3 hours we attempted to get them to sleep in the hotel and finally at 5 am they crashed. We got up at 7 and packed up to hit the road again. We met up with my parents at their hotel and caravanned from there.

This monument is just inside the Billings city limits near downtown - which randomly is also near a women's prison...

Dad bribed Ellie to kiss the cow.

It was about 6 more hours to Bismarck. We stopped to lunch along the way just outside of the North Dakota state line. From there Jared had me drive (about 3 hours left in the trip) and then it happened. I got pulled over. Not for speeding, but for passing in a prohibited zone. Super lame story - I just caught up to Dad and Mom and there was a semi passing another semi. We were in the left lane behind him and once he got over we  both started to pass. We started to head downhill and saw a construction site ahead. Dad got over and I quickly got over as well just before the left lane ended due to the construction. The state patrol officer was sitting right there at the bottom and pulled me over...apparently there had been two signs on both sides of the road at the top of the hill that I missed. She indicated that had I not passed, she would have pulled over the guy in front of me - so I guess I took one for Dad there. Bummer that it was my first ticket ever although not too bad I guess in the sense that it only cost me $20 bucks. ND has cheap tickets. Also on the positive side, she said we were all buckled up and I was sober so the kids got stickers and we got 4 free sandwiches from McD's - even premium sandwiches. Too bad they're only good in ND - hopefully my Aunt and Uncle are enjoying those.

We arrived in Bismarck mid afternoon at my Uncle Greg's house. We hung out, ate dinner and hit the sheets early - because we were tired, but even more so because the kids wouldn't go to bed without us.

The next morning we headed out to the Dakota Zoo. Its been years and years since I've been here and its a lot bigger than I remember. They are clearly continuing to improve and expand the exhibits. We started by taking the zoo train, which is perfect for families like us. It does an entire lap around the zoo in maybe 15 min. We then were able to walk to the parts of the zoo that were most interesting to us. The kids had their awesome tiger wagon/stroller.

There is a new big cat exhibit in the zoo that you can watch the tigers from, but you can crawl through a tunnel and get into the middle of their exhibit, kinda like a bubble. There was this kid we saw in the first bubble who was like "have you been  to the other side yet?" I responded "no" and he said something like "look up". Since he was kinda giggly about it I figured the tiger had pooped on the glass or something. I did not expect this....

The kids checking out the tiger from one of the regular viewing areas

The monkeys put on quite a show. There was a baby monkey and then several adults.

Reindeer

Camel - this one is just the baby. The adult camels were huge and their humps too!

This is the almost exact same board that was there when I was a kid. Made me so happy to see it there.

John and I in 1987 at the zoo - that puts us at the same age of Ellie and Ryan!

We headed back home and the kids got naps. Jared and I got an opportunity to head out on the Missouri River on Uncle Greg's jetski. In all my years of visiting Bismarck I had never been on the river or even near the beach. So this was something completely new and exciting for me. I was amazed at how shallow the river was and how many sand bars there were. Seems like everyone had a pontoon boat and the just park them up on the sand bars and have a beach party right in the middle of the river. That evening we had German food like the way my Grandma always cooked - lots of dough and potatoes. We had fingers (fried finger like dough served with heavy cream) and buttons (boiled dough with potatoes and onion) and cheese buttons (which were store bought but dough filled with cottage cheese). Such a treat! Aunt Kathy is the one who got the 'recipe' down from Grandma, but it still takes support from all the sisters to get it perfect!

Great Grandma Mary and the kids waiting patiently for dinner.

The finished products (left top: fingers, right top: buttons, left bottom: cheese buttons, right bottom: a rhubarb custard pie that Aunt Kathy made)

Sunday we thought there was going to be rain and lightening, but it was just overcast in the AM. By the afternoon it was warmer, but still not sunny. We had all promised the kids a ride on Uncle Greg's pontoon boat, so we headed out. Less than 10 min into our ride, the sun came out and it was HOT.  

Ryan was not such a fan of the lifejacket. Every time he remembered he had it on he got so upset.

This is the back side of Uncle Greg's house and our accommodations for the week. A lot of the houses on the river are "twin homes" which are more like condos.

After our boat ride, we drove across town to my cousin Kirsten's house. We had a yummy pulled pork dinner and had some family photos.

This is Great Grandma and her great grandkids that were there at dinner (and their moms and grandmas). My Aunt Charlotte is on the far left, with Radek and my cousin Kirsten is just above me on the right.

Great Grandma and her kids that were there (left to right: Charlotte, Mary Greg, Nancy and Kathy)

The weather finally turned and it started to rain and we had promised Ellie ice cream from DQ. There is one very special DQ that was just 3 blocks down from my Grandma's house (the one my mom grew up in). It has special toppings that most DQ's don't carry and for the longest time the still hand dipped their Dilly Bars. The trip back from Kirsten's to DQ is easy, pretty much a straight shot, but when you don't know the roads and your kids a screaming and crying in the back seat, this happens....

You get your 2nd ticket of the trip. At least this one was on Jared. He was going 38 in a 25....ouch. The cop was understanding and wrote it for only 10 over instead of 13 which would give him a higher ticket price and points to his license. Instead his ticket was $10 bucks. Seriously ND - do you know how much more money you could be making on tickets? So when I got back to work on Wednesday I got to pay these to babies. But we still made it to Dairy Queen! How cute is this walk-up?

Ryan was very excited by my Cherry Mister Misty Freeze.

Both kids happy and sugared up

Chugging...

"What Mom?"

Monday was our last day in Bismarck. We've always made a trip to the museum at the Capitol because its super cool and also because my Uncle Merl is the director there. Unfortunately for us the museum was closed because they were expanding. Which is awesome for the museum. On the plus side, because of Uncle Merl we got a tour of the construction!

Previously the museum was more of a singular room and now there will be a long hallway with several rooms of different periods.

These inlaid foot prints change as you progress in the timeline down the hall way.

Rockin' their hard hats and vests

This is all copper tiles. These are on the inside of the building and sealed, there are also some on the exterior of the building that will patina over time.

The bird exhibit is out in the hall way so its was the hit among Ryan and Ellie!

Uncle Merl, Ellie and Papa

This structure is meant to represent a Native American lodge. It will also project a Northern Light type image at night.

Family photo outside of the museum

We all agreed that the buffalo sculpture outside is one of our favorite things. Its made out of rebar - #3 to be specific (thanks Dad).

What would a trip to Bismarck be with out Big Boy?!! Not complete in my book. Since we had such a big order, we called it in, but I insisted on going too so that we could take the required photos.

And this is what the excitement is about - a pizza burger flying style, French fries with gravy. Not pictured a frozen Coke. Delish as always.

That evening we said our goodbye's and headed out on the road once more. Jared wanted to stop at Teddy Roosevelt National Park (Medora). We drove through the painted hills - one of the most beautiful places ever. A storm with hail anticipated to be nickel-sized went right around us and Medora. But unfortunately we only had about 10 min to spend there because it shuts down right about 7 pm. We did get some yummy taffy and ice cream though.

The kids were wide awake - almost a bit rummy. They were singing and dancing in their seats and screaming happy screams. It was comical. After instituting a 5 min quiet time, they were both passed out. After learning from our drive over, we decided to only drive 6 hours back to Billings and get there about midnight. We also knew we couldn't put the kids in bed together. Having that mastered, we got the kids back to sleep in 30 min or so after stopping at the hotel. We hit the road early Tuesday since we wanted to make some stops along the way.

Our first stop was at Lewis & Clark Caverns. I'd never stopped here before, but Jared remembered having been there as a kid on his trips out to Minnesota. We got there just as it opened and caught the first tour in. Its a 3/4 mile hike up a 63% grade just to get to the entrance of the cave. Packing the kids made that a great workout. But the sight was beautiful at the top.

We entered the cave with our tour group and it wasn't more than a few minutes before Ryan started his screaming. That little stinker does it just for attention and because he's not able to communicate the way he wants. Of course we were doing everything to keep him quite that we could think of but it wasn't enough. The tour guide kinda made us feel bad about it, just that he kept pointing out that sometimes kids just need to be let down to run. Not like a descending cave without rails is a great place for that. Fortunately there was a nice guy from Canada who was hanging back at the end of the group with us and he was very helpful and reassuring.

Stalagmite - it looks like its flowing like a chocolate fountain

This is the last cavern in the cave just before exiting. They've upgraded the lights to a "RGB" light and its amazing how much better the natural colors in the stalagmites and stalactites appear. 

Just after this last picture we were getting ready to head out. Jared had Ry and I had Ellie. There was two stairs down the platform and then a tunnel out. On the very last stair, I could see it was wet, but despite being careful, I had Toms on which are terrible for that sort of thing and I slipped and fell. I went straight down and landed on my butt, hit my forearm on a stalagmite and also the back of Ellie's head on a stalagmite. We knew there was a bump there, but after we got out of the cave we saw that she had blood on her fingers from playing with the back of her head. Poor baby. She did great though. We got her cleaned up and kept her awake for a little bit and she was just fine. Ryan on the other hand he passed out in my arms on the way out of the cave. There's a 1/2 mile walk outside of the cave back to the visitor's center and he didn't even make it half the way back before crashing.

We were able to drive a little past lunch since the kids were sleeping. We made our last stop in Coeur d'Alene and took the kids to the Kroc Community Center. What an awesome facility! Aside from the pool that we visited, they have a ton of fun amenities! Climbing wall, recording center, gym, etc. It reminds me quite a bit of a YMCA, but without the membership expense. Its not expensive at all even for day use! Looking forward to visiting again in the winter since the pool is indoors.

All in all we had a great time. The kids did great on the road trip portions - 30 hours, 1,990 miles - I'd say that's pretty good. Although neither Jared or I are ready to do it anytime soon, like even next year might be too soon. I am sure by the time Ryan is 3 though, we'll all be better prepared to do this again.