Vacation Days 10-11

Friday was spent doing laundry and repacking for our departure. We had plans to leave bright and early Saturday morning, so I had a lot of work to do. But, I took some time from said packing to do some “tourest shopping” in Keystone and Hill City, with Sherry, Zion and Glorianna. We had a great time doing some shopping and going out to eat with Sherry.

Trevor and Azariah had decided to head off for some hiking that morning. (He will post about that adventure.)

When we returned, with Trevor and Azariah not far behind us, we headed over to Tristan’s house for one final visit. We had a wonderful dinner and then were just sitting down for some family time, when a nasty storm came thru and I do mean nasty. Rain, thunder, lightening, heavy winds and hail the size of very large peas. Then the power went out. So we sat in the semi dark, chatting about this and that, while the kids gathered in the middle of the floor and played legos by candlelight. The storm finally passed after about 30 minutes and only a light rained stuck around for a while longer. But the power stayed out for a few more hours. Still…it was nice to hang out one last time with the family.

Saturday morning, after saying our final good byes to Lloyd and Sherry, we finally got on the road and headed for Chicago. This was going to be the last bit of vacation before heading home. We have a Louisville Science Center Membership, and so we could get into 3 different museums in Chicago for FREE!! How cool is that!!

We made very few stops along the way but one of those stops, between South Dakota and Chicago, was to see “The Jolly Green Giant”. Its a 44 ft tall green giant, built as a halfway point marker on I-90. Or something like that anyway. I had heard of this “giant wonder” but this was the first time I have actually gotten to see him.

You can hardly see us at the feet of the giant, but if you look closely you should be able to find us.

So after driving for about 14 hours, we finally reached our hotel, tired and ready to dive into bed. We stayed at the Wingate Hotel and it was super nice! The beds were very comfy and the room very spacious. The couch opened up into a bed as well, so no one had to sleep on the floor this time, which the kids were glad of.