Pictures

This morning we went to a forest of redwood trees.  They were very big and tall.  It was fun to climb on some that had fallen down in the path.  Also, we saw a sign that said that in the gift shop they sold snacks, t-shirts, water bottles, and leather stuff.  We thought this was pretty odd and funny.  Here is a picture of us “holding up” a tree:

Next, we drove to a place to kayak.  It was really fun but we got pretty wet.  We brought a lunch and had it floating out in the middle of the slough.  We also saw lots of animals including sea otters, sea lions, seals, and pelicans.  One sea otter swam under Lindsey and Dad’s kayak and came up right in from of them.  It surprised them and Lindsey screamed.  That was one of the funniest parts of the day!  Here is a sea lion floating upside down in the water:

After kayaking and changing out of our wet clothes, we drove to our hotel right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.  But, it was foggy and cold so we didn’t really get to enjoy the view.

Today was one of our San Francisco days.  We started off the day with an insane amount of stairs (I can’t believe my mom made us go up all 447!) just to see a tower.  Then, we had lunch at an Italian restaurant.  The pancakes there were fabulous!

Next, we went to Pier 39 and saw some sea lions.  They were really cute.  After this, we went to a Ghirardelli store and got free samples of chocolate and some ice cream.  That was a really good afternoon snack!  Next, we got to ride on a cable car into Chinatown.  In Chinatown we went to a cute, small fortune cookie factory and got free samples of the rejects (today was free sample day!).  Mmmmm! We also got some tea there to help us warm up.  It got really cool when it got cloudy!  We met up with Jessica and Jeff and had dinner with them.  It was nice to see them again!

We drove into California today and stopped to visit with my dad’s cousin and her family.  They have an almost-two-year-old boy named Elliot and a six-month-old girl named Lillian.  Both children are adorable.  We had a great time sitting in their backyard talking and having snacks.  Elliot loved showing us the lemon tree they had growing in the yard and Lillian was perfectly happy just being held and adored.

After this we stopped at Stanford University, where Unc lived last year.  His office mate showed us around and we even got to see his office!  After, we got Jamba Juice (deeelicious!).

Next, we drove to my mom’s cousin’s house.  Jessica and her husband, Jeff, made us dinner and my mom’s other cousin, Brad, was there for dinner as well.  We had fun meeting their cats and walking down to the frozen yogurt place near them after dinner (not as good as Pinkberry, but who doesn’t love frozen yogurt with delicious toppings?)

We drove to the Grand Teton National Park.  We got to ride horses through the park, including through a few little streams and up a mountain.  It was really fun!  My horse was Tony.  He was black and he was a very nice Mustang.  As we were just getting back to the camp, it started to rain.  It got pretty foggy and we didn’t really get to see a lot of the park (or any meese 🙂 ).

We got to our hotel which my mom said was supposed to look quaint and charming but to me it just looked like an old lady room.  Everything was in terrible prints and faded colors- not very pretty to say the least.  But, I survived staying the night!  We went out to dinner at a local brewery and we took some funny pictures:

Today was Lindsey’s birthday.  We woke up and went for a walk around a few hot springs and geysers.  Some of the hot springs had really beautiful colors!  We went to see the Steamboat geyser, the biggest geyser in the world, but it doesn’t erupt very often so we didn’t see it. 

For lunch we drove to a small town outside of Yellowstone.  This way we could add Montana to the list of states we visited on this trip.  We went to a restaurant there and then walked around.  Lindsey got a Yellowstone t-shirt in one of the shops there.  I got one later in the park.  After all that walking and shopping we were so tired that we just HAD to get ice cream.  There was this really small homemade ice cream place.  It was really good!  Here is a picture of my dad trying on a silly hat in one of the shops!

After this we moved all our things to a new hotel that was at a different end of the park.  Our new hotel was near Old Faithful, the famous geyser that erupts pretty regularly.  Our hotel room didn’t have air conditioning so it was really hot inside.  But, it was a very nicely decorated hotel room.  We went to watch Old Faithful.  It was really cool to see it go so high.  Here is a picture:

After we watched Old Faithful we got dressed up and went to a fancy dinner at the Old Faithful Inn in celebration of Lindsey’s birthday.  The pizza there was delicious!  It was also fun because we surprised Lindsey by telling the waitress that it was her birthday when she wasn’t at the table.  It was great to see how surprised she was when all the waiters and waitresses came over to sing, “Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam, where the antelope play.  Happy birthday to you from the Old Faithful crew, and we hope you enjoy your big day!”  She even got a birthday candle in her dessert (a chocolate lava cake…mmmmm!).

A funny thing happened this morning!  We were driving down the street and I wanted to take a picture of the place where the rodeo that we saw yesterday was so I put the window of the car down.  All of a sudden, a sprinkler hit me in the face!  I was really surprised and very wet.

When we got to Yellowstone National Park we went to our teeny-tiny cottage.  It was very cute but not as nice as our one in the Badlands.  We went on a few hikes.  We saw a “mud volcano” that had lots of hot springs that smelled horrible!  Also, we went down hundreds of stairs to see a beautiful waterfall.  We even saw a rainbow and a nest of baby birds there.  But, it was very tiring to walk up so many stairs.  Here are some pictures from our hikes:

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That night we went up to the lodge to play cards (Dad and I beat Lindsey and Mom in Hand and Foot) and when we came out of the building there was a buffalo right in the middle of the road on a patch of grass.  It wasn’t even bothered by any of the people or cars going by!  We didn’t get a picture because it was so dark out.

Today we left Wisconsin to drive to Minnesota.   But first, we stopped in Hammond, Wisconsin.  It was a lot smaller (population 1,600) and nicer than Hammond, Indiana so we stopped in to take pictures.  I really wanted to stop at the Hammond Disposal Plant but we didn’t have enough time and it was out of the way.  But, we did stop at the Hammond Golf Club.  Sadly, they didn’t have any hats or anything that dad could get. 

After this stop we stopped at an A&W restaurant for lunch.  The root beer was fantabulous!  It was also very fun to pick music from the jukebox!  Lindsey had fun figuring out how to work it.  The food was pretty good but the whole experience was really awesome!

Next, we went to the Mall of America.  It was pretty cool but it was sort of underwhelming.  I mean, I thought it would  be a lot bigger than it actually was.   It was cool that there were rides in the middle of the mall but it didn’t seem that much bigger than the mall near us is.  Also, most of the stores there we could get to really easily from our house.

After walking around the mall for a while and doing some shopping we got back in the car and drove to our family friend’s house for dinner with her and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Loyd.  Kate just got married and is about to have a baby so we were happy that we got to see her, her nice new house, and her three adorable puppies!  Lindsey and I had so much fun playing with Bella, Cowboy, and Mitt Romney!  They were so cute!  The only thing that was disappointing was not getting to see Kate’s new husband, Tony because he was away on a business trip.  But, we can’t wait to meet him next time we see them!  Plus, next time we see them there will be a new addition to the family!  Lindsey and I even got to help pick out the cutest outfit for their baby girl to wear on the way home from the hospital.  It has lady bugs on it and even a matching lady bug hat!  I can’t wait to see pictures of the new baby! 

Here is a picture of Kate, Mom, Lindsey, and Me:

Here are some pictures of the dogs:

In order of picture they are Bella, Mitt Romney and me, and Bella and me.  We didn’t get any pictures of Cowboy because he was a little crazy. 🙂

We left the house in the morning and drove about six hours to my great grandpa’s house in West Seneca, a town near Buffalo, New York.  We had an early dinner at Chang Garden, a Chinese restaurant.  We thought the food was okay, but it wasn’t fabulous.  Here is a picture of us with Great Grandpa:

Then, we drove the short distance to our hotel near Niagara Falls. Our hotel is in Canada.  This was the first time my sister and I have been out of the country.  Surprisingly, it didn’t suddenly get colder when we got into Canada!  The hotel is underwater themed.  When we got there was a really bad magician in the lobby doing a show for a bunch of little kids in pajamas (it was near their bedtimes).  The hotel is decorated to look like a pirate ship and there is even a water park!  We plan to go to the water park tomorrow morning.

After we checked in to the hotel, we walked down to the falls to watch fireworks.  We got there just in time.  After the fireworks we got to see the falls lit up.  At first it just looks like a big waterfall (which is what it is) but if you look closer with binoculars it is truly fantabulous.  I can’t wait to see even more of Niagara Falls tomorrow when we ride on the Maid of Mist, a boat that takes you close to the falls.  Here is a picture of the falls lit up at night:

Even though the fireworks and falls were pretty cool, we saw some really amazing things on the way there.  The whole neighborhood around Niagara Falls is all arcades, mini golf places, fun houses, scary houses, restaurants, or a creepy combination of more than one of these.  My parents say it is like Las Vegas but for kids (I wouldn’t know since I haven’t ever been to Las Vegas).  Everything is lit up and noisy and after a while you get a headache.  One cool thing we saw was a restaurant named after me!  It was called Kelsey’s!!!!  Here is a picture of me with “my” restaurant:      

Also, there was an upside down house.   It was really awesome!  The window boxes were growing upside down and the door was at the top.  The roof was stuck into the ground.  Even the lawn furniture was upside down!  I always thought that upside down houses only existed in Mrs. Pigglewiggle books but now I know you can really make your house upside down!  When I grow up I will own the only upside down house in West Hartford! Here is a picture of the upside down house:

The upside down house wasn’t the only building that wasn’t right side up.  There was also a building that looked like the Empire State building on its side.  It had King Kong on it so it looked like it was being pulled down by him.  There was even a taxi cab on the side of the building!  Here is a picture: