Kelsey’s Komments

7-10-12

Hi everyone!

As we drive across the country I hope to keep you laughing.  At this point, I don’t know if this trip will be a dream come true or a nightmare.   I mean, a trip across the country in a confined space (our minivan) with… MY FAMILY!?  I’m sure our trip will bring lots of exciting and, let’s just say, not so exciting moments and I hope to document these moments from my point of view the whole way there and (hopefully) back. 

Bye for now,

Kelsey

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7-13-12 (Ooo…Friday the 13th)

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:

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7-14-12

 

Today when I woke up I had cereal out of a cup from our hotel room and then Mom brought Lindsey and I cinnamon buns with tons of frosting from Tim Horton’s.  It was sooooo delicious!  Then, we got up and went to the water park that was in the hotel.  There were four water slides.  On two of them you had to go down on inner tubes so Lindsey and I sometimes went on double inner tubes.  I also went down with Mom and Dad a few times.  Also, there was a wave pool and a hot tub.  We spent over an hour there and had tons of fun!

 

After showering and packing up our hotel room we went to get tickets to ride on the Maid of the Mist.  The Maid of the Mist is a boat that goes so close to Niagara Falls that you can feel the mist!  The waterfalls are so much more beautiful up close!  Also, the mist was very refreshing on such a hot day!  See my dad’s post to see a picture of us in our VERY fashionable rain ponchos that they gave us so we could stay relatively dry.

 

After going on this tour we were very hungry! So, we decided to have lunch at Kelsey’s.  The food there was only okay but I did love the name of the restaurant (I mean, how could you not?).  My mom asked the waitress if they had any t-shirts that we could get because it would be cool for me to get a t-shirt with my name on it.  Sadly, they didn’t have any souvenirs like that for sale.  But, the waitress did bring me a glass that says Kelsey’s on it!  It is so cool!  I love having a glass that says my name!  This pretty much made my day.

 

After all this excitement we drove for about four hours to our friends, the Goliks, house.  They had just gotten home from a vacation about an hour before we did so we just had hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner.  This was good by me!  After dinner Lindsey and I had the option of sleeping down in the basement with the three Golik boys or sleeping upstairs in real beds.  We chose the slightly safer option of sleeping upstairs so that we wouldn’t wake up the boys when we woke up early the next day.  That night I fell right asleep because I was exhausted from the day’s events!  Here is a picture of us with the Goliks:

 

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7-15-12

We went through four states today!  It was not super eventful but still a ton of fun!  I mean, who doesn’t love quality time with your family in the car?  Anyway, we left the Goliks and drove to Chicago, Illinois to see some of my parents’ friends and have lunch.  Along the way we just HAD to stop by Hammond, Indiana and take some pictures.  See my dad’s post to see the picture of the Hammond Pest control.

Then, we went to the Kohl’s house in Chicago.  We hit some traffic on our way into Chicago so we had a late lunch with them.  While in Chicago we just had to try the deep dish pizza!  But the pizza wasn’t the only exciting thing at the Kohl’s house.  They also have a very cute two year old boy named Amanuel who loved to entertain and who was not shy at all!  The first thing he did when we walked in the door was take our hands and take us to see the trains that he was playing with.  He loved to make funny faces and make us laugh.  Here are a few totally cute pictures:

Next we drove to our hotel in Madison, Wisconsin.  Lindsey and I approved of the décor.  It was very clean and new.  We walked down State Street and had dinner at The Old Fashioned.  It was pretty good but I did not like the cheese curds.  After dinner, we went back to the hotel and had a late night swim- very refreshing!

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7-16-12

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. 🙂

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7-17-12

Today we did a lot of driving.  When we woke up we played with the puppies some more and had breakfast.  Then, we had breakfast and started driving.  After a little while we had to pull over because we ran out of gas.  We had to wait for a while for a pig farmer to come give us some gas.  I mean, it’s not an adventure if you don’t run out of gas in the middle of nowhere!  After we filled up on gas we stopped at the Corn Palace in South Dakota.   This is a building that is decorated on the outside with corn.  It’s kind of weird.  My mom said to “embrace the cheese” because it is so cheesy but I think we should really embrace the corn because it is so corny!  I got my picture taken with a corn guy:

Next, we went to the hotel in the Badlands.  We had our own free-standing cottage  that was so cute and homey.  All the furniture and walls were made of unfinished wood so it still felt like you were living in a cabin.  The cottages are brand new so they have all modern appliances like a microwave, refrigerator, nice bathroom, TV, and air conditioning.   I just LOVED the cottage.  It was nice to sit out on the porch in the morning and read a book while you watch the sun rise over the beautiful rocks.

After we got settled in our cottage, we went to Wall, South Dakota.  We walked through Wall Drug and had dinner at the Wall Drug Café.  I even got my free ice water!  Here are a few pictures:

After dinner we got chocolate dipped ice cream at DQ. Mmmmmmmmmmmm!

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7-18-12

We woke up in our adorable cottage and went to have breakfast at the lodge near where we were staying.  Then, we went on a couple hikes in the Badlands.  The first hike was pretty short but the second one was really cool.  We walked through the Badlands on a path but then we had to climb up a really high ladder to the higher area.  After walking a long distance up there we finally got to a lookout.  It was really cool!  We took a lot of cool pictures along the way but see the slideshow on the main page to see just a few.

After being so hot for so long during the hike we went to the air conditioned visitor’s center and watched a video to cool off.  It was kind of interesting but a little boring.  Lindsey said that it felt like she was in science class..

On the way out of the Badlands we saw some really cool animals.  First we saw a herd of buffalo and one was very close to the car!  Next,  we went to a place that had a bunch of prairie dogs.  They are so cute!  See the slideshow on the main page to see some pictures.

Next, we drove to Custer State Park (still in South Dakota, who knew there was so much stuff here?).  We stayed in a room in another lodge style hotel but it wasn’t nearly as nice as our cottage that we stayed in the day before.

After we got to the hotel we drove to Mount Rushmore to have dinner.   We saw Mt. Rushmore and took lots of pictures.  We even went on a short hike near it.  After this we had dinner at the café there.  Lindsey and I had Presidential Root Beer!  After this we watched a video about Mt. Rushmore at the outdoor amphitheater and saw the monument lit up at night.

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7-19-12

Today we left Custer State Park.  On the way out we saw a lot of animals including bison, pronghorns, and burros.  Go to this link (http://youtu.be/UxwVGypdPRE to see the video of the encounter that we had with the burros.  They actually stuck their heads in the car looking for food.  One tried to eat the trash bag that was hanging on Lindsey’s seat!  Here is a picture of the burros sticking their heads in another car:

When we got to Cody, Wyoming we checked into the hotel and went to a chuckwagon dinner.  This is a dinner that cowboys would traditionally have but it was held at a restaurant.  You served yourself and ate at picnic tables.  After you finished eating there was a performance of cowboy music.  Three cowboys sang and played guitars for a bunch of songs- not exactly my taste.

After the chuckwagon, we went down the road to a rodeo.  This was very fun.  I liked it but couldn’t help feeling bad for the calves and horses that they were trying to tie up and ride.  Here is a picture from the rodeo.  It’s hard to get pictures because everything goes by so quickly.

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7-20-12

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.  See this post on the main page to see some pictures.

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.

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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!).

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