Only a couple days left of the trip now! On the rode to Wenatchee, WA to stay with Stephanie's grandma. Last night we stayed with her brother in Moscow, WA.
To start back where I left off, we stayed with her aunt and uncle, Tim and Renee in Stillwater, MN. We went out to dinner at a barbecue place, walked up really steep stairs to see the city, and got ice cream at Nelson's, where they have 48 flavors of ice cream and give you a HUGE cup that they call a "child's size." But it was a whole cup full and enough on top to put the overflow into another cup. It was insane.
The next day we went to the Mall of America, rode the Spongebob Squarepants and Ninja Turtles rides, tried some bacon ice cream, and saw SOME of the huge mall.
From there, we went to see her Grandma Jeanne in Marshall, Minnesota and got a tour of the town she and Stephanie's mom grew up in. I felt it was necessary to grab a beer at the Wooden Nickel Saloon where they used to hangout. Even got a free cup!
That night, we stayed with her aunt and uncle, Tim and Suzy, in Pipestone. On the way there we had decided we wanted to find bikes so we could bike around wherever we went. So her aunt found two bikes for us. One of them didn't really work though, so we found a store in Rapid City with used bikes. We had originally planned on driving there, getting the bike, and camping in Keyhole, Wyoming but this quickly changed after a 9 hour drive from Minnesota to Rapid City, at 106 degrees, with no AC. At that point, we didn't wanna stay ANY longer there(well except a LITTLE longer for a much needed daiquiri and margarita) and thought we'd just mob it to Salt Lake City. So that's what we did... a large Starbucks coffee, two 5 Hour Energy drinks, a sunset and sunrise, a phone getting run over, a bike ride back tracking on the interstate to find it, some delirium, pounds of sweat and 18 hours later, we made it to Salt Lake at 7am (again, sorry Mom, but we had to get out of South Dakota!)
In our slightly zombie state on her part and delirium on mine (I drove about 17:30 of the time and was the consumer of the 5 hour energies) we checked into our motel, got our free breakfast, and were out til 2pm... (After some hallucinations of bugs being in my bed.)
First things first, we got Steph a new phone to replace her shattered one, ate some really delicious Indian food at Himalayan Kitchen, and met up with her friend, Morgane, from Alaska. After some catching up and sparkling Moscato, we headed out on the town in search of dancing...
Our first attempt was a place called The Bay which looked kinda cool, but at arriving, we found it was 18+ and nonalcoholic. Luckily, the owner of that bar, a really nice gay guy named Brian, volunteered to show us around. However, everywhere was either really dead or closed. The W had about 5 people all very strangely dancing to dubstep. We danced around with them for a little bit and were amused by some interesting fairy crab-like dance moves, but then decided to try the next place. So we hopped in a cab, and headed toward a gay club that Brian also owned, called Jam. When we were already nearing Jam, the cab driver mistakenly brushed off a bar that was popular with the unemployed snowboarders. Clearly he was unaware that unemployed was not a concern of ours, so although that struck mine and Morgane's fancy, it was too late to add that to our plans. So Jam it was, and we were unaware of the night we were about to have. (Mom, other relatives... Beware. Haha)
Arriving at Jam, it was also pretty dead but nothing like the last. Walking out to the porch, an individual we learned to be Princess Kennedy admired my dress and introduced herself and her friends. We all quickly became friends. We met some awesome people from all different walks of life. It was great getting to talk to such interesting, open, fun-loving people.
Being Mormon country, I guess they dictate the alcohol and closing hours of the bars, so we went back to continue the party with our new friends at Princess Kennedy's house where we met some more awesome people and had a great time. After Morgane and I got a lesson from Princess Kennedy in walking in heels, we walked back to the hotel where I tried to give her a lesson in swimming... I guess they don't swim much in Alaska.
The next day, we sadly had to leave Salt Lake and make our way to Boise... We didn't get to have our Thursday with the unemployed snowboarders like we'd hoped. :( On the way out, we attempted to mountain bike in Salt Lake but couldn't make it up the first hill... It was pretty sad. I'll blame some of it on the extreme heat and our late night. So we went on to Boise and met up with her friend Gloria, also from Alaska. She took us to eat at a really cool tiki bar downtown called The Reef where I had one of the best teriyaki pineapple chicken sandwiches... Best meal on the trip so far. Then we met up with more of Gloria's friends and went out to their hangout places for a bit... Played some giant jenga and fuzball. But being exhausted from our last two days, Steph and I called it a night early.
Yesterday, Gloria took us on a hike up a mountain to a popular look out of Boise. It was a really nice and not too hot hike! We rewarded ourselves with some ice cream and shopping around their AWESOME downtown. Boise was probably our favorite city so far. Chicago might've been if we had more time there. But Boise was just a really active, fun, hip town. They bike, hike, rock climb, white water raft, float down rivers,.. Pretty cool place.
After spending too much money on awesome jewelry and gifts, we stayed with her brother one night, then caravanned to Wenatchee to her grandma's house and are about to go to Leavenworth, a little German town close by.
To start back where I left off, we stayed with her aunt and uncle, Tim and Renee in Stillwater, MN. We went out to dinner at a barbecue place, walked up really steep stairs to see the city, and got ice cream at Nelson's, where they have 48 flavors of ice cream and give you a HUGE cup that they call a "child's size." But it was a whole cup full and enough on top to put the overflow into another cup. It was insane.
The next day we went to the Mall of America, rode the Spongebob Squarepants and Ninja Turtles rides, tried some bacon ice cream, and saw SOME of the huge mall.
From there, we went to see her Grandma Jeanne in Marshall, Minnesota and got a tour of the town she and Stephanie's mom grew up in. I felt it was necessary to grab a beer at the Wooden Nickel Saloon where they used to hangout. Even got a free cup!
That night, we stayed with her aunt and uncle, Tim and Suzy, in Pipestone. On the way there we had decided we wanted to find bikes so we could bike around wherever we went. So her aunt found two bikes for us. One of them didn't really work though, so we found a store in Rapid City with used bikes. We had originally planned on driving there, getting the bike, and camping in Keyhole, Wyoming but this quickly changed after a 9 hour drive from Minnesota to Rapid City, at 106 degrees, with no AC. At that point, we didn't wanna stay ANY longer there(well except a LITTLE longer for a much needed daiquiri and margarita) and thought we'd just mob it to Salt Lake City. So that's what we did... a large Starbucks coffee, two 5 Hour Energy drinks, a sunset and sunrise, a phone getting run over, a bike ride back tracking on the interstate to find it, some delirium, pounds of sweat and 18 hours later, we made it to Salt Lake at 7am (again, sorry Mom, but we had to get out of South Dakota!)
In our slightly zombie state on her part and delirium on mine (I drove about 17:30 of the time and was the consumer of the 5 hour energies) we checked into our motel, got our free breakfast, and were out til 2pm... (After some hallucinations of bugs being in my bed.)
First things first, we got Steph a new phone to replace her shattered one, ate some really delicious Indian food at Himalayan Kitchen, and met up with her friend, Morgane, from Alaska. After some catching up and sparkling Moscato, we headed out on the town in search of dancing...
Our first attempt was a place called The Bay which looked kinda cool, but at arriving, we found it was 18+ and nonalcoholic. Luckily, the owner of that bar, a really nice gay guy named Brian, volunteered to show us around. However, everywhere was either really dead or closed. The W had about 5 people all very strangely dancing to dubstep. We danced around with them for a little bit and were amused by some interesting fairy crab-like dance moves, but then decided to try the next place. So we hopped in a cab, and headed toward a gay club that Brian also owned, called Jam. When we were already nearing Jam, the cab driver mistakenly brushed off a bar that was popular with the unemployed snowboarders. Clearly he was unaware that unemployed was not a concern of ours, so although that struck mine and Morgane's fancy, it was too late to add that to our plans. So Jam it was, and we were unaware of the night we were about to have. (Mom, other relatives... Beware. Haha)
Arriving at Jam, it was also pretty dead but nothing like the last. Walking out to the porch, an individual we learned to be Princess Kennedy admired my dress and introduced herself and her friends. We all quickly became friends. We met some awesome people from all different walks of life. It was great getting to talk to such interesting, open, fun-loving people.
Being Mormon country, I guess they dictate the alcohol and closing hours of the bars, so we went back to continue the party with our new friends at Princess Kennedy's house where we met some more awesome people and had a great time. After Morgane and I got a lesson from Princess Kennedy in walking in heels, we walked back to the hotel where I tried to give her a lesson in swimming... I guess they don't swim much in Alaska.
The next day, we sadly had to leave Salt Lake and make our way to Boise... We didn't get to have our Thursday with the unemployed snowboarders like we'd hoped. :( On the way out, we attempted to mountain bike in Salt Lake but couldn't make it up the first hill... It was pretty sad. I'll blame some of it on the extreme heat and our late night. So we went on to Boise and met up with her friend Gloria, also from Alaska. She took us to eat at a really cool tiki bar downtown called The Reef where I had one of the best teriyaki pineapple chicken sandwiches... Best meal on the trip so far. Then we met up with more of Gloria's friends and went out to their hangout places for a bit... Played some giant jenga and fuzball. But being exhausted from our last two days, Steph and I called it a night early.
Yesterday, Gloria took us on a hike up a mountain to a popular look out of Boise. It was a really nice and not too hot hike! We rewarded ourselves with some ice cream and shopping around their AWESOME downtown. Boise was probably our favorite city so far. Chicago might've been if we had more time there. But Boise was just a really active, fun, hip town. They bike, hike, rock climb, white water raft, float down rivers,.. Pretty cool place.
After spending too much money on awesome jewelry and gifts, we stayed with her brother one night, then caravanned to Wenatchee to her grandma's house and are about to go to Leavenworth, a little German town close by.
At the top of the stairway for a view of Stillwater
Grabbing a beer at the Wooden Nickel Saloon
South Dakota
This is the progression of the phone incident: stopped to fix the bikes, forgot the phone on the back of the car, Steph biked back to find it, found it in all these pieces. :(
The Corn Palace: made a pit stop here in SD. Apparently it's a big deal. The outside was all decorated with corn like this star. Disappointing corn on the cob, though, for a place called the Corn Palace.
The bike trail in Salt Lake where we failed to get passed the first hill haha
Hiking in Boise!
Downtown Boise and their state flower from our hike... not a great picture :/
Gorgeous sunset on the way through Washington
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