Dontcha know

We're at the tip of the Wisconsin thumb on Washington Island visiting my aunt Anne and uncle John. After a two hour drive from Green Bay and a 40 minute ferry ride we made it to this picturesque, island community.
We toured their beautiful homemade house (they actually finished building it themselves a year ago).
Great dinner and nice, long chat, then off to bed.
Early rise with the sun, flocks of birds all over the property.
Toured the garden and snapped a bunch of photos of the house.
Toured the island: maritime museum, Jackson Harbor, up the mountain park look out tower.
Back for lunch, then packing up for the freeeeeezing cold ferrrrrrrry ride back to our van (which hopefully is still there!!)

Herb and Kathryn's house in green bay...glad to see it still looks the same

It was a coooold ferry ride to the island!

Their beautiful house

Thanks for the food and everything, aunt anne and uncle John! So good to see you!

Shhhhhhicago and Milwaukee

Vans united! We met up with Lou and Rory in Chicago, played around in millenium park for bit, and then headed north. Lou and Rory are moving west and we were able to converge at the same place and time! After Chicago we drove up to Milwaukee and ate at the famous german restaurant, Mader's. Rory and Mark got the full liter boot of beer and Lou and I had the half liter baby boot! 

Loucifer's evil van meets the falcon

Party in the midwest!

That's your big boy boot

Lou-dawg sporting the baby boot

Mmmmmmmm

post-Mader's-2pm-drunken-food-coma. and they shrank. 

good Arch support

Spent a few busy days in st. Louis reconnecting with lots of my family. I have a new found appreciation for my mom and all my aunts and uncles. (she's one of nine kids!) Uncle dan and aunt Kathy were wonderful hosts and tour guides! We went all over the place! Highlights included: seeing the arch and the westward expansion museum bike riding along Grant's Farm, toasted ravioli, several museums, a brewery tour, lots of great food, and of course the chance to spend time with family!

The Arch!

At the base of the arch with Aunt Kathy

630 feet up in the top of the arch!

Getting concretes at Ted Drews! They serve your frozen custard by turning it upside down first. So good!

Looking through an old fashion view finder at the History Museum

Climbing through the crazy city museum. This place was so awesome and weird! www.citymuseum.org



Irish music at the famous McGurks bar.

M-i-ss-i-ss-i-pp-i to hot springs, arkansas

Had a great night in olive branch, ms. We ate awesome BBQ, watched Lindsay band play and saw a million hummingbirds!

After camping at hot springs national park, we partook in a traditional hot springs mineral bath. It was sooo fun and old fashioned.

The water coming out of this spring was 140 degrees!

This was the needle shower! After several different baths and a few minutes in the sweat closet, the needle shower is the last step. We're totally getting one of these.

Bath house row. Only 2 of the several bath houses are in operation now.

Move over!

Ain't no 'ham like birmingham

Visited my bestie, Cindy, and had a great night with Liz, Nelson, and John! Thanks for the nummy beer and moonshine y'all!

Sweet Home...

In Alabama for the past week staying with ma, lindsay, and blake!

Makin some super mega ultra pizza

Lindsay and Blake, we love you!

Goin' for a family ride!

Swimmin' in the Tennessee River

lauren and her sister, lindsay <3

  

freshly picked cotton

chili night

Distillers! like the football team in Pittsburgh!

We made it to Bourbon County Kentucky and found a few good places to stop! The Maker's Mark Distillery tour was the highlight! We learned a ton about bourbon. And at the gift shop they even had a dip-your-own bottle station! (A lil out of our budge, unfortunately) The next day, on the way down to Huntsville, AL, we stopped at the Jack Daniels Distillery in Tennessee.

You have to be able to dip 25 bottles per minute to work on the line!



This was a bourbon smelling thing! It was so crazy!

The extra special cave spring water at Jack Daniels

Too many creeps on the cave tour, cave tour...

Mammoth Cave National Park was sooooo cool! We opted for the "strenuous" 4 mile cave tour and spent 4.5 hours underground in a cool 54 degrees. This is the worlds longest cave system at almost 400 miles! Unfortunately, the flash on my camera died at the beginning of the tour so I didn't get too many good pictures. Oh and there wasn't a mammoth or anything found in the cave. The name just refers to how big the cave was. Mammoth-siiiize!

http://www.nps.gov/akr/maca/

p.s. By the end of the tour, we were feeling the itch to get out of the cave and away from some of the people on the tour. A couple of creepy families with a creepy kid and one really weird dude that we're pretty sure was an alien or something.

A couple days ago, on our way to Mammoth Cave NP we stopped in on Cleveland, OH to see Chris and Mollie! Just before seeing them, we squeezed in Cuyahoga national park located just south of cleveland and ohio's only NP.
Walked around a bit and got official national park passports. Yes, we're dorks. But they're so fun and every time you go to a national park or monument or anything you get stamped!
Anyway, we met up with Chris and Mollie at a polish festival, devoured some authentic kielbasa and perogies.
Later that night we hung out on the shore of lake Erie.
Saw mollie's chocolate shop and also the Christmas story house.
Thanks Chris and Mollie for the awesome couch and breakfast! Glad to see how well you're doing out there!

PS to everyone in Philly that did the NBR, y'all are awesome and wish we could have been there!

Lake Erie!

Polka at the Polish Festival!

Stardate 09052010.1

Thanks Zach and Erin for food and lodging! We spent yesterday in lewisburg and selinsgrove pa (located in the north centralish part of the state) and did lots of fun things! Liiiike...

Saw the worlds longest inflatable dam and the worlds smallest eat-in restaurant!

Drank some really nice beer at the Selinsgrove Brewing Co. where they grow all their own hops on the premises!

Watched Toy Story 3 at the drive-in! So fun and the first drive-in Mark has been to.

Overall a relaxing day. It was nice to take a break from driving. Did some safety checks and even took a shower!

En route to O-hi-o now.

Mark is so hoppy to be here

At the top of a huge hill. That's why my face is beet red!

Biking in Acadia

So, before we got to lame-town herkimer, ny, we drove through vermont and stopped at the Cabot Creamery! Ya know, like the cheddar cheese? Took a fun tour and sampled about a pound of cheese. Each! And apparently, their cheddar cheese doesn't have to be refrigerated! It might get a little moldy, but you can just cut that off and keep eating! We got a block for the road.






We made a little detour to Olean, ny and visited the area where my grandmother grew up.
In Lewisburg, PA with Zach tonight. It feels kinda like cheating coming back through PA, but we drove through some beautiful national forests along the way. Everything is still new to see.

Herkimer, NY

Don't go there.

Ya know what I Maine?

As per justin's instructions we stopped at the LL Bean outlet which really did take up like 8 city blocks. we Mosed around the "campus" for a bit then hit the road. On our way up to Acadia NP via scenic route 1 we stopped at a small stand to purchase real wild Maine blueberries. Nummy! The wild berries are tiny and not as sweet but seriously freakin amazing, especially mix with yogurt and granola for breakfast the next morning.
Camped at seawall for two nights. Nice to sleep in a tent and see the stars. On our first day in the park we got up super early to watch the red sunrise from the summit of mt Cadillac.
23 mile bike ride on the loop around the park, then took an icy swim At sand beach.
Walked around fancy bar harbor (pronounced bah hahbah).
Saw a family of otters and their house in a lake near our campsite.
Now we are Burlington bound or bust.