Day Trip to Mt. Vernon ~ home of George Washington!

So, here we are! It took about, oh, I think 45 minutes to an hour to get here.... I was in the backseat with Kiwi, we weren't really paying attention! It was a hot day, and a little humid - I thought it was actually pretty decent... of course, all the buildings, even his mansion, are air conditioned.


The Father of our Country. When watching the film inside the first building, it made me tear up a little - thinking of what our forebears fought for, and we seem to be letting slip away... sometimes I feel like some of todays citizens are ruining my Wonderful country..... but, back to Mt. Vernon ~

It was a gorgeous day...to think, he had like 8,000 acres on his plantation!


The happy little family

A cool model of the house - walls raise and lower to show different sections and rooms

As seen from the far side of the "Bowling Green"

I love covered passageways! Do you see the Potomac in the distance?

View from the "front" side - that tree is in the film "National Treasure II"

The lovely patio - it was shady and cool(ish) here

The Potomac looks really lovely from here; but actually it's pretty cruddy - you wouldn't want to swim in there!

I don't think this needs any more explanation!

Hey!! My whole family could go at once!! Yay!

We didn't have nearly enough time here. Wait... I didn't mean here. In the neccessary... I meant, here at Mt. Vernon!! Lol. We didn't get to see the gardens, or the outbuildings, and we barely got to look around the gift shop (which seems to have some pretty great stuff!) The up-side is, we live here, so we can go back! Besides, we have to eat in the Mt. Vernon Inn, because they dress in Colonial garb plus they have Peanut and Chestnut soup! Yummmm....

Well, that was our Saturday!

Today (In "Real Time")

I am taking a quick break from my travel log to bring a 'current' event ~ today, we are taking my visiting MIL to visit Mt. Vernon. It will be our first visit, and I'm pretty excited! I'll return with pics and the scoop. :)

The Big Move - South Dakota Tuesday (June 16th, 2009)

On this day we left Montana behind, crossed a corner of Wyoming, and entered South Dakota. We were now in territory I'd never visited before. Which, I need to talk to my parents about. Because, Mt. Rushmore is pretty dang close to Montana, yet we never, ever visted it. Seriously, mom and dad?? What were you thinking??!! My poor, deprived childhood.

Anyway, the hills are rolling, bare, and beautiful. Native Americans still live here (but I'm guessing not in the teepees we saw). Actually, we crossed the Reservation, and they are generally sad looking areas. I always feel bad about history when I see that.

We saw a cool old graveyard

The endless highway

On which we saw far too much of this sort of thing:

Somewhere in South Dakota ~

The whole reason for coming here!! (not

really.....) This was, shall we say, somewhat of a disappointment after all the advertising. Think,

JimBob decided he'd have hisself a nice little ol' theme park....

But, hey, isn't that what the Great American Experience is all about?

Tomorrow, Mt. Rushmore...... (altho it might not really be tomorrow... my M.I.L. is flying in from Seattle tonight, so who knows what I'll be doing the next couple days!)

Okay, I tried like 1000 times to get this post right - pictures and text in proper order - but noooooo!!! How DO you get the pictures to be where you want them???

The move begins ~ Montana Monday (June 15th, 2009)

Look at that sky ~ talk about blue....!!

So, on Monday the 15th of June we left Idaho (crying as we pulled away from my parents' home) and headed for our first hotel stop in Billings, Montana. This is all familiar territory, as my maternal grandmother lived in Billings, and we visited nearly every summer, from California where we lived, by way of Yellowstone National Park. I love Yellowstone! One of my 'happy places'! I wish we'd been able to spend some time in the park, but this trip was really more about "getting there" than about the trip - bummer. I love Montana - to me, this is how the west should look. Big Sky Country and all that. The Gallatin Valley is amazingly beautiful.

It was probably the worst day as far as how we were feeling... Kiwi and I were pretty devastated about leaving our family and friends, and I think it finally hit us full force this day. We were cranky and nasty to one another until Scooter actually told us to "Shut UP!! Both of you!!" (You have to understand, we just don't speak to one another in this way! It was just, really, that out of hand.) :( So I sat in the silence and enjoyed the view. Sheesh.

(please keep in mind that these pictures were taken out of the car doing about 75mph... cut me some slack!)

The town of West Yellowstone

A very Montana kind of hotel - see the bears?

Leaving Idaho ~ Virginia, here we come. PREPARATIONS

First, I thought I'd start with some of the stupidity of my "professional" packers.... (I guess "professional" means "morons".... I didn't know that.) Here, you see some hangers. Left behind. I guess the guy was just like "hey, I already packed a bunch, they don't need these." Is that their call??



Then there is the key to our antique mantle clock. I mean, who needs to wind this? Maybe it's just for decoration.

The dish drainer. Guess they figured I wouldn't be washing any dishes in our new home.

(I actually told them to leave the phone, I was giving it to my dad since we aren't getting a land-line here, for now.)

Or, the bathroom trash can they left on top of the fireplace mantle. Yeah, I know, why didn't I say something? I don't know... at this point, my brain had sort of checked out.

There's more, but I am tired of thinking about those idiots.

Here they are, loading the truck. Good thing they pulled it all out to the curb first, since soon after this pic it began to rain..... like I said - morons. You can't imagine the unbelievable manner in which I have been finding stuff as I've unloaded!

Alright, so then the fun began.... me packing the car for a 5 day road trip. This is Kiwi's spot...

The cat is crated up. Oh, yeah, he just loooved this trip. The dog crate is folded up and under everything else. This made unpacking each night for the hotel a joy. Oh, life is full of fun!

And here is our car, 'full-up", ready to hit the road ~ the ramp is for the dog; since her knee surgery, she's not allowed to jump up into the car, so we had to put this up for her each and every stop... again, JOY. Now, if only I had a fifi dog or something that I could just pick up, instead of a 95 pounder.... Lol.

Virginia VS. Idaho

Just a few thoughts ~

Idaho has mountains.
Virginia has hills.

Idaho has wide open spaces.
Virginia is covered in trees.

Idaho has fry sauce. (yummm)
Virginia has peanut soup. (also yummm)

Idaho has tons of wildlife that you rarely see.
Virginia has deer on every roadside - and some critters I think are groundhogs? And wild bunnies on the lawn.

Idaho is so dry you wither.
Virginia is so humid you mildew.

Virginia has history and artifacts and great shopping.
Idaho has my family and friends.

I really like Virginia... but I really, really miss Idaho.

Will I ever be good about posting here??!

I had an old blog (on another site) and blogged daily.... now, I just hardly ever get online. I guess I'll blame it on moving - I've got stuff to do, ya know! Like, right now, I am supposed to be emptying more boxes. Ugh. I am tired of it all - but, I'm more tired of tripping over stuff in this too-full and messy apartment, so I guess I'll get busy. Besides - my mother-in-law is coming to visit next week. I am so not ready for guests! She's coming for Kiwi's birthday, tho, so I can't really tell her not to come...

Today is my birthday. (another year older and deeper in debt.... isn't that a song? Lol)

I was thinking.... since I finally got my pics downloaded, next week I am going to do a day-by-day play-by-play of our trip out here. Go back in time to the beginning of life in Virginia....

Here's a sample:

Nearly loaded and (physically) ready to go... mentally, not so much!

May I please go home now?

I'm done here. I am homesick and physically sick and I just want my mom. Lol... But seriously, I do want to go back home. To my family. To familiarity. To dry heat. To a back yard to toss the dog in when she's got the shoots. Yeah. Urgh.

Okay, I'll quit moaning - time to get back to what I was doing earlier - lying on the couch, holding my aching gut, watching Spongebob, and feeling sorry for myself. Oooh - maybe I'll cry a little.....