Anaheim, California

The final leg of our road trip was an uneventful drive from San Diego to Los Angeles, CA. The first thing we did upon our arrival was to find the La Brea Tar Pits. I wanted to visit these ever since I found out about them as a teenager. They are in downtown LA, which kind of surprised us. Apparently, its a a great spot to find fossils, but all we found were these giant ground sloth statues.

After a brief look at some nearby art, we headed to our hotel, which was very close to Disneyland. I returned the car that afternoon and we enjoyed dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

The next day, we explored Downtown Disney, which is basically another way to give Disney more money. It was fun though.

The following day we attempted to take the bus to Medieval Times, but our bus never came, which was annoying. So Amy and Micah took a taxi, while Reuben and I went to find some sunglasses. That's what we intended to do, but we never made it to the sunglasses shop. As we were walking there, we came across a young woman sitting on the foot path crying. Apparently, she had been on holiday with her boyfriend, but he had taken off with all her stuff, including her phone. So, being very careful that we weren't being conned, we took her back to our hotel room to use the internet and phone and sort things out. I'm glad our bus never came! Meanwhile, Amy and Micah enjoyed the spectacle of Medieval times.

The next day, we finally made it to Disneyland! I don't need to tell you that this place is awesome. Fake, but awesome nonetheless. My biggest complaint is the lines. We stood in line for over 30 min just to see Micky! But I still had a lot of fun, and so did everyone else. I went on the Indiana Jones Adventure, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Disneyland Railroad, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, Splash Mountain, Star Tours and Tarzan's Treehouse. That's actually quite a lot. I didn't realise until I just typed it then! We took the boys back to the hotel briefly in the afternoon and then had dinner at Denny's before heading back to the Park for Fantasmic, a nighttime parade and light show, followed by some of the best fireworks I have ever seen. It. Was. Awesome! However, most people chose to enjoy it through the 5-10 inch screens of their phones and tablets. I've never understood people who take fireworks videos.

We didn't do much on our last day in LA. Our flight wasn't until late in the evening, so we just wandered Downtown Disney some more, took the boys to an indoor play place called Billy Beez (which they loved) and, after dinner, took the SuperShuttle to the airport. LAX has a small play area for young kids, where we met another Australian family heading home. And so, with our eyes held open by matchsticks, our heads full Disneyland magic and our carry-ons full of snacks for the kids, we left the USA.

San Diego, California

The drive to San Diego, CA was hectic, as we were hit by another monsoon. Also, the freeways around LA and San Diego were very crowded and confusing. Seven lanes each way at some points! The first thing we noticed in California is that it has eucalypts, which makes driving through San Diego feel a lot like Melbourne.

We had one goal in San Diego: to go to the zoo. 

 It was a great zoo. Not much more I can say about that.

Arizona and Nevada

Following our second night in Monticello, we had a five-hour drive through desert to Williams, AZ. It was an uneventful drive until, near the end, we were hit by a monsoon and could barely see 10 m in front of us for quite a while. Fortunately, Amy was driving and we got out of the rain collision-free. Williams is a nice small town on historic Route 66. We had dinner at a very American diner. I bought some hot sauce.

After a good night's sleep (the boys were so worn out by this stage that they had begun to fall asleep easily in the hotels), we headed North for about an hour to the Grand Canyon. This was my second trip to the Canyon, and it was just as breathtaking as the first. There are no fences around the majority of the South Rim; you could just walk right up to the edge! We saw a jumper lying on a rock near the edge and no one around, which was a little concerning.

We drove back to the Interstate and continued on for about five hours to Laughlin, NV, where we were smacked in the face by what felt like 45 °C winds. This was by far the hottest and dryest place we visited. Consequently we spent most of our short stay indoors. Laughlin and Bullhead City sit on opposite sides of the Colorado River, which also serves as the boarder between NV and AZ. We stayed in a paddle steamer hotel. It was the cheapest night, but also one of the most comfortable nights, of the entire trip.

The next day, after breakfast at IHOP we drove about three hours to San Diego. What a joy it was to see the ocean again!

Utah

From Blackfoot, ID, we continued South into Utah. We stopped at the Golden Spike National Monument, which was easily the high point of the trip so far for Micah. This is where the East and West tracks met, thus joing the East and West.

We then continued on to Layton, UT, a large and fairly unremarkable city, where we stayed for two nights. We didn't see any Mormons. But we did see a few billboards aimed at them (e.g. Want to know who Jesus is? Read the Bible!).

The following day we visited Ogden Eccles Dinosaur Park, which is a museum combined with a park containing many life-sized dinosaur models. They also had a sandpit with 'dinosaur bones' buried at the bottom. Following this visit and for the rest of our trip, Reuben never missed an opportunity to dig in the dirt to see if he could find any more.

After a swim in the hotel, and a nice barbecue dinner at Famous Dave's everyone went to bed happy.

The next day, we visited the Hill Aerospace Museum, which is built on the northwest corner of the Hill Air Force Base. It had a lot of aeroplanes from various time periods. I'm not sure what else to say. I'm not really an aircraft guy.

 After that, we had a long drive to Monticello, where we stayed at the Canyonlands Motel, which was the second worst accomodation we had for the entire trip.

We had a whole day at Canyonlands National Park. I love this kind of terrain. So bleak and bare, but so interesting at the same time. We even saw an abandoned cowboy camp in a cave.

Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Idaho

From Teddy Roosevelt National Park, we took a bit of dive into the backwater town of Glendive, MT. Not much to report here, except that we went to a great barbecue place for dinner called Dickey's Barbecue Pit. I had the chopped brisket sandwich, which was excellent.


The following day we visited the Makoshika state park. This park similar to Teddy Roosevelt, but with more dinosaurs. It had some really interesting geology.

We then headed for Billings, MT, where we spent the night after experiencing possibly the worst customer service ever at Hardee's. Incidentally, our hierarchy of big American fast food chains is as follows:

1. Culver's
2. Wendy's
3.  Popeye's
4. KFC
5. McDonald's
6. Taco Bell
7. Hardee's
8. Burger King

And way down the bottom in a category of it's own is White Castle. I do not know how this place stays in business. All I can think is 'Stoners.'

The next day we visited the Pictograph Cave and Chief Plenty Coup State Parks. These were fairly unimpressive, but it was kind of cool to see some real pictographs.

After that, we continued to West Yellowstone, ID, where we stayed the night. The hotel had cookies and hot chocolate every evening, which Micah thought was very special. The next day we made to one of our major attractions: Yellowstone National Park. But first we took a quick trip to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. This place is kind of like a zoo for problem grizzly bears and wolves and few other things. They take in bears that have made a habit of going through people's garbage; one of them even entered a doughnut shop to get some lunch. But it's more than just a zoo. Several times a day, the keepers will enrich the habitats by adding food, different smells, different toys and other stuff to keep the enclosure interesting. Then they release the animals back into the enriched habitat. This not only keeps it interesting for the animals, but the humans as well.

Yellowstone was great. Such a variety of mountains, hills, valleys, rivers, geysers and canyons. But I can't figure out American National Parks. There is some limit on commercialisation, but there are lodges and shops right in the middle of the park. You can bring your pets to the parks. You can fish in the parks. I guess it's all controlled in some way but it seems far more relaxed than the Aussie rules. We saw Old Faithful, which Micah referred to as 'old geezer', erupt. Micah did not appreciate the smell.

We took the South exit from Yellowstone and headed through the Grand Tetons and accidentally drove through the park without a pass. Oh well. We then headed West and took the pass over the Tetons. It was spectacular.

After a total of seven hours driving we reached Blackfoot, ID, where we collapsed.

Farewell, Minnesota; hello North Dakota

We are currently eight days into a 20-day road trip across the American West. We left our home in St Paul last Thursday and headed for Darwin to see the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota! It holds the record for the largest ball rolled by one man.

We continued on to Fargo-Moorhead. Not much to see on the way. Just lots of agriculture: corn, soy beans, sunflowers and beef and dairy cattle. We stopped in Fargo for dinner at the Space Aliens Bar and Grill. It was OK.

The final leg of our journey for the first day took us Jamestown, ND. This was a nice rural town, which we spent the subsequent morning exploring. We found a replica frontier town, a bison museum and the world's largest bison statue.

 

We then continued on through ND to the capital, Bismark. Here we sampled the offerings of Kroll's Diner. Their slogan is 'Sit down and eat'. They have a very no-nonsense, no string attached, down-to-earth approach to cooking. I had the brisket melt and it was excellent. A popular side at Kroll's is their knoephla soup. It's a creamy soup with dumplings in it. It was not without it's charm.

The next day, we continued our treck through ND, stopping for a few hours at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It's a beutiful prarie land with many undulating hills, valleys and canyons. We also saw lots of prairie dogs. They look and squeak like guinea pigs and are possibly one of the cutest creatures ever created. We took several walks with the boys. Reuben insisted upon walking as much as I would allow him and Micah ran, tripped and fell onto a cactus. He ended up with a large number of spines in his hand. At each national park we have visited after then, he has asked 'Will there be cactuses?'

What I will miss most about America

I'm writing this while I wait for people to come an buy our stuff at our garage sale. I made some pretty good sales yesterday, but I think much of the leftover stuff will end up going to charity. Good for them!

We're leaving Minnesota in five days to go on a 19-day road trip across the American West. First we'll drive North to Fargo, then West across N Dakota to into Montana and then South into Wyoming to visit Yellowstone. Then we'll continue South/West through Idaho, Utah and Arizona, seeing Craters of the Moon National Park, Salt Lake City, Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon. We'll continue South/West to San Diego, California to go to the zoo and finally we'll head North to Anaheim for a trip to Disneyland and fly out of LAX. The boys are going to get really good at sleeping in hotels.

As we've been preparing to leave, several people have asked me what I will miss most about America. Apart from all the great friends I've made, there are two things I will miss:

1. The variety of weather. In Minnesota the seasons are all very distinct and each one has it's charm. Winter is bitterly cold and probably goes on a little too long, but snow is beautiful, winter sports are fun and the feeling of entering a warm house after trudging through knee-deep snow on a day when even your eyeballs freeze is hard to beat. In Spring, as the snow melts and the rain pours down, everything that was dormant over winter comes to life within a few weeks. Summer days are long and hot. And Summer ends with the State Fair. And Autumn, with all it's falling leaves of red, yellow and brown, is truly a sight to behold. Contrast this to Tasmania, where the temperature over an entire year typically ranges between 0 and 35 Celsius and winter just brings cold and rain.
2. Americans' enthusiasm. Generally, I have found Americans to be positive people. Where they see a problem, they'll try to come up with a way to fix it. They work to make the world a better place and really believe they can. My fellow Australians and I tend to be more interested in what we can get out of life. We're concerned with having a good time. And when there's a problem, we tend to complain about it and hope someone else will fix it (I apologise for the gross generalisations).

The FDA approves...

Reuben recently started drinking formula. I thought I would buy the generic brand because it was cheaper, and all infant formulas are approved by the FDA, so they must be fairly similar, right? Wrong. The formula I bought had, as the very first ingredient, corn syrup. Even before whey protein. I am lost for words.

Ugg Boots

People in America have embraced the ugg boot. And why not? This great Australian invention is worthy of international recognition. But they seem a little confused how ugg boots should be worn. Let me make this clear to you. Ugg boots are not for wearing outside. Especially not in the snow. They are not water resistant; they are slippers, with a sole so you can take out the trash or 'pop down to the shops'. They are not for trudging through the snow getting wet and salt-stained along the way.

Bob's Cabins and Mt. Rushmore

This happened sometime ago, but somehow I just haven't found the motivation to blog about it until now. Last October, we took two of the most stereotypical of American vacations imaginable: a trip to a cabin 'by the lake' and a road trip to Mt. Rushmore. These trips displayed the great diversity of experiences the Midwest has to offer.

We booked two nights at Bob's Cabins on Lake Superior, which are located about 6 km from Two Harbors and about a two-hour drive from our apartment. On Sunday morning we packed up the car and headed North. After about 90 min of driving and climbing what must be the only hill in all of Minnesota, we descended into Duluth and got our first glimpse of Lake Superior.

It was like looking at the ocean; we could not see the other side. We continued through Duluth, arrived at the cabin late on Sunday afternoon, and then were informed of the different activities and amenities the site had to offer. One of the things on offer was a library of board games. Micah was super-excited about the fact there were board games, despite having no idea what a board game was. Nevertheless we got out 'Hi Ho Cherry-O' and 'Chutes and Ladders' from the library; I didn't think I had played either of these, but it turns out 'Chutes and Ladders' is rip-off, albeit a more logical one, of 'Snakes and Ladders'. 'Hi Ho Cherry-O' was fun but Micah wasn't all that interested after one game. The cabin itself was small and cozy, with a small gas burner for cooking, two double beds and a single bed.

 
It took Micah a while to get the idea of Bob's cabins; there really wasn't much to do, but that was the point: it was about 'being' not doing. We went for a walk along the rocky shore and threw rocks in the water, swung on the tyre swing, read books and played games together. It was lovely. In the evening I forgot how to light a fire and the wood was wet and cold, so we ate our dinner inside the cabin. Micah's bed was in a separate room to ours, but without a dividing door. Nevertheless, he didn't give us any trouble.

 

We spent the majority of our second day in Two harbours, which is an interesting and windy little town. The second night I managed to light a fire using only one match and we ate hotdogs by it, while the sun set. After a few s'mores we put Micah and Reuben to bed and Amy and I enjoyed watching the moon over the lake from the warmth of the cabin.

Our next trip took place later in October. Mt. Rushmore is a nine-hour drive from our place, so we drove there over two days. We stopped at Sioux Falls, a small city just over the Minnesota-South Dakota boarder, which is about 4 h from our apartment and about 5 h from Mt Rushmore. Upon the advice of the receptionist we decided to have dinner at the Fryin' Pan in downtown Sioux Falls. She gave us a map, and I thought it looked walkable, so we tried. It took us an hour of walking to get there! The map only had the major streets so what appeared on the map to be a three- or four-block walk was actually closer to 14 or 15 blocks! We caught a taxi home after our very late dinner. All this was too much excitement for Micah, who entered hyper-mode and wouldn't sleep. We thought that given his excellent behaviour in a shared cabin at the Lake, we would have no trouble in a hotel room. But at 10:30 PM after trying to get him to go to sleep for three hours, we were almost ready to give up and go home. But we stuck it out and he finally went to sleep around 11 PM. We were all tired the next day, but we soldiered on. South Dakota is a really boring place to drive through; there are a few tourist attractions, such as the Corn Palace, with it's murals made entirely of corn cobs...

...and this giant bison.

But, apart from that, there is nothing to look at; just fields and fields of corn, soy bean, sunflower and wind turbines. And advertisements for Wall Drug. The highway is dominated by these. Starting around 300 mi before the actual store, we began to see ads for this place. A tourist trap of the best kind. It's hard to describe Wall Drug; you sort of have to see it for yourself.

It's a pharmacy/gift shop/playground/museum/restaurant. That's the best way I can put it.

Micah slept a little better the second night of our holiday, which we spent in Hill City. On our third day away we finally went to Mt Rushmore. Even Reuben is the only American in our family, we felt patriotic, looking up at those giant presidents' heads. Then we felt sad for all the suffering that had been inflicted on the Native Americans by the early settlers. This feeling was heightened during our trip to the Crazy Horse monument, which will be several times bigger than Mt Rushmore when/if it is completed.

We had initially planned to leave Hill City that day and then spend another night in Sioux Falls. But we were too tired to drive back after a whole day looking at faces carved in rock, so we rebooked our accommodation so we could spend two nights at Hill City. The next day we packed up and headed home. We stopped briefly at the Reptile Gardens and saw, among other cool things, a kookaburra and one of the crocodiles used in one of the James Bond movies.

We continued driving all day and got back to our place just after midnight. It was hard, but it was kind of fun and it was easier than stopping for another night. Furthermore, South Dakota is actually more interesting to drive through at night.

I think that the best and most lasting memories are formed when you do something crazy/difficult. Some people might think we were crazy to attempt what we did with a 3-year-old and a 5-month-old, but the memories will stay with me for a long time.