Chicago Museum trip 2009

Spring break of 2009 we decided to take the kids on a road trip from Minneapolis to go to the museums in Chicago.

With a 2 year old and a 6 year old, we headed through Wisconsin making our first stop at the Wisconsin Dells, a well known resort area for summer and winter known for indoor and outdoor waterparks, and all around family fun.

We stayed at the Kalahari resort. After a day of swimming, our kids were worn out and ready to move on, surprisingly.

We spent the next morning at the arcades, indoor go carts and ropes course, where our 6 year old was very brave!

Next it was on to Chicago. Very cold for the beginning of March, when most people are traveling to warmer areas for spring break! We did  a whirlwind tour of the museums - hopping from building to building in one, very long day. First was the field museum, home of the T-rex named Sue, and more archeological and natural history than you could ever see in one day - yet we tried!

Mummies! The field museum has lots of mummies and egyptian artifacts. It made us think - How would we like it if thousands of years from now people lined up to stare at our bodies? 

The Mayan Calendar - The one everyone thought prophesied the end of the world...The kids aren't in this picture to show how large it is - this was ENORMOUS! At least 10 feet across!

Sue! The most complete and largest T-rex Skeleton in the world. This was initially discovered on the South Dakota/Wyoming border by the Black Hills institute by an intern named....Sue. After a lengthy court process accusing the paleontologists of "stealing" the bones from federal land ( which they had permission from the rancher who had the property), it was auctioned to the highest bidder and went to the Field Museum for the world to see. 

Next was the Shedd Aquarium. We would have loved to have spent more time there, but they were in the midst of remodeling, and they had many exhibits closed and multiple large field trips going on. Note to self : Check ahead to see when field trips are at a particular place. I am grateful school kids get to visit these places, but it is extremely hard to navigate when they are there and my kids end up missing out on seeing things because of the large groups. And that is how your 2 year old gets lost in a group of 75 sixth graders from Gary Indiana. Thankfully he was quickly found!

Next was the Adler planetarium. My oldest was still deep into his love of space, so this was a good stop. The displays were amazing and they really had a lot of educational explanations as well as a lot of hands on things for the kids to do. 

Last stop was the Museum of Science and industry. This was the boys favorite as 1. they love science 2. There were lots of things that moved, had wheels, gears, etc. and 3. Lots of things to climb in and on! 

A beautiful steam locomotive. Great for little boys who love Thomas the Tank engine ;)

One of the biggest model train setups I had ever seen! Complete with Chicago skyline, small towns, rivers, hills, farms. 

The boys got to try to maneuver a submarine. One of the best exhibits is the U505, donated to the museum in 1954. , It is one of six U-boats that were captured by Allied forces during World War II. You are able to tour the boat and see what life was like for naval forces underwater in cramped quarters for long periods of time. Other fascinating exhibits are the enigma, the machine that was on the U505 that Germans used to code their messages. The US was able to figure out the machine and thus could intercept and decode German messages from submarines until the end of the war. 

After briefly stopping at Navy Pier and having dinner at Bubba Gumps, we were exhausted! We headed back towards Minnesota, and found one of the most memorable , quirky places we have ever seen - The house on the rock. 

The "house" sits atop Deer Shelter Rock, a column of rock approximately 60 feet, built in the 1950's. Throughout the years, various patchworks of oddly connected buildings were added along with an extensive array of eccentric collecitons - everything from clocks to a giant whale, dolls, the world's biggest carousel, and self playing orchestras. It is truly just as they advertise " so much to see, so hard to explain". 

Just outside the main " house", there is a long walkway that ends in a point with a glass floor so you can look over the " rock" to the valley below. Not for those afraid of heights.....

The original " main" house. A mix of vintage " vegas style" velvet and shag, mixed with natural rock and lots of tiffany glass. 

These are just some of the elaborate self playing orchestras and calliopes. There was room after room after room of these!

And the world's largest carousel. No two animals are alike. The shame is that no one can ride it, it just eerily plays organ music as it goes around and around without any riders. 

The last stop was the National Eagle Center in Wabasha MN, along the Mississippi river. We followed the river home, and as it was the time of year that the bald eagles migrate back south along the river, we saw 78 ( yes, we counted) eagles along the way!

The eagle center is situated in a prime area to see eagles, and is dedicated to research and conservation of bald eagles and other raptors. Great learning for the kids, and grownups too!

Big Sky Montana 2008 wilderness medicine conference

As it says in my bio, I am a nurse. An ER nurse. So is my best friend SQ from nursing school, who lives in Nebraska. We have the same temperaments, like a lot of the same things, our kids are around the same age, and our friendship has held strong across the miles for over 20 years.
One day early in 2008 SQ called me , and said she was going to a conference on wilderness medicine ( I thought what's that?) and she didn't want to go by herself, and it was in Big Sky Montana, and even if I didn't go to the conference could I just go and we would have a girls trip...... My husband was on board. " good skills for you to have when the boys are in scouts" he said.

So off I flew to Billings, the flight with open seats was early so I had to wait until SQ's flight came in later in the day. Being the mom of a 2 and a 6 year old, I drove into town and went shopping, went to a movie by myself, wow ! I didn't know doing things by myself could be so fun !

After she got in, we drove the 4 hour trek to Big Sky, getting lost,  driving mountain passes in the dark, and after hallucinating about seeing cows cross the road in the dark because we were so tired, we arrived about 3 am.

The hotel was gorgeous with picture windows facing the mountain views and beds with down comforters and pillows that made sleeping feel like you were laying in a fluffy cloud.

The conference was so much more than I ever imagined, learning about altitude sickness, heat emergencies, improvisation with duct tape and safety pins, splinting, venomous animals.... The list goes on and on. I have been hooked ever since. We got to meet Jim Whittaker, the founder of REI and the first American to climb Mount Everest, and he gave an amazing lecture. It was then I learned the term " no child left inside" and committed myself to teaching my kids about the outdoors.

We did a day trip down to Yellowstone, and nearly got trampled by a bear. Literally. We were taking telephoto pictures of a Grizzly in the distance, then started walking back to the car, and little did we know it was following ut until we heard lots of people screaming when it ran past us and ran across the road just as we got to our car ! 

We also ended up whitewater kayaking down class 3 rapids - we thought we were taking an intro kayak class on a local lake. Neither of us had ever been kayaking before. Luckily the night before, in order to meet the founder of REI, we had to sit through a class on whitewater safety, which should have been called " how not to die in the river".  We made it back alive. Barely. Everyone had backed out of the kayaking outing but us two girls and an old heart surgeon from Texas. Our instructor was the county coroner. I guess he figured at least if we didn't make it , he could pronounce us dead. 

Sorry, so picture of that adventure. Just burned into our memory. 

All in all, we had a lot of fun, learned a lot, and I gained a new interest - wilderness medicine. 

We also learned that for true friends, no matter the distance, no matter the time that has passed, when you are together it is as if you have never been apart. 

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Florida , 2008

This was our first real adventure with the baby, on an airplane, staying in an RV with my in-laws. They live in Iowa and take their RV to warmer weather to spend the winter ( great idea, right?)
It was a little bit of a challenge with a baby who is crawling, when there is hardly enough space in the RV to walk! Plane ride and all, we made it work and it was a fun trip.

We started out going to the beach near Tampa, where the RV was for the winter. Wouldn't you know, the time we visit Florida from Minnesota they are having a cold snap? It was a little cold for the water, but for a 4 year old, a beach is a beach, and he had fun playing in the sand regardless.



















And we were able to take our baby to the ocean before he was a year old!

Next we crossed the state to go to the Kennedy Space Center. Our oldest had an OBSESSION with NASA and all things space at the time, so it was his dream come true! 

Even if you aren't into space or science, the space center is a great experience to learn about the nation's space program, the history of space travel, and to see some of the vehicles such as the apollo capsules and the space shuttle up close! ( We are partial as we have a friend who is an astronaut :)

We also left the baby with Grandma and Grandpa to take our 4 year old to Disney's Magic Kingdom for a day. Looking back, we could have taken the baby, but age 4 is just about the perfect age to take to Disney, and this way we could make it special just for him. Time didn't permit us to do all the Disney parks, but it was enough to spark happy memories from my childhood of my parents taking me to Disneyland in California. And my love of " it's a small world" which I will happily start singing ......

The lines were not bad, and our 4 year old was so exited he was EXTREMELY patient and never complained once about the walking, lines, or any of it!

All in all, it was a successful trip, and the start of many more travels for our kiddos!