Family Travel

So I guess its not really good bye actually more of a hello, but it is basically a good bye from this blog. Well we made it home safe and sound today, only a little worse for the ware. But let me tell you its good to be home! We had a great time but seeing our humble apartment was a very happy thing. Well in the last couple days we haven't updated because we have been in the land of no internet connection aka Grand Teton National Park. We had an awesome time visiting family and seeing the beautiful scenery. We also went to Yellowstone on our way out of Teton and saw Old Faithful, without waiting at all, we had really good timing. Oh and on the wild life front, on our first full day there we saw an awesome bear that walked about mayber 100 ft in front of us, we were on a wagon ride and the horses were not happy. We also saw an elk, a bison, and a lady moose, oh my!! So we drove to Spokane that night and drove home today. And now we are at the Pacific Science Center at Mom's Work Picnic, so yes I am writing from a computer not our own. Well my fingers are cramping so I guess we will see most of you soon.

Happy (No More) Trails,
Mari

Ok, the place is HUGE. We got to Bloomington (right outside of Minneapolis) last night. Drove up from Springfield. Did not do any sightseeing along the way, despite the fact that Dave would have loved to have stopped at the Herbert Hoover Library.

Today, Mari and I did the Mall....We actually met up with my friend Janette from work. That was weird...to come all the way to Minneapolis and be able to meet up with someone from home. We had a great time hanging out together...they have a huge scrapbook store in the mall, so you can just imagine where we spent a lot of time :-)

After lunch, Mari and I actually walked throughout all three floors of the mall, walking around each floor. That was a lot of fun too. When we got back to the motel, Mari discovered that one of the sweaters that she had gotten was too small...so we had to go back and return it and instead of exchanging for a larger size, she decided she wanted to go to some other stores...so we got to walk more of the mall (found another penny machine for Leanne while doing that :-)) Mari and I are now both beat. Sad thing is that we pretty much have to pack the entire car up tonight because we have an 11+ hour drive tomorrow and along the way we want to stop at Wall Drug and Mt. Rushmore. Thank goodness we will gain an hour along the way.

Happy Trails...
Nicole

P.S. I LOVE BASIN!!! (-Mari)

First of all, you have to understand that my friend Sheila and I have decided that a bowl of cold cereal qualifies as a home cooked meal....so, this morning, I decided that is what I wanted for breakfast. We stopped at the gas station on the way out of town to get my milk, the cereal was already accessible as well as were the paperbowls and I thought the spoons were too..but no such luck. I did not give up though. I pretty much drank/ate my cereal out of the bowl! That is how much I wanted cereal!

So, today, we were in 5 states! The most in one day on this trip. We started in Cincinnati, OH but quickly went into Kentucky, where we drove to Louiseville, home of the Louiseville Slugger Museum and Factory. It was so cool to see bats being made. We then headed to St. Louis, MO, via Indiana and Illinois. While there, we went up in the Arch...YES, you can get to the top! You ride in these really small tram cars (doors are only 4' 8" tall!). They tell you that it is a combination of Amusement Park Ride, Train and elevator and they are not kidding. The top of the arch is 630' high! It was really cool though. Both of these events were not planned prior to our leaving on this trip, it was fun to be so spontaneous.

We then went back into IL and drove 100 miles north to Springfield, which is where we are for now.

That is all for now...Mari is looking to do some research for tomorrow's day....Lincoln Library/Museum and a whole lot more.

Take Care-
Nicole

Please note that I said "watching", not rooting for...at least I was not rooting for them, but Dave and Mari were. I grew up in So. Cal as a Dodger fan and there is no way I could ever root for the Reds and live to tell about it! My family would come after me something terrible. Also, the Reds were playing the St. Louis Cardinals tonight and in memory of Timmy, I had to root for them. Only, it did not work, the Reds tromped on the Cardinals, 10-3. It was warm enough that when the game ended after 10 tonight, a sweatshirt was still not a thought in anyone's mind. The view from the stadium was wonderful...overlooking the river. We got to watch quite a few tugs pushing many barges at a time up and down the river.

In Dave's entry the other day, he did not mention that we had gone to the Niagra Falls while in NY...they were absolutely awesome! Their power is just amazing. One of the things that you can do there is calld Cave of the Winds. It is no longer a cave that used to go behind the falls but you can still go down near the bottom of the Bridal Veil Falls. Mari and I did that and had so much fun (despite seeing a snake along the first part of the trail...thank heavens for the trail guide in front of us who got it to get off the trail-anyone who knows me well enough knows that I cannot stand snakes, to the point that if I see them in a movie, I have to get my feet off the floor, and just typing this is making me do the same thing!). They issue you plastic ponchos and rubber soled sandals to wear. Then you take an elevator down 175 feet (17.5 stories). You then walk a ways to the wooden stairs/platforms, which you then walk along and get very wet from the falls. There are times you can reach out and touch the water. It was just so amazing to be at the bottom of the falls.

My excitement last night was getting to a motel 6 that had laundry facilities here at the motel! Sad but true. So I did several loads of laundry and we are all now enjoying clean clothes....simple things, I tell you.

Tomorrow, we head off to Springfield, IL, with a stop in Louisville, KY along the way to go to the bat factory.

Take care-
Nicole

By popular demand-- and by popular demand, of course, I mean Drew Campbell, possibly the most discerning person on the planet-- I (Dave) have returned...
In alot of ways, as far as my own personal participaton in The Great Circle Tour is concerned, today was the day; upon leaving picturesque little Utica, New York-- still making a healthy buck off of the traffic along the ancient Erie Canal, the Doyal family was finally headed to Cooperstown; a mere forty miles or so of Empire State countryside stood between me and my own private Idaho, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. (Anyone who knows me, knows that I have something of an aesthetic obsession with the game of Baseball and have had for as long as I can remember. Also for as long as I can remember realizing that there was such a wonderful place, it has been a deeply-held ambition of mine to one day get there.) And, as it so oftem seems to do, destiny arrived like a city bus at rush hour--a moment or so late by my watch; A few minutes after 9am local time we pulled into a curbside parking space along Cooperstown's terminally rustic main street and entered the Hall, architectutally unremarkable for all my anticipation and hard by the other buildings on the block. (Of course, you are probably aware that Cooperstown is the actual boyhood home of the mythical inventor of baseball, Civil War hero Abner Doubleday. Were you also aware that this little gem of the Adirondacks was the eponymous home of none other than the early American novelist, James Fenimore Cooper? Me neither!)
What an experience the Hall turned out to be. For my near lifetime of anticipation, it was everything I ever expected but somehow fell just short of my hopes. As I dutifully traipsed through exhibits and gazed reverently upon the members' plaques, it dawned on me that this game I had always loved so much-- and whose essence I had always figured to be contained in this very building-- had achieved geographically the democracy and diversity it had striven for unevenly throughout its dramatic history. Just like Dorothy when she pulled back the curtain, I suddenly understood that there was no wizard here as I had always imagined; instead, Baseball was most beautiful, most thrilling-- at least in my opinion-- "out there" wherever the game is played at its highest level in its most worthy venues: right there between Royal Brougham Avenue and Edgar Martinez Drive in Seattle as it once was on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn; there, too, I suppose, in modern day San Francisco as it has always been in Wrigley's Friendly Confines. Anyway, it was quite the jarring personal epiphany...
[LET'S PAUSE FOR A MOMENTARY PREVIEW OF PARADISE: No kidding, this really happened: On a virtually perfect summer afternoon in the most idyllic of American small towns this side of Frank Capra film, I sat. utterly content, on a bench, reading Roger Kahn's classic, "The Boys of Summer," while Nicole and Mari took their time browsing through a nearby souvenir shop. Yea, verily, I say unto you, it don't get much better than that!]
Truth be told, though, our whole visit to upstate New York has been quite an eye-opener: You see, our brief stop at the Hall of Fame was sandwiched between long, serene, rambles through-- and this is absolutely, positively hyperbole free-- some of the most definitively pastoral countryside in the entire country. I honestly never ever expected that such marvelous physical beauty could exist so close to Sinatra's City that Never Sleeps! That wasn't the only paradox we discovered just north of Pennsylvania, either. Without exception, the New Yorkers we happened to meet along our tour of the state were among the kindest and most solicitous people I have ever run into anywhere. How is it, I find myself wondering as I write this, that these same fine folks seem to prosper while the vast majority apparently endorsed the obscenely cynical machinations of the Queen of Carpetbaggers, Senatory Hillary Rodham Clinton? I am stumped!
Well, enough ruminating for now. Tomorrow, we're trading Erie, PA, for the fabled shores of Cincinatti, Ohio. We'll be seeing you all soon.