Day 5

The 17th, we woke up in Aurora and headed to Chicago for some sightseeing. Here are some pictures driving into Chicago.....





(The traffic doesn't look bad in this picture, but it got to be just like the 405 at rush hour.)













(Getting closer....)













(...and closer.)









The first place we went to was Wrigley Field. We really liked the area around Wrigley Field. It's called Wrigleyville, and there's a lot of pubs and restaurants and open-air cafes. There are cub flags flying everywhere, and then the stadium is in the middle of the neighborhood, like it was just another building.





























(Ernie Banks aka "Mr. Cub")




















(A statue of Cub's announcer Harry Caray)









And the famous Wrigley Field sign...

































We walked around Wrigleyville for a little bit and bought some souvenirs.















Then walking back to the car, we saw this big baseball....

















(Oh, and the egg too...)










Then after Wrigley Field, we drove back downtown to visit the Sears Tower. Here are some pictures driving around downtown.....

(This is the Art Institute of Chicago)

( <--That is the Sears Tower)


















Here's a closer look..........





























After parking, we paid $12 each to go to the Sky Deck on the Sears Tower. Before we got on the elevator, we watched a video that explained that the Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world until a skyscraper in Dubai surpassed its measurements. At 1,730 feet tall, (including the t.v. antennas) the Sears Tower remains the tallest building in the United States and in all of North America, since it was built in 1973.





After watching the video, we got on the elevator that took us to the Sky Deck on the 103rd floor. The elevator ride from the 2nd floor to the 103rd took 60 seconds! Here are some pictures from the Sky Deck overlooking Chicago....



































































































Music from Ferris Bueler was playing in my head at this point.....



















(See the street waaaaay down there?)






































After the Sears Tower, we went to the Field Museum of Natural History. This place was huge...














We only walked around one out of three floors, and we didn't even get to see all of it. But we did get to see Sue. Sue is the largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found. Sue was found in South Dakota...









































Here are some other things we saw....











































Directly across the museum is Soldier Field, which is where the Chicago Bears play...


















(It is called Soldier Field because it's dedicated to the men and women in the armed forces.)







We left the Field Museum around 4pm. This bridge says CHICAGO WHITE SOX on it...














And it leads to the bridge that took us into Michigan....
















Both camera batteries died at this point, so I have NO pictures of Michigan. But that's ok because it was getting dark anyway. Michigan itself was not interesting, however Vincent did get pulled over for speeding (the officer let him go with a warning) and we encountered some car problems. Despite those little set backs, we made it to the Canadian border at midnight. We spent about 45 minutes at the immigration office getting our visas, and then we were on our way. I slept from the border until Toronto. We got to our hotel in Toronto at about 3am on Thursday, September 17th.


TOTAL MILES TRAVELED FROM LOS ANGELES TO TORONTO: 2,522 miles!

Blogs to come will include pictures of the city, things we see, and things we do.

To be continued.....

Day 4

This day was kind of boring. We left Sioux Falls in the morning around 10am I think...I really don't remember. Anyhow, we traveled south on the 29, crossing the border into Iowa and heading toward Sioux City.


The Missouri River creates the border between South Dakota and Iowa...

You can kind of see it....

Well, there was construction right around the welcome sign into Iowa, so I didn't get a picture of it.

Iowa is SO boring. There is nothing to see....

(Except another wind turbine!!)

We stopped to get gas in a very small town.....





(Grades 7-12 are having a dance on the 20th. That's middle school and high school together!)








Vincent took this picture.....he was amused.






















And we kept driving into Illinois. The Mississippi River marks the border between Iowa and Illinois....





(Pretty.)









(The Mississippi is wide enough, I had time to look up from what I was reading, realize we were crossing a river, get the camera, turn it on, and snap about 4 pictures.)









Right after crossing the river, we were in Illinois.







(We didn't stop for this state line.)










We drove well into the night. After calling ahead and finding out that hotels in Chicago range between $299 and $599, we decided to stay outside of Chicago in a city called Aurora, Illinois. It made us miss our little niece Aurora.



















(Gas in Aurora was $4.15 - yikes!)










We stopped for the night at a moderately priced Comfort Suites. That was it for that day.




DAY FOUR:

Sioux Falls, SD to Aurora, IL: 595 miles

Total miles traveled: 2,355 miles

Day 3

Day three was a big day... we woke up with our internal compasses set for Mt. Rushmore. Cheyenne is about 4 1/2 hours from Keystone South Dakota. So, as soon as we could, we hit the road. But first we took some pictures of our hotel...

And turning around 180 degrees, this is what we saw directly across the hotel parking lot...

(More Wyoming)

From Utah to Wyoming we had been traveling East on the 80 highway. There were so many bugs, we had to stop about every hour to clean the windshield! Cheyenne, WY is located where the 80 and the 25 meet. So, to get to Mt. Rushmore in Keysone, South Dakota, we took the 25 North. And here are some pictures along the road....

(The landscape is starting to include trees!)

(I don't remember which river this was. By the way, we crossed the Continental Divide earlier in Wyoming. There was a sign, but I didn't get a picture.)

(Rocks are exciting in Wyoming)

(We got gas in this little town.)

And finally, we made a right at Highway 18, and took it into South Dakota....

(Our state line picture...no smog + open landscape = really bright and sunny days!)

(This sign is right on the state line too)

(Cows across the highway)

(South Dakota landscape)

(A giant farmer...see him?)

After driving a bit, we entered the Black Hills National Forest....very close to Mt. Rushmore!

So, in 1948, in an effort to pay homage to the Native American leaders of the country, a memorial was started in honor of Crazy Horse, Chief of the Oglala Indians. This memorial was supposed to be carved into natural rocks, similar to that of Mt. Rushmore. Driving into Custer, South Dakota, you can see the memorial from far away.....

(That's it in the very middle of the picture)

Driving more, and getting closer....

(The black sign is what the monument will look like. It was started in the 40's and still isn't done!!)

There's a road you can take to pay a fee and see the monument closer. But we figured if you could see it from the highway, that was good enough. Plus it's not finished, so it wasn't worth it to us. For more information on this monument, and pictures of what it's supposed to look like, click the link below...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial

Once we drove through Custer, we headed for Keystone. Before driving up the hill where Mt. Rushmore is, we pulled over to take some pictures...

And got back in the car...so anxious! (We were both really excited for Mt. Rushmore.)

(The road leading up the hill)

(A lake)

When approaching Mt. Rushmore, you come up behind the memorial. So this is the BACK of Mt. Rushmore.


(Pardon the crack in the windshield)

Then we paid $10 for parking. The lady in the booth took down the make and model of our vehicle. Why? Because the $10 we paid for parking is good the WHOLE YEAR! So we parked, and started walking....

You can actually see the memorial while approaching the parking lot and while walking up to the front, but I'm trying to build suspense....

So this is the entrance to the memorial. It says MT. RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, but it didn't come out in the picture...

This is what you see directly across from the memorial entrance...

(Pretty. Fresh Air.)

Turn back around, and walk through the archway....

Inside the archway, there are two things to notice. To the left, a statue of Gutzon Borglum....

(He designed Mt. Rushmore)

And to the right, a wall with the names of all those who worked on the memorial....

(Some of these workers were as young as 18 years old, and earned as little as 25 cents a day)

And continuing on, TAH - DAH!....

(The walkway leading to the observation terrace is lined with state flags)

Here are some of the picutres we took from the observation terrace. The terrace is like a big balcony, with bleachers toward the back, standing room in the front, and an amphitheatre below...

We actually have A LOT of pictures of the memorial. However, it's a sculpture, so they get repetative. There are 2 bookstores, a cafe, and a museum at Mt. Rushmore....

(The gift shop)

Pictures from the museum.....

(An actual plaster model Borglum used to transfer measurements onto the mountain)

(We learned that the original monument was not going to include Roosevelt. A little later we learned Roosevelt is a distant cousin of Borglum.....interesting......)

We finished up at the memorial around 6pm. They have a lighting ceremony every night where they show a video, then light the monument and take down the flag while the Star Spangled Banner is playing. However it wasn't happening that night until 8pm, so we decided to get going.

When leaving Mt. Rushmore, we drove through Keystone....

It's a cute little town. I thought we were going to spend the night here, but Vincent insisted on driving. We drove all the way across South Dakota and stopped for the night in Sioux Falls.

DAY THREE:

Cheyenne, WY to Keystone, SD: 300 miles

Keystone, SD to Sioux Falls, SD: 350 miles

Total miles traveled: 1,760 miles