What I did during my summer vacation... aka "we just moved across the country!"

Saying goodbye to our old stomping grounds...

 

One last look at the mountains of Utah... 

 

 Wyoming isn't all desolate... just most of it.  This stretch was actually pretty.

 

 I had this great idea that every day we'd stop somewhere fun and educational.  One day of high heat and almost 100% humidity nixed that idea pretty quickly.  But we did explore Buffalo Bill's ranch in North Platte, Nebraska:

 

Recuperating from the heat and humidity: 

More Nebraska.  The whole state pretty much looks like this at least along I-80.  It is pretty for awhile, but when you've seen hours and hours and hours of it it pretty much makes you want to fall asleep.  It's like the movie Groundhog Day.  Also, I don't think I ever need to see another cornfield for the rest of my life.

We had an unexpected delay in Lincoln, Nebraska due to radiator trouble.  Almost $1000 and a new radiator later, we were on our way again.

 

In Omaha, Sariah was afraid there would be a tornado.  I, on the other hand, was thrilled to see a midwestern storm again after 20 years.

Iowa was the more scenic state we passed through:

Crossing the Mississippi was still exciting, even though with pouring rain this was pretty much the view we got:

 

Dallin's request was to stop in Chicago, so we spent one afternoon there.  Afterwards we all agreed that Seattle is a much more fun city:

Can you tell Dallin was manning the camera?

Navy Pier. 

The children earned souvenir money by the behavior in the car during the almost week-long drive.  All Sariah wanted to do with her money was ride the giant swings at Navy Pier.  She did it all by herself because Dallin did not want to spend his money on that:

She looked so little, all by herself...

What Dallin wanted to do most in Chicago was to eat Chicago-style pizza.  So we walked and we walked and we walked...

...and we walked some more...

We wished we could ride one of these cool bikes...

But we finally found our pizza!

 

Back at the pier:

All Mom wanted to do was to see the water (Lake Michigan).

Indiana?  Ohio?  It all starts to run together after awhile.

But it's amazing how a few stickers can break up the monotony:

No more pictures because it got dark.  We stopped at a hotel inToledo and 20 minutes later decided to bag it and keep driving, through the night, to our new home in Pennsylvania.  That hotel was horrible.  Dirty.  Yucky.  So we moved on.  But that meant that we arrived in PA in the dark and everyone except my James was asleep.  Not quite the grand entrance I'd envisioned.  But we made it!