Monterey getaway!

BF's birthday is coming up, and I knew back in December that I wanted to do a quick but awesome getaway with him for it. It's been a while since we've been to Monterey, CA, so I thought that'd be the perfect place! 

*Image from Google Maps*

And now the trip is coming up later this month, and I've finally booked a hotel! We'll be staying at the Best Western Plus Beach Resort Monterey. (Yeah. It's quite the mouthful, right?) A friend of mine stayed there with her hubby and pup over the holidays, and she said it was great. And since it's a Best Western, the prices are some of the most reasonable I've ever seen in the area. It's a little outside of Monterey, but I think we'll survive. I mean, we'll be ON THE BEACH! AND it's dog friendly? I may have found my new favorite hotel! 

I'll be back towards the end of the month with a review of it, but to say I'm excited is a bit of an understatement. Now, to find some dog parks we can stop at on the drive up...

What weekend getaways are you planning for this year?

New Year's Resolution

It's a little late, but I finally came up with a New Year's resolution... drumroll, please...

Make 2013 the year of day/weekend trips!

There are a ton of places that I want to go that are close by or fairly local. And I've been severely neglecting taking advantage of the awesome travel available in the US!

Here's my plan so far:

1) January: Day trip to Santa Barbara and Solvang with X while she was visiting from NY. - DONE!

2) February: Two night getaway to Monterey, CA with BF for his birthday. - BOOKED

3) March: Three night trip to NY with M! (She's going again for work, I'm going again for fun!) - BOOKED
     March: Overnight to Indio for a concert with Shorty and DK. - BOOKED

4) April: Two night trip to Vegas for a work conference. (I'm trying to get BF or M to come with!) - BOOKED

5) May: Potential return to NY for work. - PLANNED

6) June: Overnight in San Diego to visit BF's family.  - PLANNED

And right there, we're halfway through the year! Here's hoping it all works out!  

London! (The itinerary!)

We're going to London later this month! I'm so excited!

Air New Zealand had some amazing round trip fares for direct flights out of Los Angeles to London, so we jumped on the opportunity to visit two friends that are living there. It's been over a year since I've seen SD, and it's been over FIVE years since I've seen CH! I've never flown Air New Zealand before, but so far it's been a great experience with them - they have a really, truly fantastic customer service line, are friendly and never rude, and gave us free London Passes with the purchase of our tickets! The London Pass is going to come in handy, too, with line jumping and free entry to a ton of attractions. 

So, what do we plan on doing? 

Nothing, and everything.

I want at least 1 day of this trip to be dedicated to not having any plans. In the other two trips I've taken this year - New York and the Wild Wild (Mid)West, our days were packed to the gills with stuff to do. Must see this, must do that, must eat here. So this trip? Not a whole lot of that. I want some quality time with BF. I want some really fun, casual times with our friends. And I want to actually be able to soak in a true idea of what London is like!

There are, of course, things I want to see - Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the London Tower and Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, Harrods, the rugby museum, the bridges. Maybe Windsor Castle. Maybe the Chislehurst Caves. A coworker told me that the Soane Museum can't be missed. There's a DaVinci Code tour that looks my inner nerd thinks sounds awesome.  And there are bike tours and boat tours and canal tours and seven new attractions... the list goes on and on. 

On the top of my "musts" list - afternoon tea! I love, love, love tea, and I feel like it's a quintessential thing to do while visiting London. Not sure where we'll end up, but I'll be sure to post about that later! 

And someone on a TripAdvisor recommended this "marvelously cheap" outing for visitors: "Take the Docklands Light Railway from Bank station in the direction of Lewisham. Get off at Island Gardens and walk through the historic pedestrian tunnel under the Thames. Pop out in Greenwich and stroll around - perhaps eating a picnic in the park or going to the Maritime Museum (free)." It sounds good to me! 

All I want out of this trip is great escape - good, relaxing time with BF and my friends, and to feel completely NOT stressed when we get home. And I think we've got a pretty good plan (or, non plan?) to make that happen!

So, have any of you been to London? Is there anything out there that we shouldn't miss?

Wild Wild (Mid)West: Mount Rushmore & Custer National Park

The morning of our last full day of our trip we headed out early so we could see as much as we could of Mount Rushmore and Custer National Parks. And, since we didn't take all of the traditional routes for this leg of the trip, I'm going to talk about the highways we took, too, in case anyone is interested in our route!

We headed south on 385  from Deadwood through Hill City to get to the monument, because my stepdad has family in Hill City, and we wanted to check out the Black Hills Institute museum. We didn't end up making it to the museum, because we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to see everything else, but if I had more time, I'd definitely stop in! And if I had kids, I wouldn't dream of missing it - they have a T-rex skeleton!

 A kid fishing in one of the picturesque lakes along the drive.

There is a very cute coffee & chocolate shop in Hill City called Turtle Town!

Then, from Hill City, we continued south on 385, then went east on 244 (instead of tracking back through Keystone, SD) to the Mount Rushmore monument! On the way down, there's a spot where you can see George Washington's profile as you get close to the entrance. It's easy to spot because there's a huge parking lot on the side of the road. When we were driving, we passed it and thought "Why are all those people pointing and taking photos of the mountain?" Then someone turned around and said "Holy crap, it's Washington!" We of course immediately pulled over so we could do our own pointing and photo taking!

Washington's profile!

So cool!

Once we'd had our fill of the profile, we continued down the road to the memorial.

Travel tip: There are several entrance fees you'll have to pay when you go to these monuments. At Mount Rushmore, the monument is free, but you have to pay $11/car to park in their lot. At Custer National Park, a week long entrance pass is $15/car. And at the Crazy Horse Memorial, there is a $27/car (or $10/person, whichever is less) entrance fee.

 

Heading into the memorial!

View from the main terrace.

There is a short hike you can do from the main viewing terrace - it's only about a mile loop, but it includes some steep hills and stairs, so I wouldn't really recommend it for groups with strollers or people with mobility issues. We're all in pretty good shape, and it was still tough on us because of the heat the day we went! But, you do get some really cool perspectives of the monument from the hike - there are little stopping points that have great views of each of the faces, with some facts about our presidents. And there's a little museum at the bottom of the hill that has a cast of what the entire mountain would look like had it been finished the way the designer originally planned! (Spoiler alert - they'd have had bodies, too!)
 

 

Such dapper gentlemen!

Once we'd had our fill of the gentlemen, purchased some goodies from the air conditioned giant gift shop, and made a stop at the ladies' room, we continued on our way. We back tracked again, heading east on 244, then south on 385 for just a moment before heading back south east on 87 into Custer National Park to check out Sylvan Lake. People who like cheesy movies may know that Sylvan Lake was the location of the lake "behind" Mount Rushmore in the movie National Treasure 2... it's actually about 15 miles away. On the way there, you pass through a cool tunnel carved out of the rock, and you'll have to pay the entrance fee I mentioned before for Custer National Park. Even so, the trip is completely worth it, because Sylvan Lake was high up on our list of favorites for the trip!

 The rock tunnel we passed through on the way to and from Sylvan Lake.
 

There was plenty of parking at the lake, and plenty of places to sit down and have a picnic, or a nap!

You could also rent kayaks and canoes from the general store at the lake, but they were pretty pricey.

We walked as far around the lake as we could!

So pretty!

At the "end" of the lake, you can take a rock tunnel through to hiking paths on the back side of the lake.

After a lovely and relaxing time at the lake (which included a quick nap, a quick walk, and ice cream) we were back on 87 heading west, then south on 385 again. Our newest destination was the Crazy Horse memorial. This memorial is still being built, but it's supposed to be one of the coolest ones because you can walk up so close to the work being done. I say "supposed to be" because we ended up not going all the way up to the memorial. Why not, you ask? Because we were at the tail end of our trip, had already spent $26 dollars on entrance fees to Mount Rushmore and Custer National Park, and it was another $27 for us to go to Crazy Horse. We decided to come back when it's closer to being done, and settled with the long distance views we had from the car.

View of the monument from where we were turning around to leave.

Zoomed in view!

After the Crazy Horse pit stop, we continued south on 385, then east on 16A for the Custer National Park Wildlife Loop.

Deer!

The first wildlife we saw in the loop was... a wild donkey!

This one was NOT one bit afraid of our car!

There was a family that owned a farm and had donkeys that was feeding them on the side of the road.

This donkey was incredibly interested in our car!
 

And this one really wanted a snack.

So I fed it a Nilla wafer.

This little one was so cute!

Home, home on the range...

That car got MUCH close than I'd be comfortable with!

Just out for a stroll...

Bison! (He was huge!)

Then, the loop was done and it was out of Custer National Park, and on to Rapid City!

Such a pretty drive!

It was late afternoon by the time we arrived in Rapid City, so we check into our hotel then walked down the main street to Firehouse Brewing Co. We had to wait for a table, but it all worked out because they have a nifty souvenir shop right next door! After dinner we walked to the town square, where they were having an outdoor movie night. Grease was playing, and we watched for a few minutes (through "Summer Lovin', of course!) then headed back towards the hotel. We had a last vacation drink at the bar across from the hotel, then crashed.

A fountain in downtown Rapid City!

The Firehouse Brewing Co is in an old firehouse building, it was quite cool.

It was a long but awesome trip. We flew home early Tuesday morning, which ended up being nice since we had time for a nap once we got home. We definitely packed more into our trip than perhaps was smart, and there were things we missed out on. But it was nice to see a part of the country we'd never experienced, and it gave us a completely different perspective on a couple of things. I'll definitely go back to Montana, Yellowstone and South Dakota. And there were pieces of Wyoming I would check out more extensively - the area around Cody, the Bighorn National Forest. But for the most part, I think I got enough of a taste of Wyoming. 


Our favorite things on the trip? In no particular order:


- Yellowstone, and horseback riding in the Shoshone National Forest
- Roughlock Falls in the Black Hills
- Sylvan Lake in Custer National Park
- The Montana Grizzly Encounter

And check out previous posts about our trip:

- Bozeman, Montana
- The Montana Grizzly Encounter
- Yellowstone
- Horseback Riding at the Pahaska Tepee Lodge
- Driving through Wyoming
- South Dakota and the Black Hills


What part would you look forward to most?

Wild Wild (Mid)West: South Dakota and the Black Hills

On day 4 of our trip we got a rather late start, as we'd been up late at the Sheridan WYO Rodeo and Street Dance. But we made it onto the road by 1pm, and drove pretty much straight to South Dakota, with a short detour to see Devil's Tower, WY. 

 

Devil's Tower from the road. 

National Forest Service rig at the Devil's Tower Depot!

Another view of the tower.

Devil's Tower was pretty neat - and it had one of the most impressive souvenir shops I've ever seen! 

The legend behind Devil's Tower is that there were once 7 Native American little girls who were playing when suddenly they were chased by a bear. They climbed onto a three foot high rock and started praying for the rock to save them. The rock started growing towards the sky just as the bear reached them. The ridges on the sides of the tower are from the bear trying to get up onto the rock. The little girls were pushed all the way up into the sky, where they became the constellation Pleiades!

It was a nice little stop and wasn't so far out of the way, and we were glad to have made it. 

The route from Devil's Tower, WY to Deadwood, SD, where we were spending that night is fairly direct if you stay on the main highway, 90E/14E towards Spearfish, then on to Deadwood. We took that route to Spearfish, but then we decided to take the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway instead of driving the direct, 20 minute route to Deadwood. It added about 30 minutes to the travel time (20 minutes to 50 minutes), but ended up being so incredibly worth it.

In fact, that scenic byway was probably in the top 3 things we did on our trip. If you have an opportunity to drive through - do it! It's awesome.

We stopped when we got to a branch on the highway - there was a restaurant on one side of the road and the Spearfish Canyon Lodge on the other side of the road. We actually almost stayed at the lodge, but ultimately opted for a hotel in Deadwood where we could walk to some restaurants and casinos. But the lodge was really gorgeous, so if we were to go back to the area, we'd definitely stay there for a night! We stretched our legs a minute and I followed the sound of running water to this little fall - Little Spearfish Creek.

Then we took Roughlock Falls road and followed the signs to the Dances With Wolves film site!

We thought about crossing the creek to get to the site, but we were all in bad shoes for it - flip flops! - so this was as far as we made it! 

We then backtracked on the road to Roughlock Falls. This was another place at the top of our list of favorite places! It was stunning, and when you walked down the path to the base of the creek, it was peaceful and gorgeous and a reprieve from the heat we'd been in! 

Travel tip: If you do go to Roughlock Falls, there are some really lovely picnic areas, and some spots on the creek above the falls that you can wade into the creek. But the bathrooms there? SO not good. They were basically a hole in the ground with a toilet seat in a concrete box with no lights or windows. So beware, and use the restrooms at the Spearfish Canyon Lodge before you hit the falls! 

The falls from the first overlook.

From a vantage point about halfway down the trail to the bottom.

 

The falls and the creek from the bridge at the base of the hike!

After our respite at Roughlock Falls, we completed the drive through the scenic byway to Deadwood, SD. We were hot and tired by the time we got to our hotel, so we relaxed for a minute bit before hitting the town for dinner!   

We were still in search of buffalo burgers, so once we were walking around Deadwood, SD, that was our main goal. We ended up finding them at Diamond Lil's restaurant in Kevin Costner's Midnight Star casino... Not only did we get delicious buffalo burgers, but there was the bonus of checking out a ton of displayed costumes from Costner films!

After dinner we wandered around Deadwood some more, gambled a little bit in a few casinos, then crashed at the hotel. Long road trips? Don't really lend to extensive night life - you're more exhausted than you expect from being in the car all day!

One thing we found interesting (and kinda disturbing!) about South Dakota were the street signs that they place signs on the highway where there have been fatal accidents reminding people to think and stay safe. One side says "THINK! X Marks the spot," and the other side says "Why Die?" They were certainly effective, but it was so strange! 

Up next: Our last day in South Dakota, where we packed the day full with Mount Rushmore, Custer National Park, and Rapid City!

Wild Wild (Mid)West: Driving across northern Wyoming

Once we had dismounted our horses, we took our sore rumps to the car for the longest day of driving of the trip - the exit of Yellowstone to almost clear across Wyoming to Sheridan, WY. And we had a schedule - we had a rodeo to go to!

The drive from east Yellowstone to Cody, WY was one of the prettiest parts of our trip. President Teddy Roosevelt called the drive the most scenic in America, and it definitely lived up to the hype. 

On the road to Cody, WY

 

Lovely!

After a couple stops on the roadside to admire the amazing vistas, we made it to the Buffalo Bill Reservoir and Dam. The parking lot had a bunch of artifacts from the construction of the dam, and then there was a small visitors' center with stuffed animals that live in the area, books, and very helpful guides!

 When you walk out onto the dam, this is to your right.

Then you turn around to your left, and it's this! (So crazy to see the difference in water levels!) 

 

 Buffalo Bill Dam and Reservoir

After the dam, we continued on to Cody, WY to have lunch. We ended up at Bubba's BBQ and it was delicious! And right on the road through Cody, which made it super easy to stop and then get back on the road again. If we'd have had more time, we'd have liked to have stopped in downtown Cody for some sightseeing, but we had to get to Sheridan by 6pm and had quite a bit of driving left to do. 

The biggest thing we took away from this trip was that 5 days was NOT enough time to see everything we wanted to see on this route. We were ok with that, as we considered our trip more of a "taste" of the area, but there are definitely things we would like to go back for.

We continued on our drive, and took highway 14 through Bighorn National Forest. Which is yet another stunning drive, by the way.

 

Entering Bighorn National Forest, WY

During the drive, we did take time to stretch our legs at the roadside stop of Shell Falls. It was a quick stop - a parking lot on the side of the road, and a quick set of stairs leading down to an overlook of the falls. 

 

Shell Falls, WY

We then continued down to Sheridan, which included a very twisty road that dropped us at least a couple thousand feet in a pretty short amount of time. The drive had amazing views of the valley below, and we were really glad to have taken that route! We stopped at a gas station in a very strange little town at the base of the forest, which was quite the experience. People were really bizarre there, and kept giving us weird looks even though we purchased snacks so we could use the restrooms guilt free! 

We finally made it to Sheridan around 6pm, where we checked into our hotel, then headed off to the rodeo!

The Sheridan WYO Rodeo is a big deal in Wyoming!We had no idea just how big a deal it was when we bought our tickets - it was pure happenstance that we were in Sheridan the last night of this year's rodeo. We got tickets ahead of time, which turned out to be a good idea, because it had been completely sold out for days by the time we arrived! We also bought advance parking, which also ended up being a good idea because there was NO street parking by the time we got over to the rodeo!

Travel Tip: If there's something specific you really want to see or do while you're on your trip, it's a really good idea to buy tickets ahead of time. This worked out for us this time... Just keep in mind, sometimes even booking ahead won't guarantee your tickets - when we tried to get tickets for the underground area of the Colosseum before our trip last year, we weren't early enough and no tickets were available for any of the days we were in Rome. 

We parked and wove our way through the food stands of the carnival at the rodeo and to our seats just in time for the opening presentation! Then, we took turns running back down to the stands for snacks - including kettle corn, cotton candy, homemade potato chips, funnel cake, and lemonade! When in Rome, right? 

The events we saw were all new to us, as it was all of our first rodeo. First up was "Indian racing," where one rider did bareback laps on four different horses. (Or maybe three?) Then there was bareback riding, steer wrestling, steer roping, saddle bronc, team roping, a Mexican lasso expert who was really awesome, a tie down, barrel racing, and finally, bull riding. 

We realized about halfway through the steer wrestling that we weren't big fans of any of the cow/calf/steer related events. It just seemed a little barbaric to us... but we're not very educated about what happens at rodeos, either. It was definitely interesting to witness!

 

The only shot I have of the rodeo - shortly after I took this shot I saw a sign requesting no photography during the rodeo. Bummer! 

Fried carnival food galore!

After the rodeo, we made our way over to Main Street Sheridan for the post-rodeo street dance. More vendors set up food and drinks, and there were several bands playing and lots of people dancing! It was a lot of fun, and M even found a genuine cowboy to dance with! 

Travel tip: On this leg of the trip, we ran into several strongly opinionated folks who didn't quite grasp the term "politically correct." Or seem to know what was considered rude. A prime example of this was when we were in line to get into the street dance. There were two Guatemalan tourists in line in front of us, and when a worker checked their IDs to confirm their ages, he made several rather insulting comments about the fact that their IDs were in Spanish, including saying "Guatemala, huh? That's a long swim."

 

Sunday morning we slept in a bit, as we'd had two fairly early days on our trip by then. We wanted to check out downtown Sheridan during the day, but quickly realized that many places in Wyoming were closed on Sundays (or they didn't open until noon or later)! It was something we hadn't even considered, as in California you rarely come across establishments that are closed Sundays, and the whole downtown being virtually shut down was kind of crazy. A few chain stores were open, including JC Penney and Boot Barn, so we just walked around a while, then headed out again!

My favorite signs from Downtown Sheridan - "Long Live Cowboys at the Fallout Shelter!"

Downtown Sheridan was cute and quaint.

The rodeo is such a huge thing for Sheridan!

Trying on a hat at the local Boot Barn!

After a quick trip to the grocery store we were back on the road, this time headed for Deadwood, South Dakota! 

Travel tip: We saved ourselves a lot of money and time by stocking up on some basic groceries like sandwich makings, bottled water, and snacks at the grocery stores along our way. Not only did we save money from not eating out for every meal, but it kept our stomachs happy so we didn't have to stop as often!