Day 50: You Can't Go Home Again (At Least Not Efficiently When Delta is Involved)

Timeline:

9:00 am MST: Wake up, get ready, make sure everything is packed and ready to go.
11:00 am MST: Leave for the airport.
11:52 am MST: Arrive at SLC International Airport, check in, go through security.
12:20 pm MST: Get to the Delta Sky Club, pour a drink
12:30 pm MST: Meet Brian after work, catch up for awhile
1:15 pm MST: Return to Sky Club for one more drink
1:52 pm MST: Take off for Seattle
...sometime in flight: Checked Delta App & realized that our plane would be slightly delayed leaving Seattle
3:30 pm PST: Arrive in Seattle and head for the Sky Club.  Learn that our plane would be delayed and probably leaving around 6:15 pm instead of 5:15 pm.
4:30 pm PST: Use Delta meal vouchers to buy dinner.
5:00 pm PST: Return to the Sky Club and learn that our flight is delayed.  Pour another drink.
....and delayed
...and delayed
...and delayed...(yes, more drinks took place within this time!)

10:15 pm PST: Finally on a plane leaving for HNL
1:20 am HST: Landed in Honolulu
2:00 am HST: Met Brandt and headed home to Waianae
3:00 am HST (or 7:00 am MST): Finally home! And with 3 hours left to sleep before getting up for work!

Tired travelers finally home in Hawaii!

Day 47-49: Family Time

So, since I've completely failed at updating every day, but still want to capture memories, I'm just going to lump all this time together again.

One thing I will say is that at this point in the trip, both Mike and I were just completely exhausted.  We both completely want to go home, not to start work again, but just to get back to our lives.  It's time!

Sunday was my younger brother, Jared's, birthday, so we went with him, his boyfriend Tyler, my mom, and Tyler's mom and grandma to The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate.  Two and a half hours and about 6,000 calories later, we finished eating... I wish I was exaggerating!

Monday we had dinner at my mom's with some of my aunts and uncles and cousins.  It was fun seeing people and that they were able to meet Mike, but I'm afraid in our exhaustion we might not have been the most exciting company.

Tuesday became a day of packing, getting ready to head back, and being lazy.  Yep, we are so done!

Day 45 & 46: Camping!

Apparently we didn't have our fill of camping this summer, because when Marijke called and invited us along we headed up for a couple more nights! I was really glad to get to hang out with Marijke and Erin, and their husbands, Nate and Paul. We camped at Southfork Campground up Ogden Canyon, which is a place I spent quite a lot of time as a kid.
Pretty lazy camping trip, fire and drinking and playing with the kids. It was Zhaden (21 months) and Luke's (1 year) first camping trip, and it was really cool just to watch them experience it all. I'm not sure if my friends are trying to be birth control or get me to want a baby, but they do an equally good job at both!
Mike seemed to really hit it off with Paul and Nate, and they stayed up and played long after we'd all gone to bed. At least Mike remembers that night, because he forgot most of the first night!

... I really wished we'd kept stats on how much we drank this summer, that would be interesting (and maybe slightly scary)!

Day 44: Back in Time & Underground

Wind Caves today, underground tunnels with candles. It was a pretty cool hike, off the beaten path (not paved) and supposedly strenuous, although I'm really not sure I agree with that. The unfortunate part is that we couldn't really take cameras, and even though we snuck some pics, they didn't turn out well.

After the hike we tried to hit Jewel Cave, but everything was full. So, our last drive to Utah! It's been such an amazing summer so far, now just a few days left with family and friends before back to Hawaii!

Day 43: Stop & Go

It's a constant joke with Mike that he only has 2 speeds: stop and go. Either he's going a million miles an hour at whatever (eating, exercise, partying) or nothing, there's no in-between.

I think he's trying to get me on this same speed. After a crazy intense hike yesterday, today was a nothing day! Hotel, hot tub, pool, tv. Supremely lazy!

Day 42: The Badlands Earn Their Name

So... prior to today's outing, Mike and I had been discussing the naming of the badlands. He had wondered if it was due to climate (116 in the summer to -40 in the winter), I thought maybe the topography. Well, the badlands is a understatement.
The park only has about 8 developed hikes, 4 of which are boardwalks less than a half mile. We completed 5 today, about 12 miles total. The Door Trail, Notch Trail, Fossil Trail, Castle Trail, and Medicine Trail.
The Door & Fossil were quick scenic boardwalks, and the Notch was pretty cool. It walked along some Badlands topography, up a ladder, to a notch in the wall with some cool views. Mike decided to scare me by finding his own way back, but it was a fun hike.

The Castle & Medicine Trails were a 10 mile loop through... nothing. Near badlands topography, but just through flat prairie grassland. It was a long, hot as hell hike with no pay-off. Good exercise, I'm sure, but I was hurting after! According to the car, we were in 105 degree heat, and I sure felt it. Tired, dizzy, swollen even. Yuck.

Gotta say though, I guess the upside to days like today is just realizing how much Mike will totally take care of me. I'm pretty sure I acted like a ridiculous whiny child on the hike (especially when I started complaining about my sausage fingers. They were swollen and so huge!) but he really didn't seem to be phased by it. He somehow got my whiny ass to the end of the hike, to a hotel (yep, no camping again!), and even found sushi :). He's awesome and I'm so in love!

Day 41: Big Heads

Another long drive today, with a stop in Sioux Falls for lunch. Due to two time changes, we still got to our hotel by 6, and decided to head to see big heads.

Our first (quick) stop was at Crazy Horse, an unfinished sculpture in the mountain. From there, we headed to Mount Rushmore just in time to walk the Presidential Trail and stay for the overly dramatized lighting ceremony. It was a pretty cool contrast to see the day and night views of the mountain.

Day 40: Stats

Miles on the car: 7445
Our boots... took the last 10 days off. They're going to get out again soon!
Miles canoed: 6

Bad Renditions of "Call Me Maybe" by Mike... countless!

Driving Time: 150 hours
States Visited: 20 (UT, WY, ID, MT, WA, OR, CA, NV, AZ, NM, CO, KS, MO, IL, IN, OH, PN, NY, WI, MN)
Foreign Nations Visited: 5 (Hualapai, Ute, Navajo, Seneca lands and Ontario,
Canada)
Crazy weather survived: torrential rains, June "gloom", 110 degree heat, disgusting humidity, extreme wind storms, falling trees, freezing nights

What I miss about Hawaii: my bed, temperate weather, short drives, my bike, the ocean (not necessarily in that order)... loving every minute of this trip and spending it with Mike, but home isn't looking so bad!

Day 40: Long Trek

800-some odd miles...
Driving through Chicago (yuck!)...
15 hours in the car...
5 states...

Hmmm, this must be why airplanes are so popular!

Day 39: It's SO hot!

Plan: spend the morning with Jessie & Brad, pack the car, hang with Jeff.

Enter heat.

Actual: breakfast with Jessie & Brad, Mike packed the car, Jamie hid from the heat in the basement.

He's so good to me. Love him!

Day 38: The Water Sports Continue!

Back in Massillon today, we decided to ignore the heat and get outside. I guess after Niagara Falls, where we couldn't get in the water (even though Mike thought he could... I was glad he didn't test that theory) we needed to get in some water somewhere. We rented a canoe and spent most of the (really hot) afternoon floating down the Tuscarawas River (and no, I really can't pronounce that. Ask Mike).

Lazy afternoon followed by pizza on the grill! Not something I would ever have thought of, but it turned out yummy!

Day 37: More Waterfalls

We had one more touristy activity to do before leaving today: The White Water Walk, a trail past the fastest rapids in the world. Really, not that impressive.

After we left Niagara Falls and drive back to the US across Rainbow Bridge. We finally re-entered the country after a ridiculously long conversation with the border guard and started the drive back to Ohio.

Today was one of the shorter drives we've done on this trip (only about 5 hours) but I must be getting sick of being in the car. It felt like an eternity!

Day 36: The REAL waterfall!

We finally made it to Niagara Falls today! Got up early, crossed the border, and made it to our hotel by 11 am. We got lucky and checked in early, then headed back into the zoo that is Niagara Falls, ON to do the requisite tourist activities: Maid of the Mist, Journey Behind the Falls, and Niagara's Fury.

Maid of the Mist, our first stop, was cool but pretty zoo-y. We were herded like cattle down to the boat (with Mike literally mooing all the way) and rode into the mist.

Next exhibit, next poncho was the Journey Behind the Falls. We took an elevator down and walked behind the falls and to the side near the bottom. Really cool views!

Our last tourist activity of the day was Niagara's Fury, a 4D/3D movie about the creation of Niagara Falls. And yes, you need another poncho! The movie was complete with snow, rain, and mist.

Our room had a pretty amazing view of the falls (and a pretty awesome whirlpool tub) so we decided to leave the zoo and spend the evening there! We were at a bad angle for the fireworks directly over the falls, but we had good views of half a dozen fireworks across the border!

Day 31-35: Power Outages & Laziness

So, I know I haven't updated for a while, it's been a mixture of power outages and laziness. Here's the scoop:

Day 31: We had stayed the night at Mike's friend Andie's house in Dayton the night before, and spent a very lazy morning (you'll start to see a trend here) before getting on the road.  Once we finally roused ourselves, we headed for one of our shorter driving spurts to Marietta to see Mike's dad and some of his family.  I should add in here that we killed a few hours doing errands, so we didn't get to his dad's until about 7.  We'd really only had time for Mike's dad to recognize him (the hair is throwing everyone off) and open a couple of beers before a crazy windstorm hit, it started raining trees, and we lost power.  We went to his Aunt Paula's house, Mike helped his dad fix her fence, and we wasted away the night with no power entertaining ourselves the only way we knew how: with alcohol.

Day 32: The power stayed off all day and cell phone service was minimal at best.  We visited some more family in Marietta and then headed up to Massillon to crash at Mike's mom's house.

Day 33-34: No power outages today, just me being lazy.  For some reason, Mike and I are awake all night and sleeping until 10 or so... not sure if this due to time changes or heat or whatever, but it's really not all that productive.  We mostly seem to be eating or sleeping, some other visiting and whatnot thrown in, but not too much else!

I'm going to try to be better about updating (I hope)!