Lost Bird Found

South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois

We had a bit of a rough start in South Dakota. Someone slipped their tiny little finger out of the top of the window as I closed it from the driver's seat. It was scary and bloody. Henry hates bandaids, always has. I discovered that if I tell him that its a "kiss and make it better sticker" he will wear it. At first it was gauze, then we moved on to bandaids. He was already wearing a little thin. This just set it off. At least it was his middle finger so he could inadvertently flip us off to let us know what he really thought about the day. I pretty much felt the same way.


Henry sort of lost it in the car yesterday. I cant really blame him. He is been so amazing. He was doing this crazy devil voice and shrieking. Thor and I realized how much physical affection we normally give him and how much he loves running around on his country road and there was virtually none of that. So he started regressing right before our eyes/backs of our heads. Thor tried to hang with him in the backseat while driving. It is amazing how easily they can change based on environment. We get out as often as possible and made plans...but sometimes you need to check the hours of a place.


La Crosse, WI was seriously a ghost town. We were confused. Where was everyone? They had a really nice co-op. Henry would not eat a thing, other than a muffin and raw broccoli, even then he inspected the muffin forever, because it didnt look like his favorite muffin "moose muffin" from Bakery San Juan. Dude was crabby. I guess, he is so agreeable most of the time, it was kind of jarring to see him so miserable. I felt like a bad mom. We stopped at a rest stop and laid on a blanket and had some serious cuddle time. We both felt better.



Looking for ladybugs at the rest stop.


Snacking his way into Chicago.



I was really excited to drive into Chicago and excited to spend a couple of days here. Sarah & Jon are so nice and adorable. They had some little animals waiting in the bathtub as a surprise for Henry. Then this big awesome butterfly eating animal cat named Mega, decided that she owned our suitcase. She was not so sure about Henry. She will soon realize that he is a cat lady. They are still sleeping right now so Im going to walk outside and not drive anywhere for two days. I hope. We are planning an overnight drive on the 30th. Will post more pictures of our adventures in Chicago. Henry is already at the park with Thor and sitting on a sprinkler.

Anaconda Opportunity

Montana was so pretty and so nice, until we got to the part between the end of Montana and the start of Wyoming. Henry had a harder time motivating in the morning on Saturday. We kinda let him have his way. He wanted to eat a muffin in front of the waterfall, so he ate a muffin in front of a waterfall. I lured him to the table with "purple cheerios" aka Froot Loops, which are his trashy kryptonite, and we dont ever have unless we are traveling. We have a box of them in the car but have not had to open them since everyone seems to eat Froot Loops every morning (in the hotels at least). In Wyoming, I discovered a disturbing breakfast food trend, CORN DOGS. In the morning. They were offered at the hotel, then when I got some water at the gas station, dude was buying 2 corn dogs at 7 am. Is that normal?


This sign was the best. My co-pilot tried to snap a picture of. Its a little blurry but hilarious. I am deeply afraid of snakes. There was also a campground at some point called the Snake Pit. No. Thank you.


Sunday morning, Henry didnt want to leave again. But we explained to him that we were going to New York. He has become obsessed with the "idea" of New York. He knows that his BFF Huckleberry is there at the end of the rainbow that is the mid west. He really is a trooper.


I thought it would be a good idea to stop and take Henry to a place called the Reptile Garden. But when we got there it was just creepy and sad. There were tons of Alligators and Crocodiles in this gross pen and some guy was poking them with sticks to make them snap at him and asking the crowd to cheer. He also had a ponytail and talked about how he had a long night last night. I am just dying to see his personal ad which you KNOW is on eHarmony or something....nothing wrong with personal ads....but a ponytail dude, that wrestles Crocodiles and Alligators in South Dakota? C'mon...We lasted about 5 seconds.




Henry wanted to find the Tortoises. So we looked. And stopped to play with rocks. We spent 30 dollars to get in and 15 minutes inside. We planned on eating lunch in a ghost town, but we were running late. I could not resist the awesome handpainted signs for Wall Drug and I really wanted to get ice cream for Henry (and maybe some other people in the car). It was so so corny but so awesome hilarious.






It was awesome. He literally had to be dragged away from the water spout things. They were synced up to music and when it was a slow song he would just hoot. We then told him that if he danced fast a fast song would come on next. We are so mean.



If you see a sign like this, it probably means that if you dont have a lot of gas in your tank, you should stop and get some. There is a lot of space between gas stations out here.

Off to Chicago! I think that our super awesome hostess Sarah has some ideas for us, but let us know if you have some too. Henry likes rocks, water, rice, kale, purple cheerios, toads and hats. If that helps at all. I am hoping he does his toad impression for Sarah. Fingers crossed he wont be a total lunatic after 9 hours in the car tomorrow. But we will stay still for two days.

Music Through Montana & South Dakota Monday

Here is a sampling of songs that got us through Montana. It is super pretty there, but after the mountains its sort of endless.

C'mon Inn

On Thursday I got a call from Hotels.com. The operator was clearly overseas or a very recent transplant. "I am calling about your reservation at the Semen Inn."....WHAT? I told him that I wasnt sure what he was talking about. He repeated it several times until I finally asked him to spell it out. "The C'mon Inn?" Yes. The C'mon Inn. It was kind of hilarious.


We left early Friday morning and had our first pit stop in Moses Lake, WA. Thor's grandmothers family is from there. He had an great uncle who was terrified of vegetables. There was even a pizza named after him, that had ham, pepperoni, hamburger, bacon and cheese. Insane. The town was kind of weird. The picture above is Henry maybe having the best time he could there.


We drove to Spokane, where apparently there was a Basketball festival going on at the park I planned to have a picnic at. It was fine. Henry just asked us to throw a ball AT HIM over and over again. Boys are so weird.






He wanted to go swimming in this water. As if. We promised that there would be a pool after his nap where he could make "popcorn water", what he calls water splashes ever since he saw the popcorn machine at the movie theater.


The skies are so pretty here.



We keep promises.


Insane mural on the way to dinner. Henry told us that the bears were "yawning".


Dragon Hollow is a community built climbing structure for kids and was pretty awesome.


And this community built carousel was REALLY fast. Henry loved it.


My favorite part of the carousel. At first I thought dude was wearing no pants. Still, I loved it. I love love murals like this.

The Face Noodle

We took the day to relax with Henry in Seattle before we leave at 7am tomorrow morning for Missoula. We plan on stopping in Moses Lake (where his great grandfather was born), Spokane for stretching and a picnic for an hour or two. Then powering there through Henry's usually super long (Im talking 4-5 hour) naps.

Henry was so sweet today. When I got him out of the car he said really sweetly, "I wanna go face noodle?" Over and over again. I felt bad telling him I had no idea what he was saying. Thor came out of the house and I asked him what he thought. "He wants to go to the Space Needle." We read about it all the time to him, and we point it out each time we arrive in Seattle driving on the 5. We promised that in 45 tomorrows he could go to the Face Noodle.


I had my first ever vegetarian Pho since reading Eating Animals. If you have a second please read this incredible post by Anna's post about the book. It was good, it wasnt as good. But ever since reading that book I can not get myself to eat factory farmed meat. Anyway. Henry loves the sprouts and the cream puff, which isnt so cute to watch (him eat the cream puff).



Henry is loving this book today.

Eastbound Down

We left tonight, the 5 pm ferry. I felt sad thinking about leaving so long, but super excited about our plans and going to Camp Llewoh. We were starving when we got off the ferry. It was already Henry's bed time when we got Thai food. He was out of his mind insane. Thor was supposed to share his rice with Henry but it was super spicy. Henry wanted it anyway. He would take a bite, swallow then cry and ask us to "kiss it make it better" (his burning mouth) and then he would do it again. They took pity on him and made him some not spicy curry rice. The above picture is him, eating off two plates of curry rice, so one would cool faster. He calls tofu "Panda Meat". When he eats he says "I hunt, I eat." Too many nature documentaries. You should see this kid eat Pho and Thai food, he goes bananas for it.


My co-pilot is the resident entertainer*. Henry is currently obsessed with the awesome book Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. To hear him request it is the best. It is all one word.
*Side note. Thor (husband) is the LEAST photogenic person on the planet. Seriously, no matter what he looks like R. Crumb or an American Apparel ad gone really really wrong. He is much more handsome in real life. Trust me.




If you think that this is a pretty place to land the ferry, you should see where we live.

This was on the counter at the place where we had dinner, we are off to a good start.
Montana is next.

Keep It Like A Secret

We are leaving for New York on Friday morning, bright and early! We plan to tweet and write about our trip along the way and back.
We will be in:
Missoula, Montana
Random Town, Minnesota
Chicago, Illinois
Pawling, NY
New York City, NY
Cambridge, MA
York, ME
THE WAY BACK
Baltimore, MD
Mechanicsville, VA
Candler, NC
Nashville, TN
Houston, TX
Austin, TX
Oklahoma City, OK
Pheonix, AZ
Los Angeles, CA
San Francisco, CA
Eugene, OR
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA

We are still looking for interesting off the beaten path places to stay on our way back. We have specifically in, Nashville, Austin, Oklahoma City (hello Kelly!), Pheonix, Eugene.....suggestions welcome!

Today, I have a little post up over at the always lovely sfgirlbybay blog while she is on staycation. We do really plan on stopping by her house and having Henry test out her chalkboard wallpaint.

Shape Shifter

I have been searching for peaceful pieces for our bedroom. I love these pieces by Mike Lemanski.

Summer Songs for Music Monday

If I ever hear any of these songs randomly. I am instantly transported back to childhood summers with my parents. Any number of these songs playing in the car on the way down to the lake. Or playing on the boom box (a word that I thought my dad invented for a number of years by the way) at Camp Llewoh.











We are getting ready to drive cross country to our lake house this week! Super crazy busy excited over here. We end up at Camp Llewoh, then NYC then Boston then we drive the southern route back. Im planning on posting our trip along the way and make sure to check out my guest post on sfgirlbybay this week sometime as she enjoys her staycation.

The Man I Love the Most

Happy Father's Day to Thor, my super awesome sweet husband. You are the best Papa ever to Henry. If he could talk about something other than pancakes, cheetahs, big cats, caterpillars or carrotboos he would say a lot to you.

Thank you for taking me on the trampoline, letting me bounce up and down on your belly over and over and over again until you feel sick, changing my diapers almost all of the time, cuddling me when I get scared, cuddling me when I am not scared, sitting with me for hours while I stack rocks which I think is the most amazing past time ever, but it might bore you to death. Thank you for working so hard all day to help take care of me and Mama.

We love you Thor. You are the best Papa we could ever ask for. Love, Sara, Henry, Belly Cat, Eva Cat & Hugo Dog.