St Louis, Missouri

While staying with Jeff and Janet, Reuben and I took a day trip to St Louis, Missouri.  Our main purpose was to see the St Louis arch, the tallest man-made monument in the United States. We watched a really interesting movie about the explorers Lewis and Clark, took a tiny elevator up the side of…

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Morton, Illinois

We stayed for four nights with Reuben’s good friends Jeff and Janet and their awesome kids Cameron, Cosette, Conner and Calvin. We had so much fun hanging out with them as a family, going to an Irish festival, going 10 pin bowling, playing Settlers of Catan, eating amazing food cooked on their grill and reconnecting…

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Omaha, Nebraska

After a long day of driving, we arrived at my (Karen’s) friend Laurie’s house. Laurie and her husband Josh live in Omaha, Nebraska – I met Laurie five years ago when living in Ethiopia, so I was really excited to see her and catch up on the last five years. Laurie took us out for…

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Laramie, Wyoming

Okay, this post is kind of a lie…we really didn’t see much of Laramie after driving all day from Yellowstone. But, we did get to see my (Karen’s) cousin Bridger, which was awesome! We went out for some Mexican food and had fun catching up with Bridger after his trip to Germany.  

Yellowstone National Park

We had an incredibly full day in Yellowstone National Park. Our day started early as we drove from Alpine to the south entrance of Yellowstone. Our first stop for the day was at the West Thumb Geyser Basin, where we walked around the boardwalks and saw some of the geysers and pools that are right…

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Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park

We spent a great day in Jackson Hole and Alpine with my cousin Carson. Carson visited us in New Zealand over Christmas so it was great to see him again and catch up with him. We began the day with a quad bike ride up Black Mountain next to Carson’s house in Alpine. We got…

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Driving through deserts and salt

We had a beautiful drive from Nevada to Wyoming. We started off very early in the morning and passed through stunning desert scenes and views of a rocky, barren landscape.         We passed the Bonneville Salt Flats where land speed records are set, and continued on to the Great Salt Lake in…

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Yosemite National Park

Two days after we wrecked our car, we headed off in a rental car to Yosemite National Park. Our original plan had been to camp nearby for two nights, but we decided to just make the best of the time that we had in Yosemite. After waiting in a queue for half an hour just…

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Farewell to the Red Devil

Red Devil. Purchased June 2012. Died August 2012, aged 12. Oh, Red Devil! How excited we were when first found you. You were the only reasonably priced car in Houston, you weren’t an SUV and you were cheap. It was love at first sight.  At first, we didn’t suspect you of being a Red Devil….

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Crater Lake National Park

From Portland we drove south to Crater Lake National Park. Neither of us had ever heard of this until my mum suggested we visit (thanks Mum!) Crater Lake is incredible. A looooong time ago it was a volcano, which then erupted and left behind a crater. The crater doesn’t have any rivers feeding it or…

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