Adventures in the Underdog States!

I have a goal to visit all fifty states before I die. Hopefully, I have a long time to do it, but why wait!? I can always visit states again and see different things, so I try to seize opportunities to travel as often as I can. I am always impressed by the amazing things each stated has to offer; we really are fortunate to have such diverse attractions, climates, landscapes, cultures, etc. right here in our own country! This summer, we were going to take a bit of a break and I had decided that I was just going to do a few little trips to explore nearby places. My parents had decided to rest completely from traveling this summer as well. One day, however, I got a phone call from my parents to pitch a plan for a vacation this summer. It was pretty good, so I went for it. Honestly, this school year was amazing...perhaps the best year I've had in my entire career so far, BUT it seriously kicked my butt! Admittedly, I did not take much of a role in planning this trip; I pretty much just did whatever was planned. I was adamant that visiting Indiana had to include seeing my cousin, Justine, and Touchdown Jesus at Notre Dame. *Spoiler alert: we did both of those things! ;) Other than that, as I boarded the plane, I honestly had very little idea of what we were doing and where we were going. My mom emailed me the itinerary, but I didn't even have the energy to look too closely at it. So, this trip was full of surprises: some pleasant and others not so pleasant!

The trip included visiting Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. These are the states that people don't visit very often for touristy experiences, but I found them to have more to offer than one might think! Just to clear the air from the beginning, though, I learned that although there are some cool things in Ohio, I feel the same way about it that I feel towards Oregon. Thus, when I become queen of the world, I will swiftly return it to whomever we got it from and hope they accept it back. The other states were pretty good!

Here we go! To begin with, I stayed up all night packing and wasting time, I'm sure. So, when I woke up from a brief 40 minute nap, rather than a full night of sleep, so that I could get to my parents house and then to the airport, I was not feeling especially cheerful. Fortunately, I sleep well on planes and was completely out before we even took off. I slept, basically, the entire flight and didn't experience a take-off or landing on any of the flights we took to get there. We landed in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, and eventually found our way to the rental car company. We had reserved and paid for a mini-van months prior to our trip so that, once there, everything would run smoothly. We always do this and it has always worked out for us. This time, however, we got there and they had no mini-vans. They told us that they would figure something out to get us a car that would work for us and get us on our way. We sat there for quite a while, before they magically drove a van up and handed u the keys! We were so excited that they were able to come up with the car we had reserved in the first place and wondered where it came from, since they had just told us that there were no vans there. *Note: This detail becomes important later on, so just tuck it away for the moment!

Ok. So, we're in our van and we go to the Mall of America and look around a bit! I don't really love shopping, but this is the biggest mall in the entire country and, perhaps, the entire world. Undeniably, it was pretty hefty! Before it was turned into a mall, it was a baseball stadium. So, in a nod to its former glory, they retained a bit of history for those that would be interested. And I am, so I thought it was pretty cool! Harmon Killebrew hit the longest home run that was ever hit in that stadium and they have placed a red stadium chair on the wall to mark where he hit the ball. It landed in the upper stands, so the chair is kind of up at the top of the wall behind the log ride. They have also marked where home plate used to be. Now, the area that used to be the field is an amusement park.

We also went on Fly Over America, which is Minnesota's answer to Disney's California Adventures' "Soarin' Over California" and it was awesome! We looked around a bit and then went to see Minehaha Falls! None of us had ever heard of this, but Scott's awesome sister-in-law, who used to be a flight attendant and traveled through Minneapolis often, recommended it to us. Initially, we did not have the time to see it, but we decided that we were going to fit it in anyways! We were so glad we did because it was beautiful!

Next, we picked Diane up from the airport and then headed to our hotel. The next morning, we woke up super early and did a session in the St. Paul, Minnesota Temple.

Afterwards, we went back to the Mall of America for a bit so that Diane could see it, and then we drove to Wisconsin. We stopped to have lunch and then bought ourselves some squeaky cheese. This is a phenomenon I had heard of, but never personally experienced until then. I liked it!

Once we got to Milwaukee, we went to a cemetery. A big, huge, enormous cemetery in which we looked for a needle in a haystack. We had section numbers to go off of, but in a cemetery that's hundreds of years old and the size of a small country, we didn't have tons of luck, but we were able to find a few of our relatives! The next day, we began heading out of Wisconsin, but realized that the only thing we had done there was visit a cemetery. So, we kept a lookout for something not too far out of the way, that was uniquely Wisconsin. That's when we saw it: a billboard for the Mars Cheese Castle and, honestly, if the words "cheese castle" don't scream Wisconsin, I really don't know what does!

They had all kinds of interesting things in there and it was a fun little stop.

Next, we headed to Chicago! The "L" in Chicago is the bumpiest public transportation I have ever been on! We were holding on for dear life! haha

The beginning of the day was frustrating because we hadn't planned quite as well as we had hoped and it was taking forever to get anywhere. This is when we decided that, in the interest of time, we needed to just take taxis anytime we had to go far. After that, the day got much more manageable and we were able to have a good time. We got the Go Chicago City Pass, which enabled us to visit things we wouldn't otherwise have visited.

Taxi cab selfie!

Cruise on Lake Michigan

Field Museum with the largest T-Rex ever found

Field Museum fun!

This is the Atwood Sphere at the Adler Planetarium and it's where WWII pilots were taken to learn about the stars so that they could navigate by them if necessary.

Adler Planetarium!

On the way back from the planetarium, we were able to get another beautiful view of Lake Michigan!

Finally, we made it up Willis Tower (previously Sears Tower)!  Mom, Diane, and I each went into the Plexiglas boxes that hang off the side of the building. It was pretty cool! The first step was a little bit scary, but after that, it was fine!

The next morning, we had the opportunity to go to the Chicago Temple!
Just as all temples are, it was beautiful!

After that, we took the L into the city and headed to Lou Malnati's to get some authentic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. I was not a fan because of the big chunks of tomato on top, but everyone else really loved it! Next up was Millennium Park to see The Bean! Apparently, it's called the Cloud Gateway, but everyone just calls it The Bean because, ya know...it looks like a bean! After that, we walked to the waterfront to see Buckingham Fountain! It was beautiful!

Tomatoes are not my favorite, but the rest of the pizza was good.

Chicago definitely has a lot of cool things to see!

As evening approached, we were all getting pretty excited to see one of the main highlights of our trip: a Cubs game at Wrigley Field! 

On the way there, we ran into this icon and stopped for a quick pic!

Now, I'm not even going to try to pretend that I'm some huge baseball fan; I'm not. I do, however, enjoy the atmosphere and energy of a game and getting to watch a game in person in a stadium with a perfectly manicured field. There's just something magical about it. Also, Wrigley Field is the big time! It's the field in which Babe Ruth called his shot during game 3 of the 1932 World Series. He was way past his prime and hadn't been doing great, but he pointed to a spot in the center field bleachers and then proceeded to hit what is considered to be one of the greatest home runs in history, right to that spot! So cool!

Seriously, this was an amazing evening!!!

After the game, we drove all night to get to South Bend, Indiana, It wouldn't have taken quite so long, but we had a bit of a GPS snafu and we ended up on a wild ride through the middle of nowhere, but we made it!!! In the morning, we got to meet up with two cousins for breakfast! I hadn't seen them since I was about 16 years old, and I was so excited! When we met up at the restaurant, it was like no time had passed at all! Such a happy morning!

Next, we headed to Notre Dame, where we took a walk around the campus, which is really beautiful, and I got to check Touchdown Jesus off of my bucket list!

 Touchdown Jesus!

Notre Dame's Golden Dome!

Our next stop was Detroit, Michigan. The first thing we did when we got there was to catch an evening session in the temple!

The following morning, we hit another major highlight! Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum! Greenfield Village is basically a village assembled by Henry Ford, containing all sorts of inventors' studios and workshops, as well as significant buildings, and homes of famous people, like Robert Frost and Noah Webster. There are also "rides" here. For example, you can ride an old coal powered train, a Model-T, the omnibus, and a few other things! It was an awesome place to visit!

 

Abraham Lincoln practiced law inside this courthouse!

Right next door to Greenfield Village, is the Henry Ford Museum. It had lots of cool stuff in it!

This is the bus that made Rosa Parks famous!

And this is the very back of the bus.

This is the car JFK was assassinated in!

This stuff belonged to George Washington! He slept in this cot during the Revolutionary War!

And this was his trunk and his belongings that he used during that time! I was in awe!

This is the chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in on that fateful day in Fords Theater.

We also got to see their Beatles exhibit, which contained lots of cool stuff!

This was an amazing day!

The last day of the trip came at the perfect time. Although we purposely planned this to be only a manageable, week long trip, we all started the vacation already exhausted. Therefore, by the end of the week, we were ready to be home! We spent our last morning in Kirtland, Ohio, visiting the Kirtland Temple and the village there. I was excited to see the temple because it was the first temple built in our dispensation and lots of amazing things happened here. 

For example, in Doctrine and Covenants, Section 103, Joseph Smith wrote about an experience he had there:

 1 The veil was taken from our minds, and the eyes of our understanding were opened. 2 We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber. 3 His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying: 4 I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father. 5 Behold, your sins are forgiven you; you are clean before me; therefore, lift up your heads and rejoice. 6 Let the hearts of your brethren rejoice, and let the hearts of all my people rejoice, who have, with their might, built this house to my name.7 For behold, I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house.

So cool! In this same occurrence, Moses, Elias, and Elijah came and committed their keys to this dispensation. Lots of other important revelations were received here and I have always wanted to visit it. I'm so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for the restoration of Temple ordinances so that families can be together forever!

The remainder of our time in Kirtland was spent visiting the Kirtland village where the people lived and worked.

After leaving Kirtland, we went to Cleveland, which was our last stop of the trip. We visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and it was pretty interesting with all of the memorabilia it had.

We got to see Johnny Cash's tour bus!

Next, it was off to the airport, where we returned our car, checked in, and then experienced a major travel nightmare. Our flight got delayed, causing us to miss our connector. Then, we spent two hours waiting in a ridiculous line, and then had to spend the night sleeping (but not really) on a bench in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport, without our bags. Then, we boarded our flight the next morning and then sat in the plane at the gate for two hours and nine minutes because, apparently, no one knows what they're doing. And then American Airlines broke my suitcase. It was AWFUL!!! My parents took the first shift sleeping. My dad has sleep apnea and has to wear a mask and use a machine to sleep so he doesn't die. Thankfully, he always carries it on, so he had it with him. This whole thing was ridiculous!

In the morning, I took a short nap. It was freezing cold in there!

This is was not a good ending to the trip and, honestly, everything that happened made it so I still don't find it funny, BUT I still realize that I am SO lucky to be able to go on trips like this and see so many awesome things. I know that not everyone gets this opportunity. I did get to see some amazing things and have wonderful experiences, and I especially cherish the time I got to spend with my family! All in all, it was a great experience!