The Events of Saturday, August 14, 2010 

The fiftieth day of our trip! Yay! It feels so much longer than that…But what a milemarker! I’m somewhat relieved, but then again it’s all speeding by so quickly. There are so many places where I’m like, “When I’m older, I’m going to revisit this with my kids…no, wait, I thoroughly despise traveling and I don’t want to be on this trip.” However, I’m surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed myself on the trip I was determined to despise. We laugh so long and so often now, as a family, and it’s such a joy to sit there and listen to my family laugh and not have to worry about what I would be concerned about at home. I hope the laughter stays when the trip is over.

 

Anyway, about the fiftieth day of our trip…we had pancakes, specially prepared by our one and only breakfast chef: Daddy! They were THE BEST pancakes I have ever tasted, probably because of a lack of good pancakes in my diet. Then we showered in the second worst showers of the trip; see my shower blog for details. As we prepared to leave, the disgusting combination of mud and gravel made everything take just a little longer than it should have, and made everyone frustratingly dirty after having just gotten clean. Anyway, on the way out of our campground we stopped at the visitor center and enjoyed their informational exhibit on Lake Superior agates. The stones were all gorgeous, but my personal favorite was the display of about fifteen polished gemstones arranged to look like a painting of a bouquet of flowers. The second “most” prettiest was the floor tile, which formed the shape of the state of Minnesota in several different shades of agates, and it looked really pretty. Then we drove to a Costco outside of Minneapolis and shopped and ate a delicious lunch. When Daddy ordered the chocolate-covered ice cream bars, however, he forgot that we NEVER have them with almonds on the outside. But we were all pleasantly surprised to find out how delicious they were, even Mom who likes her chocolate unadulterated.

 

Then we revisited the Mall of America! Mom and Dad went on a date and the rest of us kids got to explore the mall together. It was a ton of fun. We visited a Brain Store, an Irish Blessings store, a M&M Store, a Dollar Tree Store, a lot of perfume stores, a Puma store, a Tommy Bahamas Store, a William Sonoma Store…the list goes on and on. Now here’s the amazing part: we didn’t spend a cent! We visited all four floors of the Great Mall of America without spending any money! Our parents have really taught us to spend our money wisely. Then we visited REI to look for some new hiking boots for Abby, with no such luck.

 

After REI, we drove to Iowa! We stopped at a rest area with a pretty pond and a big red barn, which seemed very Iowa-ish. After we’d settled and started preparing dinner, Abby noticed a little otter in the pond. Then during dinner, it started to rain…and then it started to pour. We were eating dinner in the middle of an Iowan rainstorm! After it cleared up a bit, we looked outside to see a beautiful blue sky with just enough clouds to look absolutely gorgeous. And then we looked down at the wet concrete and saw a beautiful reflection of the sky. It was SO pretty!

 

Anyway, after we had cleaned up dinner, we all grabbed our toothbrushes and marched ceremoniously into the rest stop’s bathrooms. Abby’s loose tooth was quite unceremoniously removed from her swollen mouth, much to Lindsey’s and my disgust and Mommy’s amusement. There was a lot of blood, a couple tears and some giggles. It was gross.

 

Then we all piled back into Harvey and drove on to our Iowa campsite for the night, passing many, many fields of corn. I like Iowa thus far.