Finally in to our new home

Lacey and I finally got possession of our new home and we're working on getting settled. The house is great so far, our neighbors are incredibly nice, and it feels really good to know that there is no one living above or below us. We can't wait to have everyone come and visit us in Grand Rapids, MI now that we have all this extra space.

I won't show you any pictures of the inside because it's a disaster, but enjoy some pictures of the outside!

 

The front... I really need to trim those bushes on the side of the house!

 

The back of the house, can't wait to hang out on our deck, mow our lawn, and shoot some hoops!

 The orange flowers waited to bloom until we were moving in

 

Who likes lavender?

 

A (little more than) a year later

Unbelievably it has been more than a year since we drove away from Brooke and Ryan's place with them dancing and singing outside our car, got our last Bronx pizza, and headed out of San Diego on our epic journey across the Western U.S.

Looking back now it is clear to us that the trip was one of the best decisions we ever made. It taught us so much about ourselves, our relationship, and what we need to be happy in this world. Lacey and I are forever grateful to our friends that let us crash at their houses along the way, the national parks system for sharing some of the most beautiful sights we've ever seen, and (maybe most importantly) our parents and my sister Denise for letting us invade their lives for almost five months while I looked for a job.

A lot has changed since we arrived in Minnesota last August at the end of our trip. First of all, I got a job at Steelcase as an Environmental Chemist working to eliminate chemicals of concern from the office furniture products we sell worldwide. It has been great so far (in my first four months) and I'm really happy that I found a job where I can actually do some real and measurable good in the world. Along with that job we moved to Grand Rapids, MI. Grand Rapids is not necessarily where we saw ourselves landing, but we have been pleasantly surprised by the selection of food, the great farmer's markets, the excellent beer, and the incredibly welcoming people. That, of course, is not where the huge changes in our lives end. We just recently bought our first house and will move in in June. We spent some time looking... well, by we, I really mean Lacey, and found a great 90 year old house with beautiful original wood floors, awesome French doors, a great front porch, a deck in the back, and a perfect sized yard for the puppy we hope to get once we move. I'll post pictures soon... so stay tuned.

So, I think it is safe to say that the last year has been a whirlwind for us, and despite missing our time on the road, we are incredibly happy to be in a place where we can start the next chapter of our lives together. Please come visit us in Grand Rapids, we have plenty of extra space now with our new house and would love to host some guests!

Until next time...  

Finally, A Road Trip Summary

So the road trip is long gone, but as I look back at the stress-free days on the road I thought it would be cool to post some cool panoramic pictures and give you all some stats from our trip.

First, here are the stats...

Days on the road:
78

States visited:
11 (California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota)

Countries visited:
2 (Yeah, only two, not that impressive)

Miles driven:
9,660 

National Parks Visited:
23 (Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes, Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Sequoia, King's Canyon, Yosemite, Redwoods, Crater Lake, Mt. Rainier, Olympic, North Cascades, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Wind Cave, and Badlands)

Miles Hiked:
201

Nights in the tent:
50 or 51 (not so sure) 

Pictures taken:
This is a ridiculous number, but I don't know what it is (>5,000?)

Other cool places visited:
Sedona, Flagstaff, Denver, Moab, Las Vegas, Big Sur, San Francisco, Napa and Sonoma, Drive Thru Tree Park, Oregon Caves National Monument, Corvallis, Eugene, the Oregon Coast, Portland, Mt. St. Helens, Forks, WA (Twilight anyone?), Seattle, Vancouver, Spokane, Bozeman, MT, Casper, WY, and Wall, SD

Games of Yahtzee played:
I can't count that high, sorry

Money saved by our National Parks Pass:
> $265 (Thanks Christina and Denise!)

Boxes of Mac and Cheese consumed:
40 (actually, I have no idea, but there were quite a few)

Blog page views:
>2,000

Anyway, those are the stats I can think of right now. The trip was awesome and, as far as I know, we have no regrets. The last few weeks in Minnesota have been great, and I'll keep you updated on where we land next!

Odessa Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park

 A cool arch, don't remember which one

The Yosemite Valley, what an awesome place

Crater Lake, maybe the most beautiful place on Earth

See Mt. St. Helens in this picture?

Mt. Rainier

Just one of the amazing views at North Cascades

Wall Drug is not a cool place, but the sign is pretty cool

Thanks so much for following the blog during our travels! I hope everyone had a great summer, I know we did!

Road Trip - South Dakota

The last full day on our trip was a long one, but it was worth it to see the awesome things we saw. We camped on August 3 in Casper, WY and took off the morning of the 4th and headed for South Dakota! Not long after getting to South Dakota we got to Wind Cave National Park. Wind Cave has over 100 miles of caves that have been discovered so far and apparently has some very unique rock formations. We've been in caves, didn't think they were all that great, and didn't have a lot of time... so we didn't even go underground.

The above ground part of Wind Cave, though, was pretty cool. It is the classic prairie setting with wispy grasses, sparse trees, and rolling hills. We went on a short hike and got some excellent views!

I found the energy to climb up on this sign

A view from the top of the fire lookout hill

Another view of the prairie below

After Wind Cave we headed up to Mt. Rushmore to check it out. We felt like we had to see Mt. Rushmore because we're Americans and, at almost 30 years old, we'd never been there. We were a bit angry to find out that our National Parks pass didn't get us in for free, but got over it. Anyway, most of you have seen Mt. Rushmore, so you don't need much more prose, here are a few pics.

Minnesota flag, had to take a picture

Those four guys on the mountain

A closer look at those four guys... I honestly didn't know what four presidents were on Mt. Rushmore until we got there. I suck.

Anyway, Rushmore was okay, but we moved on and stopped at Wall Drug. Our friend Brooke in San Diego told us we had to, and despite our unwillingness, we did. Wall Drug sucks, I don't care what anyone says. We did get a couple weird pictures though.

Lacey and an old man statue

A sign

Me and a creepy old man statue

Again, Wall Drug sucked. So, we moved on to Badlands and basically did a quick drive by. Let's face it, we were tired and ready to be done, but still got some good pics at Badlands before driving a long way to Sioux Falls and camping for the last night on our trip.

Yeah Big Horn Sheep!

 Some yellow dirt hills. These would have been much cooler if we'd never been to Utah.

One more Big Horn Sheep

One last picture with Sally (Thanks for the tripod Eric!)

Alright, that was the last official stop on our trip and then it was on to MN from there to surprise my Mommy for the big family fish fry. Expect a couple more posts with some random stuff!

Road Trip - Grand Teton NP

Have you ever seen one of those movies with a landscape that just looks unreal? You know, the kind of mountain-scape or body of water that looks like it must be CGI? Well, chances are it may have been a real shot from Grand Teton. This place was unreal! I'll just run through what we did quickly so I can post a bunch of pictures. We swam in three lakes, went on a 12 mile hike, saw more awesome mountain views than most people get in a lifetime, and saw bull moose! Enjoy the pictures, and look out for my next post from Wind Cave, Mt. Rushmore, and Badlands.

The requisite sign picture

A great look at Jackson Lake at sunset

A panoramic view of the Grand Tetons

An evening at Jenny Lake with a nice blublocker shot

Hidden Falls on our 12 mile hike

A picture of Lacey in the Cascade Canyon

Another view of Cascade Canyon

A very curious little weasel

One of the two bull moose we saw near the Snake River

Bull moose again

I always think its funny to see someone taking pictures with their iPads, but this was exceptionally hilarious

So that was our trip to Grand Teton. If you have a chance to go there, definitely don't pass it up. I'll get our last post from the trip up tomorrow! Thanks for following the blog!

Road Trip - Yellowstone NP

So this post is admittedly a bit late since most of you know that we are back in Minnesota now and done with our trip, but you'll just have to deal with it. We didn't have a lot of time or internet connectivity the last week or more of the trip, so it's time to play catch up. 

We left Bozeman after having a great time hanging out with Phil, Tracie and Nate. We even got to float down the Gallatin River!

Phil in his sweet sleeveless T working on the float tubes

Lacey, Me, Nate and Phil on the bridge after some floating and swimming

After spending a couple days in Bozeman we headed to the park and grabbed a campsite at the Madison CG. The drive down was scenic. We saw some big horn sheep (finally), a hot spring, and some cool open meadows.

 The Roosevelt Arch

One of the bighorns we saw on the way into the park

A hot spring with a steam vent

Gibbon Falls

That night Eric met us at the campground to hang out with us for a while. The next morning we decided to make it a geyser day. We headed down the road towards Old Faithful with some stops on the way. Don't ask me what any of these things were called, but some were pretty cool.

Eric takin' some hot springs pics

A geyser in Devil's Lake

Lacey at another geyser hot spring thing

 Is this why they call it Yellowstone?

That's crazy blue right?

Yeah, we went to Old Faithful... I think you have to if you're there

Three phases of the Old Faithful eruption

The next day we drove up to the Lamar Valley for an overnight backpacking trip. If you haven't heard of it, the Lamar Valley is reportedly one of the best places in the lower 48 to view wildlife. Possibilities for wildlife to see in the Lamar are bison, elk, antelope, black bears, wolves and grizzlies. Unfortunately we didn't see all those things, but we did see antelope and bison. The hike in was great, the night was a little unnerving knowing we were camping amongst animals above us on the food chain, and the hike out was great.

A roadside bison on the way to Lamar

 A great shot of the Yellowstone River

Lower Yellowstone Falls with two people in front of it

Our hike in the valley

Lacey and Eric fording the creek to our campsite

Our campsite sign

Eric on the trail out

 There were a lot of bison to hike through on our way out. Pretty cool!

Anyway, that was our trip to Yellowstone. Look for my post on Grand Teton National Park in the next day or two.