Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Monday, May 28, 2007

Were only at Yellowstone for a day and we had to leave already. So we woke up the next morning and it was time to start on our 9 hour drive towards Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

bye to WY!



two hungry bears scavaging for food!



we tried to take some sexy photos




i totally failed i know.

so off we went!


clouds spilling over the mountain peaks

sent the poor camry for some maintenance cos all its warning lights were appearing.. used it way too much cos it had gps! haha. meanwhile we got some snacks in the area..

i love beef jerky.


some interesting doritos flavor, apparently it's out for testing for gaining customers' feedback.


handsum hair


lots of cleaning involved every time we stopped.. gotta get rid of all the bugs and grime before they accumulate and dry up. eww.


i heart chalupas from taco bell



the photographer and his work of art

these photos were taken outside some tacobell.








one of the cards from the yellowstone deck. so cute right?


??



we reached south dakota!


the sky started to gray out along the way..


you can see exactly which parts of the land have gray clouds



it was scary to drive in the rain



and ice. see the slurpee-like slush hitting our windscreen?




it was raining like CRAZY when we stopped for a coffee/toilet break at this gas station.



in fact it was raining these ice thingies.. and they hit us hard! painful ok!


gas prices were high :(


got one of my magnets from the gas station in case i couldn't find it later


and there we see it!! rushmore!!


a touristy little town near rushmore


our first glance


it was raining quite badly so, in case we couldn't see the real thing, here's a preview..



there it is!!


very challenging to take sharp photos in the rainy cloudy dark place





there was supposed to be a lighting ceremony, it being memorial day weekend and all. but it was cancelled at the last minute because of the rain. :(


George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. My personal favorite is Abraham Lincoln cos of his beard, very cool!

I promptly splashed some $ on a bookend with Lincoln's face on it for pawsieboy. It's from an original Gutzon Borglum (the original sculptor) mold and is inscribed with his signature! Nice?

so after loads of photos in the rain, it was time to go home. I don't know what happened after that cos I was sleeping like mad while wj the power driver drove for many many hours in the dark. 20 hour drive from Mount Rushmore to home sweet home.

Tuesday, 29 May, 2008

Well, we took turns so the next day it was their turn to zzz.

Imagine the joy and excitement we felt when we saw these signs!! First the state of Ohio..


Then the city of Cleveland..


And finally Mayfield Road where we stay!!

the junk that i bought.. playing cards, postcards, bookmarks, magnets and 2 knives. Jeff's one was sadly confiscated at the Shanghai airport this jan. =(

Yes.. it was a fantastic trip. Short but totally awesome. yay. I always wish I could recommend Yellowstone to whoever wants to go to the US, but it's expensive to get to, and not exactly symbolic enough. Like, not the kind of place that springs to your mind when you think of touring the US.

NYC, Chicago and Washington DC in the east were iconic and bustling with energy. I loved the vast ocean views we saw along the Pacific Coast Highway from the beautiful San Francisco, down to L.A. and San Francisco. The glitz in Las Vegas and the very grand Grand Canyon. The laid back, carefree and happy-smiley-feel-good culture in Hawaii. Touristy and tropical Florida. The horsies in Kentucky. The mountains of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

All were good fun. but Yellowstone blew me away.

AND I've finally finished up the travel-in-US entries! *pats on the back* Probably some miscellaneous entries on my life there left. After all it's May 29, only a couple of weeks to June 9.

Yellowstone 4 - Springs

So after Old Faithful, we drove around Yellowstone, looking at the springs.

Grand Prism Spring

Happened to see lots of smoke, and some people walking about on the platforms.. so we decided to join in. This was another unplanned stop which turned out to be the best ever.

When people ask me where in the U.S. I enjoyed the most, it's an easy answer: Yellowstone. And this is an unanimous answer even between most of my colleagues. Yes, it is definitely way more fun than the beaches and amusement parks of the West Coast and the majestic Statue of Liberty and mountains in the East.

And the prettiest place in Yellowstone, is easily the Grand Prism Spring. Now I'm a fan of rainbows, I'm the kind who would arrange my markers in rainbow sequence.

So this was heaven.

can you believe this? Where did all the beautiful colors come from..

Porcelain Spring

So after the Grand Prism Spring, the rest of the springs weren't as spectacular. They were bordering on crappy but still worth a mention.

we walked so much that his sole came off




they had swimming pools for whoever felt like dipping themselves in some acid








kinda gross eh

Mammoth Spring

palette spring








=)


anf



someone spotted this far away. wolf? dog? dunno

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Very nice, but as with all canyons, hard to take photos.

So, time to drive back towards our cabins..

spot the bear



dark clouds started to gather, but how do you get such beautiful sun beams without dark clouds? truly a fairy tale way to end our fairy tale yellowstone day.







the lil minimart was about to close by the time we reached, thank goodness! Had been surviving on tidbits the whole day. We managed to buy lots of sandwiches for our lunch+dinner.