Road Trippin'

Hi Friends,

I am so sorry for not posting in the last week. I have SO much to tell you.

THURSDAY

Last Thursday I saw Niagara Falls for the first time ever - and let me tell you - it was incredible and I loved it and I hope I get to go back one day.

Awesome Niagara Waterfall!

Cute Ducky from the Gift Shop

After Niagara Falls (the New York side), we went to our second Diner, Drive-in, and Dive in Buffalo, New York. We ate at Restaurant Sophia's for Brunch. While Guy may have eaten a fried bologna sandwich, I certainly did not. I learned that Guy will not eat eggs under any circumstances, so if you were ever wondering why there were no egg dishes on his show, that is why! 

Restaurant Sophia's

Eggs and Pancakes!

As you can see, we ate eggs and pancakes. My mom ordered a vegetable egg scramble with beef and I ordered sunny side up eggs with chicken souvlaki. We shared apple-maple-walnut pancakes, yum! It was also probably the first time I have ever ordered pancakes in a restaurant - that's the truth. 

Immediately after brunch we drove to Cleveland, Ohio. Now you might be asking yourself, Cleveland, really? But yes, really, and let me tell you why. One of my best friends from college is a super genius and has started medical school at Case Western Reserve University. How could I resist going to see her? (I'm not going to tell you her name in case she doesn't want all 10 of my readers knowing her name, so let's just call her "P"). It also helps that my mom adores her so she couldn't really object. While we were in Cleveland we managed to eat at our third Diner, Drive-in, and Dive in a twenty-four hour period. 

We ate dinner at a restaurant called Melt Bar and Grilled in Cleveland not too far from the campus. This restaurant only serves variations of the grilled cheese sandwich - basically a dream come true for me - I love grilled cheese! Of all three DDD's we ate at, this was definitely the best (although it might have been the company). 

MELT!

Yum!

Mom, P, and Me with our MASSIVE grilled cheese!

Well, let me tell you what the food is you're looking at up there. I ordered the July fish special sandwich that had cheese, fish, okra, and some sort of garlic sauce on it. It was the most amazing grilled cheese I have ever had. My mom ate a grilled cheese with grilled vegetables (boring but she said it was delicious). P got a grilled cheese that had pierogies in it! It was crazy but she loved it! 

FRIDAY

On Friday my mom and I drove from Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois. But before we zoomed out of cleveland we were sure to stop by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since we had gone to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN we decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to another music hall of fame. It was quick and fun and then we were on our way.

We decided to go to Chicago because my father has relatives in a Chicago suburb and we wanted to see them! Now, let me tell you something about my mom, she remembers everything, it's crazy. The last time we were in Chicago was almost three years ago for one of my cousin's bar-mitzvah's. During that weekend three years ago we ate at a very good italian restaurant which I had pretty much forgotten about until my mom reminded me of it. She remembered exactly where it was and how to get there without any directions! I was so impressed. So on Friday we ate dinner at The Next Door Bistro in Northbrook, IL. It was just as good as I remembered!

SATURDAY

I must admit that Saturday was a relatively boring day for us. We spent the majority of the day visiting with family in Chicago which was really fun and relaxing. We didn't end up leaving the Chicago area until almost 5pm - oops! We then drove from Chicago to Des Moines, Iowa and went right to bed. 

SUNDAY

Something I did not realize before this trip is that the majority of places in this country are closed on Sundays. Who knew? So while Des Moines actually appeared to be pretty cute, nothing was really open for us to see or enjoy. What we did find, however, was Zombie Burger. Now to be honest, I don't really care much for zombies, but most of my friends do, and we thought it was funny, so we decided to eat there. 

GRRRR

So Zombie Burger was fun, but here is my only advice - order a burger! I was silly and ordered a portabella mushroom salad, and my mom ordered a grilled chicken salad. What were we thinking? I'm not really so sure. 

If you are ever in Des Moines you should make it a point to be the capitol building because it is really quite beautiful. We then drove to Sioux Falls, SD and spent the night there (not much else to do there). But before we got to South Dakota we decided to take a detour to Omaha, Nebraska to say we ate a steak in Nebraska. 

Welcome to Omaha!

Welcome to South Dakota!

MONDAY

On Monday we drove to Rapid City, South Dakota so we could see the famous Mt. Rushmore. Well, let me tell you, it took us a lot longer than anticipated to get to Rapid City. We decided to make our first stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. 

Now let me explain to you what exactly the corn palace it. It is literally a giant building that is decorated on the outside entirely with corn. Yup, that's right, the murals pictured above are created out of ears of corn and corn husks. It was not quite as exciting as we were hoping for, but it was ok. 

After the corn palace the next place of interest was the Badlands National Park. We drove around the national park for about an hour and were blown away at how beautiful it was. The craziest thing was that the badlands used to be entirely under water and dinosaur-era fish used to live there! 

Ta Daaaa

Shadow Fun

Me and my Mom!

All along the interstate were countless billboards and signs for a place called Wall Drug. So we had to go! It was the most overwhelming place I have been since India (I would say ever, but that would be a lie). Second most overwhelming place I have ever been. Anything you could ever want, they had. I was able to finally buy my first pair of cowboy boots! I was, and still am, very excited because I have wanted cowboy boots for ever. They are cute, comfortable, and surprisingly affordable - score! 

Rapid City has been the nicest city we have been to so far. We decided to google the best restaurants in Rapid City, South Dakota and stumbled upon Tally's Silver Spoon. It is my new favorite restaurant. We got in last night (we called ahead) and they stayed open late to serve us because we called (bonus points). We then found out it was late night happy hour so we got two for one glasses of wine (bonus points). The most amazing thing was what they called the "indecision menu." If you don't know what you want to eat, you pick how many courses you want to eat for a flat rate, and the chef's are in total control of what you eat. The catch? Everyone at the table has to eat the same thing, and the chef's will honor any dietary restrictions that you may have. We got a two-course dinner that consisted of a beet and arugula salad with baked apple and apple chip salad for the first course. Our second course was coal fish with locally grown roasted vegetables. Everything was so amazing that our waiter talked us in to dessert. We got a flourless chocolate cake with avocado-orange pudding and ginger glaze. It was pretty much the best dinner I have ever eaten, and I'm not exaggerating. We liked it so much that we were shown the breakfast menu in case we wanted to come back in twelve hours. YUM. 

TODAY/TUESDAY

As you probably could have guessed by this point, my mom and I went back to Tally's for breakfast this morning and we were not sorry that we did. Their breakfast was incredible! Something fun about Rapid City is that they have statues of a lot of past American presidents. So obviously we had to pose with them! 

After breakfast we finally made it to Mt. Rushmore!! 

Mt. Rushmore!!!

Mt. Rushmore was so cool! We didn't spend very long there because it was 100 degrees out - but we were amazed at how truly awesome this was. How did they carve those faces with dynamite and ax's? I don't know but I was sufficiently impressed (who wouldn't be). 

After Mt. Rushmore we went to Custer, SD because I hear there was a pink and purple building there.

Purple Pie Palace! 

I was in heaven - a colonial house painted in pink and purple! I don't even like pie and I was delighted to be there!

We then drove through the state of Wyoming to get to Cody, WY. 

Welcome to Wyoming! 

We drove through the state of Wyoming on back country and mountain roads and were surrounded at times by beautiful forests and at others by boring flatlands. Tomorrow we start to explore Yellowstone National Park! 

I promise to update before next Tuesday!