My+Summer+Vacation

Many people spend their summer vacation traveling. In the case of a certain girl, this happens often due to the fact that her family is spread literally across the map. Her childhood vacation memories consist of "yaaaaay beach vacations!" filled with happy splashing in the waves, bathed in the warm beachy-sun with oodles of cousins, aunts, and uncles. This summer was different for her. Instead of going to her favorite place on Earth, Girl was going to Yellowstone, National Park. To be more specific, //driving// to Yellowstone, National Park. With Grandmother, Grandfather, Father, Mother, Sister, and Brother. In one van. Girl did not like this. To elaborate further, Girl was mortified at the very thought of being crammed in the backseat of a van with both her siblings for a million hours, driving clear across the country. No, Girl was not pleased with these forthcomings. Not one bit.

BUT, being the patient, loving, travel-expert that she is, Girl was pleasantly surprised to find that traveling in a 7-passenger van with 7 passengers was easy, and actually fun. So in the next 4 weeks, Girl and company drove through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and stayed on the edge of Montana. Girl lived in many hotels, and stopped at many places. South Dakota was Girl's favorite, because of the gorgeous rolling planes, along with the super-mega-awesome Black Hills and Custer State Park. Girl thought Yellowstone was so-so. But seeing her family from Washington and Arizona made it great. Yellowstone is huge, and the hot springs are cool. But that's about it, besides having to stop 5 times a day to delay the hour and a half drive from one area of the park to another, to wait for, //sigh,// ANOTHER giant herd of Buffalo to cross the road.

On the way home, Girl enjoyed stopping in Colorado immensely, and loved seeing the pretty ski towns during the summer season. And Girl got in touch with her western side with her first rodeo. The rest of the trip back was not particularly exciting for Girl and Company, the land of Nebraski and Iowa being flat flat flat, and boring boring boring. But Girl will ne'er forget gorgeous South Dakota, where her heart committed mutiny to her body and ran away to, now will she forget the whole amazing western trek in its entirety.