Bridgelandia in Badlandia

We took Labor Day weekend as an opportunity to visit B's cousin and her husband (whom we hadn't met yet!) and tour the Black Hills, the Badlands, and the Whitney Preserve, which is Nature Conservancy property that she manages.  It was a blast!

We started out our first day with a hike in Custer State Park - the Lovers Leap Trail.

Scanning for buffalo, mountain lions, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk, and assorted birds

If we wanted to prove our love for each other, we could have leapt off those rocks.  We didn't.

Our amazing hosts.  We seriously ate so well!

After our hike, we drove along the Needles Highway to see some of the crazy rock formations in the Black Hills National Forest.

After our outdoorsy day, we headed into the town of Custer in search of buffalo (it's actually bison, we learned) burgers.  The rain became a major player, but we didn't let it get our spirits down.

Unfortunately, Kelli didn't know that's what we do when we take photos

We can check "mountain lion riding buffalo" off our bucket list

Downtown Custer

This became a hilarious inside joke but it's not worth explaining.  Maybe funny though, is that a minute after taking this gem, I was emptying my full bladder on the side of the road.  Luckily, no cars came by.

 Forgot to mention that our day started with a snake sighting.  In their garage.  It was crazy!  It was a tiny baby and too hard to tell if it was a rattle snake or a fake one, but it terrified us enough to not leave it up to chance.  It got buried before we left home.

The next day, we headed to the Badlands, but not before stopping to see a really cool buffalo made completely from scrap metal and other junk, and a stop at Wall Drug in Wall.  We were just going to get donuts and 5 cent coffee, but my pregnant self was really hungry so we went ahead and ate lunch.

"Wait, I have to sneeze."  Too, late.

There we go.

 There was a chapel inside the drug store.  Along with a multi-million dollar Western art collection, and every possible souvenir you could imagine.

 After Wall, we headed south into the Badlands.  The National Park annual pass that we bought at Sequoia NP in March officially became worth it with this trip.  Most of the photos speak for themselves.

 Since we had two shooters, we have the opportunity to see the artist in action.  B's photo above, and B taking that photo, below.  At this point I should mention we forgot to pack our nice camera, so many of the nice photos are from B's cousin, and we are very regretful that we didn't get the chance to experiment with our nice new camera.

Female bighorn sheep

Ready for their close up

There's an explanation behind this one but it stands alone.

Got to see some male bighorns!  Very cool!

 After our trip around the badlands, we headed home so our hosts could make us delicious dinner.  I "helped" in the garden and B took photos and got bad chigger bites in the process.  We dined on grilled whole chicken, sweet corn, and salad from the garden.  It was awesome.

A panorama of their property

 On Monday before we headed home, we took a trip on a Kubota around Kelli's preserve.  It was a beautiful day, windy and much cooler than the rest of the weekend.  We also got to meet a super cool dog who was half dingo, but we didn't get a photo of him.  His owner was from a wild horse sanctuary that a few horses had escaped from, and they had been spotted on the preserve a couple times.  As far as we know, they still haven't been tracked down.

It was a great weekend, and crazy that it was only a 5 hour drive for us.  We highly recommend the area and if you know Kelli and Behr, their vacation package!

Farewell to California Tour, Stop 2

B and I didn't have the same Spring Break this year (I know, poor us), so we took a long weekend at the end of my Spring Break and headed south with my mom and Tod.  We stayed at an Air Bnb Place in Arroyo Grande, just outside of San Luis Obispo.  We took the scenic route down after B's class and drove through Big Sur, which we had done about a year ago with B's parents.  Highly recommend this stretch of Highway 101!

Before I go on, it's important to note that all photo credits for this trip go to Tod.

The next morning, we got up and drove up near Paso Robles (pronounced by Californians as Paso Ro-bulls) to our favorite winery that we had stopped at with B's parents the year before, Adelaida.  Highly recommend!  It was a picture perfect day, so we took many pictures!

After the wine tasting and picnic, we headed back toward SLO to a winery whose name escapes me at the moment, but it was also lovely.  We had patio seating and a lovely day for sitting outside.

We attempted a third winery and showed up at 4:55 (ok, maybe :58) and it closed at 5...we were told we were too late.  Luckily, we were docile at this point and chose not to put up a fight.  We headed into SLO for their famous farmers market.  On the way there, we decided to try something a little different...beer!

We continued our walk to the market and walked through the most disgusting alleyway ever...the alley of gum!  There are even more disgusting photos than this that aren't blog appropriate, but here's an idea:

The farmers market was incredibly busy but we managed to find a crepe stand for dinner!  I love crepes!!

The next day, we went for a hike by the ocean.  Mom had recently broken her toe, but she was quite the trooper!

 I included the above photo because it reminds me of going to museums in my childhood, particularly the Field Museum in Chicago.

This guy was our faithful picnic companion, until Tod got too close with the camera for comfort.

After our hike, we made time to make it to one more winery and picked up this bottle for dinner.  We cooked out steaks and veggies on the grill.  We also learned what a salt block is, and what happens to it if it heats up too quickly (explosion).  Good to know.

 

After the winery, we drove down to Pismo Beach.  B figured out from Google Maps that people actually drive on the beach, and how many opportunities do you have to do that?  We decided to join them.  We soon found out something that Google Maps doesn't tell you....that in order to drive on a beach, you need to let a significant amount of air out of your tires.  Or else you'll get stuck.  Luckily, we had the wherewithal to not dig ourselves in too deep, and just letting the air out of our tires allowed us to push out of the problem.  And by us, I mean B, Tod, and two good Samaritans who probably help people like us 10 x a day and refused to take payment.  Thanks guys!

After that, we made it back to town in time for ice cream and meat shopping for our cookout.

Some more shots from the house we stayed in:

The next morning we got up very early to make it to Monterey in time for our whale watching tour at 9 am.  It was 4 hours long and we saw 13 whales and several dolphins as well.  By far the highlight was the end, when two whales were basically playing with our ship, showing off and showing us all different parts of their bodies.  At one point, we got seriously sprayed with the spray from one of their blowholes, which I can attest does smell as bad as you'd think it would.

It was a great trip that made me nostalgic for leaving California!