SOCIAL MEDIA

Summer Road Trip Day 1 - The Badlands

6.30.2017

Ethan and I have never, as in...n-e-v-e-r been on a real vacation. That is, one that we traveled more than 5 hours to reach the destination of (which would be where my parents live), or one that was beyond our neighboring state of Minnesota. We've been on lots of mini getaways, which all have been amazing and special and needed, etc. We just never were able to get away somewhere that we considered big...together. We've gone individually, separately...with parents or other family members or friends...but never together and with Zoey. Ethan was talking about going out West over my time off this summer and I just nodded and tucked it away thinking that it really wouldn't happen. For some reason though, this time (we've talked about it many times in the past), I requested two travel books from the library surrounding South Dakota. They arrived, we looked them over...we looked online at possible places to stay. We found something that looked right up our alley and said that we would do this if there was something available at THIS particular place. I called. There was a guest house available and they offered us a discounted rate since we would be taking the place of a canceled reservation. I booked it and the next thing I knew we were packing for our adventure.

And an adventure it was! So very much fun...with two minor moments of extreme hunger and exhaustion almost breaking the perfect momentum of the trip, we were good! This was so very much needed for so many different reasons. I'm glad we made it happen.

The first day of traveling got us to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for a stopping point. We slept overnight there and took off the next day to reach our destination of Rapid City, South Dakota. On our way we went through the Badlands and wow! The reality of this landscape is just amazing...standing there just can't compare to any photo. It was pretty cloudy but it still was an absolutely amazing place to be no matter the weather.


















To see all of the photos taken while visiting the Badlands, check out my album below. (Hover mouse over photo below and click on the arrow to view next photo.)

Summer Road Trip 2017

And I just have to share this amazing sculpture that we saw at a roadside stop along our way of Sacagawea. (Some spellings of her name are with a 'j' and others with a 'g'.) Truly breathtaking.

A post shared by Jennifer (@jennifer.amelia) on

Hoping to post a bit of our journey here day by day as time will allow. I know the memories we created and the photos shared will be something we all look back on with great fondness.