Maryland to Washington and back {Personal}

This year's 'vacation' was a pretty long, intense one. My dad and younger brother flew to Colorado half a week before my mom and I left by car. It took the two of us 2 1/2 days to drive to the Springs, where we stayed for the rest of the week. After our lovely visit, we drive up to Yellowstone Park where we got to see Old Faithful (which was totally amazing! It was worth the long drive, and I would say it stands up to what people say it is :)), and from there we drove up through Montana and Idaho into Washington state for 2 weeks to visit family. :) We drove through Montana and Wyoming to get to South Dakota, where we were able to spend a whole day at Mount Rushmore. It was such a cool place! My heart was beating as we drove up the large mountainous hill to get to the parking lot. That was probably the best National Monuments I have ever seen in the US. Waaaaaaay better than DC, if you ask me. heheh :) They have so many fun tourist attractions in the town before getting to the monument, including an Alpine Slide, which my brother and I eagerly went on. It has been over 10 years since we went on one of those fantastic thrill rides through the Alps. :) 

After that last stop, we drove through 4 new states on my list: South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. :) Yaaaay! So much closer to my goal of all 50 states by age 20.  Anyways, these are the various pictures I snapped on our roadtrip. Not as many as I could have posted, mind you. So feel lucky to see these few. ;) Enjoy!
(Colorado) 

(Denver)
















(Wyoming)










































(Yellowstone Park) 






























this was quite funny. we were driving throuh Yellowstone, but you had to be careful because the random Bison/Buffalo would literally walk in front of your moving car, whether you stopped or not. they created a slight delay more than once... ;)




This is Old Faithful, one of the most famous Geysers in our country. :) 
(Washington) 
(Montana)










(Wyoming)

I wore my mom's cowboy boots in the right place. :D finally, somewhere they belonged...
















Mount Rushmore, that beautiful mountain where 4 famous men from our Nation were carved into.







(South Dakota) This was during a CRAZY windstorm. It was so strong my mom insisted we pull off the highway for a bit, where we found all the trucks waiting, not even allowed to pump gas, till the storm was over. Later, we found a HUGE semi-truck flipped over in a crazy mangled mess. Glad we got off!

(Minnesota) But honestly, it was such a beautiful area in our country. Especially in Minnesota and Wisconsin. They were extremely warm when we passed through, and the wind was very powerful. I spent one rest stop just gazing at the fields where tall grasses were freely blowing. I loved it. :)













Have a lovely weekend!