Last Day in Chicago

The past week has been a bit hectic being back in the Carolinas!  It's been a whirlwind of family stuff, job interviews, acclimating to southern culture and etc! That deserves it's own blogpost, but for now, lets concentrate on Chicago and the end of a wonderful road trip!

Our last day in Chicago started off with a short walk to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Best part about the zoo minus all the fun animals....it's FREE!  The best free zoo we've ever been too! (It beats the DC Zoo and the Chapultepec Zoo, in D.F.)



A Coca Cola Bear!!
He was swimming and playing with a kg ball for a while!

Simba

Beautiful boardwalk!

The husband!

After the zoo we enjoyed strolling around the old Chicago neighborhoods and searching for souvenirs for our family.

Found some Chicago Popcorn around here (A mix of cheddar and Caramel)

Historic Row Houses

 

More Row Houses, can I live here please?



even move homes!

The Chicago Getaway Hostel where we stayed.
Again, super nice area and neighborhood!
Where's Matt in this picture?

 

If you're ever in the Chicago area, I totally recommend staying in the Lincoln Park area where we stayed!  Such charm and character in this area with old churches, historic row homes, tree lined streets, and lots of parks!  You can walk to lots of things too! We were able to walk to N. Clark Street where they have lots of restaurants, stores and coffee shops...The zoo....a longer walk to Wrigley Field, and the super convenient L-Train makes it easy and fast to get to the downtown core area!

The "el"
 

When you're in a car for 51+ hours what do you do?  We found it fun to listen to audio books.  Before leaving we purchased the first two books in the Divergent Series.  They were super fun to listen to, as they were set in Chicago area and the "Dauntless" compound was in the Navy Pier area!  Fun to make connections to a book and real life!

After Chicago, we hopped in the car and began our journey to Dayton, Ohio where we pretty much just stopped to sleep.  Obviously there's no pictures as there wasn't much to see other than the highway.  After Ohio, we made our way to my (Liz's) hometown to see family and friends. Enjoy the last few pictures from our drive!




West Virginia Tunnels

Favorite part of driving through this area! The tunnels!!

The Blue Ridge Mountains! Almost there!

Welcome to North Carolina!



When you see the funny looking mountain, you know your home!
Pilot Mountain



 

Stay tuned for more updates from the Sidells!

Chicago is

my kind of town...(sung enthusiastically).

Well. Actually we love the South. But Chicago is a nice place to visit. We've been staying at the Chicago Getaway Hostel in Lincoln Park. It is actually really nice and affordable. We have our own room and our own bathroom. Of course Liz called top bunk.

On Sunday we went to a Cubs Game. It was fun but they lost.

 And we found out why Chicago is called the Windy City. It was super cold.

We also found out that baseball players (pitchers especially) are funny shaped.

 And I got a helmet of nachos.

Then on Monday we were straight up tourists. 

The Bean

The Lake.

The Architecture Boat Tour.

We even made a few friends along the way.

Liz met some cheerleaders!!

And we had deep dish pizza. But the camera wasn't around for that bit. If you follow Liz on Instagram you can see that one.

We leave Chicago today and head to our last stop before the Carolinas. We'll see you soon. 

Bozeman, Montana

Liz here...Matt's been doing  a great job of updating the blog eh?

Over the past few days, we've been in Bozeman, Montana!  Favorite stop so far!  Mostly because we got to spend time with a good friend of mine, Heather and her fiancé Mike.

Heather and Liz

Heather and I have been good friends since the third grade.  We played soccer together, survived middle school together and have shared so many fun memories over the years!  (She also had the best birthday parties growing up!) 

Enjoy the pictures from our time in Bozeman!

Hiking the "M" a must do in Bozeman!

Up-close to the "M"

Another "M"

 

Downtown Bozeman




Thought of my Grandma Ellen a lot today...

Mural on a wall in downtown Bozeman

Museum of the Rockies!  So many cool dinosaur fossils were found in Montana!

Heather and Mike, our amazing hosts!!

 Next stop...Bismarck, North Dakota and the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota!

 

Lake Louise, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, The Border, The Bus

The internet is super slow here in Glacier National Park (it was so slow we had to wait til Bozeman, MT to post this). Not that I mind being away from technology, but it makes updating a road trip blog that much harder. Anyways here are a few pictures from the past 2 days.

First up is Lake Louise, Alberta. You know the really famous lake with the turquoise water, famous hotel and beautiful view. Yep, it's still frozen. This is the only part of the lake unfrozen.

Next we have Liz trying to catch some buffalo at the several thousand year old hunting site Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. Would you care to guess how the buffalo were hunted?

We then made our way across the border. See that little building in the distance? Yep that's the border. It was basically empty.

Welcome to Montana, America. Smell that? that's freedom baby! (Feigned apologies to my Canadian friends)

Finally here's a shot of Liz riding in one of the famous red buses at Glacier. Is she a beauty queen or what?! Someone find her a parade to be in ASAP!

Stay tuned more updates to come.