A Day in Indianapolis

Monday morning we left our hotel on the northern side of Indianapolis and headed to the old historic part of downtown Indianapolis, so we could get our geek on again. We toured the home of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States.

Front of Benjamin Harrison's home

Side view

Front parlor used for entertaining guests, with a very cool piano in the corner.

Love the ceiling medallion! It's not original to the house, but was copied from one in the house that is original. We think the tour guide said that the chandelier has been in the house since it was built.

Very awesome square grand piano in the family room parlor.

This is a reginaphone music box. A large metal disc is placed inside and it plays music. We're hoping you'll be able to hear the music on the video below. We had to be very careful taking pictures, because we couldn't use flash. They keep the rooms a little dark, because light can ruin the old furniture, pictures, and decorations. 

Very cool kitchen!  The cupboard in the back is a Hoosier cupboard, which is a type of cupboard popular in the first decades of the 20th century. 

And the butler's pantry was awesome, too! We want one...and a butler to go with it.  Below are more pictures of the butler's pantry.

The house was three stories tall, not including that basement, but we didn't dare take any more pictures because we didn't know if the rooms would be dark enough to set off the automatic flashes on our cameras. But suffice it to say that it was a very cool house and a very good tour with lots of information about Benjamin Harrison and his family.

Then we drove by the Indianapolis Speedway just so we could say we saw it.

After that we drove by the new LDS temple in Carmel, Indiana. It isn't open yet - they're still planting and preparing the grounds. The open house is scheduled for July.

Carmel, Indiana, LDS Temple

We left Indianapolis Tuesday Morning and headed to Morgantown, West Virginia, where we stayed last night.

Thank heavens that wipe out on the asphalt at the convenience store/gas station where we stopped to get gas in Ohio only resulted in scraped and bruised knees and ego and not in any broken bones! I'm okay!

We're now in Arlington, Virginia. Tomorrow should be a fun/educational day for us as well.

Days 8 & 9

We love learning about United States history, so one of the things we enjoy doing while taking a road trip is visiting the libraries/museums of the Presidents of the United States. On Saturday we went through the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Below are pictures from our visit.

Statue of President Ford

Brief history about President Ford's upbringing

The dress Betty Ford wore to Gerald Ford's inauguration.

The above 3 pictures are of Gerald Ford's oval office.

This is part of the White House switchboard during Gerald Ford's presidency.

This gun was used in an assassination attempt on Gerald Ford's life. The letter was written to President Ford by the woman who tried to kill him.

Gerald Ford's cabinet room.

The Grand River in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

President and Mrs. Ford are buried right next to the library. 

We are now in Indianapolis, Indiana. We'll share more about our day in Indianapolis in our next post.

Days 6 & 7

We tend to be a little structured in some areas of our lives. We have our packing and loading luggage onto the luggage trolley at the hotel and then into the car down to an art form. Sometimes we have a small battle holding open the hotel room door so we can get the trolley out, but we get the job done. The employees at the hotel we stayed in Wednesday night in Green Bay were so very nice and always wanting to be helpful. As we were trying to maneuver our trolleys (some of the hotels have started using much smaller trolleys, so we each had one) out our hotel room door, an employee offered to hold the door open for us, for which we were very grateful. We made our way to the elevator and rode down to the first floor. Sandy pushed her trolley out but as Edie was trying to do the same, the elevator doors started closing and we couldn't get them to reopen. Edie was lost in an elevator abyss. Sandy just stood outside the elevator on the first floor hoping that Edie would eventually make her way back. After a couple of minutes, the elevator doors opened again and there was Edie, her trolley, and the same helpful employee who held our hotel room door open for us. Evidently, she pushed the elevator call button on the upper floor where she had helped us, and the elevator decided to heed her call before Edie could exit - elevators gone wild, as it were. We all had a good laugh and then we made our way to the front of the hotel so we could load the luggage into the car. Another extremely nice employee said he would help us with our luggage and no matter how many times we told him thanks but we could do it, he insisted, which was very thoughtful, and then he proceeded to load the luggage into the car wrong. But we were gracious, said goodbye, and then headed down the street to a KwikiMart so we could rearrange the luggage somewhat.

And then we were off, heading to Holland, Michigan, for the next part of our trip. We drove through some very beautiful, green Wisconsin farmlands.

We also drove through Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Edie served for four months as an LDS missionary. Below is a picture Edie took yesterday of the house where she and her companions lived while assigned to Kenosha.

Then we stopped by Lake Michigan.

Eventually we were back on the road but before we could reach Michigan, we had to drive through Chicago. Oh my goodness - what a nightmare! Bumper-to-bumper traffic moving so slowly, trying to move into the lanes we needed to be in to make the exits we needed, trying not to swear but not being totally successful at the non-swearing - ugh! Sandy hopes she never has to drive in Chicago again, and Edie hopes to never experience such a white-knuckle commute again. But even though Edie was sweating bullets, she managed to take a picture of a part of the Chicago skyline.

We finally made it to more open freeway and arrived safely in Holland, Michigan. We were excited to go sight seeing (aka shopping and spending) today. The area where we shopped was very quaint with old looking shops. We enjoyed exploring many of them...and maybe buying a few items.

Tomorrow is a new adventure for us.

Y'all come back now.

Days 4 & 5

A quick travel update

We spent yesterday traveling from Bismarck, North Dakota, to Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was clear skies all the way until we reached the outskirts of Minneapolis.  Not only did it rain, but we hit rush hour traffic. Fortunately this morning it was all sunshine as we left and headed to Wisconsin. Edie served a mission in Wisconsin in 1983 and 1984 and thought it would be fun to see the area again. What she found out is that 31 years is a long time and things change a lot. We stopped in Menasha, Wisconsin, and took a picture of the apartment Edie lived in before returning to Nevada. Nothing really looked familiar. Tonight we are in Green Bay, Wisconsin, just a couple of buildings down from Lambeau Field.

Bismarck, North Dakota temple

Minnesota farmland

Minneapolis rush hour in the rain

St. Paul/Minneapolis temple

Wausau, Wisconsin

Edie's apartment in Menasha, Wisconsin. She lived on the 2nd floor; entrance was in the back.

Green Bay, Wisconsin - Lambeau Field, Green Bay Packers stadium

Green Bay, the water and the city

Green Bay, Wisconsin - Love the old homes

Day 3

I love to see the temple. 

I'm going there someday

To feel the Holy Spirit,

To listen and to pray.

For the temple is a house of God,

A place of love and beauty.

I'll prepare myself while I am young;

It is my sacred duty.

Song #95 in the LDS Children's Songbook

Before hitting the freeway this morning, we drove by the Billings, Montana, LDS Temple to take a picture.

Each day of this trip so far has had three things in common: rain, road work, and skunk aroma. While we're not crazy about driving in rain coming down so hard that you can't see the road or even the front of your car, which did happen today for a few minutes, we do appreciate that it cleans the bug splatter off of the windshield. However, we don't appreciate smelling the skunk roadkill as we drive by, and why is there always so much roadwork when we go on a road trip? 

The scenery through Idaho, Montana, and into North Dakota is breathtakingly beautiful.  The mountains in Montana have several rivers and streams surrounded by pine trees. We had to slow down at one point because we weren't sure if the bighorn sheep on the side of the road was going to run out in front of us. What a beautiful, serene place to have a summer cabin! We were so mesmerized by the beauty, that we didn't think to take pictures. 

We saw many cows grazing in pastures as we drove by and then came upon this scene:

It was a field of grass with strategically placed trailers. Things that make you say hmmmm.

And then this happened:

Below is one of the scenic pictures we took of North Dakota:

And now we're in our hotel in Bismarck, North Dakota. Tomorrow we're on the road again to head farther east. 

We'll keep you posted.

We're On The Road Again

Days 1 & 2

We're on our way to North Carolina for Sandy's granddaughter's high school graduation.  Today was an eight-hour day of traveling from Northern Utah to Billings, Montana. We didn't stop to see any sights, but the scenery on the drive was beautiful.  Below are some pictures from today's travels.

Our hotel last night was walking distance (yes, even for us) from the Ogden LDS Temple. 

We love to see the temple, we're going there someday...

Some of the beautiful scenery in Northern Utah:

Edie is the travel agent and Sandy is the driver. Edie was going to try to get a picture of all of the "Welcome To..." signs.  She did get a picture of the Idaho sign (see below), but the Montana one snuck up on us, so she missed that one. We have no idea who the people are in this pic.

Rexburg, Idaho Temple

We traveled in quite a bit of rain today - some heavy, some light. For most of the day, the sky looked like this:

And now we're in our hotel room in Billings, Montana. Tomorrow is another day of traveling, but maybe we'll post some more pictures. I'm sure folks are waiting anxiously to see them.

Until then...