Wenatchee or Bust - Day 11

Start: Holiday Inn Express, Billings, MT
End: Comfort Inn, Dickinson, ND
Total miles: 315 miles (approx)

I think the universe is against us ever leaving a place before 9am! Luckily, we "only" had about 4 and a half hours of drive time, so it didn't really matter. However we wanted to get going because we had two stops on the way today that we knew would take some time.

After a disappointing workout on the elliptical (because somebody else was running on the treadmill...how dare they?!?!), we were packed up and on the road before 9:30am. Not too bad.

Our first stop was at Makoshika State Park which is Montana's largest state park and features badland formations and the fossil remains of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops and more. Somebody had mentioned it at a stop on our way through last week and Jim had heard about it, so we thought it was worth a stop. And boy was it ever. HIGHLY recommend it. It would even be worth stopping over night there, camping and hiking on all the amazing trails with incredible views! Seriously...and we aren't even remotely camping people! And of course, pictures don't do it justice, but I'll try anyway. The first picture is all three kiddos holding actual dinosaur bones!!!

Here are some selfies (so I'm actually in some of the pictures!). And yes, Emma is 4 inches taller than me; it isn't just the angle!! LOL

And here is Jim (red shirt) WAY out on a trail:

Then we stopped at Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum. It was OKAY. The kids enjoyed the Junior Paleontologist scavenger hunt but would have liked it better if we'd had more time. We stopped at Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, CO last year which was WAY better but it didn't help today that it was past lunch time and I was hungry AND tired (and it was the second time this summer I've had to deal with "creationism" with my kids and didn't want to deal with it TODAY). So there's that.

 

We got to the hotel around 5pm and were pretty beat. However, the hotel we're staying in has a mini-waterpark...so we went swimming, of course! LOL, this trip really should be called Swimming or Bust! It would be way cheaper to just go to the GrandStay in Delano for a week and let them swim all day!

Tomorrow is our last full day and we are doing something that MIGHT end up being the highlight of the trip. Who am I kidding?!?! It WILL be the highlight for the kiddos, anyway. Until then...