A Vacation of "Firsts"

This past weekend, I was able to go to a family reunion with my husband and his family and it was all a vacation of firsts. Just about all of it was things I've never experienced before! ***Warning...lots of pictures! And writing!*** Here are all of the fun things I did for the first time.

First time traveling to Nebraska

We went and stayed at Fort Robinson. It's about an hour away from Lusk, so almost to the border of Wyoming. Fort Robinson is where the army barracks for the civil war are. It was pretty darn cool!
We got to stay in one of the barracks, so there were bunk beds, but there were also a couple rooms with queen size beds. There was also the mess hall where the soldiers actually ate. Eating at the mess hall leads me to another first.

Eating Buffalo!
Yep, there was buffalo written all over the menu. I decided to be brave and try it. There aren't many opportunities to do that here in Utah. It was...interesting. Very dry, but good. I'd be willing to try it again. Now onto the next "first".

Taking a Jeep ride up to the Fort Robinson Buttes

This was a little scary for me. I didn't expect to be off roading up all these hills to the top of these mountains (well,they aren't really mountains...Nebraska doesn't have any mountains). It felt like I was at the top of the mountain though. I was the only one holding on for dear life riding up. It's not like we were inside a vehicle. We were out in the open air. It was the most beautiful drive though and it really was a lot of fun. We saw lots of wild sheep up there. There was even a butte they call Turtle butte because it looks like a turtle, or at least it's supposed to. Up at the top, we were able to get out and walk into a space enclosed by a chain link fence. I wasn't going to dare let Jace down though. I'm sure he would have been able to escape knowing him.






Owning a pet bunny

Okay, so I didn't really own a pet bunny, but we had a little one that lived outside our cabin at Fort Robinson. It was the cutest thing and Jace loved it! He would run outside and go to its hole looking for it telling it to come back out. Just take a look for yourself!

Going to Mount Rushmore!
Mount Rushmore was only a couple hours away from where we stayed, so of course we had to drive up there. It was nothing like I expected it. I didn't realize how small it is and how far away it really is. It was so great to see though and I'm so glad I got to see something like that! While we were there, we enjoyed the yummiest icecream I've about ever had. We also went to the gift shop and got to actually meet one of the carvers of Mount Rushmore. He was able to sign a book for us and we were able to get a picture taken with him. His name was Nick Clifford. I'm definitely going to be going back there someday.

Driving through a herd of buffalo

That's right. After going to Mount Rushmore, we went to Custer State Park. There was a wildlife trail that we decided to go check out. They warned us we would probably see buffalo on this drive since it was later in the evening. But BOY did we see buffalo. We did not expect them to be all over the road and to get to drive right through the middle of all of them. It was a little frightening because we had our windows down. I thought they were going to run right into us. They must be used to all of the people though because they didn't seem to care that we were there at all. I could have reached my hand out the window and touch one if I really wanted to, but who wants to take a risk like that? Those things are quite large!

Seeing both ends of a rainbow

I wasn't able to get pictures of this. We had this crazy lightning storm one night while we were in the mess hall eating dinner. The lights kept going out while we were eating. But the sight after the storm was so amazing! There was an actual double rainbow. I've never seen that before. Not only that, but you could see both ends. That doesn't happen in Utah because of the mountains and the big cities. We tried to get pictures, but our camera just couldn't pick it up. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Seeing Needles Canyon

There was another place in Custer State Park called Needles Canyon. I was very worried that it just wouldn't be worth going up because the drive was uphill and took a really long time to get to. Jace was getting ornery and we were all tired from being on the road so long already that day. But the drive was so worth it. The views were amazing and we were able to hang out at the top for awhile and run around and take pictures. On the drive up, we went through several one-way tunnels. Jace loved them because before you could go through, you had to stop and honk the horn so that somebody from the other end wouldn't accidentally go through at the same time as you.

Anyways, I know there was a lot of other stuff that I did for the first time, but those are some of the big highlights. Nebraska was really so much fun and I wouldn't mind going back at all! I look forward to taking more trips there with my hubby since his grandma and grandpa are from there. His plan is to move there someday, and to be honest, I don't think I'd mind it as well. It was just so peaceful and it's so great to hear of his family history there and to hear about his grandpa's stories from there. I know this post ended up being really scrambled with the writing and the pictures, but I made it the best I could so that it didn't seem so long. And just to end, here's an awesome family picture we got up in the canyons.