After another really chilly lunch we headed over to the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site {wow…that’s a mouthful!}. This was definitely a highlight. We watched a really interesting video about what life was like for the three different tribes that made up the Knife River Indian Villages. They had a lot of hands-on …
Theodore Roosevelt National Park – South Unit
We spent our first full day in North Dakota exploring Theodore Roosevelt National Park! We started off at the Visitor’s Center and took a tour of Theodore Roosevelt’s “Maltese Cross Cabin”. We learned a lot about Theodore Roosevelt’s life and what brought him to the Dakotas. Even more important though was maybe learning what impact …
Golden Gate Bridge & the Presidio
This day felt like we slowed down a little bit and it felt nice! We slept in – which meant that we woke up at 7:20 {thanks kids for ruining our ability to sleep!} and lazied about getting ready. We then hopped back over to the Golden Gate Bridge. Mark wanted to walk out onto …
Point Reyes National Seashore
After we left Muir Woods, we headed to Point Reyes National Seashore. The tricky part was the drive. I NEVER get car sick and I don’t know what happened but immediately after leaving Muir Woods I was incredibly nauseous. I ended up spending the entire hour and a half with my head in between my …
Muir Woods National Monument
After the temple, we headed to Muir Woods National Monument. This was definitely a highlight for me. I loved everything about it – the sights, the sounds and the smells! It smelled so fresh and I loved the peaceful solitude of being in nature. It was perfect. Mark and I went off the boardwalk and …
Alcatraz Island
This was such a busy, great day! We grabbed some breakfast and then headed down to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to Alcatraz Island. We were both really excited for this part of the trip. The ferry ride was fun and Alcatraz was fascinating. The audio tour was so well done and learning and …
Golden Gate Bridge
After our museums, we hopped back on the bus and headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. It ended up being later than we had hoped and we didn’t have our jackets and with the sun going down it was getting pretty chilly so we didn’t stay long- we will definitely have to go back another …
Mount Rushmore
Horsethief Lake After that we headed to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. It had been raining all day, but luckily it started to clear up while we were at the Crazy Horse Memorial. We stopped at Horsethief Lake on our way up and it was beautiful. It’s just a small little lake on your way up …
Jewel Cave
Tuesday we left around noon and headed up north. Our trip up was pretty uneventful – which is probably a good thing. We arrived in Hill City, South Dakota a little after six that evening and found a little restaurant to eat at. We got all checked-in and settled in our hotel for the night. …
ARIZONA
Our first Berning Family Vacation was to the Grand Canyon State and it was awesome and beautiful and we would TOTALLY do it again! This was our first year doing what I know will become one of my favorite traditions ever! Arizona is one of those states where I feel like we could do at …