6/5/2023

Hello from almost Yellowstone! We got to our hotel right outside the park this evening. It's the lease fancy $300 hotel I've ever seen lol. Although they do have a waterslide in their indoor pool. Super fun for kids. 

Here is our first leg of the journey! We stopped on the way to Reno in Elk Grove for breakfast Saturday morning at this place called Jamie's Cafe. I got a breakfast burrito and potatoes and it was so good. BUTTT it like triggered an IBS type reaction and I've been dealing with it every since. You know you're old when you spend your whole vacation trying to not poop or poop. Sheesh.

We went to Auburn to walk around the shops after breakfast and I had to run back to their public bathroom 3 times. Poor Scott waiting around for me. The shops kind of suck there now too. Only like one real antique store, all the rest were new gift shop home decor stuff.  Of course I couldn't concentrate in the one store because I had to run back down the street lol.

Luckily it calmed down a bit and we made it to Reno. We met up with our friends Allen & Carolyn and their daughter Chelsea and her husband. Chelsea and her man live in Reno. Her sister lives with her too and our friends had went to fetch a dead car to bring back home so we met up at a brewery. That was fun!

I was scared to eat or drink much. I had a margarita and didn't die.

After that we split ways for a bit and I drove my tipsy husband and I to the bit Mills End fabric store. I found a few things. He was funny and was like just buy it and buy more lol. The bag is down in the car or I'd just you what I bought. You'll have to wait.

After the fabric store we went to an antique store but didn't buy anything and then CVS to buy Pepto. Here is our nice room. This was the first time staying in shorter side of the building. The rooms were a little different but still really nice.

 TG the Pepto helped out since of course we were going to meet up with our friends for dinner. I was super scared to eat but didn't get sick after. Whew!

We hung out in the casino after (Grand Sierra Resort) and I was down to my last $2 (I took down $50 and borrowed $20 from Scott) when I won $360!!! 

How exciting! I cashed out at $350 and then played $50 of that before we went to bed. Scott was up a little too so that made us happy campers. Our friends stayed at a different hotel and we were leaving before them so we didn't meet up for breakfast or anything.  It was a really fun night though!

I think we went to bed around 10. We had played around with the idea of taking a nap and going back down to play after midnight since Scott had got $40 free play on his player card (they had sent us a thing in the mail) and I had $5 free play but it wasn't good until Sunday. Of course we just went into the room and crashed out. 

In the morning we were both awake and up by 6 am. We've somehow morphed into senior citizens over night.  We went down and played our free money. I was down $20 then won a bit. I cashed out at $21 so ha! I got $1 off them ;)

After that we had breakfast at their diner/café. Delicious!

After breakfast we loaded up and hit the road. Almost 7 hours to his nephew Brian's house in Nampa, Idaho.

We were so excited we were almost to the Nevada/Idaho border when we see this WELCOME TO OREGON sign. DOH! We forgot we had to go through a corner of Oregon. It was pretty hilarious.

Oregon looking just like Nevada for MILES AND MILES AND MILES.

These clouds were spectacular though!

They looked so close and like cotton candy flaking off. 

Eventually we made it to Idaho. I always though Idaho was a forest but apparently that is not the southern part. Scott and I had both never been to Idaho before. 

We made it to his nephew's house right on time! His daughter Jessica and her fiancé Trevor bbq'd us some burgers and hot dogs. So funny that they have the same names as our family. Jessica and our Jessica are 2nd cousins. 

We hung out at their kitchen table and talked until about 9 when I was like we should probably go! I think it took us another 1/2 an hour to get in the car. It was fun listening to them talk about when they were kids. Brian is Scott's oldest sister's son and about 5 years older than him. Brian lived with them for a little bit when he was 18 too. 

Well it is 10:38 here in Montana. Scott is out like a light snoring his head off. Tomorrow morning we are going to go to Yellowstone and it is our 30th Anniversary. It's pretty amazing that we have been married so long. He's got a good deal hahahahhaha. Might add more of our trip to the blog tomorrow but it might be later. We'll see! This is the first night I did not just pass out the moment my head hit the pillow. I guess getting up at 5:30 while you're on vacation can do that to you!