Keeping up with the Bragassas: January 2012

Clark Griswold makes his appearance!

This Christmas, we decided it was time that we bite the bullet and buy a legit Christmas tree instead of our three-foot tall one that we've been using the past 2 years. In addition, Brian decided that we needed to really decorate the outside of our house and this is what we got...

Our tree!

We also went to a "Tacky Christmas Sweater Party" in which Brian picked out the following for....

We took home first place for best dressed couple!!

Vida goes frogging...

Vida's new found friends on our back deck...

Staring at the tree frog through the screened in porch!

The Final Stretch

Day 14 Thursday August 25
Drive to Charleston, SC

Well we finally made it to Charleston on Thursday, August 25. We had to stay in the TLF (temporary lodging facility) on the air force base for a few days until our stuff could be delivered to our new house. Our stuff was finally delivered the following Monday and were lucky to have Brian's parents come then next weekend to help us out! In addition to moving in, I also found a job during that first week. Our internet got hooked up on Wednesday, I applied for the job on Thursday, and was hired by Friday...I just got super lucky I guess!! Although it was nice to have a job so fast, it made things a little stressful as I only had about 5 days at home to unpack and get situated before I started work! Needless to say, we had our work cut out for us!

Check out the total mileage of our trip...

Unpacking in the kitchen...

Trying to figure out where to put things in the living room...

One of our first goals was to find our bedding...we learned that lesson last time! It's not fun to be exhausted and not have any pillows or sheets!

Office...

Guest bedroom

Found the sheets, pillows and blankets!

She's had it!

Driving to Nash-Vegas

Day 13 Wednesday August 24

Driving to Nashville

Like I said in the earlier post, we hung out around Lake Michigan for a little bit this morning and then we decided to hit the road and drive on to Nashville. It really wasn't that exciting of a day except for when we stopped at Churchill Downs in Kentucky...

Chi-Town Visit

Day 12 Tuesday, August 23
Visiting Chicago

Since we were in the midwest, we decided out trip wouldn't be complete without a trip to Chicago. Brian had never been, I've only been once, and my best friend Jenny lives there so of course we had to go! To top it all off, the Atlanta Braves were in town playing the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field so obviously we had no option but to go to Chicago! The drive from Des Moines was fairly short considering we've been putting in 12 hour days in the car...it was only about 5 hours. Luckily, we found a great, chic hotel one block from Michigan Avenue that allowed dogs and that gave military discounts. The funny thing was, that if Vida had to go to the bathroom, we actually had to walk her about 1/4 of a mile down the road to Donald Trumps hotel where he built a dog park. Although the dog park was small, it was better than nothing! Like I said, our hotel was super close to Michigan Avenue and actually right across the street from the river. We were able to walk out of the hotel right into the hustle and bustle of everything.

Once we arrived, we had to hurry up and get ready so we could meet my friend Jenny! She worked right around the corner so we were able to see her after she got off work and then we met up with her later at the Cubs/Braves game at Wrigley Field. Since she had to work the next day, we called it a night after the game and went back to our hotel. Then we got Vida and walked around the city for a while...just taking in the sights. The next day, we got up, grabbed some breakfast, and then headed out. Before we could leave Chicago though, we had to go and see Lake Michigan. It's hard to believe that it's a lake and not the ocean since it looks soooo big. Vida really wanted to go swimming and could hardly stand watching the people jumping into the water! We sat by the lake for a while and relaxed until we couldn't push back the inevitable any longer...we had to leave so we could get to Nashville at a reasonable time!

Rushing through Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands

Day 11 Monday, August 22
Driving to Des Moines, IA

So on Monday, we woke up and hurried over to Mt. Rushmore. Of course a Bragassa trip wouldn't be complete without some sort of hold up, so as predicted, we pulled up to the Mt. Rushmore National Monument entrance only to find out that they don't accept credit or debit cards. I mean seriously...who carries cash anymore!?! So we had to turn around, drive back into the tiny little town at the base of the mountain, find an ATM, get cash, and then go back up. We contemplated not going in since we could get a pretty good view of it from the road, but we decided this might be the only time we're up in this area so we needed to go ahead and go in. Our only problem now was what to do with Vida. We couldn't leave her in the hotel because number 1, it was out of our way to go back, and number 2, it was past check out time...which pretty much voids out options number 1. The only real option we had was to leave her in the car in the parking deck...luckily, it was all shaded and she's a pretty quiet dog so I wasn't concerned about her barking, although I was concerned about getting in trouble for animal cruelty. Either way, we decided to try to go through the monument as fast as possible so we could get back to our fur child.

Once we went in to the museum, it was actually very interesting. I had no idea that the guy who designed Mt. Rushmore, is the same guy who did Stone Mountain in my hometown of Atlanta. Mt. Rushmore really is an amazing sculpture and when we left, both of us were feeling pretty patriotic after reading all about the history of the 4 people carved into the face of the mountain. After reading all we could read and taking all the pictures we needed, we got back in the car and continued our journey to Des Moines, Iowa.

On our way to Des Moines, we also drove past Badlands National Park, so naturally we decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit a National Park. Luckily, Badlands is a great park to drive through although there are some hiking trails you can take if you'd like...I personally, wouldn't like them considering it was super hot, and there are absolutely no trees for shade anywhere. Brian and I drove through the park for about 45 minutes...it is such a crazy place because out of nowhere, these big termite-looking mounds appear everywhere. It was like nothing I've ever seen before!

Take a look...