The Kehl Family Times: Salt Lake to Chicago and everything in between

Tim was invited to attend a conference, for a software program for his home building company in Dubuque, Iowa the first part of Septemeber. So, Tim and I decided to make a road trip out of it. We had always wanted to visit the Midwest and thought this would be a great opportunity. I made a itinerary of the places we would visit and the hotels we planned on staying at. Also, I put together these cool little road trip buckets for the kids. Each bucket contained activity books, coloring books, a water bottle and a place to put their snacks.

Mason and Allie's activity buckets for the car rides

We left on Thursday August 27th, on Tim's 41st birthday. We had planned on visiting Mount Rushmore and stayed in Custer, South Dakota the first night. The drive from Salt Lake to Custer, South Dakota was about 9 hours. To be honest, the 9 hour drive went by super fast. The kids watched DVD's, played with their 3DS and enjoyed their activity books. At each stop we made, if they had been good, I gave them each $.50 cents. They would be able to use their money to buy something at each state.

We drove through Wyoming and had lunch in Casper, Wyoming.

We got to Custer, South Dakota around 7 that night. We decided to check into our hotel in Custer since Mount Rushmore is about 20 miles from the small town of Custer.

At the Best Western in Custer, South Dakota

We then found a cute restaurant Grizzly's restaurant just 3 minutes from Mount Rushmore.

We ate dinner in a little quaint town called Keystone, South Dakota. It is just 3 miles from Mt. Rushmore. It reminded me a little of Jackson Hole, with the cool western buildings.

Keystone, South Dakota

Grizzly's restaurant in Keystone South Dakota

Keystone, South Dakota

Tim and Naomi on Tim's Birthday in Keystone, South Dakota

Allie and I at Grizzly's

We and then headed up to Mount Rushmore around 8 PM. They have a lighting ceremony each night at 8PM, where they light up the monument and play the national anthem. It was so fun to see the momentum all lite up.

The sign off the side of the road by the monument.

The flags of each state inside the monument

The lighting of Mount Rushmore

The next morning we ate breakfast at our hotel, and woke up early to go up to Mount Rushmore so we could see the monument in the day time. It was nice that the $11 parking pass that they charge for visiting Mount Rushmore, is good till the end of the year. We were able to pay one time $11 parking fee and use it the next morning. Also,there is not an admission fee to go see Mount Rushmore which made it nice to be able to go twice.

Early morning sunrise as we drove up to Mount Rushmore

A beautiful lake right before the monument

We got there right when it opened which was 7 AM. We were practically the only ones there. This made it so nice. It was fun to be there without the crowds from the previous night.

Nice having the whole place to ourselves

Mount Rushmore

The side profile of Mount Rushmore

The tunnel way out from Keystone

We knew the drive to Nauvoo, Illonis was going to be the longest car ride. It was about 11 hours plus stopping time. We left Keystone, South Dakota around 8:30 am and got to Burlington Iowa around 11:45 PM but we also picked up an hour, from the time change. It made for a very long day. It rained for most of the trip, and so the driving conditions at night were not that great . We decided to stay in Burlington, Iowa which is about 25 miles away from Nauvoo, since there is limited hotels in Nauvoo. I'm glad we made that decision, which made for a shorter drive on our way up to Dubuque. We drove through Minnesota and down through Iowa.

We spent all day Saturday and Sunday in Nauvoo. Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel and then drove about 1/2 hour to Nauvoo. It is a small little town in the middle of corn fields. I was surprised to see how small it actually was. As we made our way into town off to your right, we ran right into the Nauvoo temple, sitting on top of a beautiful green hill. It can be seen from all of Nauvoo. We started our tour in the visitors center and headed on the wagon ride after getting our tickets from Guest Services.

Nauvoo, Illnois

Nauvoo Temple

Sitting on top of the hill is the Nauvoo Temple

We then took a wagon ride through Historic Nauvoo.

The historic wagon rides that take you through historic Nauvoo

The Kehl family on the wagon ride in Nauvoo

The horses that guide the wagon

The wagon rides that go through Nauvoo

Waiting for the wagon ride

A Nauvoo log cabin

Historic Nauvoo

Allie and Mason petting the horses that took us on the wagon ride

After our wagon ride, we out into the Countryside of Nauvoo. We heard stories from the ealy saints and the carriage ride was a 45 minute scenic tour through the countryside and to a wooded area called Inspiration Point, where we got a glimpse of the “Mighty Mississippi” at one of its widest points.

The countryside of Nauvoo

Tim and Allie on the carriage ride through the country side of Nauvoo

After our wagon and carriage rides, we found the cutest quaint Ma and Pa restaurant right in the middle of Nauvoo called Grandpa John's Cafe. It is only open for breakfast and lunch. We got there right before it was closing at 2 PM. It has a fun little ice parlor inside,which I totally thought was so great. I got the fish and chips, Tim got a hamburger/fried and chicken tenders for the kids. It was so fun to experience the small town cafe.

Ma and Pa restaurant in Nauvoo

After lunch we explored all the fun little shops in Historic Nauvoo. We went to Pioneer Pastimes which is a area of Nauvoo where the kids can use their imaginations. The kids were able to dress up as pioneers play pioneer games, hear stories, and play in a child-sized log home!

I had made reservations for us to see a show in historic Nauvoo that night at 7

PM in the Cultural Hall of Historic Nauvoo. However, the town closes at 5PM and so we took a 40 minute drive over the mississippi to get dinner. We ate dinner at a little pizzeria. After dinner, we headed back to Nauvoo for the show. It was called Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo, it is a delightful musical comedy, performed by senior tour guides, and tells the story of the Latter-day Saints who built Nauvoo in the 1840′s, and then had to leave the city they loved.

A Pizzera that we ate in

Nauvoo Temple at night

The Nauvoo Temple doors

The next day we drove into Nauvoo and watched a video called "The Restoration" at the visitors center. We then headed to the visitor's centers statue garden. It had the most prettiest flowers and statues. Allie was obsessed with all the butterflies that the garden flowers attracted.

Our family in front of the Joseph Smith and Emma Smith statue

The father and mother and child statue

One of my favorites in the garden.

Tim and Naomi inside the garden

The mother and two daughters statue

Me and Naomi in the garden

Allie holding two butterflies she caught in the garden

After our visit in the garden, we headed to Carthage Jail in Carthage Illionis. Carthage is located about 20 miles from Nauvoo. When we got to the Carthlage Jail, they give a 45 minute tour of the jail. They start the tour having us watch a film about Joseph and Hyrum being placed in Carthlage Jail. It was a surreal experience, seeing the room that Jospeh and Hyrum Smith were in when the mob came storming in with guns. The original door with the bullet hole still remains.

Mason and Allie in front of the Joseph and Hyrum statue at Carthage Jail

One of the cells inside of the Jail

The original door and bullet hole that killed Joseph Smith

The room and window that Joseph fell through when he was shot

Our family at Carthage Jail

We woke up the next day and drove 2 1/2 hours to Dubuque, Iowa to board a river boat down the Mississippi River. This is something I have always wanted to do. The beautiful city of Dubuque sits right on the state line of both Wisconsin and Illionis. The scenery on the Mississippi was spectacular.

At the Dubuque Harbor

Ready to board the River Boat

The beautiful River Boat

The bridge on the Mississippi River

On the River Boat

Allie holding Naomi on the river boat

After the River Boat Cruise, we went to eat lunch at the hotel in down town Dubuque. After lunch we headed over to the Mississippi River Museum. The museum is huge and has two big buildings to explore. We saw a 8 ft alligator, otters, fish and lots of turtles.

Allie playing with the fish that springs back and forth

Mason inside the caves at the musuem

Tim headed to the river boat exibits

The Mighty Mississippi River boat exhibit

Tim driving the River Boat

Rafting down the Mississippi

Playing in the water works exhibit at the museum

Mason, Allie and Naomi at the museum

Mason inside a turtle shell

Tim had his meetings all day the following day at the hotel. I took the kids up to Crystal Lake Cave. I had found this place on Pinterest and thought the kids would enjoy going through the cave. The cave was a guided 45 minute tour. It was about 100 feet underground and had some amazing features. This cave has a lake that sits in the very back of the cave, something I have never seen at another cave before. Before we headed out on the tour, the kids went mining for gems. The tour guide gave the kids a bag of dirt gems to sift through. They thought that was pretty cool, they walked away with about 50 gem rocks.

Crystal Lake Cave

The mining at Crystal Lake Cave

Finding gem stones

Heading down to the cave

Me, and the kids inside the cave

Water dripping

The lake that sits inside the cave

Inside the cave

That night we went and ate at a little pub called chammps. It had the most amazing sweet potato waffle fries and gryos. It did not disappoint.

Eating dinner at Champps

After dinner we went to Fenelon Elevator, located on 4th street in downtown Dubuque. The elevator car is operated by cables. It is known as the Fourth Street Elevator, it's claimed to be the shortest and steepest railroad in the world

A predecessor to the Fourth Street Elevator was built in 1882 for the private use of local banker and former state senator J.K. Graves. The funicular was opened to the public in 1884, charging 5 cents per ride. After several fires, the current funicular was built in 1893 on the footprint of the 1882 incline; the 1893 funicular inaugurated the use of the cable car technology that continues in use today.

It was quite the experience,I was nervous the whole ride up. The cable car has a open door system, which it makes it that much more tense. But, seeing the awesome view from the top, made it all worth it.

The bottom of the Fenelon Elevator

Inside the cable car

The view from inside

Mason sat by the open door

The steepness of this was incredible

Allie and Mason ready to take the elevator up

Tim and Naomi on the elevator

The views from on top

The view from on top

The other side of the view of the Mississippi river

Amazing city of Dubuque

The next morning while Tim was in his meetings, I took the kids to the Iowa State Parks, the Maquoketa Caves. It was about 25 miles south of Dubuque. When we got there, we meet a park ranger. She asked us to come over to where she was. She told us that she needed to talk to us about the bats that live in the caves. I was a bit nervous. We had the entire park to ourselves and not a person in site as we traveled down into the caves. It was like something I have never experienced. It was quite and all we could hear were echos of the animals in the caves. Sorta creepy. There are about 12 caves, half of them you have to crawl through. We toured a few caves that were incredible. Then I decided to take the kids to Eagle Point Park for the rest of the afternoon.

Eagle Point Park is located on a ridge overlooking the Mississippi River. We went back later that night after dinner so that Tim could see this beautiful park. The sun was setting and the views were spectacular.

The view from the top of the park

Eagle Point Park entry

The trees provided a ton of shade on a hot humid day

The Mississippi River

The sunset at Eagle Point Park

That night the kids went swimming at the hotel. The next day, which was our last day in Dubuque, I took the kids to Jungle Jane's play house. They spent the morning playing on the bounce houses and arcades, while Tim finished up with his meetings. Later that afternoon, we drove 3 1/2 hours to Chicago. We stopped and had dinner and then checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott. It was beautiful.

Jungle Jane's

The next morning we woke up super early and headed into downtown Chicago. The kids thought riding the bus and "L" train was so cool. It was a little challenging traveling the public transportation with three small kids. We got a ton of stares by the locals that were on the train with us. I guess they are not used to seeing families with three small kids.

On the bus heading to the city

Our first stop was to the Lincoln Park Zoo. The zoo is free all year around. So, when I heard it was a free zoo, I had imagined it to be a dump. But, it was quite the opposite. To my surprise..it was incredibly beautiful and well maintained. Much prettier than the Hogle Zoo, here in Salt Lake.

The zoo sits right in the middle of the city, which is awesome. You can see the high rise towersfrom inside the zoo park.

The Lincoln Park Zoo

The Kehl family

The Wolves

Tim and Naomi watching the kids play at a playground at the zoo

Naomi was fascinated by the animals

The zoo windows make you feel like you are right next to the animals.

There are so many beautiful play spots throughout the zoo

Leopard house which is indoors with beautiful cement buildings

The Apes

Allie in the ape house

Tim and his girls at the zoo,

The Zebras

The Lion laying on his back

The city view from zoo

Inside the bird exhibit

The Hippo

The Giraffe's were so close to us

Mason thought it was so cool to be so close to the giraffe

Me and the kids heading out of the bird exhibit

The Rinos

The Lincoln Park Zoo was a hit
We then took a bus to Michigan Avenue for a little shopping and popcorn. The first stop was the American Girl Doll Shoppe. It was quite the place. I had never been there before, and was amazed at all that was there. They have a beauty shop, bakery shop, and personal shopper for the dolls. I was taken back by it. It is a girls dream store. Allie spent a good hour in there playing with all the cool dolls and accessories.

The next best thing was the legos store. Mason and Tim had a lot of fun building legos and enjoyed every moment in there while us girls were at the American
Doll Store.

The next place we visited was Garrett's popcorn. We were told to get popcorn when we were in Chicago. The caramel and cheese was what we got and it did not disappoint. It was delicious!

We boarded a bus and headed down to Millennium Park. The park was super crowded since it was a Saturday afternoon. The first thing we saw was the cool "Cloud Bridge" also known as "The Bean." It was all mirror and we of course had to grab a few pictures of the beautiful piece of art.

At cloud bridge

picture taken under the bridge

Under the bridge picture

The view of the bean and the city of chicago

A family picture of us looking into the bean

We then walked around the city and ended up booking a reservation to take a architectural tour on a boat of the city buildings and of Lake Michigan. I am so glad we did, we took the 6:15 tour, which gave us the prefect lighting to see the city during the time the sun was setting right on the Chicago River and Lake Michigan.