Sandy's American Adventure Highlight Reel

 Sooo... here's some highlights of my trip to visit Jerry & Ben (@jerryandbenadventures)! I arrived in early June... and it was a squeaker because they were heading off on a trip and I almost missed it! Thanks to the delay in customs... grumble... Anyhow... first off, J&B showed me their garden...

Jerry is beary proud of his herb garden and we discussed the best way to grow rosemary and other things. We had a LOT of catch up on!!

While we were doing that, Ben prepared some sustenance for us... cookies and pistachios with raspberry sherbet. YUM!!!

And then we fell into bed utterly exhausted!

But then it was off on an epic road trip through Minnesota and South Dakota. There is LOT to see there!

We went and saw the Pipestone National Monument... the stone is beary cool and we had lots of fun exploring the nooks and crannies...

This is me with the Dignity Statue! It's way bigger than me... I'm like.. the size of her big toe!

And the Badlands!! Don't play hide-n-seek in the Badlands... you might never get found!

And there's the guys at Mount Rushmore...

Yep... a tunnel thorugh the mountain... for one car!

There is soooo much cool stuff to see here. We did not climb up those pinnacles...

We went and saw various museums... these ladies weren't up for knitting sweaters for us though. Pity.

Here it is... the Chapel in the Hills. Can you see the dragons? Off the edges of the roof?

We saw lots of prairie too... so pretty and green in the early summer!

And then we headed back to J&B's to catch the peonies in bloom.

With more sherbet... you can never have too much sherbet you know.

We also did some slow walks around the local lakes... exercising so we could have more sherbet!

J&B took me to their favourite coffee shop... it serves Cariboo coffee... and Cariboo hot chocolate!

Cariboo Coffee is only in Minnesota (the blue bit) while Dunkin' Donuts (pink) is in the East (mostly) and Starbucks (green) has taken over the rest! Interesting... here in Canada, we have Starbucks and Timmies... but lots of Starbucks closed during the pandemic...

Oh, and before I go... Raspberry Magnum!!! Yum!!!

 There you go... epic trip to the land of Jerry & Ben. Tonnes of fun and J&B might come up at the end of August... maybe... given the debacle with Homeland Security... we'll have to see if they want to make the epic trip.

Sandy's Back Home!!!

 Psst... Sandy??? Are you awake???

Psst!!!!

**grumble... snort... mrfles**

Sandy??? Come on... it's been 48 hours already!!
**grumble... grr... waaaaaayyyy...**

I see those little beady eyes!! You're awake!!!
***grrrr... yawn.... oooo kaaaayyyy***

mmm... what time is it?? Ugh... yawn... I am soooo tired!!!!

OK... so you know how I went to visit Jerry & Ben (@jerryandbenadventures)? Well... I left on my return flight in late June... but due to flight delays, I got routed through New York and... OMG... the Dept of Homeland Security has some serious issues!!

They weren't happy with my papers and I had to go BACK to Jerry and Ben's who then had to vouch for me that I wasn't some rabid terrorist bear... and then I embarked on the whole flight thing again. Between the flight delays (you've read the news) and the paperwork... well... it took me almost a month to get home!!! Anyhow... I am out seriously exhaustipated little bear!! But I had an AWESOME time with J&B... I've got photos too...

But first, let's unpack... I came back with a tonne of brochures for cool places...

We went and saw petroglyphs!

And the Dignity statue!!

That was super cool! We'd read about that one... so it was nice to see it in bearson.

And yes, I did get to meet Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox!

We went to some museums too...

Seriously... we did TONNES of stuff! And I was only there for 2 weeks or so!!

But the uber-est coolest thing is... my passport!

I wasn't able to travel a lot (hardly not at all!) during Covid...

But now... look!! I got new stamps!!! Oh yeah... and I got stuck in customs coming into the US too... sigh... we little bears must look beary, beary dangerous to humans!

We went and saw Pipestone National Monument!

See... I got some cool stamps and stickers!

And we went to the Badlands!

They gave out lots of stamps!

And we went to Mount Rushmore as well!

There were some strange people at Mount Rushmore...

And we went to the Petroglyphs and a First Nations show.

Soooo much fun! I've got photos... next blog!

And we got some general stickers too. Did you know Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Lakes? Ah-hem... I just wanted to say that Manitoba is known as the Land of 100,000 Lakes. Not that we're competitive up here in Canada... noooooo!

And that only covers a smidgen of what we did. I saw Bison too!!! And drove through a rock tunnel!

Oh, what's this? Oh yeah... a postcard from the stave church, Chapel in the Hills, near Rapid City, SD. That was cool too!!! The church has dragons on it!

Ah, it's a note from J&B! Awww... they included a little surprise for Mama.

This little heart-shaped rock is from the headwaters of the Mississippi River... it was more like a creek, let me tell you. Just a baby Mississippi!

Whew... Okay... what else... oh yeah!!!

I came back with a cool football sweater!!! I can wear it during the Grey Cup!! (That's the Canadian equivalent of the Super Bowl)...

And... I went and saw the Minnesota Twins play (that's baseball)... and I got a ball cap!!!

What do you think? The TC stands for Twin Cities (I had to look that up)... cause there's Minneapolis and St. Paul... they are twin cities.

Sometimes it's hard to know how to wear these things...

Do you pull it down? Can't see nothing!

Or more like this...

Do you find that ball caps mess up your hair? I find that they mess up my ears! Anyhow, let's get this sweater off... it's too hot for a sweater!

And... let's... seeeeee...zzeeezzzeeze....

And... he's out like a light...

Jet lag you know... and travelling for almost a month... that'll do it to you!