From the Mississippi to the Atlantic

We drove into Chicago without any real plans, we just thought we'd drive through and see what we could find. As we wandered, we saw a pier and thought that it looked fun, so we just went there. Somehow, after parking, we would up in a stained glass museum. It was a little strange, but it did have some really cool stuff. Then we found some sort of children's festival, that had some little rides and big inflatables, but we liked it for all the Christmas trees. This one was huge! Turned out there wasn't the much else to do on a pier in the winter... who knew? But it did look like it was a pretty hopping place in the summer time.The only bad thing about Chicago was the driving itself. Once you get into the city, the lanes aren't marked on the road anymore so you can't every tell how many lanes there are supposed to be. And the drivers were crazy, not to mention all of the taxi cabs. Let's just say I'm glad it was Adam driving and not me.
That day we drove to a super cute little lake town called Port Clinton, and stayed had a hotel that had a back patio right on Lake Erie. It was so pretty out there! And man those lakes are big. There wasn't much to do in such a small town, but it was definitely one of the more enjoyable places we stayed, plus they had a really good Thai place where we ate dinner. The next day was our most eventful, however, because we were able to stop in Cleveland, Kirtland, and Niagara Falls. The drive was also getting better as we headed east, because we weren't driving through just flat fields and plains anymore, but next to the lake and through bigger cities where there was more to look at. Plus we were getting really into our book, The Lightning Thief, that I was reading to Adam, so that was helpful. In Cleveland we stopped at a museum, and then in Kirtland we went to the temple, the visitors' center and the Newell K. Whitney store. This stop was quite a bit more exciting than Winter Quarters, and had a lot of the original buildings and infrastructure of the town. That factor was especially cool because we got to see places where many church founders actually lived.
That night we made it to Niagara, which was so awesome to see. The only bad part was that we couldn't go over to the Canadian side, because that's where the good view and all the fun stuff is. Our side had one casino and some hotels, mixed with closed-up building, but their side looked like Las Vegas. Adam joked that the Canadian side was like the great and spacious building, just laughing and mocking the pathetic U.S. side. We did get to gamble for the first time though (after convincing them that my driver's license was NOT a fake I.D.) and spend a good amount of time freezing while we looked at the falls. The funniest thing that happened out there was that we walked over to the island so we could see the other falls, and Adam noticed a possum. He was so excited to see his first possum that we had to chase it until it ran into the bushes, so we didn't get a picture of it.
By the last day we didn't have too much of a drive left to get here, and the views were pretty good. Everything turned into wooded hills and lakes, and everything turned so green. I can't wait to see what it all looks like in the spring when things really start to green up again. We finally made it here that afternoon, and have finally gotten everything moved in. We made it!