We spent 6 days in Wisconsin enjoying the cheese. Vacation pictures are in The Shures photo gallery.

Our trip included:

Pirate’s Cove
Top Secret
Pizza Pub
House on the Rock
Ripley’s Believe It Or Not
Mount Olympus
The Great Wolf Lodge
Moosejaw Pizza & Brewing Company
Rick Wilcox Magic Show
Buffalo Phil’s
Knuckleheads

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I’ve gone to Graceland.

Traveling past it several times while commuting to Texas, I finally made a pit stop to visit Elvis at his home. More pictures are in The Shures photo gallery. I had seen the signs, but not realized until I looked it up how close to I-55 Graceland is. It’s right off the highway.

I envisioned it being larger. But for being such a big name in show business, Elvis’s house is kind of small. The swimming pool is dinky. At the site, there is much that has been added since his passing. They now have his jets housed and a museum complex built across the street.

I thought the everything Elvis store next door was cool. I bet they even had Elvis toilet paper. For fun, I bought a pair of prop sunglasses and a fake ID.

This is where Elvis used to hang out. I could envision little Lisa Marie playing around the grounds or Elvis with his friends grilling out on the patio. I got a tingly feeling while walking around this place that is steeped in so much rock and roll history. I also stopped and paid my respects to the man himself.

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My daughter and I took a 5 day trip to the eastern Missouri Ozarks. We tent camped at the KOA just outside Eureka. The main reason we chose this area was the St. Louis 6 Flags. Our SF Great America season passes give us free admission to any other SF park.

My daughter enjoyed the camping. Her favorite activity was riding her bicycle around the campground with the new friends she made there. At night in bed before falling asleep, she liked watching old Yogi Bear cartoons & Tom Sawyer streaming from YouTube on the magic TV. She also went swimming every day in the campground’s pool.

We spent 2 days at the Saint Louis 6 Flags. Oh course her favorite rides were the roller coasters with ‘The Boss’ being at the top of the list. She also really like the Tony Hawk cars spinning coaster but thought the Screaming Eagle was boring compared to SFGA’s American Eagle. She doesn’t like going upside down, so we skipped all the coasters that do that.

We were able to visit some other sites including Meramec Caverns, The Magic House Children’s Museum, and the St. Louis Arch. On the way home, we stopped at a Route 66 landmark in Spfld. IL that happens to sit in the front yard of the Southern View neighborhood I grew up in.

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I’ve been there, done that, and would like to go again. Amsterdam was a cool place to visit. Here’s me standing out front of the orginal Hard Rock Cafe. Not that touristy place they built in 1999.

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Circa 2001.

I have been to the mountain. When visiting Seattle, I made a pilgrimage to see Microsoft 1st hand. It resembles a college campus with low buildings spread out. All the employees were wearing Microsoft clothes like a business casual theme park.

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