PNW to the Berkshires: Coulee, Wilbur, Missoula, Yellowstone

The pics below are all out of order thanks to spotty wifi and a glitchy program ( if you use something other than blogger for blogposts, and you like it, please do share!)

The route was:

A visit to Coulee Dam was the product of a strategy where we time bathroom breaks with visitor centers. You get to learn something and the restrooms are usually clean and multiple! Coulee Dam did not disappoint. The visitor center is well done. So much history! Great displays. We learned so much about dam construction. Even better, they did a surprisingly in depth display of the impacts to the native communities in the area and what they were doing to repair relationships. 

Wilbur, Washington was a town we only stopped in for a photo with a giant pig. Matt is going to do a blogpost later completely dedicated to these types of photos. They are plentiful! 

Missoula, Montana found us in a hotel with a free room upgrade to a river side room! Per usual, I read a book in the hot tub and watched the kids play in the pool. Best part of this stop was seeing Christie and her family. Christie was an RA on both of our staffs at some point at UNR. They made us dinner at their home and we got to visit with their 2 yr old! 

And finally, Yellowstone National Park. Matt lit up and his inner boy scout was smiling ear to ear throughout the park. Not gonna lie, at first, I was underwhelmed. But, seeing Old Faithful was very cool. The girls loved looking for animals. We came across lots of bison on day two and some beautiful rock formations that looked like marshmallows. By day two I was fully appreciative!

*note: there is a picture of a sign for Petty Cr. We could not stop laughing. When you imagine a creek, what do you see? Something small, winding, maybe bubbling? This "creek" was a huge, wide, deep, fast moving river. Miles long, we followed it for a while. Being in a car for a long time brings about hilarity, nonsensicalness, and a little looney for us. We created a whole story about this river that felt uncared for and in a bout of pettiness renamed itself a creek. I don't know, it was funny to us and maybe you had to be there? Lolol :)