Jam-packed weekend.

WHERE: Chicago, Illinois
WHEN: October 2011
WITH: Casey Chapman
WHY: My roommate Jesselah was able to get me a "buddy pass" (flight anywhere for barely nothing).  My friend Casey had recently moved to Chicago and I had never been and had a free place to stay, so why not?

MEMORIES: 
-Millennium Park and the "shiny bean."
-First time seeing someone doing "parkour."  Thought it was weird then and still think it's weird now.
-Art walk in the Chicago Art District.  Lots of great art in a lot of great buildings.
-Breakfast at the Bongo Room (amazing pancakes...they were pretty much like dessert).
-Tour of the Chicago Tribune Building.  It was actually some special weekend when I went where they were letting the public go through some of the buildings that they usually don't; this was one of them.
-Authentic Chicago deep dish pizza
-Seeing a comedy show at Second City
-We did and saw much more than I listed; I got some pretty bad blisters from all of our walking!

View from the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier

This guy was at this pond at Navy Pier.  It was so weird - he was a grown man crawling around six inches of water hissing and catching this bone with his mouth.  Highly entertaining.

Lots of cool structures/sculptures/architecture.

Marilyn Monroe statue, Casey, and Me

There was a building (can't remember the name) where there are various rocks/stones from all over the country embedded in the walls - here is some OR love (part of Fort Clatsop).

A late night listening to Jazz music at Green Mill Jazz Club.

Church History

WHERE: Missouri, Iowa, Illinois
WHEN: July 1999
WITH: Mom and Dad
WHY: Church history tour

MEMORIES:
-First trip alone with mom and dad (Diana was in Australia/New Zealand for the summer).
-IT WAS SO HOT.  The whole time.
-Steamboat Arabia museum - that was pretty cool.  A steamboat sunk in the Mississippi River and ended up being covered by mud, etc. as the river changed course; everything was perfectly preserved...the museum was full of all the goods that the steamboat was carrying: clothes, tools, food, toys, books, etc.-Various church sites including: Liberty Jail, Independence, Carthage Jail, Far West, Haun's Mill, Nauvoo, and others, I'm sure.
-Beginning of Oregon trail site(s)
-Went to an Amish community (communities).  I remember eating one of the best meals of my life at a restaurant there.  It was a chicken sandwich and the homemade bun was amazing.
-RLDS church visitor's center/temple
-Hallmark factory
-We went to an amusement park, Worlds of Fun, one day.
-Harry Truman home/library
-Kansas City Royals baseball game
-Hannibal, Missouri: Mark Twain's childhood home, watched a play, went into the caves.

At Steamboat Arabia

Dad and I went on this roller coaster, "The Mamba" countless times.  It was really tall, and really fast.

Mom likes the water rides.  I'm sure it felt good in that heat!

Tom Sawyer Fence

In the Mark Twain caves.  I just kept thinking of those scenes from the Jonathon Taylor Thomas movies and was scared that I would get lost in them.  The tour guide kept teasing me too, I did not like that.