Midwest Trip – Day 7

T: We slept in until 8 am.

P: I went back to sleep. Yeah!

P: We went to get breakfast at the hotel. I got disgusting toast and cereal.

T: I got kind of disgusting toast, and disgusting cheerios. 

T: Then we went on an air conditioned bus tour. Me, and Parker and Zach played video games on a pioneer tour, weird. 

T: We saw Ma, Pa, Mary, Carrie, and Grace’s graves. Laura was buried somewhere else with Almanzo and Rose.

P: We saw Silver Lake.

T: We saw the place Almanzo built Laura her first house that burned down.

P: At lunch, I had pizza sticks, and rotisserie chicken, and one piece of cucumber. 

T: It was our friend, Joy’s birthday. And also Barb gave us little game things to do. Then we headed off to a lake.

P: A police car took us to the side of the road and said that we were going too fast. Going 42 in a 35 spot. And she hit [drove] on the shoulder of the road. 

T: The police wasn’t an actual police. Seriously, why did he have to pull us over? He was a college campus police. Why do they have police for college campus?

P: We went to a lake [Lake Shetek, in a State Park]. Zach met us there. We got stuffed fishies that were water toys. We played and played. The lake was very fun.

T: The lake was actually pretty warm. And we played a lot of games with our fish balls. 

P: We went to Walmart for scissors, wax, wine and toothpaste. We needed wax because my brace broke [and a wire was sticking into her gum].

P: And then we ate dinner. I had potstickers. Taylor had pad si ew. 

T: Parker thought her potstickers were the best potstickers in the world.

P: And they were. And soon we’re going to a pageant. Good night for the night. 💤 

[Mom: After our Thai food dinner, we drove back to Walnut Grove to attend the pageant. Barb has been taking tours to the show for 16 years, so she was able to reserve front row seats for us. The girls sat with Zach and he brought little gifts for them.

The show was better than the one the night before, but heavier on religion and featured stories that weren’t included in the book “On the Banks of Plum Creek.”

But there were some cool parts including live horses pulling buggies, underground pipes to simulate a prairie fire, and a very over-the-top portrayal of Nellie Olesen that kept Taylor grinning from ear to ear. 

Before the second act started, we spotted fireflies in the trees off to the side of the stage. While we weren’t close enough to catch them, I’m glad we all got a brief  “firefly experience.” 

The girls LOVED it. Taylor said she wanted to be in that kind of pageant when she’s older. 

The show started at 9 pm, and ended just after 11. We had to stay to let the girls meet and take photos with the actors. 

We took to sleeping girls into the hotel well after midnight.]