Northwest to Midwest Part 1: Bozeman and the Museum of the Rockies

We drove our fully-loaded Suburban east out of Idaho the day after Memorial Day.  Nothing makes you want to get rid of all THE STUFF like jam packing a POD and then trying to find a place for everything else in the car.....Anyway - on the fun!

Throughout our trip, M kept singing our mantra/jingle: "the great....American....WEST!" 

We stopped in Missoula for lunch.  We picked up Five Guys' burgers and had a picnic by the river.  There was a great playground with an old-fashioned carousel!  M sat on the dragon long enough for a photo op, but once he found out that it moved up-and-down, he downgraded to the chariot.  I guess he doesn't remember that he handled the up-and-down horse on the San Diego carousel just fine in 2014!

Bozeman was our destination for the evening, where M played waiter in the restaurant and enjoyed 2 seconds in the hotel pool and 30 minutes in the hot tub.  Hotel pools became our saving grace for getting the wiggles out on this trip!

Roaring at the T-Rex

After breakfast, we went to the Museum of the Rockies, which is great.  They have a wonderful dinosaur exhibit and D & I probably could have spent all day there!  M mostly ran around and roared at the dinosaurs, so I'd say he enjoyed it.

I also highly recommend taking a 3 year old to a planetarium show.  We watched the movie about black holes, which was fascinating, and M's reactions were priceless ("LOOK OUT, HERE COMES THE SPACE ROCK!!!").

Camping in the children's section at MoR

They also have a working pioneer homestead and other exhibits on early settler life and Native American life.  It really is a great museum and worth the effort if you happen to be in the Yellowstone/Bozeman/Big Sky area!

Bison sculpture constructed of musical instruments - of course our music lover found the electric guitar!

We ate lunch at another playground, shook off the wiggles again at hit the road for a drive through Paradise Valley down to the North Entrance to Yellowstone.  To be continued!

The famous Roosevelt arch, the gateway to Yellowstone!