South Dakota Part 5 (The Final Chapter)

On our last day (Saturday), we packed up and drove south through Custer State Park. We saw herds of buffalo. They were all over, and blocked the road several times. We even saw some wild burros who stuck their heads in people's cars looking for food.



We headed a little further south to Windcave National Park and enjoyed a picnic lunch before our 1 1/2 hour tour of the cave.



Windcave is the fourth largest cave in the world, and the only natural opening is about as big as a manhold. The main formation is boxwork which is basically very fragile eroded limestone. It's like a brick wall without the bricks - only mortar. It looks really cool (as you can see).



There was also "popcorn" formations in this cave, which are very sparkly and pretty, but fairly small. We also saw some fossils.



The cave was nice and cool, very humid - and nothing lived in it. We were even able to experience absolute darkness - which was a little scary until they turned the lights back on.

After our fun spelunking, we drove back home - it was a super fun time, and the kids actually did really well. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that they had playmates that weren't their siblings.

South Dakota Part 4 (The Badlands)

Our first stop was Wall Drug - a huge drugstore (which is more like a mall) in the middle of nowhere. There are hundreds of signs for this drugstore beginning in Wyoming. We ate a decent dinner, then drove about twenty minutes to Badlands National Park.
There are hill-like formations that look like rock, but are actually just strange dirt - very cool!


The Badlands (and Ethan) to the east right before sunset.


Are we on the moon, or just another planet?


A view to the west as the sun sets.


My favorite - the Badlands by moonlight
(thanks to the bright full summer "Strawberry moon")

South Dakota Part 3 (Pirate Golf)

On day four (Friday) we spent the morning swimming in the hotel pool (and riding the water slide over and over (except Jonah - who wouldn't even get his head wet, but that's another story)). In the afternoon, we walked two blocks to Pirate's Cove Adventure golf.


Here's most of the boys golfing - Jonah only lost his ball once!







After golfing, they gave the kids a bag of piratey stuff - here's pirate Janae!...












...and pirate Jonah - argh!

(We are the pirates who don't do anything, we just stay home and lie around, and if you ask us to do anything, we'll just tell you - we don't do anything! ~VeggieTales).

South Dakota Part 2

Here we are at Mt. Rushmore, visiting our friends (George, Tom, Ted & Abe). We are in front of the hall of flags - which has every state flag in alphabetical order (because that's the best kind?) We took a nice walk around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, along with many tons of rocks that had been blasted off the mountain.




Our third day (Thursday!) we had a picnic lunch at a lake in the black hills state park, and the kids enjoyed skipping rocks, throwing rocks, and hunting for rocks. There are many different kinds of rocks in the Black Hills! (Amazing isn't it?)


After lunch, we left the beautiful Black Hills campgrounds and headed to Rapid City, where we visited Bear Country USA. This picture of a bear was taken from the passenger side of our van, with no zoom lens. This place is a wild animal refuge that you drive through, and there are over 200 black bears on the property, along with several other animals.


What happy family - but beware of the bears! From this bench we could see several baby black bears playing together.


These are "bear" faces - or grouchy faces, whatever...

South Dakota Part 1

The last week of June we took a trip with some friends (Burton, Kathy, Morgan & Ethan) to the Black Hills are of South Dakota. None of us had ever been, and since it's only a six-hour drive (even with 3-4 stops), we decided that this was the year to go.



The first couple nights we stayed at a private campground (Rafter J), which was super clean and lots of fun. The kids rode their bikes all over, played kickball with some of the other kids, and had some great camp food. (No - Ken didn't really burn his hand, he's just being a goofball!)



On the night we arrived (Tuesday) we took a short 10 minute drive to the Crazy Horse Memorial. When it is completed, it will be the largest sculpture in the world. As you can see, there is a lot of work left to do - even after 60 years of work so far.




The night we went there was a special night blast (one of only two per year) commemorating the birthday of the woman in charge (Ruth, who turned 81 that night). It was mainly pyrotechnics, but still cool all the same. The kids were a little worn out, but most of them made it through the blast. They also participated in some Native American dancing.



The next morning, we drove the other way (North) about 5 miles and rode the 1880 train from Hill City to Keystone. It went just north of Mt. Rushmore (which we couldn't see from the train). After lunch, we all went swimming in the outdoor pool, and enjoyed some yummy homemade ice cream.