a trip to South Dakota

There has been so much that has happened since I last wrote!  In a nutshell: we went on a small "babymoon"/birthday trip, Matt was promoted to Captain, we had the babies, the NICU was evacuated due to the flood, and the babies and I are currently in Fargo while Matt and the Dads have been busy working on rebuilding our basement that was flooded.  Instead of rushing through all the stories, however, I am going to try to play catch-up and write what I can! 

The weekend of May 6th, Matt and I went on a trip to Rapid City, South Dakota to get away, relax, and celebrate our birthdays.  We have been planning to go to Rapid City for a while so we were both very excited that we could finally make it work. 

On Friday our first stop was Mt. Rushmore.

The museum had a lot of the original models, tools, equipment, and photographs.  There were also personal stories from men who worked on the project.  It was incredible to see all the documents!

We also took time to walk the founders trail.  It is a beautiful nature trail around the monement so you can see it from all different angles.

 

It was such a beautiful day and we loved seeing the monument!

After leaving Mt. Rushmore, we drove down the road to the Crazy Horse monument. 

This is another monument built in the mountain, however, this one is still in progress!  It is all privately funded and has been worked on for many years.  It was amazing to see the work being done while we were visiting.  We were able to take a bus to the base of the mountain to get a closer look at the monument.  While we were there we could see and hear the people working, it was a very unique experience.

We also visited the rest of the facility.  The goal is eventually have a education and cultural center.  We visited the museum, a gallery of the artists work, and a cultural center.  Some of the displays were also in the home the artist built on the site for his family.

The project is incredible and well worth the visit!

On Saturday we started out by going to the Comos Mystery Zone.

 It was deffinatly hokey and touristy but we still had fun.

Next we did the Norby Scenic Trail.  It is a beautiful driving trail and we loved it!  It was a great way to relax after doing so much walking the day before.

While we were in Rapid City we also enjoyed several wonderful meals at local resturants and just relaxed.  We had a wonderful time!  We would love to get back to Rapid City for another trip some day!
.katherine.