the buffalo roam even today. Except let's stop fooling ourselves. They're bison. They've always been bison and will always be bison. A buffalo looks more like an ox or a yak. Okay . . . now that my classification rant is over, let's get on to the prairie! My family and I just got back from South Dakota where we saw bison roaming, deer and antelope playing, we seldom heard a discouraging word, and the skies were only cloudy part of the day. In short, it was amazing. On to the picture gallery! We drove up from Denver through eastern Wyoming and I couldn't stop myself from staring out the window at the plains. Real plains! Grass. Green. Waving in the wind. Oh yeah, and sky! I had the song, Don't Fence Me In, running through my head. Result of graduate school anyone? Methinks yesh. On the first day, we went to Mount Rushmore. Yes, Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota. It's even prettier close-up. Did you know that they were originally planning on sculpting the statues as entire torsos? And, did you know that there is an actual reason for having Teddy Roosevelt on there. i.e., he wasn't the president that commissioned it? I learned a lot. This is my dad and Isaac walking toward the monument. There's a huge granite amphitheatre and viewing area.
Inside the exhibit, they had a mock dynamite plunger connected to a video screen that showed rock being blown off the monument. Isaac and Carson went beserk.
The next day, we went up into Custer State Park and to Sylvan Lake. Sylvan Lake is featured in the latest installment of "National Treasure" which we watched later that night. To think I was standing right on the opening of the Lost City of Gold and didn't know it!
Later that afternoon, we went out and played croquet with the kiddos. They're not ready for the Champion's League yet and let's be honest, I'm just glad that no one was missing teeth by the end of it. In fact, I'm still surprised about that one, those mallets were swinging higher than regulation permits. This is Isaac and Grace and the next one is Carson and Colter.
Okay, see what I mean about the teeth? Carson's mallet is about 14 inches from Colter's head. But, it goes to show what a good aunt I am. I watched 'em carefully.
The next morning, we went on a legit steam engine up through the Black Hills from Hill City to Keystone. I think the engineer had spent some time as a soccer announcer for Mexico because when he said "All Aboard" it was really "Allllllllllllllllll Abooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd!" This is Grace in the open air rail car.
The next day we went to the Badlands and if South Dakota hadn't already topped the list of favorite states in our beautiful union, then this day trip put it up and over the top.
Oh, this is funny. We were driving through the park and saw some goats climbing on the steep rocks. Lots of other cars were pulled over, but the car in front of us had a girl get out and approach the goats wearing a wolf hat. What? Why? Why do you have a hat like that? Why are you wearing it? And why do you think that approaching a goat with two kids (goat kids, not people kids) would be a good idea? I got a picture of her just before she got back in the car, I hope you can see the hat.
On the way back from South Dakota, we decided to take a four hour detour through the middle of Wyoming to see the National Trails Historic Monument out in Casper. It's situated at the last crossing of the North Platte River where the Mormon, California, Oregon, and Pony Express Trails meet. Best visitors center EVER!!! They had a fake wagon crossing that thoroughly confused the kids (wagon box actually moved with a video screen filming an actual crossing), telegraph game, diarama of pioneers, handcart connected to treadmill, Wells Fargo wagon journey, and a room that got cold while depicting the tragedy of the Martin Handcart company. Go if you ever can. It is worth the four hour detour, even when that means showing up at the Denver at 7:38p for your 7:55p flight. (Fortunately the flight was delayed 13 minutes or I would have mised it.) Meanwhile, here is a picture of the largest open coal mine in North America. It's in Wyoming.
the buffalo roam even today. Except let's stop fooling ourselves. They're bison. They've always been bison and will always be bison. A buffalo looks more like an ox or a yak. Okay . . . now that my classification rant is over, let's get on to the prairie! My family and I just got back from South Dakota where we saw bison roaming, deer and antelope playing, we seldom heard a discouraging word, and the skies were only cloudy part of the day. In short, it was amazing. On to the picture gallery! We drove up from Denver through eastern Wyoming and I couldn't stop myself from staring out the window at the plains. Real plains! Grass. Green. Waving in the wind. Oh yeah, and sky! I had the song, Don't Fence Me In, running through my head. Result of graduate school anyone? Methinks yesh. On the first day, we went to Mount Rushmore. Yes, Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota. It's even prettier close-up. Did you know that they were originally planning on sculpting the statues as entire torsos? And, did you know that there is an actual reason for having Teddy Roosevelt on there. i.e., he wasn't the president that commissioned it? I learned a lot. This is my dad and Isaac walking toward the monument. There's a huge granite amphitheatre and viewing area. 
Inside the exhibit, they had a mock dynamite plunger connected to a video screen that showed rock being blown off the monument. Isaac and Carson went beserk. 
The next day, we went up into Custer State Park and to Sylvan Lake. Sylvan Lake is featured in the latest installment of "National Treasure" which we watched later that night. To think I was standing right on the opening of the Lost City of Gold and didn't know it! 
Later that afternoon, we went out and played croquet with the kiddos. They're not ready for the Champion's League yet and let's be honest, I'm just glad that no one was missing teeth by the end of it. In fact, I'm still surprised about that one, those mallets were swinging higher than regulation permits. This is Isaac and Grace and the next one is Carson and Colter.
Okay, see what I mean about the teeth? Carson's mallet is about 14 inches from Colter's head. But, it goes to show what a good aunt I am. I watched 'em carefully.
The next morning, we went on a legit steam engine up through the Black Hills from Hill City to Keystone. I think the engineer had spent some time as a soccer announcer for Mexico because when he said "All Aboard" it was really "Allllllllllllllllll Abooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd!" This is Grace in the open air rail car. 
The next day we went to the Badlands and if South Dakota hadn't already topped the list of favorite states in our beautiful union, then this day trip put it up and over the top. 
Oh, this is funny. We were driving through the park and saw some goats climbing on the steep rocks. Lots of other cars were pulled over, but the car in front of us had a girl get out and approach the goats wearing a wolf hat. What? Why? Why do you have a hat like that? Why are you wearing it? And why do you think that approaching a goat with two kids (goat kids, not people kids) would be a good idea? I got a picture of her just before she got back in the car, I hope you can see the hat. 
On the way back from South Dakota, we decided to take a four hour detour through the middle of Wyoming to see the National Trails Historic Monument out in Casper. It's situated at the last crossing of the North Platte River where the Mormon, California, Oregon, and Pony Express Trails meet. Best visitors center EVER!!! They had a fake wagon crossing that thoroughly confused the kids (wagon box actually moved with a video screen filming an actual crossing), telegraph game, diarama of pioneers, handcart connected to treadmill, Wells Fargo wagon journey, and a room that got cold while depicting the tragedy of the Martin Handcart company. Go if you ever can. It is worth the four hour detour, even when that means showing up at the Denver at 7:38p for your 7:55p flight. (Fortunately the flight was delayed 13 minutes or I would have mised it.) Meanwhile, here is a picture of the largest open coal mine in North America. It's in Wyoming. 
2 comments:
I've always wanted to go to South Dakota...
What a fun trip! I honestly didn't know South Dakota was a cool place. And thank you for the bison rant - Daniel and I love Yellowstone, but people are always talking about all the buffalo there, and they look at us weird when we call them bison.
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