Our first official stop (Saturday) was in Mitchell, SD. We ate at Ruby Tuesdays and checked out the Corn Palace. The kids stamped a quarter and loved the corn themed decor. After driving through some pretty heavy rain (enough to make us pull over), we stopped in the Badlands and were greeted by mostly sunny skies and great temps. The kids were excited to stretch their legs and climb on the hills and trails of the Badlands. At the Visitor's Center, we were lucky enough to chat with a real life astro physicist! She had a special telescope that allowed us to safely look at the sun. It looked like a red ball with black splotches and wispy "hairs" waving around the edges. Very neat. She explained the surface to the kids and was very friendly.
About halfway to Rapid City, we started tracking how many license plates we could find from different states. As of Saturday night, we were at 32 states including Alaska! We hit the jackpot today at Mount Rushmore and even found North Carolina, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. Our current count is 42! We arrived in Rapid City and stopped at a diner that served all day breakfast.... kids love breakfast for supper. We checked into the Grand Gateway hotel and let the kids burn off hours of pent up energy from the long car ride in the pool! As you can see from their posts below, they had a blast.
Up early today (Sunday), we went to Bear Country first. How cool was that?! I'll let the kids post photos and updates from our visit there. There were lots of baby cubs that were quite active. Next stop was Mount Rushmore. What a magnificent tribute to America! We watched the movie, checked out the bookstore and visited the Wisconsin flag and pillar. It was PERFECT weather... beautiful blue skies and temps in the mid 70s.
Reptile Garden will go down as a favorite I'm sure... gators and lizards and snakes... OH MY! A highlight was the tortoises that you could hang out with and pet. The kids especially liked one young tortoise that was only 108 years old. We watched them graze and walk... or lumber around. Every possible kind of snake was there... I'll post some photos of the favorites. We watched the bird show (very funny) and the alligator show. The guy actually taught the crowd how to wrestle an alligator. We went to Dinosaur Park... the cement dinosaurs were so-so, but the view of South Dakota was really awesome.
We walked downtown and ate dinner at the Firehouse Brewery. We let Travis pick the dinner spot since it is Father's Day after all. :) Full, tired and happy... we're back pool side where Bob and Susanna are playing with other kids (see kids posts to find out who Bob and Susanna are). Thanks for checking the blog. I'm sure the kids will post some photos and updates of the day later tonight! xoxo
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