We just returned from a midwest family summer trip.
It was warm, ok hot (90-103F). Before the trip, I was shivering in San Francisco after its temporary heat wave in June 2012. So I soaked in that dry prairie heat knowing I wouldn't feel that warmth to my bones again for a long while. We often experience humid heat - New England summers / Hawaii. Dry heat is nice though we girls did all get really dry skin. Of course too much direct heat is just unbearable. I'm just reminiscing the occassions during the long drives when we'd get out of the too cold 60F AC into the heat.
Our trip started in SFO to Denver airport for McDonald's meal #1. Cate got this little circle pop toy in her happy meal.
Then a jaunt on a small plane to Rapid City airport. After the people from our flight left, there was no one left at the airport. Upon exiting the airport, we were presented with PRAIRIE. It's breathtaking to see open space, you can just inhale ... and exhale and see.
[someone was very upset they didn't get the snack they wanted from the vending machine]
[I really wish I didn't delete all the old entries from this blog because I sure would like to read them now]
We drove to our hotel, the Andrew Johnson, Impressed by the large grain tower in town. We were told about the presidential statues on every corner in town and saw them. It was too hot to try to take a picture of all of them. I'm sure they're on the web. There were also some status of Indians.
Things were called to attention:
George Washington - are these statues life size? he's very tall
FDR - interesting they have a statue of him standing at the podium instead of in a wheelchair (WWII)
JFK with John Jr as a young child
Lincoln with a young person
someone had a dog
forgot the rest
We stopped for libations at a christian coffee shop which these pegged board games at each table.
We drove to Mount Rushmore around 6pm. I didn't know there was an outdoor hall of flags in alphabetical order. It just felt so safe and quiet there. There were people but it was quiet to be at the monument site. Of course there's the noise of the cafeteria happenings, foreigners were serving us, wonder which countries there were from. Had the buffalo stew (not enough fat) but the pearl onions were fun to eat. The girls went back to buy something on their own.
Nightfall, we all went to sit in the ampitheater. The ranger presented us with a movie about the 4 people whose images are captured here - Washington (fought for independence from England), Lincoln (civil war, internal strife), Teddy Roosevelt (national parks), Jefferson (declaration of independence, 4th of July). We also learned a bit about the history of Borglum who created the monument. It was very patriotic. We were requested to introduce ourselves to our neighbors. I met someone from Iowa. Sometimes you just don't feel like starting up a conversation. There was a group of spumky golden girls in front of us who created a scene asking for someone to take a group photo of them. They weren't raucous. One was trying to explain to a boy how they all met in grad school and that it was unusual in their time to have gone to grad school. They were all having a reunion. In the end they asked everyone who've served their country in the military/peace corp to go to the stage. One of these golden girls was in the peace corps so all her friends said she had to go join the group. They brought the flag down and then the lights shown upon the statues. It felt quite patriotic. It was comfortable to be there at night.
Driving back, Keystone was now a quiet tourist city. It was bustling when we passed earlier. It might have been nice to stop there if we had more time.
Next day we went to a place recommended by a coworker - Reptile Gardens. We were surprised to see lizards running around the indoor 'rainforest'? The tropical birds were so beautiful and the colors were gorgeous. They had such full looking orchids.
We were then entertained at the bird show, the crocodile wrestling, didn't get a chance to pet the huge tortoise, too many kids were around it, saw the prarie dogs which we later saw many in the wild, the snake show. We had snow cones, crunchy snow cones. Next year we'll really appreciate the Italian snow cones at the Foster City Arts and Wine festival. Comparatively the FC ones were snowier and the syrup didn't all fall to the bottom. You would definitely get a colored tongue with the FC ones.
Cate bought a plastic bow and arrow set, last one as M pointed out. I really wanted to try one of those jarred pickled eggs but didn't want to buy that large jar.
That reminds me, that morning started with a trip to Walmart looking for a fishing pole (kit), snacks, hats for the girls (which 8 yr old girl doesn't love a $2 plain pink baseball cap, nor 11 yr old with bedazzled newsboy cap, nor 40 yr old mom with collapsible, wrinkle free, adjustable wire shapeable wide brim. McDonald's #2 at Walmart to tie the girls over since we didn't have breakfast.
There was a huge fire in the black hills that we wanted to avoid on our drive to Sundance, WY. There was a beautiful information lodge off the freeway in WY. The guide there told us about the Vore Buffalo jump so we each paid $15 to take a look at that. It was too hot walking down to the dig site. It was interesting. They had this game to pin the block to the corresponding clue. The pegs were different widths apart so you had to determine the correct answer (clever game). I got to touch a tail, the bladder is quite large and has interesting tough waxed paper texture, the guide down there didn't know about the wonders of eating bone marrow, I was perplexed as to why all those bones were down there, why didn't they take it with them (were they able to cut off ALL the morsels from the bones, didn't they make soup with the bones? how in the world in the vastness of all that land did they get some bison into a frenzy to jump off that particular spot?)
The girls had fun with the prairie dress up gear at the visitor center and riding the fake horse.
Later we stopped at another rest spot. Beware of toilets with a sign that says keep lids down. Let's leave it at that. (they were very green (think resourceful) , if you know then you understand)
We stayed at the Best Western. Had to acclimate to the cold water in the indoor pool. You know you just have to get yourself wet to stop shivering but something just prevents you from dunking your chest into cold water. Trick is to wrap your arms tightly around you front, then dip a bit. It was so nice to later be in the hot whirlpool. So much for trying to teach the girls to swim in the short time we were there.
We had a lovely dinner at the Aro restaurant in town. There was a pretty waitress with a foreign accent who was very kind. I had some deep fried tri tip salad. All meals on this trip were enjoyable. It was here that I first encountered the whistle stop reading material on the dining table. Quite an interesting read.
We stopped off for ice cream at the Subway/ ice cream shoppe/ floral store. The town is quite small.
Next morning we tried to get ready as quickly as we could to get to Devil's Tower before the massive heat if we wanted to try to walk around it. We completed the round before noon, thank goodness it was bearable until then. I just held Cate's hand and tried to make the walk interesting - we can sip from our water bottles after we top each mini-incline. I bought this Prairie book that resonated with me, am glad because there's just no good reading material around, especially with that 50 shades of grey being the top book currently.
We had lunch at the tourist area right outside the park. The girls also had ice cream as we waited for Mike to finish his work call. Then we started the long drive to Cheyenne. We were able to pick up a refreshing bag of ready to eat snap peas at the grocery store in Sundance, so glad they had that type of option for snacks. Else our meals highly consisted of french fries.
