Vacation 2011!! - Days 3 & 4

I thought there was just too much to share in one post, so here is the rest of our trip :)  Saturday (May 14) started out as any of our other days, with breakfast in our cabin.  Then we headed to Hill City to do a little window shopping.  We had been planning on finding some Black Hills Gold jewelry, but it was way too expensive in town, and my fingers are too swollen to buy what I really wanted - a gold ring. 

We spent about an hour or so wandering around from store to store, then we headed to Prairie Berry Winery.  Unfortunately there was no wine tasting for me :(  But Daddy was a champ and sampled a couple for me :)  I brought two bottles home for after baby comes - a pear wine called Gold Digger, and a dessert wine called Strawberry Fusion.  Can't wait!!  We had planned on having lunch at the winery bistro, but even their kids' menu didn't seem very kid friendly. 

After Daddy patiently waited for Mommy to look around the winery and he kept the kids content, we decided to head into town to the 50's Diner for lunch - major score!!  The kids loved the lighted signs and the 50's decor.  The waitresses were dressed in poodle skirts.  The food was great - we all got shakes or malts.  Sax went for spaghetti, Raine had Mac & Cheese with fries (of course!), Daddy got a chili-cheese burger with rings, and Mama got a BLT with chili-cheese fries.

The only bad part about the diner was the table behind us.  I have a ton of respect for those in the military.  However, the type of crude and vulgar language coming from the Army National Guards sitting behind us - in uniform, mind you! - was completely inappropriate for a family restaurant, especially when there are small children in earshot.  I am VERY disappointed in these men!!

Anyway.  After lunch we headed to the depot to get our tickets for the 1880 train ride.  Sax was really excited that he was getting to go on a real choo-choo train!  On the way from Hill City to Keystone, he sat with Mommy and Raine sat with Daddy.  On the way back, Sax slept on Daddy and Raine sat by Mommy.  The scenery was interesting and again we saw a lot of deer.

We kept things pretty simple on Saturday.  After going on the train, we headed to the grocery store and got a few things we needed to go with supper since we were cooking over the fire at the campground.  We ATTEMPTED to roast marshmallows for s'mores too, but that didn't work too well.  I had a nice fire going for the steaks and hot dogs, but put the fire out to go in and eat since it was cold and VERY windy out (Did I mention that it was snowing??  It snowed most of the day Saturday - not enough for there to still be snow on the ground, but enough to make it cold!!)  When I went out to start the second bundle of wood, I couldn't keep a good fire going because the wind had picked up more.  Some of the wood was moldy too, which really wasn't helping the situation.  We ended up making the s'mores in the microwave :/

Sunday was time to head home.  Our first stop after checking out of the cabin was to go to Old McDonald's Farm.  Even though our tickets were for Thursday, they still honored them for Sunday because of the bad weather.  The kids had a lot of fun.  Saxon tried going on the pony ride, but got scared, so Raine got to go twice and used Saxon's ticket.  They got to hold and pet baby chicks and turkeys, fed some goats, sheep, pot-bellied pig, fish, piglets, ducks, geese and calves.  They got to pet most of those, along with longhorns, ponies, and donkeys.  They particularly enjoyed bottle-feeding the calves.  It was super cute!!

Our last "attraction" to see before home was the Ellsworth Air Force Base - South Dakota Air and Space Museum.  About the only thing there that the kids were interested in was the airplanes.  They really didn't want to see much else.  Saxon's obsession was with the helicopter and how big all the wheels were.

The rest of the way was pretty uneventful.  The car acted up a few times, but we took care of that.  We stopped at a truck stop in Mitchell called Marlin's for supper which was really good.  We made it home about 11pm.  Saxon was so happy to be home and sleeping in his own bed :)  He wasn't the only one though!  A few times on the trip he told us he wanted to sleep in his bed, but in spite of that, he seemed to have quite a bit of fun!!

VACATION 2011!! - Days 1 & 2

We had a wonderful vacation!!  We left Wednesday night (May 11) for Hill City, South Dakota and came home on Sunday (May 15).  Of course, it rained once we got to Worthington, and rained all the way there and all day Thursday.  Plus there were a million deer between Rapid City and Hill city, which isn't fun at 3 am, so the going was slow there.  I ended up with about 3 1/2 hours of sleep Wednesday night since we had a lot scheduled for Thursday. 

Our Cabin and the 'bu

Breakfast in the cabin

We started out with Bear Country USA.  It was fun, even though it was raining.  Most of the pictures didn't turn out very well because of the combination of the rain and the camera flash (my digital camera display is broken, so I'm just glad so many of the pictures DID come out!!)

Next stop was Reptile Gardens.  We got there in time to see the snake show, which was interesting.  He had a large python, about 12 feet long, a cobra, a rattlesnake, and a couple others too.  Of course I held the python.  Saxon was afraid of the snakes.  Raine finally braved up and pet the python though!! :)  Sax was ok with the gators, snakes, and lizards that were in the cages.

We had planned on going to Old McDonald's Farm, but they weren't open because of the rain.  We headed up to Mt Rushmore instead.  It was still rainy and cold and it even started snowing while we were up there.  Really glad we remembered to pack the hooded sweatshirts!!  We  had checked the forecast and it was supposed to be in the 60's and clear.  But I guess in the mountains, the weather isn't that predictable!!  A lot has changed at Mt Rushmore since I was there last as far as the museum and the parking.  The kids seemed to enjoy it :)

We had eaten breakfast at the cabin and we packed lunch, so we checked out Chute Roosters for supper.  We were sitting down to supper - leather topped tables and leather chairs - a converted barn - and Raine cracked us all up.  "Geez, Mom, this place is pretty classy!"  Funny stuff!!  They had really good food!!  Scot and I both got steak and veggies, Sax got a corn dog, and Raine got a cheeseburger, and we shared a potato appetizer.  HIGHLY recommend Chute Roosters if you make it out to Hill City!!

We tried getting to bed early that night since both Mommy and Daddy we just beat.  The kids had other ideas.  They weren't tired since they'd slept in the car.  Sax was scared, so he wanted to sleep with Daddy and Mommy, then Raine got scared, so Mommy ended up going over to sleep with her.  Man is that girl a bed hog!!  And a kicker!!  Sax wasn't much nicer to Daddy.  Actually, when I got up, Sax was sleeping with his feet by Daddy's face.  Apparently he spun around all night, so Daddy didn't get much sleep either.

Day 2 - Friday - started out with much better weather than Thursday.  It was only in the 50's for a high, but it was sunny :)  After eating breakfast in the cabin, we headed off to the National Museum of Woodcarving.  Of course the kids didn't want to sit through the video explaining who did most of the carvings, so we headed for displays after only watching a few minutes of the video.  There were a few displays that were animated and activated by coins.  Sax was afraid of some of them and Raine thought a few were too graphic.  I thought they were really interesting.  Daddy liked the train in particular.

After the Woodcarving Museum, we headed to Four Mile Old West ghost town.  Raine kept asking where the ghosts were - lol!!  We explained to her SEVERAL times that it's called a ghost town because it's abandoned.  She still didn't get it :/  Sax was really curious and wanted to look around at the buildings.  We got to see an actual spring too, with fresh water coming up.  That was pretty cool.  Plus the kids posed for a few pictures in the cutouts.  Some of the buildings were dilapidated since the "official" tourist season hasn't started and they were still doing some repairs.  But it was fun!

After the Ghost Town, we headed to Windcave National Park.  At the park entrance we saw a few buffalo grazing and a couple antelope. 

We were a little early for the tour, so we decided it would be a good time to have our lunch before heading down.  It was pretty cool going in the cave, in spite of my claustrophobia!!  We saw the original entrance to the cave... Freaky!!  Don't think I'd every be able to do that!!




Original natural entrance

 Once we got inside, Sax was kind of scared because it was pretty dark in there.  Daddy had a pen light which he let Sax carry, so he was fine after that.  Was glad we took our sweatshirts since it was about 53 degrees in there.  Some of the passages were kind of narrow, and there were places we had to duck.  We went down over 300 steps as we went in.  Much of the walk, when we weren't on the steps, were on downward ramps.  It was a little nerve-wracking in some places where the floor was wet :/  But it was still fun.  We didn't see much of Raine on the tour, since she was "helping" lead the group on the tour with the park ranger.

Our next stop for Friday was the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs.  I had been there about 15 years ago, so it was interesting to see how much more they had dug up since we were last there.  Sax ended up crashing, so Daddy had to carry him most of the time since he was getting pretty heavy.

On the way back to the camper, we debated between going through Custer State Park Wildlife Loop or Needle's Highway.  Well..... we took Needle's Highway.  My first experience actually doing the driving on mountain roads.  SCARY!!  Daddy asked if I wanted him to drive - NO THANK YOU!!  I didn't want to be the one looking down the drop-off!!  We didn't see many buffalo on the way back, but we saw a LOT of deer!!  And some very beautiful scenery.  Of course, do you think we actually got a picture of Needle's Eye when we got up there?  No.  Dang it.  But we saw a lot of snow up there and saw Harney Peak, which is the highest point between the Rockies and the Swiss Alps.  Pretty cool :) 

We'd had a pretty busy day, so we decided to just eat our supper at the cabin.  Daddy got some food from the 50's Diner and shared with Sax, and Raine and I had our leftovers from Chute Roosters.  But it was a good day!!