South Dakota
From August 23rd to the 27th, my girlfriend (Chelle) and I went to South Dakota to celebrate our one-year dating anniversary and her birthday. It was a wonderful trip. One that I won't be forgetting anytime soon!
Day 1 - Our One-Year Dating Anniversary
We woke up early and ate breakfast at Denny's on the way out of town. We arrived in Sioux Falls, SD at about 11:30am. We stopped first at the Sertoma Butterfly House. They have a nice little atrium with a ton of different butterflies. Some of them were rather friendly.
We then checked in at our home for the night, the Victorian Bed and Breakfast. It's right in the heart of the historic district and is a 1888 Queen Anne style house. A little pink for my tastes, but it was an experience for sure.
We then walked down to catch the free sight-seeing Trolley that runs through downtown, but had just missed it. So, we decided to stop and have lunch at the Phillips Avenue Diner. Chelle enjoyed a Smore shake with actual toasted marshmallows. We caught the trolley that showed us a few sites along the way and then dropped us off at Sioux Falls.
We took the elevator up to the top of the observation tower and enjoyed the view. We then walked down to get closer views of the area. There was also some ruins of an old fort.
Our plans after that was to go Frisbee golfing at Tuthill Park, but a flash flooding thunderstorm nixed those plans. We made it back to the Victorian just in time before it started pouring. We decided instead to take a nap for a little while, then we headed to Old Chicago for dinner. One thing that we found interesting/funny, is that there are mini-casinos everywhere in South Dakota. Gas stations, restaurants, by themselves in old laundromats, etc. There was one in Old Chicago as well.
We then attempted to take a romantic candle-lit hot bath in the big claw-foot tub they had in our room. This kind of worked except the hot water decided to crap out halfway through filling the tub. So, we had a romantic candle-lit kind of chilly bath instead.
Day 2
We got out of town a little later than planned. We made our way across the width of South Dakota, making our way to Rapid City. We stopped at a very pretty rest stop at the Missouri River.
We stopped to have lunch at a tiny little town at a little diner. We ate light to save room for Outback Steakhouse, which we planned on eating at for dinner.
Along I-90, there are approximately 435 million signs (give or take) suggesting you stop at Wall Drug. So, being the mindless consumer sheep we are, we stopped there. It was a little underwhelming, but it was a nice place overall. Chelle picked up a few souveneirs for friends/family there and we picked up some really good fudge.
We finished the last leg of the trip and passed into Mountain Time, gaining back an hour. We arrived at the Big Sky Lodge at about 7PM. We checked in with the really helpful and friendly caretakers, got settled in the room, then went to take pictures of the view.
This was a beautiful place, up on the hill overlooking Rapid City with a hot tub to relax in under the stars.
We got changed and headed into town to Outback Steakhouse where we each enjoyed a nice steak. We headed back to the Lodge to get in a good night's sleep as it would be a long day tomorrow.
Day 3 - Chelle's Birthday
We headed out about 7:30 to check in at Ft. Hayes Chuckwagon and the Dancing with Wolves film set. We enjoyed an all-you-can-eat breakfast of biscuits and gravy, pancakes, and sausage and then boarded a bus to take us on an all-day tour of the area.
The weather was perfect. A cool 75-80 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. The sky was such a vivid shade of blue, it was unreal. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore. There is something about seeing it in person that doesn't give the pictures justice at all.
We then drove around through a scenic byway that included tunnels that framed Mt. Rushmore and stopped at the Game Lodge for a buffet lunch. We saw some buffalo and other wildlife on the way to the Needles highway. There is a tunnel in there that is just big enough for the bus to fit through. There is only about 6 inches of wiggle room. Our driver managed not to scrape the paint somehow! Just through that is the "Eye of the Needle".
We made our way down the mountain and stopped at a man-made lake, Lake Sylvan.
The final stop on the trip was the Work-in-Progress for 63 years now, Crazy Horse Memorial.
(For perspective: The model to the left is 1/34th the size of the actual monument. The mountain in the background is 1 mile away.)
We finished the day by going back to Ft. Hayes and having a chuckwagon dinner. We had barbeque pork, baked potato, baked beans, apple sauce, coffee cake, and a cornbread biscuit. Very tasty. We then were treated with a music show. And they embarrassed Chelle two-fold. Once, by publically announcing her birthday, and two because they called her Mrs. Thayer.
We headed back to the Lodge afterward and enjoyed a dip in the hot tub under the stars.
Day 4 - Plan B day
Our plan for the day:
* Mt. Rushmore Gold Factory Tour
* Museum of Geology
* Wind Cave National Park - Cave tour
We only got to do 1 of those, sadly.
After a nice breakfast at the lodge, we packed up, checked out, and headed down to Rapid City, stopping first at the Gold Factory. Unfortunately, their tours were on an hourly basis. We missed the last one by about 10 minutes and the next was already full up due to a bus that had arrived.
We viewed the merchandise, and I bought Chelle a nice pair of gold earrings that complements the necklace I bought her for Valentines. I had bought Chelle a pair of earrings off of eBay that would look really nice with a lot of her outfits. However, they sent the wrong ones and didn't have any of the right ones in stock after that. So, these replaced those.
We then drove over to the Museum of Geology. This one we got to do. Tons of rocks from around the world and a lot of fossils. Really interesting!
We then drove down south to Wind Cave National Park. We learned the lesson that we should call ahead for tour times as we missed the tour by a few minutes and the next one wouldn't be for almost 2 hours. We opted to take the scenic route through Wind Cave National Park instead which wound us through back gravel roads. We say a ton of prairie dog, a herd of buffalo, some antelope and deer.
We then took the long drive to Valentine, NE. We took SD Highway 18 for most of the way. This road had long stretches under construction. And about 5 miles, the road was completely gone. A solid dirt road that turned to mud in some places due to them watering it down. I ended up fishtailing and nearly taking out a traffic cone. When I got out of there, it looked like I had been off-roading. My car was caked with mud which ended up falling off in big chunks for the next 250 miles. We finally got into Valentine about 8:30 PM (thanks to the jump back to Central Time). We stayed at the Tradewinds Lodge. It was a nice big room with a King size bed. We ate at a local chinese restaurant and then went to bed as we had to get up early the next morning as well.
Day 5
We woke up early to drive a few miles up to South Dakota, looking for another shotglass as a souvenir, but came up empty handed. We came back, checked out from the hotel, and went next door to Little Outlaw Canoe and Tube rental. We rented out two inner-tubes for the day and then proceeded to try to find disposable cameras as I didn't trust taking out my camera on the river. After stopping at 4 different places, we finally found a couple cameras. We made our way out of town to the final stop where we parked our car and the company drove us back up the river about 8 miles or so. We floated casually down the river. However, the river was very shallow in many places and the current had the tendency to push us to shore. It was a chore to keep us moving down the river. Overall, it was very relaxing and very pretty. Even through I used liberal amounts of sunscreen, I ended up with a very bad burn on my calves and ankles that I'm still recovering from.
All pictures can be seen at my Picasa Albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/kitsucoon
Day 1 - Our One-Year Dating Anniversary
We woke up early and ate breakfast at Denny's on the way out of town. We arrived in Sioux Falls, SD at about 11:30am. We stopped first at the Sertoma Butterfly House. They have a nice little atrium with a ton of different butterflies. Some of them were rather friendly.
We then checked in at our home for the night, the Victorian Bed and Breakfast. It's right in the heart of the historic district and is a 1888 Queen Anne style house. A little pink for my tastes, but it was an experience for sure.
We then walked down to catch the free sight-seeing Trolley that runs through downtown, but had just missed it. So, we decided to stop and have lunch at the Phillips Avenue Diner. Chelle enjoyed a Smore shake with actual toasted marshmallows. We caught the trolley that showed us a few sites along the way and then dropped us off at Sioux Falls.
We took the elevator up to the top of the observation tower and enjoyed the view. We then walked down to get closer views of the area. There was also some ruins of an old fort.
Our plans after that was to go Frisbee golfing at Tuthill Park, but a flash flooding thunderstorm nixed those plans. We made it back to the Victorian just in time before it started pouring. We decided instead to take a nap for a little while, then we headed to Old Chicago for dinner. One thing that we found interesting/funny, is that there are mini-casinos everywhere in South Dakota. Gas stations, restaurants, by themselves in old laundromats, etc. There was one in Old Chicago as well.
We then attempted to take a romantic candle-lit hot bath in the big claw-foot tub they had in our room. This kind of worked except the hot water decided to crap out halfway through filling the tub. So, we had a romantic candle-lit kind of chilly bath instead.
Day 2
We got out of town a little later than planned. We made our way across the width of South Dakota, making our way to Rapid City. We stopped at a very pretty rest stop at the Missouri River.
We stopped to have lunch at a tiny little town at a little diner. We ate light to save room for Outback Steakhouse, which we planned on eating at for dinner.
Along I-90, there are approximately 435 million signs (give or take) suggesting you stop at Wall Drug. So, being the mindless consumer sheep we are, we stopped there. It was a little underwhelming, but it was a nice place overall. Chelle picked up a few souveneirs for friends/family there and we picked up some really good fudge.
We finished the last leg of the trip and passed into Mountain Time, gaining back an hour. We arrived at the Big Sky Lodge at about 7PM. We checked in with the really helpful and friendly caretakers, got settled in the room, then went to take pictures of the view.
This was a beautiful place, up on the hill overlooking Rapid City with a hot tub to relax in under the stars.
We got changed and headed into town to Outback Steakhouse where we each enjoyed a nice steak. We headed back to the Lodge to get in a good night's sleep as it would be a long day tomorrow.
Day 3 - Chelle's Birthday
We headed out about 7:30 to check in at Ft. Hayes Chuckwagon and the Dancing with Wolves film set. We enjoyed an all-you-can-eat breakfast of biscuits and gravy, pancakes, and sausage and then boarded a bus to take us on an all-day tour of the area.
The weather was perfect. A cool 75-80 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. The sky was such a vivid shade of blue, it was unreal. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore. There is something about seeing it in person that doesn't give the pictures justice at all.
We then drove around through a scenic byway that included tunnels that framed Mt. Rushmore and stopped at the Game Lodge for a buffet lunch. We saw some buffalo and other wildlife on the way to the Needles highway. There is a tunnel in there that is just big enough for the bus to fit through. There is only about 6 inches of wiggle room. Our driver managed not to scrape the paint somehow! Just through that is the "Eye of the Needle".
We made our way down the mountain and stopped at a man-made lake, Lake Sylvan.
The final stop on the trip was the Work-in-Progress for 63 years now, Crazy Horse Memorial.
(For perspective: The model to the left is 1/34th the size of the actual monument. The mountain in the background is 1 mile away.)
We finished the day by going back to Ft. Hayes and having a chuckwagon dinner. We had barbeque pork, baked potato, baked beans, apple sauce, coffee cake, and a cornbread biscuit. Very tasty. We then were treated with a music show. And they embarrassed Chelle two-fold. Once, by publically announcing her birthday, and two because they called her Mrs. Thayer.
We headed back to the Lodge afterward and enjoyed a dip in the hot tub under the stars.
Day 4 - Plan B day
Our plan for the day:
* Mt. Rushmore Gold Factory Tour
* Museum of Geology
* Wind Cave National Park - Cave tour
We only got to do 1 of those, sadly.
After a nice breakfast at the lodge, we packed up, checked out, and headed down to Rapid City, stopping first at the Gold Factory. Unfortunately, their tours were on an hourly basis. We missed the last one by about 10 minutes and the next was already full up due to a bus that had arrived.
We viewed the merchandise, and I bought Chelle a nice pair of gold earrings that complements the necklace I bought her for Valentines. I had bought Chelle a pair of earrings off of eBay that would look really nice with a lot of her outfits. However, they sent the wrong ones and didn't have any of the right ones in stock after that. So, these replaced those.
We then drove over to the Museum of Geology. This one we got to do. Tons of rocks from around the world and a lot of fossils. Really interesting!
We then drove down south to Wind Cave National Park. We learned the lesson that we should call ahead for tour times as we missed the tour by a few minutes and the next one wouldn't be for almost 2 hours. We opted to take the scenic route through Wind Cave National Park instead which wound us through back gravel roads. We say a ton of prairie dog, a herd of buffalo, some antelope and deer.
We then took the long drive to Valentine, NE. We took SD Highway 18 for most of the way. This road had long stretches under construction. And about 5 miles, the road was completely gone. A solid dirt road that turned to mud in some places due to them watering it down. I ended up fishtailing and nearly taking out a traffic cone. When I got out of there, it looked like I had been off-roading. My car was caked with mud which ended up falling off in big chunks for the next 250 miles. We finally got into Valentine about 8:30 PM (thanks to the jump back to Central Time). We stayed at the Tradewinds Lodge. It was a nice big room with a King size bed. We ate at a local chinese restaurant and then went to bed as we had to get up early the next morning as well.
Day 5
We woke up early to drive a few miles up to South Dakota, looking for another shotglass as a souvenir, but came up empty handed. We came back, checked out from the hotel, and went next door to Little Outlaw Canoe and Tube rental. We rented out two inner-tubes for the day and then proceeded to try to find disposable cameras as I didn't trust taking out my camera on the river. After stopping at 4 different places, we finally found a couple cameras. We made our way out of town to the final stop where we parked our car and the company drove us back up the river about 8 miles or so. We floated casually down the river. However, the river was very shallow in many places and the current had the tendency to push us to shore. It was a chore to keep us moving down the river. Overall, it was very relaxing and very pretty. Even through I used liberal amounts of sunscreen, I ended up with a very bad burn on my calves and ankles that I'm still recovering from.
All pictures can be seen at my Picasa Albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/kitsucoon