Vacation, part 4

A little morning mini golf, anyone? 

Another hole in one!  

Hole 16 was Lucas' hole in one!  

Then we started our trek east… We couldn't be in South Dakota and not stop at Wall Drug!  

Oddly enough, Hannah wanted her picture with lots of the statue figures.  

The kids each got to pick a souvenir at Wall Drug.  After walking the toy aisles, Brent was convinced most of his childhood toys (pop guns, sling shots, toy pistol -- see a theme here?) came from Wall Drug.  

We ventured into the 244,000 acres of Badlands National Park.  Lucas figured out pretty quickly why this area was named the Badlands. The Lakota people first called in "mako sica" which translated into land bad.  The land was not productive for growing any kind of food.  But it really is beautiful.  

This sign was a surprise!  

Don't get any closer to the edge!   Eek!  

World's best traveler.  Hands down!  

They were actually in the process of changing the corn palace exterior decorations when we stopped.  The funny thing was they were cutting wheat for part of the decor… wheat for the corn palace?  Maybe this is only ironic to farmers.

Hannah's pretty pink cowgirl had and a tee shirt with Lucas' middle name!  

We couldn't pass by a tourist shop without a picture with the Knight.

8 days.  1,700 miles.  Still smiling.  A fantastic family vacation for the history book!  

And when we got home --- fresh sweetcorn had been delivered to our fridge!

It was Ryan's first sweet corn and he didn't have any trouble figuring out how to eat it.  

Vacation, part 3

The next stop was the Crazy Horse Memorial.

It is hard to fathom from this photo, but this monument is gigantic.  When completed, this monument will be 563 feet high and 641 feet long.  In comparison, all four 60 foot heads on Mount Rushmore would fit inside just Crazy Horse's head.  Just his head.   

In 1948, the first blast removed 10 ton of rock.  

Today's blasts average 700 ton of rock.   

   

The memorial is a private, non-profit undertaking financed only by admission fees and contributions.  The memorial does not accept government funding.  That is the primary reason for the slow progress in completing this memorial monument.  

Crazy Horse face dimensions… his forehead alone is 32 feet! 

Legends in Light is the laser light show that is displayed on the mountain.

It is pitch black outside and the images are continuously moving to music and a narrated story.  It was very neat and one of our family favorites from the whole trip! 

The next morning we were back to Custer State Park.  We drove the long, winding path to Mount Coolidge Lookout Tower.  

This is the highest point in all of Custer State Park.  The historic Fire Tower was one of the last projects of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.  

From the lookout you can spot Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and the Needles.  (you can't spot them in this photo, however).  

Beautiful views! 

Another tunnel...

and another view of the faces! 

All wood bridge, still in use today.  

The next stop was Bear Country.  

Then we found a great ice cream shop called Armadillo's.