Friday, November 15, 2013

road trip recap: mt rushmore, black hills, and pierre, sd

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After we left the Dinosaur Park and Wall Drug, we of course had to stop and see Mount Rushmore before we continued on to K's grandmother's house!  It was a pretty quick stop--we just paid, parked, walked as far as we could walk, looked at it for a while, and then left.  It was definitely just one of those "AMERICA!" things you simply have to see, and of course it is impressive, but I didn't need to spend a lot of time gazing at it in contemplation.  We took the long way out of town through the Black Hills (up a mountain), which probably wasn't the best choice, but we did get a nice view of the region from a scenic overlook with a bunch of bikers (we were in the area right during Sturgis, so there were bikers EVERYWHERE).  It was actually kind of insane how many there were...

We FINALLY got to K's grandmother's house about an hour after we were scheduled to arrive, and had a huge dinner that was like Thanksgiving.  K's uncle and wife were also there for the weekend, so we got to spend a bit of time with them as well.  It was a really great stay!  We played a lot of cards, ate a LOT of food, and mostly just hung out and chatted for the weekend.  One of the days we were there we drove around looking at the historic houses in Pierre (for the historic preservationist among us) and then visited the Capitol building, which was beautiful (especially the ceilings and windows).  I also thought it was pretty great that there was an exhibit for all of the inaugural dresses of the governor's wives through the decades, recreated in minature and accompanied by photographs--just my style!  Some of the dresses I would still totally wear :) 

K's grandmother is such an awesome lady--I kept saying the whole time that I hope I am just like her when I'm in my eighties.  She loves to travel, she goes out dancing every Friday night, she's incredibly active and intelligent and witty--quite a spitfire.  I'm seriously aspiring to be her in fifty-some-odd years.

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