Big Summer Trip, Black Hills

The Black Hills were beautiful and there was so much to do we could only see some of the best parts, but we had a great time.

Day 8 (Saturday) - We went first thing to Jewel Cave to pick up tickets.  There was already going to be a long wait so we decided to buy tickets for late afternoon and to go see other things in the meantime.  We did do a little hike around the cave visitor center for part of their junior ranger before we left.  Andrew went with my parents and we all drove over to Mt. Rushmore.  I totally went the wrong way when we got there and instead of getting in the short parking line got in the long parking line.  Oh, well.  We got in and met all up and got our lunches.  We walked through the flags and took some pictures, picked up the Junior Ranger books, and then went and sat outside and ate lunch while admiring the view and looking at Mt. Rushmore.  It was pretty crowded and no one was too keen on hiking around since the view seemed just fine from where we were at.  So, we went around the museum a bit, watched the film, and finished up and got the kids Junior Ranger badges and then headed back to the car.  Mt. Rushmore was pretty impressive, but the kids didn't seem to care too much, of course.

Andrew stayed with my parents and they went back to the rental and we decided to go see some of Custer State Park.  The road from Mt. Rushmore takes you through the Iron Mountain Rd which is pretty crazy and has amazing scenery.  They made this road specifically for the amazing scenery.  There are 3 one-way tunnels that are meant to frame Mt. Rushmore and have a gorgeous view.  There are pigtail curves and just crazy tiny curvy roads.  I was paying tons of attention to my driving and I think we drove it backwards in terms of getting some of the beautiful views of Mt. Rushmore, but they were still gorgeous (maybe just a little less climatic, since we had already seen Mt. Rushmore).  The tunnels made me nervous as from the other direction they were more or less blind, but hey, no one ran into us and we had a great time.  We were kind of short on time, but we really wanted to see some wildlife, so we decided to go on the wildlife loop rd and just hope we got to Jewel cave on time.  We did end up seeing wildlife - we saw some of the begging burros and we also saw a small herd of bison.  Logan and Noah ended up sleeping most of the time so they missed it, but Seth (when he was looking up from his DS) got to see the wildlife.

We did, in fact, make it back to Jewel Cave on time.  Katsu, Andrew, and Seth went on the more advanced tour which was longer.  They had a great time, though of course, Seth wasn't paying very good attention and ran into the wall where there is black stuff that will never ever come off your clothes.  I think it ended up not getting on his clothes, thankfully.  It was supposed to be really pretty with lots of very interesting cave formations, but I can't tell you about it because I didn't go on that one.  The rest of us went on the short tour and it was pretty boring.  You just go to one room and you can see a few cave formations, but that's about it and they talk a lot.  Noah just kept blabbing and blabbing.  He is not really ready for cave tours, apparently.  The boys finished up their Junior Ranger and Noah was feeling special because he had a little PeeWee Ranger badge that he got that was just unique to him.

Then, back to the rental for the day.

Day 9 (Sunday)

We woke up early and went to Wind Cave so hopefully we could get early tickets.  We saw some bison on the way into the park.  Thankfully, we did and got there just before they got really crowded.  We all got tickets to go on a cave tour shortly after we got there.  We went down to wait and then Noah started crying about wanting to go to the potty.  I didn't think we had time to take him, plus he had just gone, but then he started throwing a huge fit and then we refused to go on the tour.  So, Noah and I stayed outside while everyone else did the tour.  Apparently, the cave was quite interesting with lots of boxwork (although I think everyone liked Jewel Cave better), but again, I wouldn't know about that.  Noah and I wandered around the visitor center, did his Junior Ranger, and he got good and bored.  About half way through waiting, he wanted to go on the cave tour, but at that point he was too late and he was pretty sad about that.

We were kind of worn out of driving at this point, so we went back to the rental for lunch and then waffled back and forth about what we should do for the afternoon.  I wanted to see the Needles, sort of, but was nervous about driving in such narrow places and just kind of driving in general, so we decided we'll have to go back to the Black Hills another time and see it.

We ended up going into Custer, the town where we were seeing.  We looked at a rock shop for a long time so Seth could pick out a rock to bring home.  Then, we were went to get ice cream, but everyone decided on some candy instead.  The city streets were quaint and it was a nice little detour.  Andrew stayed back with Grandma and Grandpa and otherwise, we just relaxed the rest of the day.