Mount Rushmore--Another Place off my Bucket List!

I was very excited when Garrett and Krystal invited me to join them on their family vacation to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore.  In all my travels around the United States and other parts of the world, I'd never seen Mount Rushmore.  I'm sooooo glad we were there before the gov't shut down the National Parks!

I flew in and out of Rapid City, South Dakota.  Garrett and Krystal and kids had driven down the day before from their home in Minot, ND.  I arrived around 10am at the smallish Rapid City airport, and the next-gen Carsons were there to pick me up.  We drove directly to Mount Rushmore.

 It was a lovely autumn day, and we were there at just the right time so the lighting was perfect.  There were other tourists, but not too many, and hardly any other children.  (We were there on a Thursday in September).  Makayla had learned to walk since I'd seen her in July, and it was sweet to see her toddling around.  At the cafe at Mount Rushmore they were selling vanilla ice cream made with Thomas Jefferson's original recipe.  It was tasty.

There were LOTS of things to see and do in the Rapid City area, but we had to cater our activities to keep two toddlers interested, and to accomodate their nap times.  On Friday we went to a dinosaur park and to a geology museum to see some dinosaur bones.

 You can see from the picture below that it was a windy day and more overcast and much chillier than our day at Mount Rushmore.

On Saturday we went to see one of the many extensive caves in the area.

 Daniel especially liked holding his own flashlight.

On the way home from the caves we stopped at a church recreated to look like one from Norway.

 It reminded me of a church we'd seen at an open air museum in Norway when Kent, Adri and I went there in 2007, as seen in the picture below.

We stayed at the billeting on Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City, and Krystal and I took the kids to a playground one afternoon so they could play.

 On Sunday we went church in Rapid City.  After nap time that day we went to see the Air and Space Museum on the base.  I love this picture with Daniel posing and leaning against his dad.

Here Daniel is sitting in the cockpit of a simulator of the F-106 airplane like my dad flew back in the 60's and 70's.

 These controls will probably look familiar to my dad.

I was able to babysit a couple of times for Garrett and Krystal so they could get out without the kids.  Once it was only so they could buy groceries, but they were also able to go out to a movie. 

Garrett dropped me off back at the airport on Monday morning to fly back to DC.  They were driving back to North Dakota that day, too. We had a very fun time; I only wish Kent had been able to go with me.  We'll have to go together another time, since there were lots more things to see that we didn't have time for.