Vacation 1: Monumental Moments

So we started our trip with a trip northward towards Mount Rushmore. I had been as a child, but Ryan hadn't been and and we thought it would be a good educational stop for the kids. I had gotten a book about it at the library and Reed was super excited!

We spent the first night with my sister in Denver and saw all the family there. It was great eating and laughing with all of them there. Thank you Beth and Joe for the fabulous meal and lodging, Katie and Wayne for the picture tour of NY, and Amy for the free advice about the kids! I think I can skip the kids' year appointments now! It was fun to catch up with all of you!

We left early the next day because we still had quite a drive to Mt. Rushmore and we wanted to see it all in daylight. It was cold and rainy the whole way, but we made pretty good time. As we got closer and I was studying the map to see how to get there, I saw the Crazy Horse monument was right on the way! I remembered being there as a child and how amazing it was. I told Ryan we had to stop there as well. He trusted my judgment and we stopped. Well...time has a funny way of playing tricks on you....This is what I remember, an amazing sculpture of a man on horse carved into the mountain:

As you can see, it was quite a spectacular undertaking for the artist. However, if you scroll down and look through the fog, you can see what the sculpture actually looks like at this point.


Yep! And the documentary movie said the face wasn't even done till '98--at least 15 years after I visited as a kid! I have no idea what I was "remembering!" If the fog a had cleared at all (this was the best picture) I wanted to take a picture with the kids in it. It will be interesting if they someday take their kids to see the progress in their lifetime.

So then it was off to Mt. Rushmore. Again, Reed was very excited. Here is just a beautiful picture of a beautiful kid!


And here is that beautiful kid running ahead of us and fighting with his errant pants! (The adjustable waist had come undone!)


And here we are under the famous presidential faces. They seemed to be crying because of the rain. Reed wanted a quarter for the binocular machine, but I told him no, because my parents had told me no to that when I was a kid. That's something I remember quite well (at least, I think). I also remember taking my first real picture there of my parents and sister under the state flag of Missouri.


From here we went down the road a bit and spent the night in Wall, SD. We did not go to the famous Wall Drug Store, but enjoyed the continental breakfast to the fullest extent! The next day was our third driving day, but we made it to the condo in Iowa. I post on that later!