Summer lovin had me a blast!

This summer has been nothing but amazing and I think it is only going to get better! School starts in a month so I better start living it up some more. But I am excited for school to start! Just because it is my last year! Shhh don't tell lady summer. I don't want it to go any faster! Anyway...I posted a quick blog about South Dakota but I think I'll go into detail about it now(sorry this will probably be pretty long since we were there for almost 2 weeks.) and post some pictures as well. Why South Dakota you might ask well I will show you why. Adam and I left at midnight after I got off work on Tuesday so we drove all of Wednesday morning. Crazy I know but it was nice to drive at night when there is no traffic. We took turns sleeping but Adam drove most of the way. Our first major stop was at Devil's Tower in Wyoming. 

We drove to the base of the tower and decided to walk around for a bit. It was so peaceful and beautiful.

I thought this was interesting since I had no idea what pray bundles or cloths were.  

So this is what we found...

I googled it because I was so interested and found out that these bundles of cloth, feathers and tobacco are physical and symbolic prayers of the Native American peoples of the area. If you look close enough you can see the feather and I think there might be tobacco but I don't know. 

After this we started to get back on the road but we found a prairie dog town so we stopped and watched them for a while. They are so cute! 

Adam was very intrigued by them so he watched them for a while. I thought it was cute! =) 

Then we actually found some geocaches before we left! It wouldn't be a vacation if we didn't geocache! ;)

We finally got to South Dakota and since I have been to SD many many times, I decided to take Adam to the tourist traps I knew about and loved going to! First on our journey was Deadwood! Deadwood is an old west town and they put on skits about Wild Bill Hickok's murder and we were just in time to see it! 

After this is was straight on to Rapid City! This was our first main stop of the vacation. We didn't do much our first night in Rapid City! We were pretty tired. My cousin, Ron met up with us at our hotel and we decided what the plan was for the next couple days. 

Our second day of vacation, we decided to head towards Mt. Rushmore. (This was definitely one of my favorite days.) 

On the way to Mt. Rushmore, we stopped at The Cosmos! *I highly recommend this to everyone if you are ever in SD.* 

What are the Cosmos you ask? Well I took a picture of the sign that explains it... Hehe!

It was totally mind boggling! People who are not taller than you all of a sudden become taller than you, water flows toward you, and you CAN NOT stand up straight no matter how hard you try! My mom told me that I had been here once when I was younger but I don't remember it at all! But I totally loved it! 

                                                                                     

He claims to be standing straight. Think again buddy!

These are my favorite pictures I think of the whole trip! We both thought we were standing straight! 

It was totally bizarre!

We headed to Mt. Rushmore after this and I've been their quite a few times. I was excited for Adam to see it since he really likes history but he said he thought it would have been bigger. But he still seemed to enjoy it. We had lunch there and walked on the trail that take you a little closer to the faces.

This was the best dessert I've ever had! It is called Kuchen. It is a German dessert and is the state dessert of South Dakota! 

PA representing!

Utah Native!

But loving the SD! =)

Yay for
Mt. Rushmore!

After Rushmore, we stopped in Keystone which is a little touristy town right before the faces. We spent some time there and took some old timey pictures. We didn't get a CD of them but we bought one to hang up in the house. It was a lot of fun! I dressed up as a floozy and Adam was a cowboy. Then we spent sometimes with my cousins, Ron and his wife Christina. We had dinner with them at The Olive Garden. I don't get to see Ron as often so it was nice to spend some time with them and I was so happy for them to finally meet Adam. P.S. They both seemed to love Adam! =)

Alright, so I am going to finish this blog up with day 3 of our vacation. We went to see Crazy Horse Monument and to Custer State park. Crazy Horse was not really worth the money we spent but hopefully it will help move along the production of the mountain! This project has be going since 1948! So hopefully they will make some progress for the next time I am out there. But it was pretty cool to see but you can see it from the road. Haha.

Custer park was our next destination. We drove up Needles Highway which took us to Sylvan Lake. For all of you National Treasure fans that is the lake they portray as being right behind Mt. Rushmore. I'm sorry it is not really behind there. It is about 20 miles away! But it is pretty and worth the drive!

Sylvan Lake

Sorry, we didn't find the eagle either! ;)

Sorry, just had to throw one of the kissy ones in there! ;)

We headed to Wildlife Loop, which is another road that is in Custer Park. We didn't see a ton of wildlife but what we did see was pretty amazing anyway. There were turkeys, and mountain goat, and mule, oh my. 

 Well hello there! 

Yes, they stick their faces in your window! I remember this from when I was younger and I love it! I just think it is a hoot! =) 

Cute little baby! 

This guy was a hoot and a half! He just came and used our side mirror as a scratching post! I finally had to push him away because I thought he was going to break it! 

And on the way out of the park there is a tunnel you come out of and you can then see the faces! 

Then we stayed a night on Ellsworth Airforce Base. They gave us a tour of the base, 

we had dinner with them and taught them the bean game. Oh P.S. the airforce base hotel was the most amazing hotel I've ever stayed in!! To be continued....