{Road Trip} Day Eight - Devils Tower & Rapid City

This morning, we headed out to explore Devils Tower National Monument...

We took the Tower Trail and explored around the base of the monument...

We observed the climbers on the monument, counting about 8 total that we could see from the bottom...

M & B enjoyed climbing on all of the boulders that were piled up along the trail...

We enjoyed beautiful views of the Wyoming countryside...

along with several different views of the tower above...

and just enjoyed some time out of the car and moving around!

The kids earned their Junior Ranger badges...

and had fun with the prairie dogs on the way out!

 

Afterwards, we continued on into South Dakota...

and to one of our favorite little towns, Rapid City, also known as "The City of Presidents", due to the placement of life-size bronze sculptures of the presidents on major street corners around downtown.

We were last here back in 2014, but wanted to swing back by for a couple of reasons...

President Obama's statue was just unveiled last weekend...

and we wanted to grab dinner at Firehouse Brewing Company, a cute little restaurant/brewery where we ate last time we were in town!

Of course, everyone wanted to snap pictures with alllll of the presidents again!

Reagan & me

Washington & Hubby

B & Polk


L & McKinley

M & Lincoln

We left Rapid City happy & full, and ready to take on the night with the goal to be in Des Moines, Iowa for lunch tomorrow!

More {Road Trip} 2019 Fun

Day One - Horses, Hats, and a Heck of a Good Time at Churchill Downs

Day Two - Exploring the CITY in St. Louis, Missouri

Day Three - Covering A Lot of Ground...Like A Whole Lot!

Day Four - Yellowstone National Park Day 1

Day Five - Yellowstone National Park Day 2 + Helena, MT

Day Six - Grand Teton National Park Day 1

Day Seven - Grand Teton National Park Day 2, Yellowstone National Park Day 3 + The Beartooth Highway 

Day Nine - Heading HOME!

{Road Trip} Day Two - Getting Corny

Today we made it from Des Moines, Iowa all the way up to Bismarck, North Dakota with a couple of short stops along the way...

First up, we stopped at the grave of Vice President Henry A. Wallace...

Henry A. Wallace served as the 33rd Vice President of the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

He was born on a farm in rural Orient, Iowa, where the home still stands...

From there, we continued on past many, many of these...

and even passed one being moved (in several parts) along the highway, which the kids thought was super neat...seeing each part up close and realizing how huge they are!

In Omaha, Nebraska, we made a stop at the birthsite of President Gerald Ford.  Though the house is no longer standing, there is a lovely memorial garden in its place...

complete with an interpretive area narrated by President Ford...

We ate lunch at a local burger restaurant that was nearby...

before continuing on to Mitchell, South Dakota to visit the (World's Only) CORN PALACE...
 

So, my dear friend, S, made me promise we'd make a stop.  She couldn't believe that we neglected to pay homage last time we were in the area...

Now, the Corn Palace was something...  There was some construction going on, and I believe that they were in the process of stripping it to prepare for the new murals that go up annually...  I'd say that the best time to visit would be in late summer or early fall when the new corn is up and it's at the height of it's amazing corn glory, but the kids thought that it was the coolest thing everrr...

 

We enjoyed wandering around looking at the exhibits and especially at all of the photos showcasing the corn decoration themes used over the last 100+ years!

We even ventured out onto the front balcony for a great closeup view of the murals, plus a neat view of everything down below...

It's free to visit, but the gift shop will get you if you need (or don't really NEED) anything related to corn...and kitchen gadgets related to corn?  Who knew that there were so many???  My word...  To commemorate our visit, we came away with a fabulous ornament for our tree and a metal corn stalk for our yard come the fall...

From there, we pushed on through to Bismarck, North Dakota for the night...

On into Canada tomorrow...

More {Road Trip} 2017 Fun

Day One - A Presidential Start

Day Three - Oh, Canada! + Happy Birthday, Hubby

Day Four - Alaska Highway - Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC

Day Five - Alaska Highway - Muncho Lake, BC to Whitehorse, YT

Day Six - Well, Hello ALASKA!

Day Seven - Icebergs, Glaciers, and Fjords, Oh My!

Day Eight - All Around Anchorage + the Parks Highway to Fairbanks

Day Nine - Denali National Park & Preserve + Go UAF Nanooks!
Day Ten - Into the Arctic
Day Eleven - JUNEAU
Days Twelve & Thirteen - Driving for Days
Day Fourteen - Hello, Seattle!
Day Fifteen - A Couple of Capital Cities with Capitol Steps to Climb
Day Sixteen - Out and About in the Portland Area
Day Seventeen - Idaho
Day Eighteen - Utah, and a Goodbye
Day Nineteen - From the Mountains to the Plains
Day Twenty - Canvasing Kansas
Day Twenty-One - Good Bye, Kansas + Hello, Missouri!
Day Twenty-Two - Finishing Up Truman's Missouri
Day Twenty-Three - Kicking It Through Kentucky and HOME!

{Road Trip} Day Seven - Mount Rushmore and The "Street Corner" Presidents

I have to admit that Mount Rushmore is one of the places that I've always wanted to visit...

and with B's interest in the presidents still prevalent, we decided that this landmark should be one of the most important stops on this summer's family road trip...

We all enjoyed the visit, but B kept walking around ~ "This is the best day ever.  This is like a once in a lifetime experience!  Thank you for planning this trip for us, Mom."  He is a big ball of energy, and there are definitely plenty of days when he wears me thin, but he really is such a sweet, sweet soul, and he loves, loves, loves his presidents and his states and capitals!

We walked the Presidential Trail along the base of the mountain...

and continued to the sculptor's studio where we got to see the model that was made before work on the mountain began.  It was so interesting to learn about how the sculpture was created, and it was so interesting to learn that approximately 400 workers worked on the sculpture and that about 90% of it was done with dynamite of all things!

{Working on their Junior Ranger badges, getting some questions answered}

As a native Georgian, I was surprised to learn that the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was actually the original sculptor of Stone Mountain, though he left a couple of years into the project...

One of the highlights of the morning was getting to meet one of the original 400 workers, a driller, Nick Clifford...

From Mount Rushmore, we headed into Rapid City to grab a late lunch at Firehouse Brewing Co...

 

and took a tour of the street corner presidents, stopping to snap a photo with each and every single one, of course...

A big thank you to good college friend J for sending me an article on them earlier in the year.  They are honestly so spread out, taking up about 10 blocks or so up and down (on both sides of) two different streets, we might not have caught on that they were ALL there had we not known about it in advance...

 This pretty much sealed the deal on making this a fabulous day in B's book!

We couldn't leave South Dakota without swinging by the capitol building in Pierre.  We woke up a slumbering B so that he could run up those steps.  Who knows when (or IF) he'll ever be back in South Dakota again!

More {Road Trip} 2014 Fun

Day One - Indianapolis, IN

Day Two - From Springfield to Madison

Day Three - Playing Games and Winning Sights

Day Four - To the Northwest Angle and Back

Day Five - Winnipeg and the Center of North America

Day Six - Bismarck, Theodore Roosevelt and the Center of the Nation

Day Eight - Cruising Through a Few Capital Cities

Day Nine - St. Louis and HOME!