Mount Rushmore

Tuesday morning of our trip, Kid B woke up very early (having conked out early the night before after throwing up), but soon we were all up and partaking of the motel's free breakfast. It was not great, but not terrible -- those waffle machines always make the kids happy, and Rocket Boy and I had Raisin Bran.

We had planned to visit the town of Deadwood on our way to Mount Rushmore, but the more I thought about it, the more I figured the kids would not get much out of it. So instead we decided to drive through Spearfish Canyon and see some waterfalls on our way to the big attraction. We had some trouble finding the Canyon -- at first ended up in a beautiful city park with an old fish hatchery. The town of Spearfish actually looks like a very nice place to live, if you could stand the winters. It even has a college -- Black Hills State University.

After various missteps we finally found the road to Spearfish Canyon and headed into the hills. It was very warm that morning, but the canyon was green and beautiful. It reminded us a little of Boulder Canyon, but much greener. We saw two of the three waterfalls that are part of its appeal -- somehow missed the biggest and most famous, but isn't that how it always is?

I had thought we might eat lunch at Mount Rushmore, but it was 1:00 pm already and we were nowhere near, so we stopped at a restaurant in the hills (near a camp -- the Black Hills are full of little camps and resorts) and had a reasonable lunch.

Fortified and in better spirits, we continued on to Mount Rushmore. I think we got there around 2 pm or so. You can see the rock faces from the road as you drive towards the site, but the boys covered their hands. "I want it to be a surprise!" I kind of understood what they meant, though I looked at it happily. But I'd seen it before. We paid our $11 to park, found a good covered spot, got out, and walked toward the viewing area.

And there it was!

The boys were so excited! Even though -- or because -- they had seen so many pictures of it, read books about it, etc., they were thrilled at the sight. Especially Kid B, whose heartfelt request had been the impetus for the whole trip. When we got home from the trip last night, he asked me to print this photo out and immediately taped it to the wall by his bed. Such a thrill.

A nice lady took a photo of us with the faces. It's a pretty good family photo, though I certainly do look like I need to lose 90 pounds. A high percentage of the people we saw on this trip also looked like they needed to lose 90 pounds or more. Sigh.

Since we hadn't eaten lunch here, we had ice cream as a snack.

For some reason they only sell gigantic-size cones -- you can't get a small. We all got very sticky as the ice cream melted. While we sat outside it began to rain, so we ran inside the cafe and dripped all over a table there.

We spent a few hours at Mount Rushmore, because heck, why not? Our main activity, other than looking at the faces, was buying souvenirs -- we went in all the gift shops, some multiple times. I made a real effort to economize on this trip, staying at cheap hotels with free breakfasts and eating cheap meals. I had set aside a certain amount of cash for each day (to pay for food and incidentals -- hotels and gas went on the credit card) and I tried hard to stay within that budget. But at the Mount Rushmore gift shops I relaxed that rule a little. We didn't spend a LOT of money, but we bought some books and magnets and postcards and toys. It was a fun time.

We had originally planned that after seeing Mount Rushmore we would visit Custer State Park. But that was in some other reality where we didn't have small children and didn't spend so much time actually getting to Mount Rushmore. When we left Mount Rushmore, we were ready to crash. So we called it a day and headed to our next motel, in Rapid City.

I made a real effort to book us into independent lodging establishments, not chains, because Rocket Boy doesn't like chains, but sometimes, with kids, chains are a better way to go. Our motel in Rapid City was, hmm, a little rundown.

The first room they put us in was hot. Really hot. It was 94 degrees outside, according to my car thermometer, and oh, I don't know, maybe 88 degrees inside? In other words, the A/C wasn't working. After letting it blast for half an hour, I went back to the front desk and complained. They argued with us for a bit about how we had to give the A/C some time to cool the whole room, but finally moved us to their "last free room" which did have functional A/C. So that was kind of a pain, but it worked out OK. Unlike the Spearfish motel room, the Rapid City motel room's A/C did not have a thermostat -- it just blasted cold air continuously until you turned it off. The dull roar it emitted was easier to sleep with than the cycling on and off dull roar of the Spearfish motel room.

It was 7:30 pm or so by then, and we realized we needed to find some food. So, since we were in downtown Rapid City, we walked a few hot sweaty blocks to the center of town and found a great park with fountains that kids were running through.

We watched for a while, and then went to a coffee shop across the square and bought drinks and snacks -- better than trying to make two little people sit down and behave themselves in a restaurant. The snacks were good, too -- Kid A had a yogurt parfait and Kid B had fancy mac & cheese.

After eating and drinking a bit, the kids ran off to play in the fountains too. We really liked Rapid City!

Oh, and as we walked down Main Street to the park, we passed these wonderful statues of the presidents that they have on every corner. Here are the twins spending some quality time with Benjamin Harrison.

After playing in the fountains until 8:30 pm or so, we walked back to the motel (visiting with other former presidents as we went -- this is Ulysses S. Grant).

As a final treat, Rocket Boy took the twins swimming in the funky little motel pool. Afterwards, they took a hot shower with him and bundled up in pajamas to read stories with me and then go to bed. So, from start to finish, this was a good day.