Well after 3 weeks and 3 little vacations, I am back! Summer school starts on Monday, so I'll be back to regular posting and commenting! Plus, I'm only working 8am to 12pm, so I'll still have plenty of free time to enjoy my summer for once! Yay!
Last week I went to Rapid City, South Dakota - the boy's hometown. No trip to S. Dakota is complete without a stop at Wall Drug:
We went to Chapel in the Hills, a Norwegian Stave Church, which was amazing! The whole thing is made of wood and there are no nails or screws, just wooden pegs to hold it all together! It was beautiful!
We climbed up Turtle Rock, which is a big steep rock that has an awesome view of the Black Hills. It was pretty scary to climb, the whole rock is about a 60 degree angle going up! Actually, going down was much scarier! Can you spot Mt Rushmore from the view at the top?
We went cliff jumping at "hippie hole" which is awesome! You have to hike down through the woods and across many boulders for about a half hour until you reach the cliff. The cliff was made when two giant boulders fell off the top of the ridge and the weight of them broke open an old mine. Now there is a 30 foot waterfall you jump off, and land in the water in the old mine. It was pretty awesome!
We went to Dinosaur Park around midnight one night. It has a bunch of big dinosaurs that were constructed in the 1930's to drum up tourism for Rapid City when people came to visit Mt Rushmore. Since they are so old, the names and features of the dinosaurs are wrong but I love them! Even the one that bit my head off...
We also went to "The Devil's Bathtub" which was also an insanely long and hard hike to an awesome pool in a freezing cold river, saw Crazy Horse, ate at a pirate restaurant for the boy's 29th birthday, and had many BBQs and picnics!
We stayed until the morning of July 4 (the boy's birthday!) and drove the 9 hours back to Minneapolis. My friend Matt had a BBQ before we headed down to the Mississippi River to see the fireworks. Then we went to the "10 Second Film Festival" at the Soap Factory.
I had a blast but now I must go take care of my giant pile of laundry, bills, and the fact that the fridge has been totally empty for weeks. I'm actually kind of excited to get back to a regular routine, traveling so much is so fun but also stressful!
7 comments:
WOW. You are SO much more fun than I am! I'm way too chicken to go cliff jumping and I'm way too lazy to go hiking and mountain climbing.
I'm so glad you had such a good time! The pictures are awesome, thanks for sharing!
Sounds like a great trip, everything is beautiful! My family vacationed through South Dakota when I was a little kid (I vaguely remember Wall Drug) and I'd love to go back and see it all again an adult.
Hi, I lurk, but I had to comment that I've lived in Rapid City for 8 years and have never heard of this hippie hole waterfall! Where is it, exactly?
Looks like you had a great time--so jealous, but in a good way, glad you got to do all the cool things in the pictures!
School starting? Huh?
Wow, looks like you had a lot of fun! I love the picture where you're bitten by the dinosaur :)
*Ena*
Looks like you had fun and kept very busy! Good luck with school.
Ashley
SD Office of Tourism
www.travelsd.com
hurray for Rapid City! My fiance is from RC also...they live in the same neighborhood at the Chapel, and his mom actually still volunteers there! what a small world. my fiance is 31, and his sister is 28, i wonder if they know your boy? The last name is Bach
Kelly
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