June vacation part 4

6/21/09:

We took our bikes and went on one bike ride while in So. Dakota. It was so windy and hilly that we weren't gone very long!


Three of the four of us have summer birthdays so we decided to celebrate while we were all together. Mom made this lovely cake in the camper with no official oven! I think her machine that acted like an oven did a fantastic job!

Sunday evening we went back to the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial to see the lighting of the mountain. They played a movie that explained more about why those four presidents were chosen and then turned the lights on. It was a neat experience!




At the end of the night they had all of the veterans that were in the audience go down to the stage. They had each one of them say their name and what branch of the military they served in. It was pretty cool to see all of those veterans who have served our country!

6/22/09:

Dave & I were on a mission to see as much wildlife as we could while in So. Dakota. Cathy suggested that we drive the "Wildlife Loop." We had driven for quite a while and still hadn't seen any wildlife besides the ever popular pronghorns when we arrived on this scene. There were several cars parked along side the road with a small herd of donkeys nearby. People had gotten out of their cars and were feeding these donkeys. Dave rolled down his window to get a better shot when this guy started booking it over to the car. He must have thought Dave was going to feed him. Too funny! The donkey got snot all over Cathy's car. Good times!

This is by far my favorite picture of the entire trip! After Dave's friend decided Dave wasn't going to feed him he found this vehicle with its window open and thought he would help himself!

A little bit farther down the loop we came on this scene...buffalo everywhere!




Because of Dave's brother's (Zach) influence, Dave was very interested in all of the different types of rocks in So. Dakota. Cathy thought Dave might enjoy a museum in Rapid City at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. It was a FREE museum and had tons of amazing things from fossils, to rocks, to dinosaur bones! We all had a great time learning more about the history of So. Dakota.


Petrified wood

Triceratops femur (it's hard to tell from the picture, but that bone was huge!)

Me admiring all of the pretty rocks

Dinosaur poop