Continuing on with our vacation…On Thursday morning, we woke up and it was time to pack up and check out of the Blue Bell Lodge.  With no breakfast buffet to hit up, the kids munched on the Hostess donettes that we had packed in our “snack bag”.  Hubby had taken the boys for a morning walk while I showered (it was a “hair washing day”…making it a GOOD hour this high maintenance girl needed to get ready and pack up everything) and when they returned, he had a hot cup of coffee (with A LOT of creamer…just the way I like it) for me. #truelove

 

Our first item on our agenda for the day:  Drive the scenic Iron Mountain Road.

Again, we saw beautiful scenery, wildlife (pronghorns, prairie dogs, mule deer, an elk), and as we wound around the roads up the mountain, I continued to work on my anxiety by breathing in/breathing out.  Seriously.  The roads.  YIKES.  For the record, I’m a wimp when it comes to heights and I never used to be.  So, Patrick drove amazingly well, while I continued to ‘pump the brakes on the passenger side’.

While exploring this lookout, I was all a big bunch of nerves.  I was constantly using my “Mom voice”… “Get back from the edge!” “You are too close!” “Boys!  Get back here right now!”.  Honestly, they were safe and fine, but this mama bear was not.  Yes, I am a scaredy cat.

Iron Mountain Road took us straight to our second stop:  Mount Rushmore.

And we LOVED seeing this national monument.  A BIG favorite thing we did on this vacation.

We watched the little 15 minute video in a theater that told all about the history of Mount Rushmore.  It was so interesting.  #ilovehistory

Then, we hiked the trail around the base of the monument.  After the walk, we got a few family pics.  (Note to self:  Always check the photo that you have someone take of you and your family.  See below.)

Notice anything????  That’s right.  The young gal didn’t get Mount Rushmore in the pic.  AHHH!  Thankfully, I looked at the picture and we walked down a little farther and I had another person take our family pic.  The second time was much better.

Family picture:  Take 2

And because I’m fancy…with a little filter  🙂

After our hike, the boys got some treats to enjoy.  Maxim was thrilled to find a name on the Coke bottle that he knew…

Third destination of the day:  Deadwood

We drove about an hour up to Deadwood.  Watching a western shoot-out and touring a gold mine were on the list.  Now.  Looking back, I’m not sure we felt it was worth going to. You can tour a gold mine in Keystone, right outside Mount Rushmore.  And the ten minute shoot-out was cute, but we could take it or leave it.  Deadwood had some cool shops and eating establishments, but I’m just being honest.  If you have time, then head up there.  If you’d rather not drive a lot, then I’d recommend you staying around Keystone or perhaps Hill City (which was a delightful and charming town we drove through quite a bit).

One of my favorite things was seeing Maxim always run to the trinket stand to search desperately for his name on a souvenir.  At a little shop in Deadwood, he was searching the knives for his name… (We are well aware that chances of him finding “Maxim” are about -4%.  But he looks for “Max” and that raises his chances to about 38%.)

Heading out of Deadwood, we stopped at a Gold Mine and took a tour.

WELL.  Had I known we’d be underground in a real mine for about 40 minutes, I would have passed on this tour.  I cannot stand dark, small places.  And I found this out about 3 minutes into the tour.  What I really wanted to do was run pass the group and our tour guide and take my own little tour in about 3.5 seconds.  I didn’t need to hear about all of the history and see all of the crevices and hear about how the miners used a candle back in the days of yore.  Nor did I need to have her turn out the lights COMPLETELY and be in utter pitch black darkness to get the feel of what the miners dealt with when their candle was blown out.  For the LOVE.  But.  While I was sucking my thumb over in a corner and rocking myself to soothe my fears (just kidding.  Oh, I kid.), the boys and Daddy enjoyed it all.  And they thought it was cool to see the little baby bat hanging on the wall that the tour guide kindly pointed out as we walked by the little blood sucker.  Oh. Boy.

After my claustrophobic issues in the gold mine, we gladly got back on the road and headed down towards the town of Custer where we’d be checking into our Holiday Inn Express hotel room for the night.  But it was still the afternoon and we had another stop on our way:  Crazy Horse Memorial.

We all loved Crazy Horse Memorial!  It’s incredible to hear the history of this and imagine that one day, this memorial will be complete and absolutely stunning.

We took a bus tour to the bottom of the memorial.  It was so interesting!

With rocks in tow (you could pick a HUGE rock out of the bin and take as a free souvenir), we said our good-byes to Crazy Horse and headed about 10 miles south to the town of Custer.

That night, we ate some tasty buffalo steak at a restaurant in Custer.  Expensive, but tasty. #splurgewhileonvacation

We had a very busy day, but with breath-taking scenery, the beauty of the Black Hills never got old.

And now, for another little trivial fact about my traveling issues…

I NEVER lay stuff all over the bathroom counters.  Toothbrushes stay in my make-up bag.  NOT on the counter…it might have germs 🙂  And similar to me spreading out towels on the bathroom floor to stand on so my feet don’t need to be on the cold (perhaps unclean) tile, I do the same with washcloths.  Yes, I’ve got issues.  But bless my hubby…he just rolls with all of my quirky little ways.

And that wraps up another day on our vacation.  I guess this is a “Four Part” series…I’m a little windy when it comes to sharing about our vaca, I guess 🙂

Hope you are being inspired to take a vacation to the Black Hills if you haven’t been!  Been there?  What was your favorite thing to see and do?  And how about you?  Have any quirky things you’d like to share about yourself when you travel?

Your detailed loving friend…Angela Banae