We woke up this morning to a pretty foggy day, so we were a little disappointed at first, but at least it wasn't raining! We all slept well our first night in the tents. Nick and Ryan have their own tent and Brady is in with Joe and me. He initially thought that the queen sized air mattress was for him to share with me and the twin was for Joe, but I had to break the news that the twin was for him! I did find him draped horizontally across me at about 2 am, and he eventually ended up on the floor between the two air mattresses. The only animals we heard were the wolves at the drive through wilderness park next door howling at the break of dawn (I thought they howled at the moon!?).
We had a really fun day today, full of activities! First we made a big breakfast of pancakes and bacon at the campsite, then we showered and headed to Mount Rushmore. The drive there was short and we passed through this cute little town they had created to look like the old west. It was such a thrill to finally see this famous landmark for the first time! We took lots of pictures (I think Nick and Ryan might argue too many!). There is a short hike you can take we gives you multiple views of the sculptures. It was really interesting to hear some of the history of how it was created.
After Mount Rushmore we headed back to the campsite for lunch, then off to Dinosaur Land. Dinosaur Land is an historic landmark in Rapid City. It was built in 1936 and is free to all. Lifesized concrete replicas of dinosaurs that once roamed South Dakota were built at the top of Skyline Drive. Kids are welcome to climb all over the dinosaurs and the views of the black hills are spectacular!
After Dinosaur Land we stopped at a go-cart park where Nick and Ryan took two laps around a 3/4 mile track. They did well! I am now only slightly less nervous that they will both be driving in a couple of years!
At this point it was mid afternoon so we still had time for one more activity, so we decided to check out Bear Country, the drive through wildlife park I mentioned earlier. As we started driving through Joe was really regretting our decision. His comment was, "I can't believe that after driving 22 hours in two days we just paid $60 to sit in a traffic jam!". The beginning part of the drive through was pretty lame. We saw a few elk, some arctic wolves that were laying so low in the tall grass that you could barely see them, and a couple of reindeer, all while driving at a snails pace because there were so many cars. It all became worth it, however, when we turned a corner and entered the part of the park that had the bears! There were hundreds of black bears wandering everywhere! It was really cool to see them so up close (right next to our car). There were also Timber Wolves in with the bears walking around in packs. Apparently they don't bother each other. Finally at the end we got out of the car to walk around the small animal area which was set up more like a natural habitat zoo. The highlight of this area was the baby bears. We could have watched them for hours! They were climbing trees, wrestling, and running around just like little children at recess. It was so darn cute!
After Bear Country we returned to the campground and Brady finally got to swim! It was still only in the 60's but the water was warm and he loved it. Nick and Ryan also swam and went in the hot tub. We grilled chicken for dinner and then made a campfire. We debated going back to Mt Rushmore for the evening program but decided we would prefer to relax and make some s'mores. We invited our neighbor up to join our campfire. His name was Dave. He is traveling alone on his motorcycle from Wisconsin, going as far as Glacier National Park. He was a really nice guy. Quite a talker! We stayed up a bit later than we had planned, but it was fun. Tomorrow we'll be on our way to Yellowstone!
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