Our Summer Vacation: Day 2 - Storybook Island Park

Our next stop was Storybook Island Park in Rapid City, South Dakota. It was a pretty cool place.

While we initially stopped for Ainsley, we all liked it a lot. She was very excited to be there.


We saw the three little pigs.


We all enjoyed Pooh's corner.




We also liked Ragedy Anne's house.



There were a lot of neat things to see.








In the end, it was time for our next destination - Mt. Rushmore!



Love,
Ainsley, Ben and Cameron

Our Summer Vacation: Day 2 - Wall Drug

We counted more than 80 signs telling us why we should stop at Wall Drug, and most of them were quite compelling, so we thought it was a good idea to stop. That and the Badlands loop conveniently ends in Wall.

We spent most of our time in the new "Backyard" area. It was pretty cool.












Love,
Ainsley, Ben and Cameron

Our Summer Vacation: Day 2 - The Badlands

Our first stop on Day 2 was the Badlands National Park. It was awesome. Here are a lot of pictures as we drove through the 240 Loop.
















We also picked up our Junior Ranger guides, but it took us a while to finish them. We had to stop on the way back through on Day 4 to actually be sworn in as Badlands Jr. Rangers.


Love,
Ainsley, Ben and Cameron

Our Summer Vacation: Day 1 - The Missouri River Overlook

We spent our first night in Chamberlain, South Dakota. Pretty much the only good thing about Chamberlain is that it is on the Missouri River. A great view of the river is from the rest area there.

Here are some pictures of us there.






Here are some pictures of the river and the river valley.






This place also had a Lewis and Clark center, but they were closed when we visited. As you'll see, Ranger Katrina at Mt. Rushmore gave us a secret tip about why we should come back, which we did on the way home.

Love,
Ainsley, Ben and Cameron

Our Summer Vacation: Day 1 - The World's Only Corn Palace

To break up the drive a bit, we stopped in Mitchell, South Dakota to see the world's only Corn Palace. Even though we would be staying in Mitchell later in the week, Ainsley was getting tired of sitting in her chair and needed a break.

The Corn Palace is like a big auditorium. The outside looks like a castle with murals made from corn on the side. The inside has a lot of murals made from corn too. Each year, they take down the murals and make new ones.







Needless to say, there is a lot of corn related stuff there.


Love,
Ainsley, Ben and Cameron