So Bad it's Good

We planned a little weekend getaway for Labor Day. We had been talking to Marie and Antione about maybe meeting them in Colorado at The Great Wolf Lodge there, but we ended up deciding to go to South Dakota because it would be cheaper. Come to find out, my Dad and Lynn had been thinking about a trip there, because it's one of the few states my Dad hasn't been to, and he wanted to tick it off his list. We told them they should come Labor Day weekend too, and meet us there. Then we figured we'd better not leave anyone out, so we asked Lorraine and Rebekah to come too. Somebody asked us if we were having a family reunion, and I guess we were. It was absolutely lovely to get into the mountains and a drier climate. So good for my soul. Heck, it was just good to get out and travel! It's been way too long. First we went to The Crazy Horse monument (first for the night show, and then to see the museum the next day). I visited in 1993, the summer I graduated high school. It didn't even have a face then. It still has a long way to go, but we loved seeing it, and the museum was great.

Then we visited Mount Rushmore. It's funny because I remember the viewing platform being so much further away than it actually is. Not much to do there other than look at the big heads (front and back), but we can say we've been there. 'Merica.

The highlight of our trip was The Badlands. Only our family went to that, because it was on our way home, and not something that everyone else had planned. I'm glad we didn't miss it, because it was stunning! I could seriously spend a week there - it would be so much fun to camp there. 10 out of 10. Would recommend. Full disclosure though, not everyone was interested, and some refused to get out of the car after the first stop, hahaha.

On our way home we also were going to stop at the famous Wal drug, but it was CRAZY busy, and pretty much nobody was wearing a mask, so we passed. Actually, all of South Dakota was pretty much like this - very few people wearing masks. Again, it made us a bit uncomfortable, and not surprisingly, their numbers started going up not long after this. Actually, when we were on the way to our hotel in South Dakota near Crazy Horse, our GPS was directing us through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, but the whole reservation was on lockdown. Unless you lived there, you couldn't get in - no drive throughs - so we had to turn around and find a different way. Anyway, we also stopped to see the Corn Palace. Didn't go inside, but got some pictures. The crazy things we do as tourists!

FYI, South Dakota has the most sunflower fields I've ever seen. I didn't get any super great pictures, but it was cool to see.

Oh, and we TOTALLY lucked out on good weather while we were there, which was perfect. The day we left it was getting a bit too cold, and by the next day they had a couple of inches of snow. But mostly I was lucky because I got to spend time with the people I love.

Sunny

Catch up time again. This year is slippery, and it keeps getting away from me. Maybe in 2021 I'll be more consistent in my blog posts. Maybe. Honestly, I feel like at this point I'm really doing this more for me and our family history than I am for anyone else. Speaking of which, I've been turning my blog into books (by year). So far I've done 6! They are so fun to have, and it's been great fun going back and reliving all the memories. I hope my kids appreciate them as much as I do, and someday they can show their own kids all the things we've done over the years. Back in August, we had a couple of visitors, and one of the things we did was go to a Sunflower farm. I thought it would be fun to take some pictures, and in the end, that's pretty much all we did there. They had various activities (mostly for little kids), and some shopping, but we were among only a few who were wearing masks, and it was quite crowded. We felt a little uncomfortable. It's funny thinking back on this, because more and more people wear masks now (partly because more and more businesses require them, and partly because people are just getting used to it) and I'm not sure that it would be as much of a problem now.

One of the funny things we saw there were dozens of old school buses filled with watermelons. And apparently I embarrassed my kids by taking this video. Whatever.