Today is Sunday. We started off the day with church. For the first time we didn’t stay in the parking lot, and we were *very* late. Lesson learned. It was uneventful. Aunica really connected with the other girls, and was sad to not have the opportunity to see them again. Minnesota loves its lakes, and the downtown area is full of waterways. Today we chose to do a walk by the mighty Mississippi. We took our time, about three hours….
Sometimes we do things that are must-see things to do. Except I don’t really like them. So is this really necessary? Will I kick myself later if I just skip them? That may be an experiment I have to try, but apparently not today. Instead, today we went to the Mall of America, the biggest mall in the US. Now, we aren’t really shoppers, and, with a family of 8, we don’t have the finances to just drop wads of…
Some days are just for travelling. Today we drove from De Smet, SD to Minneapolis, MN. It wasn’t a terribly long drive, but I didn’t try to pack sightseeing in along with it. We did stop at a park for a few hours for Deon to work and the kids to play. When we arrived in Minneapolis, I was excited to see the city, so we drove in to Lake Harriet. They happened to be showing a movie at the…
Like that alliteration? We spent last night in a very nice city park with rv hookups and a wonderful playground for my kids this morning. Then we headed over to the Laura ingalls wilder homestead. My girls have been looking forward to this the whole trip. It was well worth the wait. There were kittens to hold and calves to pet, horses to ride and carriages and wagons to drive. They washed laundry by hand, twisted rope and made corncob…
Well, but first donuts. Cause my husband has a serious sweet tooth. So we stopped at a famous North Dakota institution: Bearscat donuts. The kids were less than thrilled, until they figured out: sugar. Dimitri went for the Bearscat, as you can see, which turned out to be the tastiest. The donuts were good, if surprisingly chewy. Then we headed for Fort Abraham Lincoln. This is the fort where Custer was stationed before his fateful ride to the…
We headed east today, but wanted to hit the enchanted highway on the way (sort of). The enchanted highway is 60 miles of large-scale metal sculptures. It was quirky, and we had to do something in North Dakota…;) Then we hit Bismarck. Which I never knew was spelled with a “ck.” Go figure. We did some necessary shopping, then hit up a park while Deon worked.
Today was all about good old Theodore Roosevelt. He said “I have always said I would not have been President had it not been for my experience in North Dakota.” Since I have a future president on the trip (any guesses?), I thought this is a must-visit. Theodore Roosevelt national park is badlands, but dramatically different from those in South Dakota. They are more green and grassy. More colorful. We enjoyed seeing Roosevelts cabin and learning some history about him….
Today, just for fun, we chose to attend church at the same location we had last week. Imagine that. Partly because Finn wouldn’t stop talking about “his teacher.” It was great! Then Deon had to finish up some work, and the kids had been begging to go to a water park we had passed (cheap-parks and rec). So while he worked, I took the kids. It was super fun, the water was warm, Jedi slept, so one less kid to…
We started our day off at badlands again. We hit up the visitors center to finish up our jr ranger badges and found an active fossil lab. Super cool. Can you guess which of my kids has aspirations to be an archaeologist? Next we headed to deadwood. We caught the shootout, which, honestly, isn’t worth rushing over for. And Deon nixed the gold mining, which frustrated me. But we ended up in spearfish, and had some great pizza, with…
Wall Drug. Yep, but I bet you just sang the Sesame Street song. Gotcha! Back in South Dakota. For miles there are signs advertising Wall Drug. It’s an enigma, an icon. And a little hard to describe. It was an old time drug store, and now it’s…the best tourist trap in the US? It has candy shops and cowboy art, a cafe to seat 530 and a South Dakota themed splash pad, an animated t-Rex and gold mining, a chapel…