Vacation Improv

Between the long, late day at Black Falls of the Gunnison and the crazy hot and dirty hike at Great Sand Dunes, Scott and I found ourselves ready for a reprieve.  So, we readjusted our schedule a bit and drove 3 hours to a hotel about an hour from Colorado Springs.  There we chilled.  I took the kids for a quick dip in the pool while Scott ran out to get us a pizza.  Then we had pizza and a movie in our hotel room.   It was a welcome break for us all. 

The next day we opted to skip the activities we had planned to do in Colorado Springs and drive straight on to the Black Hills of South Dakota.   We found a camp ground with TONS of kids activities and thought the kids would appreciate two nights there.    We arrived around 7pm and realized it might make sense to go straight on to Mt Rushmore as the kids were super psyched for this destination and the lighting ceremony at night is pretty neat.  So, we drove straight past the campground and on to Mt Rushmore.

Since we knew that the kids were particularly excited about seeing Mt Rushmore, we did our best to make the most of their visit. 

Scott took the kids on a hike to its base.  I think this was a highlight for them, b/c they got to scramble over all these big rocks to get there.

 

On the way down they came across a mountain goat!

Then, we settled down to watch the lighting ceremony.  They showed a movie about the history of the monument which was interesting and then we all sang the Star Spangled Banner.  I can’t sing that song without getting chills.  Afterwards they called all the veterans in attendance to come down front so we could pay them respect and say thank you.  And then they turned the lights on Mt Rushmore.

The kids rated this stop as tied for their favorite with the Grand Canyon.  While I think it was neat to see,  Scott or I didn’t give it quite as a high a billing.   It was a fabulous evening and I def think we made the right call of driving straight to Mt Rushmore.  They only thing I would have done differently is stopped and grabbed some food to take with us.  When the ceremony was over it was 10:00pm and there weren’t many any options for dinner.  I grabbed pudding cups and lunchables at the Camp Store for a late night dinner by camp light at our site.

This isn’t the first time, and won’t be the last time, that our kids flexibility has enabled this grand adventure of ours to be so successful.