Our Journey to Mt. Rushmore

Not enough time to add photos this morning since we are trying to head out...home by tomorrow night!
We spent the day at Mt. Rushmore yesterday, it was fantastic! We were so happy to see mountains again and were pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful surroundings of Mt. Rushmore, really had no idea it was set so wonderfully high in the mountain tops ~ very majestic sitting high above us all!
The weather was perfect, the crowds were small in numbers, the leaves changing -- stunning to see with all the deciduous trees mingled between the pines. The only drawback to being here at this time of year was the fact that most of the "attractions" were closed, it was shocking. Hotels, restaurants, caves, gold mines, even ice cream shops CLOSED for the season!
The little girls kept asking if we'd made it to Mt. Mushmore, very funny, don't know how many times they said that, kept us giggling! The worst thing was that I apparently did not prepare my little ones for what exactly Mt. Rushmore was, they had no idea what to expect. We'd been there for quite some time, walked through, taken photos, read about the four presidents, checked out the whole sculptor's building area and headed into the Visitor's Center to view their little 14 minute video. It was in there, again at the end of our touring this area, that I asked if they had liked seeing Mt. Rushmore. Cassie looked up at me and said, "What, we've made it to Mt. Mushmore???" I was a little stunned and then realized she really didn't know what Mt. Rushmore was, so we had a little talk about where we were and I apologized for not announcing that we'd arrived! A similar thing happened as we were driving along a beautiful scenic drive where you could view Mt. Rushmore through some small tunnels that had been cut out of the mountain tops for your car to pass through. I said something about coming up on some "tunnels". We stopped, took a couple of pictures and we're on our way back down the mountain, when Wyatt asked when we were going to get out to play in the tunnels!!! Failed again! The expectation was so much more than what I had meant. So, again, I apologized and we moved on. One thing that was open that we ended our evening with before heading back to crash in the hotel, was BEAR COUNTRY U.S.A. We had a blast...the animals were everywhere and so fun to watch. Can't wait to share photos of the "Three Little Bears" we watched as they tumbled and played and fought each other to the top of a tree.

Well, we are off for another journey on the road today! Take care and be looking for photos when we return home :)