Dakotas Vacation - Day 2

After an amazing time at the Badlands and a fun evening in cheesy Wall, we started out the next day at the gorgeous Custer State Park...

Then we took the incredible Needles Highway up to Mount Rushmore...

We had a quick picnic at Sylvan Lake along the way:)

Each of the faces are about 60 feet in height. The movie about how they were carved at the museum was so interesting....

I had some reservations about visiting Mount Rushmore from my research beforehand but I was able to understand much more about why some people are offended by it by seeing and deciding for myself.  

Afterwards, we went to see the Crazy Horse memorial...

Although it's still a work-in-progress, the face is done (it's about 80 feet so the whole thing is much bigger than Mt Rushmore) and it's an amazing sight to see. There is also a huge cultural complex with so much to learn about the Native Americans from this area. We really loved it:)

It's Vacation time!

It's been a very long time coming so we were really excited to finally get on a plane again for an adventure-filled week-long vacation! We landed in North Dakota and were surprised that it was actually hotter than at home!

We set off bright and early for the first big driving leg to South Dakota. We were thrilled to run into the place where famous T-Rex Sue was discovered since we had just watched Dinosaur 13 right before we left!

We stopped by the Minuteman Missile site to see one of the hundreds of missiles that used to be staged in this area during the Cold War to fend off a nuclear attack...

We got to the Badlands National Park in great time and were absolutely blown away by the scenery. It is one of the prettiest places I've ever seen..

There were bighorn sheep everywhere!

And some beautiful bison and my fave prairie dogs too!

I was determined to do the Notch Trail but knew it was going to be tough...

It started out fine (although I actually fell on this part:))

The trail gets high and becomes just a ledge in places...

The log ladder section was really challenging for me...

Then lots of people turned back when they saw the signs...

But I stuck at it and the views at the end were spectacular!

But getting down that log ladder was harder than getting up (which was hard enough)...

So I was very relieved and proud of myself when we were all done:) We stayed in the Park for a breathtaking sunset...

What an amazing first day!

It’s my Half-Century!

May has been a really good month as masks are dropped outside (and inside if you are vaccinated) and things are really feeling so much more normal now! I celebrated my big birthday swimming with dolphins at Discovery Cove which was such a special treat:) 

Our weekends feel more normal now too with little day trips out like this one to Mount Dora...

And Maddy is continuing to build relationships at her work which she really loves...

Cheers to the end of this awful time and now to make up for lost time and go on Holiday! 

Summer is almost here:)

As we finally emerge from the dreaded pandemic, we decided to take a test 'mini-vacation' to see if we could remember how to pack a suitcase and wear shoes again:). We stopped at the epic bucc-ees on the way to St. Augustine - Mike was in hog heaven...

Professor slept his way through our trip at Disney's luxury VIP Pet Resort experience. I spent most of the trip checking on him via webcam:) 

We had cocktails at the beach bar the minute we arrived. I was asleep about an hour after these bad boys - couldn't handle the pace:)

It was so lovely to walk around the old town maskless and worry free now we are all vaccinated...:)

We had a blast playing 'tourist' at the wax museums and local attractions...

I showed Annie Oakley how to wear a mask wrong...

At Ripley's we saw the second of only two full-sized replicas of Michelangelo's statue of David. We saw the other one in Florence back in the day when cruising was a thing...

We watched a yacht race...

And walked on the beach...

It was really lovely:). A great dry run for our big trip to the Dakotas in June - I am beyond excited!!

I also finished my first dollhouse reno of the year recently. Love how it turned out and can't wait for the fun part when we give it away:)

Now I need to try and get into the real, full-sized Shrunk magazine to see if I can get this idea of 'creating and donating' to catch on:)