South Dakota Family Vacation

Ah ... the family vacation. Time spent together mingling together as family amongst the deer, the antelope, and the buffalo. The Edwards just got back after spending a week in South Dakota on their annual summer vacation. What can be done in South Dakota?

• We visited the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.
• We were educated about the Cold War as we toured a Minute Man Missile launch site.
• We got free ice water and a homemade donut at Wall Drug after being enticed by 4,239 billboards on I-29.
  
• We stood at the Center of ALL 50 states. Our trip to north-central Kansas a few years back was only to the center of the lower 48 states. Now we've made things right.
• We hiked around Devils Tower before watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" that night from our KOA campground with Devils Tower looming in the background (in40° weather no less ...)
  
• We drove through scenic Spearfish Canyon which felt like we were driving back in Logan Canyon.
  
• We walked through a park with a statue devoted to each of our US Presidents. The 44th statue was yet to be displayed.
• We went horse back riding through the hills of Deadwood. Cody's assigned horse had "special needs."
• We felt patriotic watching Mt. Rushmore illuminated at night.
• We admired the unique formations of Badlands National Park and avoided any snakes.
• We swam in warmer weather at our final KOA and at the Hampton Inn in Sioux City, IA on our way home.
• Found the graves of ancestors in Magnolia, IA and Yankton, SD.
  

Being in the Black Hills, surround by the Ponderosa pines, mountain lakes, and the like was a much needed reprieve from the prairies of Kansas. There's nothing like being in the type of mountains you grow up in, but at the same time it felt good to return home to Life in the Midwest.

Click HERE for a link to our photo album or click on the slideshow below.