Mount Rushmore

Yesterday we headed out on a loooooooong drive to see the family.

 Nothing like 8 hours trapped in a car together for some quality bonding time. 

We arrived in small town Custer South Dakota around 11pm. The rest of our family had arrived shortly before us. We had all made reservations for the same "Hotel" which turned out to actually be a Motel (gross) called the Dakota Cowboy Inn
Just click the name if you want to see what it looked like. I wont go into a review of the place but if you want my recommendation I say be prepared to spend a pretty penny if you visit around here, because you get what you pay for... sometimes less.

But at least it was clean! And the staff was friendly. So it wasn't a horrible experience.

Today we got up around 8am. And headed out just before 10am.
We made a pit stop in Rapid City before we headed to Keystone to see 

Mount Rushmore National Monument.

There were SO many people there! I don't know if it was the time of day that we went, or that fact that it was just after Independence Day, but it was INSANE. 

There were also an insane amount of Stairs...

Once you get past the first terrance there is a trail that goes around the park so that you can see the Monument from every angel. Its a cool hike and there are lots of places to stop and take pictures and info plaques everywhere. But for my wimpy chicken legs it was a work out! lol

After we had been around the whole park we stopped in the Gift Shop and Market and got ice cream, and I bought these two souvenir coins.

Then we left the monument and went and toured the little Keystone which is the coolest little town! You can ride in a helicopter tour past the monument for $50 (adding that to the bucket list)

Then we drove down the Rush Mountain Adventure Park and road the mountain coaster.

 It costs $15 for the first person and $10 for the second passenger. The ride is cool, but only lasts about 2 maybe 3 minutes- so Im not sure if it was worth the $25 for the both of us. 

I was disappointed that they said we could not have our phones out to record the ride, so I tried to anyways... and almost dropped it! So in the Vlog there is only a few seconds of the ride. It was fun, and goes way faster than you think it would. I honestly thought our cart was about to come off the track at one point. 

Then we had dinner, and went back to the monument for a lighting ceremony. A storm started rolling in and I was already exhausted from our previous adventures so Michael and I headed out early.
When the rest of the family got back from the show we all hung out in our Motel rooms until late. 

This was such a fun adventure and I am really glad we were able to go! It was a nice reunion because we had not seen this side of our family in almost a year and a half because we live so far away. 

If you want to watch the whole adventure check out our Vlog below: