The next weekend we decided to make the most of the local pool before it shut for the season and we had a really good time. 
Too much fun to leave to the kids
Dan on the high dive board, or high jump board in his case
Saturday 22 August 2009
Festivals and Yet More Water
The day after getting back from South Dakota the church youth group we help with was going to a Christian Festival in St Paul so off we went to 'Rock the Park' - a really hot day again so plenty of ice cold drinks
The next weekend we decided to make the most of the local pool before it shut for the season and we had a really good time.
Too much fun to leave to the kids
Dan on the high dive board, or high jump board in his case
The next weekend we decided to make the most of the local pool before it shut for the season and we had a really good time. Too much fun to leave to the kidsDan on the high dive board, or high jump board in his case
Saturday 15 August 2009
The Too Hot Day and Spearfish Canyon
The next day was in the mid 90s (or 35C) so we just headed to a lakeside beach and mucked around for the whole morning and into the afternoon, this being South Dakota there are not many people around either so we had it to ourselves for a good while.
The next day was a lot milder so we headed up to Spearfish Canyon.
You can't tell from Becky's demenour but she was bitten by a radioactive spider and her wrist really swelled up (you can kind of see its red in the picture below) so we took her to the hospital in Spearfish. We had to wait a while but eventually got to see a doctor and Andy explained that Becky had a bite and a swollen arm to which the doctor, no doubt expecting a little bite said 'let's take a look' and then when he saw it was quite taken aback and said 'Oh - that doesn't look good' - he wasn't sure what had caused it (so I'm sticking with the radioactive spider) and we had to get some medicine from the drive thru pharmacy!
on the way home we stopped for one last sit by a lake
and Becky got the medicine she really wanted
And that was our last day in the Black Hills and all that was standing in the way of our own beds was 650 miles of driving. one thing I will say is that Dan and Becky have bladders of steel as we did 320 miles in-between stopping. Kudos to Andy too for doing that much of a drive in one go!
I drove the first and last sections, handing over to Andy in Chamberlain, which is on the Missouri river and we let the kids have a splash given how cooped up they were for the rest of the day.
The next day was a lot milder so we headed up to Spearfish Canyon.
You can't tell from Becky's demenour but she was bitten by a radioactive spider and her wrist really swelled up (you can kind of see its red in the picture below) so we took her to the hospital in Spearfish. We had to wait a while but eventually got to see a doctor and Andy explained that Becky had a bite and a swollen arm to which the doctor, no doubt expecting a little bite said 'let's take a look' and then when he saw it was quite taken aback and said 'Oh - that doesn't look good' - he wasn't sure what had caused it (so I'm sticking with the radioactive spider) and we had to get some medicine from the drive thru pharmacy!
on the way home we stopped for one last sit by a lake
and Becky got the medicine she really wanted
And that was our last day in the Black Hills and all that was standing in the way of our own beds was 650 miles of driving. one thing I will say is that Dan and Becky have bladders of steel as we did 320 miles in-between stopping. Kudos to Andy too for doing that much of a drive in one go!I drove the first and last sections, handing over to Andy in Chamberlain, which is on the Missouri river and we let the kids have a splash given how cooped up they were for the rest of the day.
Thursday 13 August 2009
Reptiles, Bears and Fairies
Based on a recommendation (albeit from someone who goes to lots of Renaissance fairs - where people dress up in civil war costume and reenact battles) we decided to visit the Reptile gardens. It turned out to be a great recommendation, lots of slow moving tortoises, cold blooded reptiles and poisonous snakes - so just like being at work then.
This was actually the 3rd largest display of reptiles in the world, so its was pretty impressive.
Dan and Becky enjoyed it loads - how can you not love a 150 year old tortoise.
Demonstration of how to climb onto a crocodile's back, should the fancy ever take you
There were loads of very poisonous snakes (this one was harmless though) all graded by how venomous they were which obviously appealed to Dan and me.
They also had prairie dogs, not sure if they breed them to feed to the snakes?
After the reptiles we went to find dinosaurs (they have a dinosaur park apparently) but even with the aid of GPS we were unable to find it (how hopeless is that). So off we went to see the bears in Bear Country USA.
All in all the bears were impressive but you had to drive around this loop road and it was pretty expensive for 10 minutes of bear spotting. Back at the shed, Dan had managed t wiggle the second of his front teeth free, so we also got to spot fairies that evening.
This was actually the 3rd largest display of reptiles in the world, so its was pretty impressive.
Dan and Becky enjoyed it loads - how can you not love a 150 year old tortoise.
Demonstration of how to climb onto a crocodile's back, should the fancy ever take you
There were loads of very poisonous snakes (this one was harmless though) all graded by how venomous they were which obviously appealed to Dan and me.
They also had prairie dogs, not sure if they breed them to feed to the snakes?
After the reptiles we went to find dinosaurs (they have a dinosaur park apparently) but even with the aid of GPS we were unable to find it (how hopeless is that). So off we went to see the bears in Bear Country USA.
All in all the bears were impressive but you had to drive around this loop road and it was pretty expensive for 10 minutes of bear spotting. Back at the shed, Dan had managed t wiggle the second of his front teeth free, so we also got to spot fairies that evening.
Tuesday 11 August 2009
The Needles
Here's a picture of our 'cabin' in South Dakota, more of a glorified semi detached shed really. Not quite sure about it when we first arrived but soon got used to it, just a little noisy and closer to the road than we would have liked.
The good thing about our driving now is that Dan is really into reading Harry Potter so our journeys are a little quieter
One of the things we were told to do was drive on the Needles Scenic Highway which we did after visiting Custer State Park. This is one of the places you can see herds of buffalo - we didn't though, just some wild donkeys which somehow was less impressive.
Eagle eyed Andy managed to spot one buffalo (almost sounds like it needs a different word for a single buffalo, like a buffali or something) though
And the Needles were certainly impressive
Just time for some swimming in Stockade Lake
And a picnic
The good thing about our driving now is that Dan is really into reading Harry Potter so our journeys are a little quieter
One of the things we were told to do was drive on the Needles Scenic Highway which we did after visiting Custer State Park. This is one of the places you can see herds of buffalo - we didn't though, just some wild donkeys which somehow was less impressive.
Eagle eyed Andy managed to spot one buffalo (almost sounds like it needs a different word for a single buffalo, like a buffali or something) though
And the Needles were certainly impressive
Just time for some swimming in Stockade Lake
And a picnic
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