My Rushmore and Jewel Cave National Monuments

Oliver here in South Dakota ...

Believe it or not this trip all began with Robin suggesting to Alan that she would love to see Mt Rushmore.  He was in the process of planning a trip east anyway and so their visit to Mt Rushmore was sort of a sweet culmination of wishes.  

It was certainly worth the trip and the story of the process is quite interesting.  They made home base in Rapid City South Dakota and they fell in love with a Chinese restaurant called the Imperial...

in fact they ate there twice and ate leftovers for lunch each day!  I think they have taken care of Robin's Asian food jones.  

In the afternoon we visited Jewel Cave, this is, I believe, the second largest cave in the U.S. And the 90 minute tour in the deep was pretty cool, so they said!

On the way back to Rapid City they drove through Custer State Park... full of wildlife and Robin was happy to see the animals.  The surrounding countryside is really striking and we are all struck with the beauty.  Tomorrow we're off to the Badlands... Can't wait.