Rapid City, SD

It doesn't take long in the Black Hills to realize to the communities there have really put an effort into making the region a family friendly vacation destination. As we were checking stuff off of our list we kept thinking "okay, that's it, we're ready to leave", but then someone would tell us about the cool thing down the road and, of course, we would stop to check it out. By the time we got to Rapid City we were hovering around the three week mark, which is about two weeks longer than we had planned. 

Rapid City has several cool things, but we were determined to spend a single day so that we could move on to a different state, so we saw three of the many cool things -- Storybook Island, the Presidential Center and walk, and the Chapel in the Hills. 

Storybook Island is a fairy tale themed park with lots of stuff to climb, swing on, and slide down. We spent the entire morning playing there, but I didn't take my camera. It was much more fun to just play. 

After lunch at the park we headed downtown to check out the Presidential Center. 

The downtown area of Rapid City has life size statues of nearly every president on display. The Presidential Center provides a scavenger hunt that makes the walk to see them all a lot of fun for the kids. Our kids love the presidents, so it was a really opportunity for them to see the statues, sculpted to reflect the actual stature of the presidents as well as to reflect their personal accomplishments and interests. Plus, being able to touch them since they aren't in a museum setting was a big plus. 

With one of G's favorites -- Ulysses Grant

Roosevelt. I thought this was the coolest. 

Our baby is getting so big! 

On the way back to the Presidential Center we stopped to play in the Downtown Splash Pad. Seriously, every town needs one of these. It's a big area with a space for playing in the grass, restrooms, tables with excellent lines of sight, and it's surrounded by quick serve coffee stops and restaurants. 

Our kids weren't really dressed for water, but it's summer and they're kids, so we just rolled with it. 

The last stop of the day was Chapel in the Hills. The chapel itself replicates a famous stave church that was built around 1150 in Norway. The property where it sits has a sort of Alps-y feel and also houses a one room Norwegian Museum and a gift shop. 

The Norwegian Museum

The chapel is beautiful. Inside they have loop an audio recording that gives details on the history of stave churches, the reason that they were built in the manner they were, and about this particular chapel. The reverence with which the stave churches were built is jaw dropping. No detail is arbitrary. 

We were fortunate enough to be visiting the chapel in the evening and I was able to attend the Vesper service that is held at 7:30 each summer evening (I was the only one dressed in a manner appropriate for worship, so John and the kids chatted with the volunteers while I was inside). It was a beautiful liturgical service, and definitely the highlight of the Black Hills for me.

We definitely left saying "okay, this is it, we can move on now" and we actually did!