Bodwell Family: Our Trip to South Dakota

A couple weeks ago we decided to go on a little vacation. Larry and I had not spent a lot of time together this summer do to all the training he has been doing. But I guess that is how it goes when you marry someone in the military and I knew what I was getting into when I married him. Anyhow, back to our trip. We decided to go up to South Dakota. I grew up there so it was not a new adventure but I wanted to show Larry where I was from. He was all for it because he could go play poker in Deadwood, which he did, several times. While we where up there we stayed with my best friends mom, Sharon, Tammy, and her little sister, Kristy. We really did not do to much while we where there. However, we did go play tourist on Saturday after we watched Kristy's softball games. We went up to Keystone, a small little tourist town, then to Mt. Rushmore. I had not been there in like 10 years and Larry has never been. It has changed a lot from the last time I was there. They have a parking garage and a lot of new buildings (gift shops, cafe, displays, theaters). Also the Presidential trail was now open. Walking the trail was actually kind of neat. It goes up to the rock pile that was made by all the work. After Mt. Rushmore we went the long way home and stopped at the new winery in Hill City and did wine tasting. The wine is all made with South Dakota grown grapes and fruit. We bought a couple bottles of one of the wines we tasted. It was made out of raspberries and honey, it tasted like juice. From there we went to Deadwood and they all played at the casinos. I am not into that so I just walked around and looked in all the shops. On Sunday Larry and I went for a drive through Spearfish Canyon. The leaves where all changing colors and it was beautiful. We where going to leave that next morning but that night Larry stayed in Deadwood playing poker until wee hours in the morning so we decided to stay another day. So on Monday Sharon gave Larry a tour of Dakota Arms and then we went and visited my aunt and uncle in Whitewood. I hadn't seen them in a long time, probably not since I moved away and that was in 2002. It was nice to visit with them. That night we went to Rapid City to watch Kristy play softball again. The next morning we packed everything up and headed home. All in all we had a good time. It was great getting to see Sharon, Tammy and Kristy and hanging out with them for the weekend.