Mt. Rushmore trip report: Day 2

Okay, so now that I've written my sob story about our initial Mt. Rushmore experience, I do have to assure you (and Kayleen from the SD Office of Tourism) that thankfully, things did get better!Friday morning we got up and drove about 20 minutes west to Jewel Cave National Monument, where we had tickets for an 11:00 am cave tour. They offer a few different lengths of tours, but we chose the 1 1/2-hour Scenic Tour, which leads you along a 1/2-mile loop, up and down 723 stair steps. I was still sore and tired from the exertions of the day before so suffice it to say that I was not the speediest person in the group. The different cave formations we got to see were really fascinating! The tour was very interesting and informative, and somehow there seemed to be more down stairs than up stairs so in the end it was worth all of the walking. There are additional outside hikes that can be taken at Jewel Cave but we were too tired!One fun thing we did at Jewel Cave was purchase a National Park Passport for Maren. This is a little spiral-bound notebook with information on all of the National Parks, Monuments, Memorials, etc. throughout the country, divided up by region. All of these places should have a set of special rubber stamps that you can stamp in your passport book: a cancellation with the date you visited, and a pictorial stamp representing the place you visited. Maren loved being able to carry around her book and got it stamped two more times on our trip! If we can manage not to lose it, it will be something fun that we can take with us on our family trips.After we left Jewel Cave it was time for lunch, so we stopped back in Custer at The Purple Pie Place. This was a cute little restaurant (with an exterior painted a shocking pink & purple) that serves soup/sandwiches and ice cream, but their specialty is the delicious homemade pie! The Mister had a slice of double-crust strawberry rhubarb and mine was peanut butter & chocolate cream pie. Both of them were to die for and I'd love to have been let loose at the rotating pie case with a big fork. :)We rolled ourselves out of the Purple Pie Place and headed back up to Mt. Rushmore to see all of the things that had been too crowded the day before. The weather was beautiful by then and although there were lots of other visitors, it didn't seem too crowded at all. Despite the fact that we had just stuffed our faces full of pie, we succumbed to the lure of the amazing ice cream that we saw everyone around us eating. The Mister chose soft-serve raspberry and vanilla and I have to say that was hands down the BEST soft-serve cone I've ever eaten! The raspberry ice cream was so, so yummy--very tart and flavorful. The only way that it could have been better is if they offered a raspberry/chocolate twist cone--now that would be truly amazing! Trust me when I say that when you go to Mt. Rushmore, you need to get the ice cream. I don't care what kind of diet you're on, just do it--you won't regret it!

After we scarfed our ice cream we spent several hours taking the requisite tourist photos and seeing all of the exhibits and sights. This photo cracks me up--I asked a nearby woman if she'd take a photo of my little family so we could all be in it, and when I checked the camera afterwards I realized she'd cut off the faces on the mountain!While I appreciate her willingness to help us out, how did she not get that having the Presidents in the picture with was kind of the whole point? Otherwise we could be at any old mountain. Luckily I caught it and was able to have another man take our photos, after I expressly asked him to make sure the Presidents were in it.I really loved Mt. Rushmore! It was beautiful and awe-inspiring, especially once we learned all about the sculptor and what it took to construct such an incredible memorial. It was especially poignant to visit a place called "The Shrine of Democracy" on July 4 and remember the contributions of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln to making our nation great!

After we left Mt. Rushmore we continued to the nearby Iron Mountain Road, a gorgeous scenic drive through the Black Hills. The road is winding and filled with beautiful scenery (I bet it is absolutely breathtaking in the autumn with the colors). The highlights are three stone tunnels that have been constructed to perfectly frame views of Mt. Rushmore--even the trees seem to have been trimmed so as not to obstruct the view of the faces! From there we continued on to a neighboring road, the Needles Highway, named because of the large granite formations called "needles".By the time we got back to Custer it was past 7:00 pm and we still had to find dinner before the town's fireworks show started at 9:00 pm. Everyone else had the same idea as we did leading to 30+ minute waits for all of the restaurants, as a result we ended up at a German place which was our 5th or 6th choice, just above getting burgers at the Dairy Queen. In retrospect, I think we should have just headed for the Dairy Queen and gotten Blizzards, because the German food was seriously mediocre. We watched the fireworks, a pretty good show for such a small town, and then headed back to the hotel for the night.