Summer Family Fun - Day Four

Today was a travel day, but we decided to make a few stops along the way to Richmond, Minnesota to spend time with our former neighbors and friends, Mary, Joe and their three children.  Our first stop at 7:30 a.m. was the City of Presidents in downtown Rapid City, South Dakota.  

 On every street corner in downtown Rapid City is a bronze statue of all of our American presidents, except for our current president, Barack Obama. His statue will be placed once he is out of office.  Theodore Roosevelt is portrayed wearing his Rough Rider uniform.

 Lincoln is seated in a chair visiting with a young Civil War soldier. 

 President Kennedy is holding John, Jr.'s hand.

Thomas Jefferson is signing the Declaration of Independence.  I think Paul and I were probably more impressed by the City of Presidents, but it was really interesting to see the different likenesses and to learn a little more about this history of our country.

 For our next stop, we followed the road signs to Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota.  

 The boys had a great time burning some energy there before we continued our trek east.  With it's corny gift shop items, splash pad and silly photo ops, Wall Drug is a clearly a tourist stop, but the real attraction is the history behind the store.  It is a story of perseverance worth reading in the link above.  

 We continued the "corny" tourist theme by stopping at the World's Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.

The Corn Palace was originally built to attract farmers to the city and to help Mitchell in its bid to become the capital of South Dakota.  It is a sight to behold.

 Jacob met up with Cornelius, the Corn Palace mascot.

  The designs on the outside of the Corn Palace are changed every year.  They are made of rye, corn cobs, corn husks, sorghum and wheat, all products of the area.  

 Each year, the local artisans apply the materials to the building in a "paint by number" fashion, just in time for the Corn Palace Festival.

Our day's journey ended looking out over the lake with a campfire and making s'mores with our friends.  It was fun to see new places, but it was really wonderful to be out of the car.