Vacation Part 2

Here's the rest of the vacation story...

Monday night we decided to stay in Des Moines so we wouldn't get back too late plus we thought it might be fun to visit the Capitol (my niece had done a history of Iowa report during the school year so she was interested in the building)

It's a beautiful building with a gold plated dome.

That is looking up to the ceiling from the middle of the first floor.

C in the House chambers

After that we went to the State History Museum. E and I took a picture in American Gothic. They had a lot of interesting history there.

Next it was time to visit my aunt's farm. C with the cows.

J checking out the tractor with my dad. We also went over to my cousin's house and had brats and hot dogs. The kids got to play and visit the chickens.

Wednesday we went and toured the town I grew up in.

Here's the hospital I was born at

And the house I lived in.

We also stopped at our old pizza place. Later that day was one of the more exciting (aka scary) adventures. We went to the mall by our old house and while we were there they issued a tornado warning. We actually had to take shelter in one of the hallways. Luckily the storm went straight east above us. But I was still a little anxious - it's not something I deal with in Arizona.

The next day we were on the road again, heading to South Dakota (another state I had never been to).

We stopped at a place called the Corn Palace, which basically is a tourist trap revolving around corn. Here we are acting corny.

The next day we went to Mount Rushmore. But first we stopped at a place called Wall Drug. The entire route along I90 is covered with signs advertising what amounts to a giant drug store and restaurant in Wall, SD.

Then it was off to Mount Rushmore!

It's really amazing how they were able to construct it.

They had a neat pathway with flags from all of the states at the entrance. Of course I took a pic of the AZ one.

After we left we stayed in Cheyenne for the night. Wyoming was the other state I hadn't been to before the trip.

We encountered another storm and I managed to get a picture of the lightning.

The next two days were primarily travel days, although we did stop at a place called Casa Bonita for lunch one day. It's a unique restaurant - they had divers performing while you eat.

On Sunday we finally made it back.

Hello Arizona! Glad to be back!