It's Wednesday...

and we are a little more than halfway through our vacation. We have seen Mount Rushmore, Rushmore Cave, Wall Drug, Keystone, and some woodpeckers in our campsite! We have also spent some time in the swimming pool and played cards and dominoes. All in all, it has been a nice few days. Mount Rushmore should be right over our heads, but the nice lady who took the picture didn't get it in.

Here we are after arriving at Rushmore for the evening ceremony and lighting of the monument. There was a symphony concert that evening that we didn't know about, and it was pretty incredible. The kids were musicians from around the country who had auditioned for a camp held in Rapid City. They were 11 and older.

There is a short hike you can take around the base of the monument now (it wasn't there last time I was here a zillion years ago). It lets you get some pretty cool pictures. The one above was taken from between a couple of large rocks right down the trail, and you can look out between them up at George and Abe.

At the end of the evening, they had a flag retreat, and asked all veterans, active duty and representatives of such to come and participate in the ceremony. That's who all the people across the bottom are. And this picture has not been doctored at all; the lights above the stage area are shining on the monument, and the stage is lighted, and there is a break in the light between the two areas, making it look like the picture is a composite. The ceremony was so cool, and there was one WWII veteran there. He could hardly walk, but his family helped him to the stage. It was so awesome!